The National Board of Examination (NBE), New Delhi has been assigned the task of conducting the Screening Test on behalf of the MCI. The test shall be conducted twice every year as per the schedule of the examinations announced by the NBE.

    There shall be three papers of multiple choice questions in Pre-Clinical, Para-Clinical and Clinical Medicine and its allied subjects including Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The language of the test shall be English. The test for each paper will be of three hours' duration.

    A candidate shall be declared as having passed only if the he/she obtains a minimum of 50 per cent marks in each paper separately. The minimum qualifying marks shall apply to all categories of candidates without exception.

    A candidate may avail of maximum three chances of appear and pass the test. Actual appearance at the test will constitute an attempt. If a candidate does not qualify even in the third appearance in the test, he/she will not be eligible for registration. The students declared successful in the Screening Test shall be granted registration by the Medical Council of India or the State Medical Councils to practice medicine in India on making an application to that effect.

    According to the new Regulation, students who are seeking Eligibility Certificate from MCI for joining an undergraduate medical course abroad may apply in the prescribed format to the Council. Eligibility Certificate will be granted only to students possessing the minimum eligibility requirements for joining MBBS course in India as laid down by the MCI in the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 1997.

    The provisions of the new Regulations, in brief, are as follows:

1. An Indian citizen possessing a primary medical qualification awarded by any of the medical institutions outside India and is desirous of getting provisional and permanent registration with the Medical Council of India or any State Medical Council on or after 15.3.2002 shall have to qualify a Screening Test conducted by the prescribed authority for the purpose of their registration in India. A person seeking permanent registration shall not have to qualify the Screening Test if he or she had already qualified the same before getting his or her provisional registration.
2. The primary medical qualification possessed by the Indian citizen should be a recognised medical qualification for enrolment as medical practitioner in the country in which the institution awarding the said qualification is situated.
3. Any Indian citizen who is desirous of taking admission in an undergraduate medical course abroad on or after March 15, 2002 shall have to obtain an Eligibility Certificate from the MCI stating that he or she fulfils the minimum eligibility criteria laid down by the MCI for admission in MBBS course in India. He shall also have to produce the same at the time of appearing in the Screening test, after completion of his degree abroad, for the purpose of obtaining registration in India.