It's quite strange but recently it was found that an average 77 per cent Indian students who returned with a foreign medical degree in the past 12 years failed to clear the mandatory screening examination conducted by Medical Council of India.
Its mandatory for any citizen (possessing a primary medical qualification awarded by any medical institution outside the country) who wants provisional or permanent registration with MCI or any state medical council needs to qualify the screening test (known as Foreign Medical Graduates Examination) conducted by the MCI through the National Board of Examinations (NBE).
While looking at the past year's data, it was observed that the number of instances of successful candidates crossing 50 per cent of the total who appeared was two, while in one particular instance, only 4 per cent students passed the test. The highest number of students passing the test was in September 2005 when 2,851 students appeared for the test and 2,192 passed it.
58.7 per cent candidates were able to clear the screening with 1,087 out of 1,851 candidates clearing it, in March 2008. In 2015, however, only 10.4 per cent and 11.4 per cent candidates cleared the test. In June last year, 5,967 candidates appeared for the exam of whom only 603 cleared it while in December, 6,407 candidates took the screening test and only 731 passed.
Over the past 12 years, the percentage of pass candidates hovered in the twenties with only 282 out of 5,724 (4 per cent) clearing the exam in June 2014. The FMGE consists of one paper, comprising 300 multiple choices, delivered in two parts, of 150 minutes each, to be taken in a single day. There is no negative marking. The qualifying marks are 150.