Pakistan Army Medical Cadet Route Exam Flashcards

Q: What test do I actually have to pass for the Army Medical Cadet route?

The one assessment with a published blueprint is the NUMS MDCAT. PM&DC's Admissions Regulations 2025 name NUMS as the admitting university for all Armed Forces-administered medical and dental colleges, and the NUMS MDCAT-2026 notice states the subject test is mandatory for admission to those colleges, including Army Medical College, Rawalpindi. Pakistan Army separately runs its own selection activity at Army Selection and Recruitment Centres, but it does not publish that test's question count, subject list, timing, weights, or passing rule.

Q: How is the NUMS MDCAT structured in 2026?

NUMS publishes a two-paper format totalling 200 one-best-answer MCQs. Paper-I has 150 MCQs in 2 hours 45 minutes, weighted Biology 37% (55 MCQs), Chemistry 26.5% (40), Physics 26.5% (40) and English 10% (15). Paper-II is a psychological test of 50 MCQs in 15 minutes, listed at 5% weightage. NUMS MDCAT-2026 is scheduled for Sunday, 23 August 2026 at 10:00 AM PST at local centres.

Q: Is the NUMS MDCAT the same as the national MDCAT?

No. The PM&DC uniform national MDCAT 2025 curriculum specifies 180 MCQs in 3 hours with Biology 45%, Chemistry 25%, Physics 20%, English 5% and Logical Reasoning 5%, and states there is no negative marking. The NUMS paper is 150 subject MCQs plus a psychological paper, and its syllabus marks the Logical Reasoning section as applying to the national MDCAT only. Preparing from the wrong specification means practising the wrong item mix.

Q: Why do these cards not list the Army special test's syllabus?

Because Pakistan Army does not publish one. Coaching pages and candidate recollections circulate specific subject splits, timings and cut-offs for the recruitment-centre test, but no current Army source supports them. This set teaches what official sources do publish - the selection route, the NUMS MDCAT specification, and the academic content NUMS lists - and directs cycle-specific questions to the active induction notice.

Question 1

Which university admits students to Army Medical College, Rawalpindi?

Accepted Answer

NUMS. PM&DC's Admissions Regulations 2025 make the National University of Medical Sciences the admitting university for all Armed Forces-administered medical and dental colleges, and state the NUMS test counts only for those colleges.

Question 2

Who can take an MBBS seat at Army Medical College, Rawalpindi?

Accepted Answer

Medical Cadets only. The NUMS MDCAT-2026 notice lists Army Medical College as a constituent medical college 'For Medical Cadets Only', so the MBBS seats there are reached through Pakistan Army selection, not civilian open merit.

Question 3

What does the Army-side selection for Army medical colleges involve?

Accepted Answer

A two-day activity. Pakistan Army's published interview notice states candidates appear in an intelligence/personality test on the first day and are interviewed by the GHQ Selection Board on the second.

Question 4

What does Pakistan Army NOT publish about its recruitment-centre special test?

Accepted Answer

Its question count, subject list, time limit, topic weights, passing score and negative-marking rule. Subject splits and cut-offs quoted by coaching sites are unofficial and must not be treated as an Army blueprint.

Question 5

Why must you check which Army medical entry you are applying under?

Accepted Answer

The official portal advertises more than one medical entry, including a Medical Cadet entry into Army-administered medical colleges and a separate M Cadet entry, each with its own eligibility window. Applying against the wrong course page wastes the cycle.

Question 6

NUMS MDCAT-2026: date and overall size?

Accepted Answer

Sunday, 23 August 2026 at 10:00 AM PST at local centres, in a paper-based one-best-answer MCQ format: 200 MCQs total, made up of Paper-I (150) and Paper-II (50).

Question 7

NUMS MDCAT Paper-I: subject weights and MCQ counts?

Accepted Answer

Biology 37% (55 MCQs), Chemistry 26.5% (40), Physics 26.5% (40), English 10% (15) - 150 MCQs in 2 hours 45 minutes. Biology alone is worth more than Physics and English combined.

Question 8

What is NUMS MDCAT Paper-II?

Accepted Answer

A psychological test of 50 MCQs in 15 minutes, listed at 5% weightage. NUMS publishes no content syllabus for it, so it cannot be revised like a subject paper - the pacing is the main thing to expect.

Question 9

How does the NUMS MDCAT differ from the PM&DC national MDCAT?

Accepted Answer

The national MDCAT is 180 MCQs in 3 hours (Biology 45%, Chemistry 25%, Physics 20%, English 5%, Logical Reasoning 5%) with no negative marking. NUMS uses 150 subject MCQs plus a psychological paper, and its syllabus marks Logical Reasoning as national-MDCAT only.

Question 10

Minimum MDCAT result for MBBS admission?

Accepted Answer

55%. Army Medical College's admission criteria and PM&DC's 2025 MDCAT curriculum both state it. Clearing 55% only makes you eligible - places are awarded competitively on merit.

Question 11

PM&DC's notified merit weightage for MBBS/BDS admission?

