Situational Judgement Test (SJT) pilots will take place during the 2010/2011 academic year and will look at how effective SJTs are in selecting the best applicants to the Foundation Programme. The results of the pilots will determine whether it is possible to 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.
SJT micro pilots, involving a small number of medical students, were held at four medical schools - Cambridge, Manchester, Sheffield and UEA - during March and April 2010. 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.
A number of medical schools will be involved in a small scale pilot in October 2010. The results from these pilots will be analysed and the outcomes will help inform a larger scale pilot which will run in Spring 2011. The pilots will involve final year medical students undertaking an invigilated assessment where they will answer SJT questions.
SJT items will be written at workshops from spring/summer 2010 onwards. These will be written by medical school, foundation school and Deanery staff.
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.