Ya, it's closer to 4.5. state medical colleges (in my day) used to take in students on the basis of their board percentage. With add-ons for sports or wierdly if your dad had had a vasectomy ...
Domicile used to be a very hot issue with lakhs of rupees being spent by some to get domicile into states with good medical colleges. By hook or crook of course.
Then there were some top level Christian medical colleges (St John's, CMC) where being a Christian was a huge advantage. A letter from the Bishop of your area was worth its weight in gold. Non Christian students like me had to fight for a max remaining 5% of the seats.
Then there were the big top national colleges. AIIMS, AFMC, JIPMER, etc. which had national entrance exams (followed in some cases by high level interviews and physicals as in AFMC).
Lakhs of students from all over the country would sit for these exams. For 50-100 odd seats. Madness ...
Mine was also the second or third year if the all India CBSE PMT. Where a percentage of seats of all government medical colleges all over the country were kept aside for students of all states. You just had to be Indian. Some 2000 odd seats here. Again multiple lakhs of students giving the entrance. More madness ...
But the REAL madness begins when you become a medical student.
Cheers, Doc