Situational Judgement Test
Situational Judgement Test (SJT) pilots have taken place in seventeen UK and two non-UK medical schools between October 2010 and April 2011, involving over 1000 students. Final year medical students were asked to take a two hour invigilated SJT, answering 60 questions. Feedback on five of the items was provided following the SJT. The purpose of the pilots was to look at how effective SJTs are in selecting the best applicants to the Foundation Programme.
A Job Analysis of the FY1 role identified the nine professional attributes of a good FY1 doctor, and informed the development of around 300 SJT items, which can be used for future recruitment rounds. More than 80 clinicians have been trained as SJT item-writers, and around 50 current role holders (FY1 and FY2s) involved in quality assurance.
The results of the pilots will determine whether it is possible to continue with the project and go live for applications to the Foundation Programme beginning in August 2013. It is important to highlight that no component will be implemented without an in-depth analysis of the results and agreement from the Project Group that this is the best way forward.
The piloting stage initially started during March and April 2010 with some SJT micro pilots, involving a small number of medical students at four medical schools - Cambridge, Manchester, Sheffield and UEA. Students were presented with a number of sample SJT questions and asked to complete them under exam conditions. A focus group was then held where participants shared their views on the item content, format and structure. In general, the feedback in relation to SJTs was positive. This feedback will then be analysed and shared with the Project Group to help inform the next stage in the piloting process.
The results from all the pilots will be analysed and considered when making the recommendations to the Department of Health in July 2011.
Educational Performance Measure
An Educational Performance Measure (EPM) framework has been piloted with UK medical schools and we will continue to work with schools regarding the development and implementation of this framework.
2011/2012 onwards
There will be a Parallel Recruitment Exercise during the 2011/2012 academic year where final year medical students at all UK medical schools will be asked to complete a 1 hour SJT, completing 30 questions. Three common dates for this are currently being agreed by the medical schools. Students will get the results from their SJT and they could win a prize for taking part. More information on this will be available shortly.
Please note: The 2011 and 2012 application rounds for the Foundation Programme beginning August 2011 and August 2012 will run as normal using the current system of white space questions and academic quartiles. Any pilots being run at any of the UK medical schools will not affect overall marks in any way.