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Eligibility

The exam can be taken during the third or fourth year of General Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training.

The exam is not a pre-requisite for attempting the AFRM Fellowship Clinical Examination (General).

To be eligible to sit the examination, you must have:

• completed 24 months FTE of certified training in general rehabilitation medicine
• paid the exam fee by the due date, in order to guarantee your place
• your College training fees paid up in full

If you have outstanding training fees, you’re ineligible to sit the exam. See College Fees Terms and Conditions.

Exam attempt limit

You cannot continue Advanced Training if you exceed the examination attempt limit, which is based on when you commenced training.

^* Trainees who commenced before 2018 must successfully pass the Fellowship Written and Clinical Examinations within a period of 47 months from their first attempt at the assessment.

See Progression Through Training Policy for more information about examination attempts.

Overseas Trained Physicians | Check eligibility requirements with your overseas trained physicians case officer before applying.

Application process

Submit your application

Application confirmation

After submitting your application form, we email you to confirm it’s been received. If you don’t get a confirmation email, check your junk/spam folders and contact us if it’s not there.

Payment

Once applications have closed, we email you a link to pay the exam fee and any other outstanding fees.

Final confirmation

You receive a candidate allocation letter via email when your eligibility has been finalised. This confirms your exam registration and venue.

^* Submit a separate application for the Fellowship Clinical Examination (General).

Withdrawal

Withdrawals are not counted as exam attempts. Contact us to withdraw up until the start of the exam. Refund rules apply. See College Fees Terms and Conditions for more information.

To request a refund for withdrawal on medical or compassionate grounds, submit an application form (DOC) under the Special Consideration for Assessment Policy (PDF).

If you withdraw, you can re-apply to sit the exam the following year if you meet the eligibility criteria. Application fees will not be rolled over from one year to another.

Special consideration

Applications for special consideration must be submitted using the Special Consideration for Assessment application form and guide (DOC).

We'll consider these circumstances before the exam:

• permanent and longstanding impairment
• temporary impairment with medical grounds
• non-medical compassionate grounds or serious disruption
• essential commitments (religious, cultural, societal or legal obligations)

Once you’ve started the exam, only technical or procedural problems will be considered.

For more information on application requirements and the possible outcomes, see the Special Consideration for Assessment Policy (PDF).

Prepare

Exam format

The exam tests your knowledge and competence in the assessment and management of disability, including subject areas referred to in the General Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training Curriculum (PDF).

Two papers – Paper A and Paper B – are separate assessments taken on the same day.

Paper A (MEQ)

10 min reading time | 3.5 hour exam | 8 modified essay questions (MEQs) based on scenarios from curriculum

Scenarios and questions are prepared by the Examination Panel of the Faculty Assessment Committee. They reflect current training and practices in general rehabilitation medicine.

Paper A consists of 8 MEQs. The questions require you to outline your approach to the management of a case, discuss the implications of a form of treatment, describe the contents of your report on an issue, etc. The question format allows you to customise your knowledge to practical applications.

The exam tests your ability to:

• evaluate and assess complex clinical or administrative problems
• communicate relevant information clearly and briefly in a limited amount of time, either in dot points or a few lines (as provided)
• exercise judgment in determining priorities
• demonstrate an awareness of the importance of sensitive interdisciplinary planning and liaison
• adopt an orderly, logical and mature approach to current areas of debate and controversy in disability management

Resources

• Tips for Supervisors
  
• Tips for trainees
  
• Example questions (PDF)
  
• Example questions and suggested answers (PDF)
  
• Feedback report 2023 (PDF)
• Feedback report 2024 (PDF)

Paper B (MCQ)

10 min reading time | 3 hour exam | 130 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) covering a range of subspecialties

Each MCQ includes 4 answer options with only 1 correct answer.

The facts being tested are related to the curriculum in terms of:

• common functional disorders
• treatments in General Rehabilitation Physicians
• management options involving more than one clinical discipline
• measurement of outcomes

See Paper B MCQ sample questions.

Note: These weightings are target percentages of topic areas used to develop the MCQ exam. Actual content breakdowns can vary. Questions can belong to more than one topic area.

Readings

Cifu, D. X. 2020, Braddom’s Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 6th edition, Elsevier.

DeLisa J. A. 2019, De Lisa’s Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation: Principles and Practice, 6th edition, Wolters Kluwer.

American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Suggested learning resources (p 81-93) in General Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training Curriculum (PDF).

Preparation tips

Practice your approach

A supervisor or mentor can help you with practice questions. Go through your thought process out loud with them as you construct an answer. Using this approach with them may help you obtain valuable feedback and a better insight into your approach to the questions.

Organise and equip yourself

Having a quiet, comfortable place where you can study is important. Find a way to study that best suits your individual learning style. Develop a study plan and revision timetable. Use different learning approaches such as flashcards, mind maps, diagrams or opportunities to teach others as part of your revision.

Study with others

The shared experience of studying with others has helped many trainees feel more motivated, confident and on-track during the crucial preparation period.

