MDCAT 2026 Registration Closes 21 August, Test Moved to 20 September

If you still need to register for the MDCAT, you have until 21 August 2026.

The test itself has moved. It was set for 16 August. It is now 20 September 2026.

Those two facts are easy to get wrong at the moment, because the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council's own website still shows an older notice with July dates on it. We explain which document is current below.

The dates that apply now

We read all of these on PM and DC's own site on 19 August 2026.

The reopening is described as a facility for any remaining candidates. It is not a fresh registration season. It is a short window for people who missed the earlier cut off, and it continues public notices issued on 20 and 22 July.

Why the test moved

PM and DC issued a press release stating that the MDCAT, previously scheduled for 16 August 2026, has been rescheduled to 20 September 2026, on the directions of the Prime Minister.

The stated reason is to ensure the smooth, secure and transparent conduct of the examination while facilitating all candidates. The council did not go further than that, and neither will we.

The release also says that all other terms, conditions and examination arrangements remain unchanged unless notified otherwise. So the reschedule moved the date. It did not, on its own, change anything else about the test.

The line in the notice that people will skip

The public notice contains one sentence that deserves more attention than the deadline itself.

PM and DC reserves the right to cancel any incomplete application.

That is not routine legal padding when a window is only five days long. It means that starting a form, paying, and assuming you are done is not the same as being registered. A field left blank or a document uploaded in the wrong format is a cancellation risk, and there is no time left to fix one on 22 August.

So the practical advice is simple. Do not treat submission as the finish line. Go back into the portal, look at the status, and satisfy yourself that the application is complete rather than saved.

Why PM and DC's own site is confusing right now

This is worth explaining, because it is the reason a lot of students think registration closed weeks ago.

The front page of pmdc.pk still links, prominently, a Public Notice dated 8 July 2026. That notice extends registration to 13 July with the regular fee, and to 18 July with a late fee.

Read on its own, it says registration ended a month ago.

It has been overtaken. The operative document is the later notice, issued around 13 August, reopening the portal from 17 to 21 August for the examination now scheduled on 20 September. The live registration portal agrees with it, displaying the 21 August date at login.

Both documents are genuine and both are on the council's site. One is simply older, and nothing on the homepage says so.

If you are checking this yourself, trust the portal and the newest notice, and note the date on any PDF before acting on it.

If you still need to register

1. Open the portal at mdcat.pmdc.pk and log in with your CNIC number and password. There is a password reset link if you registered earlier and cannot get in.
2. Complete every field. Given the warning about incomplete applications, treat optional looking fields as required.
3. Pay the prescribed fee and keep the receipt or transaction reference.
4. Confirm the application shows as submitted rather than saved or in progress.
5. Do it before 21 August, not on it. Portals under deadline load are the ones that fail, and a payment that has not cleared by the closing time is a problem nobody at a helpdesk can solve afterwards.

If you are still deciding whether medicine is the route you want, our guide on what to choose after your matric result covers how the pre medical path leads here.

What we did not verify

We are being exact about the limits, because this is a deadline page and a wrong detail costs somebody a year.

We have not published a fee amount. The operative notice says only the prescribed fee and gives no rupee figure, and we did not find one on the council's own pages. Coaching sites quote numbers. We are not going to repeat one on a page about a hard deadline.

We have not covered the syllabus, eligibility marks or paper format. Those sit in separate documents we did not open for this piece, which is deliberately narrow to the date.

We have not listed which university conducts the test in your province. The notice is copied to test conducting universities generally, without naming them.

Nor have we covered how an international qualification is treated here. If you sat A levels rather than an intermediate board, start with our page on Cambridge A level results in Pakistan and confirm equivalence separately.

One note on the source itself. The reopening notice is a scanned document and the text layer is imperfect. The word live reads as five, and the reference number is partly illegible. The dates are clear and consistent with the live portal, which is why we are confident in them, but we are telling you we read a scan rather than pretending to quote a clean reference number.

What happens after 21 August

Nothing in the notices suggests another extension. This window is already the continuation of two earlier ones, in July, and the language is about facilitating remaining candidates rather than opening a new round.

That does not make a further extension impossible. It does mean planning for one would be a poor decision.

After registration closes, the next date that matters is 20 September. PM and DC advises candidates to keep checking its website and official channels for further instructions, which is the sensible course given how much has already moved.

We will update this page if the council issues anything further. Board and university results that feed into admissions are covered in our guide to checking board results online.

Questions readers are asking

What is the last date for MDCAT 2026 registration?

21 August 2026. The portal reopened on 17 August for candidates who had not yet registered.

When is the MDCAT 2026 test?

20 September 2026. It was previously scheduled for 16 August 2026 and was rescheduled.

Why was the MDCAT rescheduled?

PM and DC says the change was made on the directions of the Prime Minister, to ensure the smooth, secure and transparent conduct of the examination while facilitating all candidates.

The PMDC website says registration closed in July. Which is right?

The July notice has been superseded. A later notice reopened the portal from 17 to 21 August, and the live portal shows the 21 August date. The older document is still linked on the homepage without being marked as out of date.

How much is the registration fee?

The notice says only the prescribed fee and does not state an amount. We did not find a figure on the council's own pages, so we are not quoting one.

What happens if my application is incomplete?

PM and DC states it reserves the right to cancel any incomplete application. Check the status in the portal rather than assuming submission was successful.

Will the deadline be extended again?

Nothing published suggests it will. This window already follows two earlier extensions in July and is described as being for remaining candidates, so it would be unwise to count on another.