FMGE 2026: Protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday; examinees demand exam review, facilities on par with NEET

The foreign medical graduates (FMGs) around the country are upset with what they claim to be advanced and time-consuming questions, technical glitches and inhospitable conditions at the examination centres at the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE 2026), the licensing test for foreign graduates, held a month ago.

The candidates have planned a sit-in at Jantar Mantar on Monday to protest against the content and the manner in which the latest iteration of the FMGE exam has been conducted. They have already filed a plea in the Supreme Court (SC) and written to the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) seeking greater transparency in the test by releasing the answer sheets and answer keys.

As many as 36,300 FMGs had appeared for the licensing exam, held on June 28, but only 4,635 or 12.77% of them managed to qualify – making it the lowest success rate in the last three years. The aspirants have blamed the many problems they faced during the test for the sharp drop in qualifying percentage in the FMGE result.

FMGE 2026: Paper pattern changes

The candidates claimed that, for the first time, video-based questions were included in computer-based tests without any prior intimation to the candidates. The paper also featured “unusually long” clinical scenarios that required extensive reading. Together, they added to the examinees’ time constraint.

“A licensing examination should principally evaluate medical knowledge, clinical reasoning, and decision-making. However, the design of this examination appeared to place disproportionate emphasis on reading speed and time management rather,” reads the complaint letter by the graduates.

Some of the aspirants also faced technical glitches that further ate into their exam time. Rucha Magare, who hails from Sangli, Maharashtra, and graduated from a medical college in Guyana in 2024, missed the qualification by three marks. She blames her misfortune on the unannounced change in the question format and the digital snafus.

“Some computers weren't working properly. Students lost 20-25 minutes. The videos played slowly. So, I had to rush through the paper. Centres in both Mumbai and Aurangabad (Sambhajinagar) had these problems,” she said.

NBEMS FMGE Exam: Difficulty level beyond MBBS

The candidates also found the difficulty level of some of the questions to be beyond MBBS, elevating the test from a mere screening exam for minimum competencies. “A qualifying examination should ensure that candidates meeting the prescribed undergraduate standard are able to qualify. It should not become unnecessarily difficult through excessive complexity, unusually lengthy questions, or advanced specialist-level content inconsistent with its intended purpose” says the complaint.

The candidates are also aggrieved about poor arrangements at the examination centres. Despite severely hot weather in several parts of the country, the test centres lacked air conditioning and even drinking water. “On the day of the exam, at least half the centres had very high temperatures. Naturally, some of the students fainted,” said Jaswant Singh Yadav, chief advisor, Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA).

FMGE protest, review committee

The aspirants are now demanding that the government set up an expert review committee to ascertain if the questions were aligned with undergraduate MBBS competency, whether the examination maintained the intended standard of a licensing test and whether the overall length of the paper was appropriate for the allotted time.

They also want the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), the examining body, to release official answer keys and individual response sheets to the candidates and accord them and opportunity to verify recorded responses and challenge disputed questions – the facilities available to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examinees. In mid-July, NBEMS informed a delegation of examinees that it had formed a panel to examine complaints related to exam centre conditions.

“Greater transparency promotes confidence in public examinations and reduces avoidable litigation,” reads the letter, adding, “Such measures have already been implemented in several other national examinations and have strengthened public confidence in examination systems.”