Overview
What are medical schools?
Medical schools are post-secondary educational institutions, which teach medicine and award a professional degree in medicine for surgeons and physicians. Such medical degrees include the MBBS, which is the acronym for the Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery, MS, the short form of Doctor of Medicine, DO, which is the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, or DPM or the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine. There are several medical schools, which offer further degrees in medicine. These degrees include a Master’s degree, Doctor of Philosophy, a degree in other physician assistant programs. Students who want to pursue their education in medicine are required to pass some entrance exams to get admission to medical schools. Here are some prominent entrance exams that are obligatory to enter a medical school.
AIIMS – MBBS
AIIMS refers to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which is one of the leading medical institutions in India that offers education in various disciplines in medicine. Every year, this institute conducts AIIMS entrance exam to fill the 70 seats in medicine and it is considered the toughest examination to get through. Students can get the required application form both online and offline between the month of January – February and the exam is usually conducted during the month of July every year.
The exam focuses on General Knowledge of the students. There are 60 questions each from Chemistry, Physics, and Biology and 20 questions to test the general knowledge of students. Each wrong answer gets negative marking.
AIPMT
AIPMT, which refers to the All India Pre-Medical Test, is an entrance examination conducted for those who would like to pursue their studies in dental medicine. This is a New Delhi CBSE board exam. It is also considered one of the most difficult entrance tests to pass.
Students must be between the age 17-25 to appear for this exam, and they should have passed their 12th standard board examination with a minimum of 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
The preliminary examination is conducted during the month of April and the final examination is conducted during the month of May every year.
It is a single paper, with 200 multiple-choice questions, that mainly focus on Chemistry, Physics, and Biology. After successful completion of the preliminary examination, students become eligible to write the final examination. This exam includes 120 multiple-choice questions that mainly focus on Chemistry, Physics, and Biology. Finally, a list is prepared according to the marks scored in both exams, and the selected students are called for counselling.
CMC-Vellore
CMC stands for the Christian Medical College, a Vellore-based medical school and it is affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University in Chennai. Every year, this institute conducts an all-India medical school entrance examination for 60 students to study in different medical and paramedical courses at the undergraduate level.
The deadline for submitting the applications is normally the second week of April and the exam is conducted during the second week of May every year.
To attend this entrance test, students should have passed their 12th standard board examination with a minimum of 60% marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
This exam mainly focuses on general knowledge and Physics, Chemistry, Biology and current events. After the announcement of the exam result, a final list of students is prepared. They are then shortlisted for counselling.
JIPMER
JIPMER is the short form of Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research. This is a Pondicherry-based medical school that holds a separate entrance examination for 100 seats to select students for its MBBS course.
The deadline for submitting the applications is somewhere in the month of April every year and the exam is conducted during the first week of June.
To participate in this entrance exam, students should have passed their 12th standard board examination with a minimum of 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
The exam focuses on General Knowledge of the students. There will be 200 objective type questions from Chemistry, English, Physics, Botany and Zoology. Students have to choose the correct answer from the given four options, and there is no negative marking for wrong answers in this exam. After the announcement of the exam result, students are shortlisted for counselling.
Besides these all-India entrance tests, some universities conduct their own examinations to assist students in pursuing their education in Medicine in their respective medical schools.
BHU-PMT
BHU-PMT represents the Banaras Hindu University- Pre Medical Test, which is conducted every year by the Banaras Hindu University for bachelor’s degree courses in medicine. These schools offer education in medicine for various medical disciplines that include MBBS, BAMS, BDS, and BPharm. The distribution of seats includes 84 seats for MBBS, 78 seats for BAMS, 38 seats for BDS, and 33 seats for BPharm.
The deadline for submitting the applications is somewhere in March. The PMT Screening exam is conducted during the month of May and the PMT Main exam is conducted during the month of June.
To participate in this entrance exam, students should have passed their 12th standard board examination or the equivalent exam with a minimum of 50% marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Students can also apply for the entrance exam for the BPharm course concurrently, but they should have scored a minimum of 50% marks in Physics and in Chemistry.
The BHU-PMT is conducted in two stages, a) PMT Screening b) PMT Main. Those who pass PMT Screening exam are eligible to appear for the PMT Main exam for the MBBS course. Admission to other medical courses, such as BPharm, BDS, and BAMS requires only PMT Screening test. The PMT Screening exam has 200 objective type questions from Chemistry, Physics, Zoology and Botany. The PMT Main exam consists of subjective questions.
