Requirements

These requirements must be completed by 31 Jan 2020 for Australia and 20 Dec 2019 for New Zealand. You must:

• register with the College
• have at least 24 months FTE certified Basic Training
• be in an accredited training position or an approved interruption of training
• complete and submit all PREP requirements
• comply with the requirements in the Progression through Training Policy
• have paid all College training fees

Overseas Trained Physicians (OTPs)

Check eligibility requirements with your Overseas Trained Physicians Case Officer before applying.

Attempts

See the Progression through Training Policy for limits on total training time allowed and number of attempts. The revised policy was implemented on 1 January 2017. View your exam attempts to date on the Basic Training Portal.

Applications open

If you are eligible, you’ll receive an email with instructions to apply in early November 2019. Ensure the College has your current email address. Emails do not guarantee eligibility and extensions will not be granted.

Contact us if you don’t receive the email by 6 November 2019 and you've checked your junk/spam folder.

Application confirmation

After submitting the form, you’ll receive two confirmations that your application has been received:

• onscreen
• email within an hour

If you don’t receive a confirmation email, check your junk/spam folders.

Submit PREP tools

Submit all PREP requirements, including your Annual Progress Report (APR), by the closing date.

If you don’t complete the requirements satisfactorily, your training will not be certified. You won’t be eligible for the exam and your application will be withdrawn.

Exam confirmation

Closer to the date, you’ll receive an email confirming your registration for the exam has been successful along with your candidate number and venue details. This is dependent on your eligibility as well as fees and annual requirements being up to date.

Withdrawal

Withdrawals are not counted as exam attempts. To withdraw up until the start of the exam, contact us.

To request a refund outside of these rules on medical or compassionate grounds, submit an application under the Special Consideration for Assessment policy.

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

Submit your special consideration request by the closing date.

We will 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).

Your mark or result will not be adjusted due to any special circumstances. For more information, including how to apply, see the Special Consideration for Assessment policy.

Exam format

The Exam for both Adult Medicine and Paediatrics & Child Health is made up of two papers:

• Clinical Applications examines your understanding of the practice of medicine and therapeutics.
• Medical Sciences examines your understanding of the principles of medicine and the basic sciences applicable to clinical medicine.

Each paper consists of a combination of multiple choice questions (MCQs) and extended matching questions (EMQs):

You'll have 5 minutes of reading time at the beginning of each paper. Do not write on the question booklet or scoresheet during this time.

Quality assurance

All our exams are designed and developed by senior Fellows and educational experts in line with the curriculum. Robust quality assurance processes are in place to ensure the Exam and results processes are in line with international best practice.

All results undergo detailed analysis to ensure they accurately reflect your performance and that trainees have been given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and ability in the exam process.

Visual material

Some questions require you to interpret visual material, such as:

• plain x-rays
• CT scans
• MRI scans
• ECGs
• radioisotope scans
• respiratory function tests
• sleep study patterns

Other visual materials may be included in the Exam papers, but you won’t be required to interpret them to answer the question. Generally, they’ll be accompanied by the type of report you would see from the laboratory:

• blood films
• bone marrow films
• echocardiograms
• electromyograms
• electroencephalograms
• histology sections

Multiple choice questions (MCQs)

MCQs cover a range of subspecialties. Each question has 4 options. Choose only 1 option by filling in the corresponding bubble on the answer sheet.

Extended matching questions (EMQs)

A small number of EMQs will be included in the Exam. They have a similar reliability and validity to single-best-answer MCQs but are more effective at assessing problem solving and clinical reasoning.

Choose the most appropriate option, listed from A to H on the answer sheet, for each stem/clinical scenario.

Resources

The Exam is based on the Basic Training and Professional Qualities Curricula.

The Knowledge Guides detail the topics and concepts you will need to understand to pass your assessments and progress your physician training.

You can use the Workplace Learning Planner tool to create a customised study resource that will help you familiarise yourself with the Knowledge Guides.

Reading preparation

You’re expected to be familiar with:

• current textbooks
• relevant aspects of basic science in your division (Adult Medicine or Paediatrics & Child Health)
• topics covered during in-service training programs
• general coverage of review articles, annotations and editorial comment in medical journals
• diseases relevant to medical practice in our region (South West Pacific region)
• advances in physiology and biochemistry applicable to adult medicine/paediatrics

Texts on the major subspecialties may be useful but not essential.

