This section provides information on the number of Australian vocational trainees who sat college of faculty examinations in 2012 and the number of trainees who successfully passed.
Current Data
Table 4.36 presents data on the number of trainees sitting their final or fellowship examinations and highlights the considerable variation in the pass rate across medical specialties and even for different examinations required by colleges for a particular specialty. These differences are due, at least in part, to differing assessment processes. Further information on the requirements of each college is provided under the heading ‘Training Assessment’ in Appendix B.
Medical specialty | Examination | Trainees sitting | Trainees passing | Proportion passing (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
(a) RACGP examination segments can be completed over more than one year. Candidates completing their final exam segment in 2012, may have passed exam components in a previous year. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||
Addiction medicine | .. | na | na | na |
Adult medicine | .. | na | na | na |
Anaesthesia | Fellowship | 280 | 229 | 81.8 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | Fellowship | 28 | 22 | 78.6 |
Dermatology | Fellowship Written | 21 | 17 | 81.0 |
Fellowship Clinical | 18 | 17 | 94.4 | |
Emergency medicine | 191 | 116 | 60.7 | |
General practice | RACGP Fellowship Exam | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
AKT | 747 | 672 | 90.0 | |
KFP | 742 | 664 | 89.5 | |
OSCE | 704 | 651 | 92.5 | |
(a)3 segments completed by 2012 | 718 | 643 | 89.6 | |
ACRRM Fellowship Exam | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |
MSF | 54 | 54 | 100.0 | |
MiniCEX | 84 | 77 | 91.7 | |
MCQ | 86 | 70 | 81.4 | |
StAMPS | 108 | 63 | 58.3 | |
Intensive care | General Fellowship exam | 84 | 51 | 60.7 |
Paediatric Fellowship exam | 13 | 11 | 84.6 | |
Medical administration | Oral Examination | 26 | 16 | 61.5 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | Written | 165 | 129 | 78.2 |
Oral | 105 | 78 | 74.3 | |
Occupational and environmental medicine | Written | 13 | 10 | 76.9 |
Practical | 11 | 8 | 72.7 | |
Ophthalmology | RANZCO Advanced Clinical Exam (Written) | 34 | 26 | 76.5 |
RANZCO Advanced Clinical Exam (Clinical) | 34 | 28 | 82.4 | |
Paediatrics | .. | na | na | na |
Palliative medicine | .. | na | na | na |
Pathology | Part II Examinations | 103 | 92 | 89.3 |
Psychiatry | .. | na | na | na |
Public health medicine | Final Program Assessment | 11 | 7 | 63.6 |
Radiation oncology | Part II Written and Clinical Vivas | 30 | 19 | 63.3 |
Radiodiagnosis | Part II FRANZCR Examination Written and Vivas | 91 | 58 | 63.7 |
Rehabilitation medicine | Written | 39 | 36 | 92.3 |
Clinical | 40 | 19 | 47.5 | |
Sexual health medicine | Exit Assessment Interview | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
Sport and exercise medicine | Written | 5 | 4 | 80.0 |
Clinical | 4 | 4 | 100.0 | |
Surgery | Fellowship | 311 | 190 | 61.1 |
Total | 4,900 | 4,081 | 83.3 |
Table 4.37 presents the examination outcomes for the additional examinations that are required as part of some college training programs. The data covers Australian trainees only.
