Dhaka: The admission tests for medical and dental colleges for the 2016-17 academic session will be held on 7 October and 4 November respectively as the government has decided not to take combined exams for the MBBS and BDS course this year.

Besides, the candidates must have at least a combined GPA of 9 in SSC and HSC examinations to apply for the admission tests. Candidates having a combined GPA of 8 could take part in the medical and dental admission tests previous years.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Health Ministry on Sunday with Health Minister Mohammad Nasim in the chair, senior information officer of the ministry Parikshit Chowdhury told UNB.

The minister directed all concerned to conduct the admission tests transparently.

The 100-mark one-hour multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations will be held at different centres across the country.

According to the Health Ministry, there are 3,729 seats in 36 public medical colleges, while 6,155 in 64 private medical colleges for the MBBS course.

Besides, nine public dental colleges have 635 seats for the BDS course while 24 non-government dental colleges have 1,385 seats.

The results of Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations of 2016 were published on Thursday.

The average pass rate was 74.70 percent this year, and a total of 58,276 students secured the highest Grade Point Average (GPA-5).