All ambiguities of the residency exam 52

Farhikhtegan - Despite the fact that the Health Ministry's Security Center has confirmed the validity of the fifty-second residency exam, ambiguities and questions about the design process, the quarantine of designers, and the sale of questions still persist. This situation has also been fueled by some student channels in the medical field.

The release of the final key to the questions of the fifty-second exam raised suspicions of the questions being leaked during this exam period, causing the residency exam, which has faced security issues since 1998, to come under media scrutiny once again. Some unofficial news even indicated the possibility of completely canceling this round of the exam and holding it again. Ultimately, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the exam had been conducted properly, thus reassuring candidates that there would be no retake of the exam!

Where did the story of cheating in Exam 52 come from?

With the release of the final key on May 21 and the high number of candidates who managed to score above 501 in this exam cycle, suspicions of cheating have taken on a more serious tone. This incident raised the voices of applicants questioning how 413 individuals, which constituted 3.37 percent of the participants, were able to score above 500 in this session. Until a decade ago, obtaining a score above 400 in the exam was a dream for physicians, but today we see that over 400 individuals have managed to achieve a score above 500 in this session of the exam.

The big question about the security of the residency exam from 1977 to 2025.

The reality is that the fifty-second exam is not the only exam that has faced security issues; rather, this issue has been raised about the Ministry of Health's exam sporadically since 1998. For instance, in the 1998 exam, there was an incredibly strange level of cheating occurring during this test, to the extent that some participants were able to pass the exam simply by having a ruler and knowing that the correct answer was a certain distance from the dashes present in the questions.

This incident also occurred in the 2003 exam, to the extent that the Ministry of Health had to dismiss 21 individuals by court order; this issue did not prevent the recurrence of cheating in this exam. Six years later, due to widespread cheating in the assistant exam, the Ministry of Health was for the first time compelled to annul the exam and hold it again. The 47th assistant exam, which itself had become the subject of media headlines in 2020 due to several months of delays, was marred by allegations of cheating, although apart from the 2009 exam, we have not witnessed any annulments since then. However, the repeated allegations of cheating in a single exam indicate that officials must take serious measures to address this issue.

The ambiguities still persist!

Despite the fact that the security center of the Ministry of Health has confirmed the validity of the fifty-second residency exam, uncertainties and questions about the design process, quarantine of the exam designers, and the sale of questions remain prevalent. This situation has been exacerbated by some student channels in the medical field. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that such an atmosphere regarding the residency exam will undoubtedly impact the perception of society, both for those wishing to participate in the exam and for those who interact with the medical community. Doubts about the integrity of the residency exam and the success of its candidates will be particularly problematic for the medical community in the country.