Medical specialty | Examination | Time held | Trainees sitting | Trainees passing | Proportion passing (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Trainees passing are those who sat at least one of the Ophthalmic Sciences exams in 2012 and passed. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | |||||
Addiction medicine | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
Adult medicine | Written | Feb | 760 | 531 | 69.9 |
Clinical | July | 721 | 501 | 69.5 | |
Anaesthesia | Part I Pharmacology written | February/May and July/September | 450 | .. | .. |
Part I Pharmacology oral | ![]() | 311 | 256 | 56.9 | |
Physiology written | ![]() | 508 | ![]() | ![]() | |
Physiology oral | ![]() | 361 | 306 | 60.2 | |
Dermatology | Clinical sciences | May | 0 | 0 | ![]() |
Pharmacology | May | 23 | 20 | 87.0 | |
Clinical sciences | Nov | 0 | 0 | ![]() | |
Pharmacology | Nov | 5 | 5 | 100.0 | |
Emergency medicine | Primary - Anatomy | ![]() | 372 | 300 | 80.6 |
Primary - Pathology | ![]() | 368 | 283 | 76.9 | |
Primary - Physiology | ![]() | 390 | 288 | 73.8 | |
Primary - Pharmacology | 376 | 274 | 72.9 | ||
General practice - RACGP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
General practice - ACRRM | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
Intensive care | Part I | May and Nov | 32 | 19 | 59.4 |
Medical administration | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | na | .. | .. | .. | .. |
Occupational and environmental medicine | .. | Aug | 6 | 5 | 83.3 |
Ophthalmology | (a)Ophthalmic sciences | 2 | 36 | 30 | 83.3 |
Ophthalmic Basic Competencies and Knowledge | 2 | 28 | 26 | 92.9 | |
Ophthalmic pathology | 2 | 30 | 29 | 96.7 | |
Paediatrics | Written | Feb | 232 | 163 | 70.3 |
Clinical | July | 237 | 156 | 65.8 | |
Palliative medicine | .. | ||||
Pathology | Basic pathology sciences | April | 31 | 24 | 77.4 |
Part 1 | May/August | 141 | 97 | 68.8 | |
Psychiatry: Basic training | Case Histories | 288 | 221 | 76.7 | |
Written | 229 | 160 | 69.9 | ||
(b)Clinical | 159 | 126 | 79.2 | ||
Public health medicine | Part 1 | (c)na | (c)na | (c)na | |
Radiation oncology | Part 1 | Once | 21 | 18 | 85.7 |
Radiodiagnosis | Part 1 | Twice Yearly | 104 | 76 | 73.0 |
Rehabilitation medicine | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
Sexual health medicine | .. | .. | 0 | 0 | .. |
Sport and exercise medicine | na | na | 0 | 0 | .. |
Surgery | Clinical Exam | May and September | 237 | 204 | 86.1 |
Surgical Science Exam (Generic) | May and September | 259 | 201 | 77.6 | |
Surgical Science (Specialty Specific) | May and September | 329 | 172 | 52.3 |
Trends
Table 4.38 and Table 4.39 provide data on the numbers passing their final or fellowship examinations and how these vary as a proportion of the total sitting each year from 2008 to 2012. Some specialties show considerable variation from one year to the next in the numbers and proportions passing each year.
This data should be interpreted cautiously, due to various college training requirements and changes to these across the years, and also due to relatively small numbers sitting examinations in some specialties.
Medical specialty | Examination | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(a) Excludes international medical graduates.
Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||||
Anaesthesia | Fellowship | 197 | 189 | 169 | 176 | 229 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | Fellowship | 14 | 20 | 15 | 23 | 22 |
Dermatology | Fellowship Written | 12 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 17 |
Fellowship Clinical | 11 | 20 | 16 | 19 | 17 | |
Emergency medicine | 80 | 73 | 76 | 83 | 116 | |
General practice | (b)RACGP Fellowship Exam | 510 | 407 | 439 | 553 | 643 |
AKT | .. | .. | .. | .. | 672 | |
KFP | .. | .. | .. | .. | 664 | |
OSCE | .. | .. | .. | .. | 651 | |
