Structure of the RCSI Membership Examination

The RCSI Membership Examination is an intercollegiate exam consisting of two parts: MRCS Part A and MRCS Part B. These are structured as follows:

MRCS Part A – Multiple-Choice Question Exam (MCQ)

Part A is a five-hour MCQ examination broken into two papers,  taken on the same day. The papers cover generic surgical sciences and applied core knowledge as follows:

Paper 1 - Applied Basic Sciences MCQ paper, comprising Single Best Answer Questions-3 hours

Paper 2 - Principles of Surgery-in-General MCQ paper, comprising Extended Matching Questions-2 hours

PLEASE NOTE A REVISED FORMAT FROM 2017

MRCS Part B – OSCE

There will be 18 manned and 2 unmanned stations of 9+1 minutes each. Candidates will be assessed on basic sciences, communication skills, surgical skills and clinical acumen.