Part B OSCE has an ever-changing structure since its launch, please check with the Royal College again. Generally there are about 18 - 20 OSCE stations with some real and fake patients. Exam dates for UK only released 1 month before, do not buy your air tickets/book accommodation till you get your dates. Dates may not even be in the time period that they released.
The examination goes on at a very fast pace once you have started, everything becomes instinctive. There are a variable number of stations; in some years, there were test questions (used to try out new questions) which were not counted towards your final score but you would not be told that it is a test station. Total of about 18 to 20 stations including reading stations. You will be grouped into either a morning or afternoon group. The whole exam will last about 4 hours. There is a half hour break after about 8 to 10 stations. If you are lucky enough to be on a second day for the same venue (eg Sheffield and Sheffield), you can ask your friends for the questions asked the previous day. They should repeat about 3 - 4 questions. Different venues (eg Sheffield and Edinburgh) generally do not use questions from other venues in the same month but they can ask similar questions to those of yesteryear.
The overall global pass-rate is about 60+%. The Singaporean pass-rate at all centres is obviously higher (80-90%) than the global one, with the Aug 2012 exam held in Singapore pass rate being 92%. Do not think be complacent based on the high Singapore pass-rate and go away thinking that you do not need to prepare for the exam or that Singaporeans are the most well-prepared candidates across the globe. Your overseas counterparts will have their own resources as well.
New 18 station format (from 2013 onwards)
Pass criteria
No overall pass mark (but you really should not be failing this anyway)
Must achieve a pass mark in 2 broad content areas
1. Knowledge and its application ( applied knowledge)
2. Communication, clinical and procedural skills (applied skills)
Examiners
Reduced to only 1 examiner (from 2 previously) for the surgical science and critical care stations
History taking stations will have 1 clinical examiner (a doctor) and 1 lay examiner
Stations
No more specialty of choice, all stations will be generic stations. There is more emphasis on real patients in the physical examination stations as per previously in the MRCS part 3 examinations rather than actors as per the OSCE format prior to 2013.
Applied Knowledge
3 Anatomy stations
2 Pathology/microbiology stations
3 Applied science and critical care stations
Total 160 Marks for 8 stations
Applied Skills
2 Procedural skill stations
2 History taking stations
4 Physical examination stations
2 Communication station (information giving or receiving to colleagues/patients/relatives)
2 Reading stations (prior to the communication station with pen and paper provided for you to read and prepare a script)
Total 200 Marks for 10 stations
The golden ten minutes
For each station, you have a total of ten minutes for the station. The bell heralds the start of the first minute. Reading stations mean that you ignore all the bells and just continue reading/preparing.
1st minute: Read the information sheet outside the station (e.g. girl who fell off a horse and hit a leg). This will be a brief paragraph and the minute is better used for mentally preparing your answers. You will be given a schedule of stations so that you know what is coming up (e.g. anatomy or critical care). I constantly referred to the paper during the 1 minute I had to make sure that I was preparing the answers for the right questions in my mind.
Bell signals the end of the first minute and you go into the bay
Next 6 minutes: For the history and physical examinations, everything has to be done within the first 6 minutes, after which the questions will begin and you cannot go back to the patient. You may end your history taking or physical examination early before the 6 minutes if you are fast. Knowledge stations will just go on.
Bell signals the end of 6 minutes.
Last 3 minutes: For the history and physical examination stations, 3 minutes will be for questioning on the specific patient. For knowledge stations the questioning just goes on. Or if you end early like me, you start talking about life/the weather/colour of the flowers with the obviously bored examiners.
Bell signals time for you to move on to read the introduction of the next station.
Observations
**You may not have the chance to go back after you skipped a question (some people faced that problem after remembering the answer down the road). That was an advice given by some seniors saying that they asked to skip the question first and come back later. Works for some, does not work so well for others.
Knowledge stations (anat and crit care) are generally quite ok. Lots of time to stone and talk cock with examiner after you finished all your questions. Can generally finish within 6 minutes if you know your stuff. Well you will also finish it within 1 minute if you do not know anything at all. So no need to rush, you can spend about a few seconds thinking about the answer first.
Clinical/skill stations - really not enough time to do it all - please try to rush through everything to score as many points as possible, bearing in mind to still appear deliberate and gentle.
Reading stations - actually very rushed for some. Usually given a whole stack of information/lab values/admission notes/input-output charts that you need to sieve through and organise in order to update a consultant. Look at those dates carefully! You could be reading off the wrong charts if you are careless. Bring a pen even if they said they will provide you one as the candidate before may have just taken the pen away!
Previous format - prior to 2013 (see above for the new format)
Pass criteria
You must achieve a pass in the each of the 4 broad content areas:
1. Anatomy and surgical pathology
2. Applied surgical science and critical care
3. Communication skills
4. Clinical and procedural skills
There is an overall pass mark too. According to the examiners, all candidates are clumped together at the end of the exam and a bell curve is generated.
Specialty of choice
You are allowed to choose 3 out of 4 specialties of choice from:
1. Trunk and thorax
2. Limbs and spine
3. Head and neck
4. Neuroscience
RCS is in the process of changing the choice system due to the difficulties in planning the examination (and also it is pretty unfair and easy for neuroscience). If you have a choice, think about neuroscience as a choice as the anatomy is really easy, the history can be taken by a 4 year old and finally, the physical examination is limited to cranial nerves (most often just this) and peripheral neuro system. Its practically a giveaway. I have not heard of people choosing neuroscience and failing. Do note that Limbs and Spine is not a pure orthopaedic station and you may get a vascular case for that. This is what you will see in real life as well.
In the structure, there will always be generic stations which means that even if you did not choose limbs and spine at all, you will still need to study the anatomy of the limbs. Even if you did not choose trunk and thorax, you will also need to know how to take a history of shortness of breath and examine an abdomen for a possible case of appendicitis.
Stations
3 Anatomy stations (1 from your 1st specialty of choice)
1 Pathology station
3 Applied science and critical care stations
2 Procedural skill stations
3 History taking stations (2 from your 1st and 2nd specialty of choice)
4 Physical examination stations (3 from your 3 specialties of choice)
2 Communication station (information giving or receiving to colleagues/patients/relatives)
2 reading stations before each communication station
Copyright Policy
FOR SITE CONTENT, MRCS resource provides the information on this site to be read by anyone, but retains the copyright on all text and graphics. To use this information in any other way, you must strictly follow these guidelines.
Use by Individuals
As long as it is for your own personal use only, you may print copies of this information, store the files on your computer, and use hypertext links to reference the information. Any other use or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
Licensing and Reprint Rights
Framing of the site by another site is prohibited.
We reserve the right to change the terms of and/or withdraw this permission at any time and for any reason.
Reproducing copyrighted work without the owner’s permission is known as infringement, and it leaves you vulnerable to lawsuits from the copyright or trademark owner.