In line with changes made to the names of medicine ingredients by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration (TGA) from 2016, drug names on the Exam reflect the new name followed by the old name enclosed in parentheses, such as:

• furosemide (frusemide)
• adrenaline (epinephrine)
• noradrenaline (norepinephrine)
• amoxicillin (amoxycillin)

Support

Preparing for and sitting exams can place significant stress and pressure on your physical and mental health. Even following an exam, you may still feel the effects of the stress you were under.

You’re not alone in managing these difficulties. The RACP Support Program provides a professional and confidential counselling service to all our Fellows and trainees, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. See Physician Health and Wellbeing to explore other wellbeing and support resources.

Timetable

Location

The Exam is held in locations across Australia and New Zealand. Venue details are emailed to you 4 weeks prior to the exam date.

Items to bring

1. printed or digital copy of the email confirming your exam registration, your candidate number and venue
2. current photo ID with your full name and signature (for example, your passport or driver licence) — digital IDs are not accepted
3. blue or black ballpoint pens (no pencils, gel or felt-tipped pens)
4. 1 ruler
5. highlighters

Analogue watches and water in a clear plastic bottle are allowed.

Wear layers to adjust to the room temperature for your own comfort level.

Items not permitted

1. written material (other than your candidate allocation letter)
2. calculators
3. food or drink (other than water)
4. 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, placed on the floor under your desk and visible to the invigilators always.

If you are found with one of these devices on your person during the exam, you will be automatically disqualified and immediately escorted out of the venue. Phones or pagers that sound during the Exam will be subject to an incident report.

Apply for special consideration by Friday 31 January 2020 for exceptional circumstances.

Seating arrangements

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

Discuss enquiries about seating as soon as possible on the exam day with the Chief Invigilator.

Apply for special consideration by Friday 31 January 2020 for exceptional circumstances.

Completing the exam

For each of the two examination papers, you will receive:

• a question booklet
• an answer sheet

Write your name, candidate number and exam city on the question booklet and answer sheet.

Enter your candidate number, not your MIN or table number, on both sides of the answer sheet. Find your candidate number on the email confirming your exam venue and successful registration. They can also be provided by invigilators where needed.

Do not open the question booklet or fill in your details until instructed to do so by an invigilator.

Sign the agreement on the front cover.

The content of all documents is confidential and cannot be removed from the examination room. You’re not permitted to reproduce or distribute the contents of examination material at any time or in any way. Reproducing or distributing the material is a breach of the College’s Academic Integrity in Training Process.

To answer the questions, fill in one bubble corresponding to the option you think is correct for each question. You must use black or blue ballpoint pen only.

To change an answer, put a cross through the incorrect bubble and fill in the correct one. To reselect a previously crossed-through answer, circle it and cross through all incorrect answers. Out of the ordinary answers will be manually reviewed.

The chosen response should be clear.

Leaving the examination room

Don’t leave the examination room without the invigilator’s approval. If you need the toilet, the 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.

When you’ve finished the exam, your question booklet and answer sheet will be collected. You can leave 30 minutes after the exam has started, but not in the last 10 minutes.

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.

Back-up exam

If the exam on Monday 17 February is cancelled, a back-up exam paper will be given on Monday 2 March. You'll be advised of the new location.

You'll only be eligible for the back-up exam paper if you were scheduled to sit the original exam.

Marking

The Exam consists of 170 questions. Correct answers are worth one mark. Marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. The examination papers are computer-marked.

The pass mark uses statistical analysis approaches, including the modified Angoff process and Rasch equating. This ensures the Exam standard is valid and fair from year to year.

Twenty questions from recent Exams will be re-used in 2019 as ‘marker’ questions to compare the standard of cohorts from one year to the next. Scores on these questions don’t count towards your total mark.

Results

You’ll receive an email to let you know if you have passed the exam or been unsuccessful in this attempt, on Thursday 12 March 2020 from 3pm AEDT/3pm NZDT. Ensure the College has your current email and postal address.

Contact us if you don’t receive the email.

Within 4 weeks, you will receive a second email with more detailed feedback including:

• the pass mark for the 2020 exam
• your overall mark
• your mark for each paper

The Directors of Physician (or Paediatric) Education (DPE) at each hospital receive an email with candidates’ names and whether they have passed the exam or not.

When detailed feedback is provided, they will then receive a report showing aggregated performance of their hospital against national averages. No report is supplied where there are insufficient candidate numbers at the hospital to provide de-identified scores.

The Reconsideration Review and Appeals Process doesn’t apply to the outcome or results.

Divisional Clinical Examination

Once you’ve satisfied the requirements of the Divisional Written Examination, you can apply for the Divisional Clinical Examination. Information on how to apply will be included in your results email if you have passed the written exam.