MSRA: An Exam To Get Into Training

 MSRA or Multi-specialty recruitment assessment is an examination used by several postgraduate medical specialties as their entry criteria.

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Which specialties use MSRA?

• General Practice
• Radiology
• Ophthalmology
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Psychiatry
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
• Neurosurgery
• Nuclear medicine
• Emergency medicine
• Anesthetics
• Pediatrics
• Community Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (CSRH)

When do you appear for MSRA?

You apply for a specialty’s training program via Oriel.

Once your application is verified, you receive an invitation to appear for the MSRA.

Where do you appear for the exam?

You appear at Pearson VUE test centers around the country.

You can also take a remote test at home if you are isolating/shielding in line with government or public health guidance due to COVID-19 or, depending on their geographical location, where local or national COVID-19 lockdown measures prevent access to a testing center due to site closures or travel restrictions.

What is the cost of the exam?

There is no fee associated with the exam.

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What is the structure of the exam?

The exam is taken in a single sitting.

There are three sections of the exam:

A. Professional Dilemmas (PD) section

• Number of questions: 50 questions
• Duration: 95 minutes
• This section tests your ethical knowledge on the basis of your judgment and actions in challenging scenarios at the workplace.
• There are two types of questions:

1. Ranking based

Example

You are a Foundation (F2) doctor working in respiratory medicine outpatients. You are reviewing Eileen, who has been admitted to hospital three times in the last 6 months, with exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. She tells you that she has been advised to stop smoking but is finding it difficult to do so because she worries a lot about her 25-year-old daughter, Kirsty, who has financial difficulties. Eileen says that she works overtime to try to support Kirsty.

Rank in order the following actions in response to this situation.
(1= Most appropriate; 5= Least appropriate).

A. Advise Eileen that she must give up smoking for her health.

B. Inform Eileen that if she continues to smoke, her health may deteriorate and she may not be able to work at all.

C. Suggest to Eileen that it would be beneficial to explore ways to manage her worries.

D. Ask Eileen whether Kirsty has sought professional financial advice.

E. Suggest to Eileen that Kirsty should not be causing her to put her health at risk.

Correct Key: CDBEA

 

2. Multiple-choice questions

Example

You are a Foundation (F2) doctor working in ophthalmology. You are on the ward when a fellow F2 doctor, Tom, tells you that he feels upset about the attitude of one of the nurses, Margaret, towards him. Tom tells you that whenever he asks Margaret to perform a task for him, Margaret is reluctant and always seems to have an excuse for not doing it. You have never observed similar behavior from Margaret.

Choose the three most appropriate actions to take in this situation.

A. Suggest that Tom thinks about how he usually asks Margaret to perform tasks for him.

B. Suggest that Tom speaks with Margaret to discuss their working relationship.

C. Suggest that Tom keeps a written record of Margaret’s behavior towards him.

D. Suggest that Tom reports Margaret’s behavior to the nurse in charge of the ward.

E. Tell Tom that you have not observed such behavior from Margaret.

F. Suggest to Tom that he may be misinterpreting Margaret’s behavior.

G. Suggest to Tom that he avoids delegating tasks to Margaret in the future.

H. Suggest to Tom that you could act as a witness when he next asks Margaret to do something for him.

Correct Key: ABE

B. Break

• There is a break of 5 minutes in between the two sections.

C. Clinical Problem Solving (CPS) section

• Number of questions: 97 questions
• Duration: 75 minutes
• Your clinical knowledge is tested in this section.

Topics

• Cardiovascular
• Dermatology
• ENT
• Opthalmology
• Endocrinology / Metabolic disorders
• Gastroenterology / Nutrition
• Infectious disease
• Hematology
• Immunology
• Allergies
• Genetics
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Pediatrics
• Pharmacology / Therapeutics
• Psychiatry
• Neurology
• Reproductive medicine
• Renal disorders
• Urology
• Respiratory medicine

There are two types of questions asked in this section:

Single or Multiple Best Answers

Example

A 25-year-old woman has a mucopurulent discharge, pelvic pain, cervicitis, and urethritis. Which is the most likely cause of her symptoms?

A. Bacterial vaginosis 
B. Candida albicans 
C. Chlamydia Trachomatis 
D. Herpes simplex 
E. Trichomaniasis

Extended Matching Questions

Example

From the official MSRA applicant guidance

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Scoring of the exam

• One mark is awarded for each correct response
• There is no negative marking for incorrect answers

How are results declared?

You receive the result on your Oriel account and via email.

Your overall score is normalized according to the difficulty of the exam and the number of candidates appearing in the test.

Why are your results important?

1. Your results decide whether you’ll get a chance to move further towards an interview offer or not.
2. For certain specialties like GP training, if you score high enough (top 10 percentile), you will get a direct offer to GP training completely skipping the interviews.
3. For Psychiatry training entry in 2021, you get an offer to training according to your MSRA scores. There are no interviews for the posts this year.