The GP Curriculum sets out what is required to practise as a GP in the NHS and forms the basis of GP training and assessment across the UK. It is relevant to GPs throughout their career, including preparation for revalidation. The Royal College of General Practitioners publishes a full version of the curriculum, as well as a super condensed guide under “Alternate Versions”. The latest versions can be found using the green button below. The local programme is mapped to the national GPST curriculum which is competency based.

To achieve Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a Certificate of Completion of Training, a Trainee must successfully pass the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) exam which can be taken from ST2, the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) in ST3, as well as successful completion of the portfolio and required Workplace Based Assessments (WPBA) for each post throughout training.

You will be supported during your time at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust by your Programme Directors and allocated Educational Supervisor and Clinical Supervisors, all of whom will give you regular feedback about your progress.  You should never be in any doubt about your progress and what you can do to improve this.  Evidence that you have completed the GPST curriculum and achieved competence is assessed through your ePortfolio entries at the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP).

The AKT exam cannot be taken before the ST2 year, and typically requires about 3 months of preparation time. Speak with your Educational Supervisor early around when may be best to take the exam.

The recommendation from analysis of successful and unsuccessful candidates is to use a combination of techniques, not just practice questions, to adequately prepare to pass. Learning should be undertaken according to your individual style (the four core learning styles include: visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic) but mapped to the RCGP Curriculum.

The AKT is 80% Clinical Medicine, 10% Organisation, ethics, and legal issues, and 10% Critical appraisal and evidence based practice. Do not neglect the non-clinical 20%! We advise starting by revising the weakest areas.

All trainees in the Guildford scheme are strongly encouraged to complete a dyslexia assessment tool to identify if there are additional ways to support. More and more doctors find the first hurdle for underlying neurodiversity is postgraduate examinations. This is particularly relevant if you have found past examinations time-pressured, find difficulty with linguistic aspects of reading or interpreting questions, or trained as an international medical graduate. The assessment can be located here. Please note: Any reasonable adjustments MUST be declared at the point of booking the AKT exam. These will not be granted retrospectively.

Suggested Resources include (but are not limited to):

• KSS CAST (Curriculum and AKT Support for Training) Team have resources for AKT preparation whether sitting for the first time or re-sitting. There are peer-led curriculum learning sets that are well worth joining.
• NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries provide general practitioners with a readily accessible summary of the current evidence base and practical guidance on the common conditions and presenting problems encountered in primary care.
• British National Formulary (BNF) a pharmaceutical reference book that contains essential information on prescribing for drugs available in the NHS.
• GP Self-Test an RCGP accredited learning needs assessment tool which can be used to identify areas of knowledge needing improvement. It provides a breakdown of your performance across the RCGP curriculum.
• e-Learning for Healthcare delivers free and searchable online education modules for doctors on a wide variety of topics.
• BMJ OnExamination access is available free for 2 months through the RSCH Library, ask the TPDs for more information.
• Study Budget will cover one revision course per exam sitting, up to £600. Trainees are entitled to 5 personal study leave days prior to the AKT.

The SCA is a summative assessment of a doctor’s ability to integrate and apply clinical, professional, communication and practical skills appropriate for general practice. The exam can only be taken in ST3 and is held in your own GP surgery. It comprises 12 simulated (actor) consultations, each lasting 12 minutes. These scenarios will be based on a range of encounters from general practice relevant to most parts of the curriculum and provides an opportunity to target particular aspects of clinical care and expertise.

We strongly encourage patient exposure as preparation for this examination, and the TPDs organise formal simulated actor sessions within the ST3 Half Day Release.

Trainees are entitled to one SCA preparation course per exam sitting through their study budget, up to the value of £600.

As patient exposure is crucial for exam preparation, Trainees are allowed 2 personal study leave days prior to the SCA examination.

The following resources that were prepared by a trainee for the RCA assessment may still be useful for SCA preparation: Tabulated version of the 2021 mark scheme to consider how to gain marks. Consultation flowchart as a prompt for the important parts of the consultation.

Each calendar year trainees have an Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) panel where the portfolio evidence, supervisor reports, and core requirements are assessed and on outcome given. Most trainees receive an Outcome 1 (making satisfactory progress), Outcome 5 (missing or incomplete evidence), or Outcome 6 (completion of training, CCT).

Each calendar year trainees require an interim Educational Supervisor Report (iESR) at 6 months and a full Educational Supervisor Report (ESR) at 12 months. This is a portfolio requirement where the trainee rates their progress against each capability area, with linked portfolio evidence, and submits to the ES to review. The 12 month ESR must be within 8 weeks of the ARCP date (Annual Review of Competence Progression).

The Clinical Supervisor Reports (CSR) is completed within Each 4 month rotation needs a Clinical Supervisor Report (CSR) from speciality supervisor or GP supervisor (if not your Educational Supervisor).

Important points to consider in ARCP preparation:

• ESR must be within 8 weeks of the ARCP date
• Form R: Part A and Part B should be uploaded and in date
• Basic Life Support requires an in date named certificate for Adult, Child and ASD
• Safeguarding Level 3 requires a named certificate in date for 3 years, with annual updates for adult and child safeguarding, and a minimum of two annual learning logs for adult and child safeguarding.