Specialty Certificate Examination in Palliative Medicine

 Exam Date UK Registration Period Overseas Registration Period Results Release
TBC TBC TBC TBC

The Specialty Certificate Examination in Palliative Medicine will be delivered once a year.


Eligibility requirements

UK Candidate  Overseas Candidate 
Successful completion of all parts of the MRCP(UK) AND/OR Successful completion of all parts of the MRCP(UK)
Appointed to a substantive STR programme and awarded a National Training Number.  

Candidates in UK training posts would normally take the Specialty Certificate Examination in Palliative Medicine during higher specialty training after entering ST3.

Exam format

The Specialty Certificate Examination in Palliative Medicine is a computer-based two-paper test with a total of 200 questions. Each paper contains 100 questions and lasts three hours. The papers are based on the MRCP(UK) ‘best of five’ multiple choice questions format.

Qualification: Certificate in Palliative Medicine

Trainees who have gained the Certificate in Palliative Medicine and who are recommended for a CCT will be entitled to apply for the postnominal MRCP(UK) (Palliative Medicine). For further details please see the FAQs. 

Curriculum

The curriculum is published by the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB).

Blueprint

The examination is made up of questions covering the whole curriculum, selected by a predetermined blueprint. For a more detailed description of the assessment blueprint, see the JRCPTB website. 

Standard setting

The Specialty Certificate Examination is criterion-referenced with a pass mark determined in advance.

Exam fees

The examination fee is £800 for candidates who sit the exam at a UK test centre and £1000 for candidates who sit at one of the overseas centres.