Accepted Answer

MDCAT 50%, FSc (Pre-Medical)/HSSC or equivalent 40%, SSC/Matriculation 10%. Half of your merit is already fixed by school results before you sit the entry test.

Question 12

NUMS MDCAT test-day rules that get candidates turned away?

Accepted Answer

Reach the centre three hours early; centres seal half an hour before the start. Bring the printed admit card, original matriculation certificate with photograph and original CNIC/Juvenile Card, a clean clipboard and two blue or black ball points. Pencils, gel pens, markers, mobile phones and smart watches are barred.

Question 13

On what bases are viruses classified?

Accepted Answer

By structure, by the number of nucleic-acid strands, by host and by the disease produced. Viruses are acellular and replicate only inside a host cell, which is why they sit outside the standard cell-based classification.

Question 14

Light-dependent vs light-independent phase of photosynthesis?

Accepted Answer

The light-dependent phase runs in the thylakoid membranes, splitting water and producing ATP, NADPH and oxygen. The light-independent (Calvin) phase runs in the stroma and uses that ATP and NADPH to fix carbon dioxide into sugar.

Question 15

Two properties of water that make it biologically important

Accepted Answer

Its polarity makes it an excellent solvent for ions and polar molecules, and its high specific heat capacity lets organisms absorb heat with only a small temperature change. Cohesion also supports water columns in xylem.

Question 16

Rough vs smooth endoplasmic reticulum

Accepted Answer

Rough ER carries ribosomes and processes proteins destined for secretion or membranes. Smooth ER has no ribosomes and handles lipid and steroid synthesis, detoxification and calcium storage.

Question 17

Competitive vs non-competitive enzyme inhibition

Accepted Answer

A competitive inhibitor resembles the substrate and binds the active site, so more substrate can overcome it. A non-competitive inhibitor binds elsewhere and changes the active site's shape, so extra substrate does not restore activity.

Question 18

Negative vs positive feedback in homeostasis

Accepted Answer

Negative feedback reverses a change and restores the set point, as in blood glucose control - it is the usual homeostatic pattern. Positive feedback amplifies the change until an end point, as in labour contractions.

Question 19

Diploblastic vs triploblastic animals

Accepted Answer

Diploblastic animals such as cnidarians develop from two germ layers, ectoderm and endoderm. Triploblastic animals add mesoderm, which is what allows true muscle, and organ systems built from it.

Question 20

Why is natural selection not the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

Accepted Answer

Natural selection acts on variation that already exists in a population, so individuals with favourable heritable traits leave more offspring. Lamarck's version claimed traits gained during a lifetime pass on, which the genetic evidence does not support.

Question 21

Xylem vs phloem transport in plants

Accepted Answer

Xylem carries water and dissolved minerals upward in dead, hollow elements, pulled by transpiration. Phloem carries dissolved sugars from source to sink in living sieve tubes, in either direction, by active translocation.

Question 22

What distinguishes a prokaryotic cell?

Accepted Answer

No membrane-bound nucleus or organelles - the DNA is a circular chromosome in the cytoplasm, and ribosomes are 70S. Bacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan, which is the target of penicillin and the basis of Gram staining.

Question 23

Mitosis vs meiosis: the outcome

Accepted Answer

Mitosis gives two genetically identical diploid cells for growth and repair. Meiosis halves the chromosome number over two divisions, giving four genetically varied haploid gametes, with variation from crossing over and independent assortment.

Question 24

Sliding filament theory of muscle contraction

Accepted Answer

Myosin heads bind actin and pull the thin filaments toward the sarcomere centre, so the sarcomere shortens while the filaments themselves keep their length. Calcium exposes the binding sites and ATP releases the cross-bridge.

Question 25

Monohybrid cross of two heterozygotes: ratios?

Accepted Answer

A 3:1 phenotypic ratio and a 1:2:1 genotypic ratio. A test cross against a homozygous recessive is what reveals whether a dominant-looking individual is homozygous or heterozygous.

Question 26

Why are X-linked recessive conditions more common in males?

Accepted Answer

Males have one X chromosome, so a single recessive allele is expressed with no second copy to mask it. Females need the allele on both X chromosomes; with one they are carriers. Haemophilia and red-green colour blindness follow this pattern.

Question 27

What is the limiting reactant?

Accepted Answer

The reactant that runs out first and therefore fixes the maximum product. Identify it by converting each reactant to moles and comparing against the balanced equation's mole ratios - not by comparing masses.

Question 28

Aufbau, Pauli and Hund's rule in one line each

Accepted Answer

Aufbau: fill the lowest-energy orbitals first. Pauli: no two electrons share all four quantum numbers, so an orbital holds two electrons of opposite spin. Hund: fill degenerate orbitals singly with parallel spins before pairing.

Question 29

When do real gases deviate most from ideal behaviour?

Accepted Answer

At high pressure and low temperature, where molecules are close enough that their own volume and intermolecular attractions matter. Ideal-gas assumptions of negligible volume and no attraction hold best at low pressure and high temperature.

