KATHMANDU: More than half of total candidates have failed the licence examination administered by the Nepal Medical Council (NMC) on Saturday.

A total of 510 student doctors had taken the test in Sano Bharyang, Swoyambhu yesterday.

Out of the total, only 252 student doctors passed the exam, according to the NMC.

The regulatory body said as many as 469 candidates took the licence exam in the physicians' stream and only 246 have passed.

Likewise, only six out of 41 who sat for the exam under the dentist category made it through the test.

According to NMC registrar Dr Dilip Sharma, the number of failed students has increased as the students do not study hard these days.

"May be, they think that they will pass the exam next time around and this might be the reason for the more failures," he added.

Meanwhile, the NMC has arrested two examinees,  Sushil Mandal and Suresh Sah, who appeared in the examination on behalf of others.

Mandal  works at the TU Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj.