PMC Medicine Licensure

It is a computer-based, multiple-choice examination using single-best-answer questions across the full MBBS curriculum. The official PMC publishes the current number of questions, the time allowed and the scoring method on its website; check there before you plan your exam-day pacing, because these details are set by the Commission and can change.

It is a broad undergraduate-level assessment, not a specialty board. The difficulty comes from breadth and from clinical application: questions often describe a patient and ask for the next step or the most likely diagnosis. Candidates who only memorised isolated facts in medical school usually find it harder than those who practised reasoning through clinical scenarios.

Retake is permitted, but the number of permitted attempts, the waiting period between attempts and any additional requirements are set by the PMC and have changed over time. Do not rely on forum posts or older guides. Confirm the current retake policy directly on the official PMC website before you sit the exam.

Most graduates need a few months of dedicated revision. Start with the clinical domains that carry the most weight - internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics - then layer the basic sciences behind them, studying pathology, pharmacology and physiology as explanations for the clinical problems rather than as separate subjects.

The commonest reasons are shallow coverage of the whole syllabus, passive reading instead of answering questions, and neglecting the lower-weight but highly factual subjects such as forensic medicine, community medicine and behavioural sciences. Poor exam-day time management and panic on long clinical vignettes also cost marks. Practise full timed blocks so pacing becomes automatic.

Use one concise review source per subject and one large question bank, then add a reference textbook only for topics you repeatedly get wrong. Collecting many books is a common trap: it feels productive but reduces the time spent answering and reviewing questions, which is where most of the real learning happens.

After each block, write down why the correct option is right and why each distractor is wrong. Link every miss to a source paragraph and revisit it after a few days. Track misses by subject so your study plan reflects your actual weaknesses. Reviewing questions properly is usually worth more than answering more of them.

Only from the Pakistan Medical Commission. The PMC website publishes the current registration windows, fee, test centres, question count, timing and passing standard. This page is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with the Commission, so treat any figure you see elsewhere as unverified until the PMC confirms it.