Question 30

Le Chatelier's principle applied to pressure

Accepted Answer

A system at equilibrium shifts to oppose the change imposed. Raising the pressure shifts the position toward the side with fewer gas moles; if both sides have equal moles of gas, pressure has no effect on the position.

Question 31

How does a catalyst speed up a reaction?

Accepted Answer

It provides an alternative pathway with lower activation energy, so a larger fraction of collisions is effective. It does not change the enthalpy change or the equilibrium position - only how fast equilibrium is reached.

Question 32

Sign of enthalpy change for exothermic and endothermic reactions

Accepted Answer

Exothermic reactions release heat and have a negative enthalpy change; endothermic reactions absorb heat and have a positive one. Hess's law lets you add enthalpy changes along any route because enthalpy is a state function.

Question 33

Which electrode is the anode in a galvanic cell?

Accepted Answer

The one where oxidation occurs, and in a galvanic cell it is the negative electrode. Oxidation is always at the anode in both cell types; only the electrode's sign flips in an electrolytic cell, where it is positive.

Question 34

Sigma vs pi bond

Accepted Answer

A sigma bond forms by head-on orbital overlap and allows rotation; a pi bond forms by sideways overlap of p orbitals and locks rotation. A double bond is one sigma plus one pi, and the pi bond is the weaker, more reactive part.

Question 35

Typical reaction of alkanes vs alkenes

Accepted Answer

Alkanes are saturated and undergo free-radical substitution, as with chlorine in light. Alkenes have a pi bond with accessible electrons and undergo electrophilic addition, which is why bromine water is decolourised by an alkene.

Question 36

How do you distinguish an aldehyde from a ketone?

Accepted Answer

Aldehydes have the carbonyl at the chain end with a hydrogen attached, so they are easily oxidised: Tollens' reagent gives a silver mirror and Fehling's gives a red precipitate. Ketones have the carbonyl mid-chain and give neither.

Question 37

Why are horizontal and vertical projectile motions treated separately?

Accepted Answer

They are independent. Horizontal velocity stays constant with no air resistance, while vertical motion accelerates at g. Time of flight comes from the vertical motion, and range is horizontal velocity multiplied by that time.

Question 38

Work-energy theorem

Accepted Answer

The net work done on a body equals its change in kinetic energy. It follows that a body moving at constant speed in a circle has zero net work done on it, because its kinetic energy never changes.

Question 39

Direction and size of centripetal force

Accepted Answer

It points toward the centre of the circle and equals mv^2/r, or m x omega^2 x r. It is supplied by a real force such as tension, friction or gravity - it is not an extra force added to the free-body diagram.

Question 40

What is resonance in a vibrating system?

Accepted Answer

A driving force applied at the system's natural frequency transfers energy most efficiently, so amplitude grows sharply. In a stationary wave, nodes stay at zero displacement and antinodes vibrate with maximum amplitude.

Question 41

First law of thermodynamics

Accepted Answer

The heat added to a system equals the increase in internal energy plus the work done by the system. In an isothermal change internal energy is constant, so all heat added is converted to work; in an adiabatic change no heat flows.

Question 42

How do Coulomb's law and electric field strength scale with distance?

Accepted Answer

Force between two point charges falls off as 1/r^2, and so does the field of a point charge. Electric potential falls off more slowly, as 1/r. Doubling the separation quarters the force but only halves the potential.

Question 43

Series vs parallel resistance

Accepted Answer

In series, resistances add and the current is the same through each. In parallel, the reciprocals add, so total resistance is less than the smallest branch, and each branch carries the same voltage.

Question 44

Force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field

Accepted Answer

F = BIL sin(theta), where theta is the angle between the current and the field. The force is greatest when they are perpendicular and zero when the conductor lies along the field.

Question 45

What does Lenz's law add to Faraday's law?

Accepted Answer

Faraday's law gives the size of the induced emf from the rate of change of flux; Lenz's law fixes its direction - the induced current always opposes the change producing it. That opposition is why energy is conserved.

Question 46

Half-life of a radioactive sample

Accepted Answer

The time for half the undecayed nuclei to decay. It is constant regardless of the starting amount, so after n half-lives the fraction remaining is (1/2)^n - three half-lives leave one-eighth.

Question 47

Subject-verb agreement traps in MDCAT English

Accepted Answer

The verb agrees with the true subject, not the nearest noun: 'The box of samples is heavy.' With 'neither ... nor' and 'either ... or', the verb matches the nearer subject.

Question 48

Sentence fragment vs complete sentence

Accepted Answer

A complete sentence needs a subject and a finite verb and must express a full thought. 'Because the reagent was contaminated.' is a fragment - a subordinate clause left on its own without a main clause.

Question 49

Second conditional: form and use

Accepted Answer

'If + past simple, would + base verb' describes an unreal or unlikely present situation: 'If I had more time, I would revise Biology first.' The past tense marks unreality, not past time.

Question 50

Apostrophes and commas the MDCAT English section tests

Accepted Answer

Use an apostrophe for possession ('the student's result', 'the students' results' for plurals) but never for a plain plural. Use commas to separate items in a series, and a semicolon to join two closely related independent clauses.

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