MRCP 3 Specialty Exams

By Hannah Brown in MRCP on Friday, May 15, 2009 @ 00:00

According to the RCP's annual reports, revenue from exam candidates is down by not insignificant amounts.  PACES candidates alone are down from 4,500 to 3,600 per year - that's a lot of exam fees the RCP are missing out on.  So ladies and gentlemen... [drumroll], please welcome the new revenue stream from the Royal College of Physicians - specialty exams - compulsory exams taken during ST4.

The so-called MRCP Part 3 will be coming into its own over the next few months, with exams taking place in all 8 specialties by the end of the year.  An unknown entity to many, the knowledge based assessments (KBA) are the final hurdle to CCT for physicians, and will enable recipients to add even more letters after their names.

At £800 they're not cheap to sit, a cost justified by the RCP as directly attributed to the costs of quality control for such a 'high stakes' exam.  The Royal College of Surgeons have been running the FRCS 'exit' exam for years, and that really is high stakes, with exam fees running into thousands of pounds.  However, the RCP have just announced that they'll be offering free resits to anyone who fails their specialty exam the first time.

Why would they do this?  There's very little information about the exams available in the public domain, and limited sample MCQs are available on the MRCP UK website.  There are a few courses available - the Mayo Clinic run a cardiology course for example - but they generally take the form of a specialty 'update' as there's so little knowledge on the themes and common topics that make up the exam.  My theory is that by offering free resits they will be able to advertise a higher cumulative pass rate, as candidates sitting the exam a second time will know what to expect, and be infinitely more prepared than their 'first-timer' colleagues.  I also suspect that a little backlash against the RCP might have been underway - they've opted to 'backdate' this offer, and will reimburse any retakers who've already paid again to take the exam a second time.

It remains to be seen how specialty exams will unfold.  As more and more candidates take them, the more feedback will be available, and preparation will get easier, and hopefully, less and less resits will be needed.