PMDC Announces 80% MDCAT Fee Increase for 2025 Exam
Recent months have witnessed an increase in the registration fee of Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which has further sparked a distinguishing argument among the stakeholders of the medical aspirant fraternity. The MDCAT fee increase over the last two years now stands at 80%, making it harder for some families to bear the expense of pursuing a medical career.
In 2023, the exam fee was Rs5,000. It climbed to Rs7,000 in 2024, and for 2025, candidates will be required to pay Rs9,000 for regular registration. With 32,977 students taking the test last year, projections suggest PMDC could generate close to Rs2.96 billion this year from registration alone.
This year’s MDCAT is scheduled for Sunday, October 5, 2025, and will be conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and at an international centre in Saudi Arabia. The responsibility for holding the exam has been divided among five institutions: University of Health Sciences (Lahore) for Punjab, Sukkur IBA University for Sindh, Khyber Medical University (Peshawar) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Bolan Medical University (Quetta) for Balochistan, and Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (Islamabad) for the Federal Capital, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and overseas candidates.
Online registration opens on August 8, 2025, and closes on August 25, 2025, with late registration accepted until September 1, 2025. Fees within Pakistan are fixed at Rs9,000 for regular registration and Rs13,000 for late submission. Candidates applying from Riyadh will pay Rs45,000 and Rs55,000 for regular and late registration, respectively. All charges are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Test venues will be set up in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Rawalakot, Swat, Abbottabad, Gilgit, and Riyadh. Applicants must select their test centre according to their domicile, as changes will not be permitted afterward.
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It will come in multiple-choice format as it will contain 180 questions presented in the language of English with no negative marking. Questions will span Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English, and Logical Reasoning, with difficulty levels divided into 15% easy, 70% moderate, and 15% difficult.
Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) continues to argue that it is crucial to increase the fee paid by the candidates of the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) as the results will be used to finance the operations and administrative costs of the institution.
On the other hand, critics insist that this kind of policy can hinder the admission of academically gifted students who belong to low socioeconomic classes.
