More than 100 Final-year MBBS students of Tirunelveli Medical College Fail Surgery Exam

Chennai: More than 100 final-year students at the Government Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital have failed their semester examination in general surgery. 

Confirming this, the vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University Dr. K Narayanasamy informed TOI that altogether 250 students appeared in the exam from Tirunelveli College and among them, 105 students failed one of the four papers. 

Due to this, the pass percentage of the institute has come down to 55%. Meanwhile, the overall pass percentage of the final year MBBS exam for Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, which announced the results on May 16, was around 85%.

Also Read: Oops: 46 MBBS Students from MGM Indore Fail in Surgery Practical, Dean writes to HOD

Explaining the exam pattern, Dr. Narayanasamy told the Times of India, "In the undergraduate medical course, students write theory and practical exams for every subject. They must get at least 40% in both these exams. Besides this, they must have an aggregate of 100 marks. So, if they have scored 40 in the practical exam, they must have at least 60 marks in theory to clear the exam."

The Daily has reported that the analysis by the controller of examinations showed that in the theory exam, all the students had obtained more than 40% marks and 44 students had failed the practical.

Referring to this, the controller of examinations Dr G Chenthamarai said, "But 65 students from the college did not have an adequate aggregate to clear the test." 

Meanwhile, the pass percentage for other subjects- general medicine, obstetrics, gynaecology, and paediatrics was around 97%. In the government medical colleges, the average pass percentage was around 80%. More than 90% of final year students have passed from government institutes such as Madras Medical College and Hospital and Stanley Medical College and Hospital. After Tirunelveli, there was a 20% failure rate in general medicine in Madurai Medical College.

Previously, there was a provision to award grace marks- up to 5 marks to the students who have failed one of the examinations. However, as per the current rules, the National Medical Commission does not allow the universities to award grace marks. Therefore, these students will now have to appear in the supplementary exam.

Commenting on this, the controller of examinations, Dr. Chenthamarai said, "To clear the examination, students have to write supplementary examinations", adding that the university has scheduled the exam for May 29.

Meanwhile, College Dean Dr. Revathi Balan said that the students were being offered counselling and they were being tutored to clear the examination so that they could pass their exam along with their batchmates.

Confirming this, the Director of Medical Education Dr J Sangumani, who is in charge of the administration of all government medical colleges in the State, informed that additional classes would be conducted over the next week to ensure that the students clear the exams.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that earlier this year 46 MBBS final-year students from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College have failed the surgery practical exams. The students had alleged that they failed 'unnecessarily' in the practical exam even though they secured good marks in the practical and theory exams of other subjects including surgery.

Although the medical college had revised the marks, the Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University (MPMSU) decided to re-conduct the surgery practical exam for 94 students.

Also Read: No revision of results, MP Medical University to Re-Conduct Surgery Practicals for 94 MGM Indore Medicos