Examination research reports

The College undertakes and publishes qualitative and quantitative research on its exams.

Research was conducted into the attainment gap in the FRCA examination in 2015. The attainment gap is a term used to describe the variations in levels of educational achievement that occur between different demographic groups undertaking the same assessment. This is not a recent phenomenon and any large-scale assessment system inevitably produces differential attainment. This cannot be attributed to a single identifiable cause, but results from a combination of factors. Whilst not outliers in respect of an attainment gap, the College takes the issue very seriously.

The research was published in an article in the Bulletin 92 | July 2015, written by Dr Bennan and Dr Lumb presented data showing that in common with other speciality exams, some candidate groups perform better than others. The effects of gender, ethnicity, training post and primary medical qualification (PMQ) all affect outcomes.

Since that date, the College has undertaken two projects that aim to better inform both candidates and trainers on how to optimally prepare for the FRCA. 

1. Differential attainment in curricular components.  This project looked at how candidate groups performed in the curricular units tested in the Primary and Final components of the FRCA. All questions from four sittings of the oral exams were mapped to the training curriculum then each candidate's score analysed (>20000 results per exam), see full report. 

2. Candidate survey of exam preparation.  In three Primary and two Final exams candidates were asked to complete a questionnaire about how they had prepared for the oral examinations to identify if there was any correlation to exam performance and how candidates prepared for exams. The questions were developed with the College Anaesthetists in Training Committee.  The survey was then given to candidates after their exam but before the results were known, and the responses were matched to candidate's overall results for that exam sitting, see full report.