With the Supreme Court-mandated NEET to be in place next year, experts expect a larger number of students to choose colleges in countries like Russia, China and Ukraine, where admission is easier and courses cheaper.However, statistics show students with medical degrees from these countries are finding it increasingly difficult to pass the screening test that allows them to practice in India. The number of students taking the test has doubled but the pass percentage dropped from 50.12 in 2005 to 10.7 in 2015.In this period, the pass rate fluctuated around 20 per cent, dropping to an all-time low of 4.93 per cent in June 2014, when only 293 students passed. There has been an 80 per cent drop between 2005 and 2015, in Indian medical graduates from foreign universities passing the mandatory screening test that the National Board of Examinations holds.According to the Indian Medical Council Act, 2001, citizens with undergraduate degrees from outside India should clear the screening test conducted twice every year- June and December- before they do a one-year internship in one of the MCI recognised medical colleges. One has to score 50 per cent to clear the test. Students say the the test is extremely tough. “Most questions are from postgraduate medical tests,” said Raghuram Nayak, who completed his graduation in Ukraine in 2012.The students’ association of foreign medical graduates say the board has made the test difficult to discourage students from going abroad and opt to study in private colleges here that charge as much as Rs 1 crore. These students aren’t even considered graduates in India unless they pass the test.“Many students spend lakhs in coaching centres to clear the test,” said Raghuram. Officials at NBE deny these. An expert committee which studied 11 question papers from 2013 to 2015 submitted a report to the ministry of health stating that 52.78 per cent of the questions were of “low difficulty” and 42.22 per cent questions were of “moderate difficulty”.Board executive director Dr Bipin Batra said the test had no negative marking and most students find it difficult because public health priorities of other nations are different from ours.