How to interpret your results

Here's how the RCA results look. In this example the doctor has passed with a score of 151.

Further down the page, you'll see further detailed feedback statements that the assessors selected for your consultations. 

Information from the RCGP

Although we built the system for displaying your RCA results, the format was designed by the RCGP. They have provided us with the following information to give some background to the new format...

We have tried to make the display of the results as formative as possible.

To do this we want to highlight patterns in behaviour or areas that could be developed to improve the score in that area. We have spent a long time developing this and we hope that is felt to be helpful.

Histograms

Along the x-axis, you have the marks for that domain for each case. Along the y-axis, you have the number of cases with that mark in that particular domain. The higher the graph, the more cases with that score, the further to the right, the higher the score. There isn’t a specific pass mark for each area as the pass mark is overall, so you could still pass the RCA with a below average score in one area.

What is helpful is to look at the overall picture for each of the three domains and see which areas require the most development. These will be highlighted by the lower score for that area but also a histogram which is weighted towards the left.

Feedback Statements

We have looked at the feedback statements and counted how many times examiners highlighted this as an area for development. The higher up the list, the more frequently this was highlighted. Again, we are looking for patterns, so if you have a high frequency of one or two areas, then this something that should be worked on.

Individual case feedback

Why can I not see individual feedback for each case? We considered this in detail but feel that this is not helpful for you or your supervisor. You cannot access the consult and won’t necessarily remember the case. Even if you could, knowing that you did well or not so well in one case isn’t that helpful. Patterns are much more formative hence we have opted for this method of feedback.

Any questions?

If you are having trouble viewing your exam results then please let us know.

For any other queries you are best contacting the RCGP Exams team on exams@rcgp.org.uk or 020 3188 7660.