The Stage A examination will consist of 15 stations, which are made up of 13 question stations and two rest stations.  Candidates will move around each station.  After the completion of each station, candidates must post their answer sheet(s) into the ballot-style box or envelope provided.  Candidates will not be allowed to access examination material during the rest stations.  The examination will last for approximately three hours. There will be internal and external examiners present for the duration of the examination.

In this stage the exam will involve a mixture of microscopic assessment of slides, macroscopic assessment of specimens and face to face stations. The face to face stations will require no written answers, but the other cases will take the form of short answers. For example, candidates may be required to write a histopathology report based on their assessment of the slide and then questions related to this pathologic process.

The examination will last three hours and is akin to the Stage A Examination the medical histopathology trainees sit. Both the portfolio and examination must be passed before a candidate can proceed to Stage B.

 

The Stage C examination is akin to the FRCPath Part 2 histopathology examination and consists of several parts including OSPEs, Surgical Cases, Long Cases and Macros. One part involves the assessment of 20 cases which will be provided in ten pairs of haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained slides in 20 minute slots over 3 hours and 20 minutes. The cases will include a mixture of neo-plastic and non-neo-plastic material. They will vary in difficulty from straightforward cases readily diagnosable on a single H&E section, more complex cases requiring more detailed description, differential diagnosis and special techniques, and cases not capable of diagnosis on a single H&E which should prompt an approach for further techniques, extra blocks and specialist opinions.

Another part involves four long cases which may include, for example, a number of H&E stained slides or a single H&E stained slide with immunohistochemistry sections. Twenty minutes is given for each case and candidates are expected to discuss the microscopic findings and additional material to make a final diagnosis or to discuss a differential diagnosis.

In a further part candidates will be provided with pictures of pathology specimens with clinical information and will be asked to prepare their responses to specific questions and to mark on the photographs where they would take blocks. Two x 20 minute slots will be provided to view a total of four cases followed by a 20 minute discussion with two examiners. Formal written reports are not required in this exercise, which is designed to allow candidates to demonstrate their capabilities in gross pathology and familiarity with block selection in the context of the RCPath Minimum Datasets.

There will also be two x 20 minute Objective Structured Practical Examinations (OSPEs) one of which is conducted face-to-face with two examiners while the other is a written exercise only. Possible topics include management/clinical governance type and MDT type cases, although this list is not exhaustive.

The order that candidates will undertake these different parts of this examination will vary and will be dependent on the number of candidates.