Many have joined (or created) a group that was supportive, met regularly, shared resource ideas and provided an environment conducive to constructive feedback.

The RACP Trainee Facebook group (closed group) is a space for you to meet with other trainees and share experiences, tips, events and ideas as well as receive trainee information from the College.

Attempting the exam again

Meet with your supervisor or mentor

If you are actively training, meet with your supervisor, or your mentor if you are on interruption of training, to talk through your previous attempts at the exam. Your supervisor or mentor is likely to have valuable insights to share about areas you need to focus on and areas to improve.

Use the Improving Performance Action Plan template and plan your study to maximise time spent on these focus areas. For example, once a week you could spend time on each area to make sure you have a thorough understanding of each topic.

You could also ask your supervisor or mentor to share trial case studies and cross-reference them with the General Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training Curriculum (PDF).

Repeat what worked

What study materials did you use last time? What was helpful and what wasn't? Review your materials as well as look for other valuable study materials and opportunities, especially any onsite learning that's available to you.

Exam day

Timetable

Personal items

Bring

• Printed or digital copy of your candidate allocation letter confirming your name, candidate number and venue
• Current photo ID with your full name and signature, for example a passport or driver licence – digital IDs are not accepted
• Blue or black ballpoint pens (no pencils, gel or felt-tip pens)
• 1 x highlighter (optional)
• 1 x ruler (optional)
• Basic analogue watch (optional)
• Water in a clear plastic bottle (recommended)

Lunch is not provided, and many venues do not have food vendors on site. You may need to leave the venue to purchase lunch or bring your own on the day.

Tip: Wear additional clothing layers to adjust to the room temperature.

Not permitted during the exam

• Written material
• Calculators
• Food or beverages (other than water) ^*
• Ear plugs (unless special permission has been granted by RACP)
• All other belongings, for example bags

During the exam, all mobile phones, digital watches, sport watches, smart watches (including but not limited to Apple watch, Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung), pagers and electronic communication devices must be switched off, and placed in your bag on the floor under your desk.

Devices that sound during the exam will be subject to an incident report.

^* You can bring food or beverages into the venue and store it securely with your other belongings.

Seating arrangements

Seating lists showing your allocated seat number will be displayed near the venue entrance.

Desks will be labelled with your name and candidate ID number.

Discuss seating enquiries with the Chief Supervisor as early as possible on exam day.

Completing the exam

Issues on exam day

If you experience issues leading up to the exam or on exam day that prevent you from attending, contact us. This may include illness, natural disasters or personal/family issues. 

If you arrive up to 30 minutes late, you can attempt the exam, but you won’t get additional time.

If you arrive more than 30 minutes late, you won’t be permitted to enter the exam.

Leaving the exam room

Don't leave the exam room without an invigilator’s approval. If you need the toilet, an invigilator will escort you. If you want to leave before the end of the exam, stay seated and raise your hand. An invigilator will check your materials and release you.

You cannot leave in the first 30 minutes or last 10 minutes of the exam.

On completion of the exam, your exam booklet and/or answer sheet will be collected before you can leave.

The content of all documents is confidential and cannot be removed from the exam room. You’re not permitted to reproduce or distribute exam materials at any time or in any way. Doing so is a breach of the Academic Integrity in Training Process (PDF).

Results

Marking

See previous exam pass rates.

Results email

You receive an email with your exam result from 3pm AEST, Thursday 10 April 2025.

Ensure we have your current email address and contact number. Contact us if you don’t receive the email.

Feedback

Paper A (MEQ)

All candidates receive a copy of the general feedback which provides an overview of key strengths and weaknesses of responses to each question across the entire cohort as summarised by the examiners when marking the exam.

For previous years feedback reports, see:

Feedback Report 2023 (PDF)
Feedback Report 2024 (PDF)

In addition to this feedback, we are now providing more individual feedback to indicate the performance band you achieved for each question.

For each question, there are six performance band ranges:

• Excellent performance
• Better than expected standard
• Meets expected standard
• Below expected performance
• Poor performance
• Very poor performance

Paper B (MCQ)

All candidates receive their overall score as a percentage, against the overall pass mark for the assessment.

Unsuccessful candidates receive a summary of the number of correct questions achieved within each subject area addressed in the paper.

We understand that you may be interested in further individualised feedback, however we are unable to provide this. We encourage you to speak with your Advanced Training (AT) Supervisor or a mentor about your results to identify your strengths and those areas where you can improve.

To ensure equitable access and fairness to all candidates, the AFRM Annual Trainees Meeting (ATM) provides sessions on examinations, including exam preparation and other aspects of the exam, with opportunity for questions.

Next steps

To gain Fellowship of the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, you must pass this exam and:

• pass the AFRM Fellowship Clinical Examination (General)
• complete all other requirements in General Rehabilitation Medicine Advanced Training Program handbook

If you’re unsuccessful in either paper, you only need to re-sit the unsuccessful paper. The exam fee is for the set of exams and there is no discount for attempting only 1 paper.