ACRRM Fellowship Exam | 32 | .. | .. | .. | .. | |
MSF | .. | 36 | 54 | 55 | 54 | |
MiniCEX | .. | 37 | 34 | 57 | 77 | |
MCQ | .. | 22 | 44 | 74 | 70 | |
StAMPS | .. | 11 | 47 | 35 | 63 | |
Intensive care | General Fellowship exam | 67 | 64 | 62 | 61 | 51 |
Paediatric Fellowship exam | 4 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 11 | |
Medical administration | Oral Examination | 10 | 8 | 25 | 8 | 16 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | Written | 50 | 84 | 95 | 61 | 129 |
Oral | 63 | 69 | 77 | 77 | 78 | |
Occupational and environmental medicine | Written | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
Practical | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | |
Ophthalmology | RANZCO Advanced Clinical Exam | 28 | 34 | 17 | 30 | (d)23 |
Pathology | Part II Examinations | 96 | 98 | 87 | 93 | 92 |
Public health medicine | Final Program Assessment | 12 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 7 |
Radiation oncology | Part II Written and Clinical Vivas | 21 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 19 |
Radiodiagnosis | Part II FRANZCR Examination Written and Vivas | 65 | 70 | 61 | 64 | 58 |
Rehabilitation medicine | Written | 15 | 16 | 21 | 15 | 36 |
Clinical | 13 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 19 | |
Sexual health medicine | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 0 | |
Sport and exercise medicine | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Surgery(a) | Fellowship | 199 | 197 | (c)165 | 178 | 190 |
Medical specialty | Examination | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proportion passing (%) | ||||||
(a) Exam results for adult and paediatric medicine refer to the basic training written and clinical exams. Source: Medical colleges and GPET | ||||||
Adult medicine(a) | Written | 69.9 | 66.8 | 68.2 | 68.7 | 69.9 |
Clinical | 75.9 | 76.9 | 69.7 | 70.4 | 69.5 | |
Anaesthesia | ![]() | 86.0 | 78.4 | 84.9 | 76.9 | 81.8 |
Anaesthesia - pain medicine | ![]() | 70.0 | 83.3 | 78.9 | 82.0 | 78.6 |
Dermatology | Written | 92.3 | 83.3 | 85.7 | 83.3 | 81.0 |
Clinical | 91.6 | 95.2 | 88.9 | 95.0 | 94.4 | |
Emergency medicine | ![]() | 70.2 | 65.8 | 66.1 | 62.9 | 60.7 |
General practice | ![]() | 87.9 | .. | .. | .. | .. |
(c)RACGP Fellowship Exam | .. | 87.9 | 92.6 | 87.2 | 89.6 | |
ACRRM Fellowship Exam | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | |
MSF | .. | 80.0 | 80.6 | 62.5 | 100.0 | |
MiniCEX | .. | 97.4 | 77.3 | 87.6 | 92.0 | |
MCQ | .. | 64.7 | 62.9 | 77.0 | 81.0 | |
StAMPS | .. | 64.7 | 78.3 | 43.2 | 58.0 | |
Intensive care | General | 57.0 | 55.0 | 56.4 | 56.0 | 60.7 |
Paediatric | 80.0 | 83.0 | 53.8 | 50.0 | 84.6 | |
Medical administration | ![]() | 83.3 | 70.0 | 86.2 | 36.0 | 61.5 |
Obstetrics and gynaecology | Written | 56.8 | 64.1 | 64.2 | 44.5 | 78.2 |
Oral | 94.0 | 82.1 | 86.5 | 76.2 | 74.3 | |
Occupational and environmental medicine | Written | 63.2 | 40.0 | 33.3 | 38.5 | 76.9 |
Practical | 66.7 | 45.6 | 55.6 | 45.5 | 72.7 | |
Ophthalmology | Written | .. | .. | 84.0 | 78.9 | 76.5 |
Clinical | 80.0 | 70.0 | 76.0 | 81.6 | 82.4 | |
Paediatrics(a) | Written | 68.4 | 69.8 | 65.0 | 71.2 | 70.3 |
Clinical | 75.1 | 72.2 | 67.3 | 67.5 | 65.8 | |
Pathology | ![]() | 97.0 | 97.0 | 89.7 | 90.0 | 89.3 |
Psychiatry | ![]() | na | na | na | na | na |
Public health medicine | ![]() | 80.0 | 70.0 | 69.2 | 54.0 | 63.6 |
Radiation oncology | 77.7 | 76.0 | 78.6 | 76.0 | 63.3 | |
Radiodiagnosis | 55.1 | 76.0 | 67.0 | 76.2 | 63.7 | |
Rehabilitation medicine | Written | 79.0 | 66.6 | 72.4 | 58.0 | 92.3 |
Clinical | 65.0 | 62.5 | 66.7 | 69.0 | 47.5 | |
Sexual health medicine | .. | .. | 2.0 | 66.0 | na | |
Sport and exercise | Written | 66.6 | 100.0 | 44.4 | 66.7 | 80.0 |
medicine | Clinical | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
Surgery(b) | ![]() | 76.5 | 91.6 | 80.9 | 65.7 | 61.1 |