The following assessments are administered by RANZCP and must be completed in order to gain fellowship. Some take longer than others so plan well ahead to ensure they are completed within the 5 year training window.
Recommended readingIn addtion to College examinations every rotation has Work Based Assesments(WBA) and Entrustable Professional Activities and mid and end of run ITAs
More InformationThe multiple choice exam is often the first examination that is sat and is usually done part way through stage 2. This allows time to have a good breadth of experience in psychiatry and therefore increases chances of success. The exam is 190 minutes and comprises 140 MCQ and 2 Critical Analysis Problems. The MCQ MUST be passed before you are accepted into any of the speciality certificates.
MCQ
The written exams are the Critical Essay Question (CEQ) and the Modified Essay Question (MEQ). These are now decoupled so you can sit them seperately. There are many techniques and pieces of advice to passing these papers so make sure you start revising early as it is critical to have read widely in psychiatry to be successful at theses exams. These exams are both marked against the end of Stage 3 and you must have completed 18 months of training before applying.
CEQThe psychotherapy written case is a summative assessment that is assessed at the end of stage 3 standard. Trainees must complete 40 sessions of psychotherapy as a minimum over 6-12 months and have 1 session each week as a minimum. The case report is usually 8-10,000 words long.
College Information
The scholarly project looks to assess original research in psychiatry and examples of projects include; completed clinical audits, case studies, literature reviews. Planning ahead is essential for the project as it will take time to develop a proposal (which must be submitted before the project begins) and you may need ethics approval too. Although you must be the main author you must find a supervisor for the project. There are certain exemptions for the scholarly project. Please click on the college link for more information about.
Clinical AuditThis is the RANZCP clinical assessment and has replaced the old OSCE examination. It comprises a portfolio review of your last 3 ITAs and OCAs, 2 of which must be completed in stage 3. Altogether the 3 ITAs must cover a minimum of 15 months of training.
RANZCP CCA