Is it true that the exams are no longer essays in gov. yet mcq and short answers q's.

Yes, previously govt colleges had essay type exams. You werent really given a QUESTION per say, but it was a line written in question format with a word capitalized to basically tell the non english speaking just to write EVERYTHING and ANYTHING they know about that word and write about 5 pages on that. These exams were basically 6 questions or so, you chose 5 questions and wrote your heart out on these five questions. Length was key and if you happened to forget a question, you would just write out a bunch of crap.

I believe Shifa still uses a modified essay type exam system where you only have 5-6 questions an exam.

Govt colleges on the other hand up until recently had been using the same pathetic essay exam systems for the last 50 years and somehow finally realized it was stupid and made no sense at all as it was not testing concepts but merely memorization.

Today the exams for most govt colleges are Multiple Choice Based (depending on the class, 50%, or 40%, maybe even 30%) and then depending on the subject, 10 to 15 questions an exam sometimes consisting of 2 parts each. In these exams your expected to actually answer the question instead of writing a book. IE Some questions would say enumerate the following, and all you would do is just write the name of drugs or watever they are asking and thats it. Sometimes it would say "tabulate the following" in which you would just make a table and fill in what you need too.

Its still kind of murky as some teachers say just to write one page and give the answer briefly because they dont have time to go through every word you write which is why its best to write the main point in BIG BRIGHT MARKER so they just give you full marks and go on. Also having 15 questions with 2 parts each comes to 30 questions and in 2 hours you dont have time to write much so you just have to write the answer out and your done.