Part 1

The Part 1 examination remains a one-day examination comprising two three-hour papers each of 100 questions, in a ‘best of five’ answer format, and continues to have a high reliability of >0.9. Test equating was introduced during 2008. The pass mark in the examination has ranged from 58% to 62% and the pass rate has varied from 31% to 46% in recent diets.

Part 2 Written

The examination takes place over two days and comprises three three-hour papers, each of 90 questions in a ‘best of five’ answer format. The pass mark in recent diets of the Part 2 Written has ranged from 52% to 57% and the pass rate has varied from 55% to 63%.

PACES

A new version of PACES (nPACES) went ‘live’ in the 2009/3 diet of the examination after a lengthy period of gestation and planning. Station 5 now comprises two ten-minute ‘short patient’ encounters, testing communication and examination skills. Marks are now awarded for seven different clinical skills and examiners no longer award an overall score for each patient/surrogate encounter.