Here’s what statistics have to say:
Only 25.79% of Indian students with a foreign MBBS degree cleared the exam in 2019.
In 2020, the percentage dropped to 14.68% while it, once again, increased to 23.83% in 2021.
Data shared by National Board of Examination shows that in June 2020, 19.4% of passed the FMG exam.
That shows, FMGE is indeed one of the toughest examinations in India, following IAS. However, the question comes, why so many students are failing in FMGE. David Pillai, the chairman of renowned Kings International Medical Academy, has highlighted a few facts to throw light on the actual reason. Dr. Pillai has been transforming the medical education scenario from the past 20 years now. Thanks to his philanthropic activities, several aspiring students from rural areas who spent their days in despair got the exclusive opportunity of pursuing free yet quality education at the best environments possible.
Coming back to reasons of failure at FMGE, let’s check out what renowned educationalist, Dr. Pillai has to say.
Why Most Students Fail to Pass in FMGE?
- Language barrier
In countries like Russia, China, Ukraine, etc., students spend almost a year or more to learn a new foreign language. This takes up a lot of their crucial time in doing medical students. As their medium of learning remains a different language, most of them face trouble writing their FMGE paper in English. This is a significant reason behind inability to clear the MCI screening test.
- Batch size
“In many foreign medical colleges, students are taught in batches of 1000 or more which often hampers education quality. A lot of them lag behind in gaining the depth of knowledge. This makes it difficult for those medical graduates to qualify in the FMGE in India,” said David Pillai.
- Disinterest in medical studies midway
The truth is medical studies can become exhaustive midway and students might lose both interest and enthusiasm. This eventually hampers their quality of education and leads to poor performance, thereby, impacting the screening test.
- Lack of proper preparation
No matter how globally renowned an institute is, study materials and resources that medical students follow at a foreign medical college are different from India. Hence, many find it challenging to ace in the FMGE India. The best way out is to take up FMGE coaching in India where they shall get to enhance their knowledge and prepare better with appropriate reference materials, suggested Dr. David Pillai.
He said, “Students make the biggest mistake by concentrating more on what they have studied in the past few years. For clearing FMGE, they need to be prepared as per the question paper patterns of previous years.”
Moreover, there’s no properly defined syllabus. Students have to cover a lot of subjects for the exam. Proper guidance and books will, thus, help them ace their FMGE with high pass percentage.
As David Pillai informed, while 2022’s exam is scheduled for 4th June and 17th June, the pattern is going to change from 2023 onwards as NExT will get introduced. From next year, all the medical students, including foreign medical graduates, will have to ace in the NExT or National Exit Test mandatorily. Note that this will be tougher than FMGE and emphasize more on clinical practice.
How Can FMGs Score Better in the FMGE?
While highlighting the syllabus, Dr. Pillai also recommended certain tips to score better in the upcoming foreign medical graduate exam.
- Learn all the subjects within the syllabus
- Focus more on your weaker areas
- Prepare notes and don’t just rely on what you have studied in last 5 years
- Practice more MCQ models
- Appear in mock tests
- Revise, revise and revise
- Prepare your time table
- Learn time management skills
- Be stress-free in every way
- Engage in recreations and exercises
Kings International Medical Academy, of which David Pillai is the chairman, is a high ranking institute in India for offering NEET and FMGE coaching. The institute in association with Davao Medical School Foundation also offers MBBS in Philippines, thanks to David Pillai and his endeavours.
According to him, “As Philippines is a South Asian and the 3rd largest English speaking country, it doesn’t require foreign medicos to learn any other foreign language. The medium of teaching and communication is English. With this, their first hurdle of FMGE diminishes.” Along with this, Davao Medical School Foundation focuses on hands-on practice, has state-of-the-art infrastructure and follows the US system of education.
Again, Kings International Medical Academy conducts one-on-one interactive sessions to identify problem areas of individual students. The globally renowned faculty and guest lecturers mentor foreign medical graduates for the best preparation. It’s because of all these benefits and more that the institute holds a record of high pass percentage above 90% in FMGE results for several consecutive years.