The CCA examination is the main test of clinical skills. The stations differ each year, but the overall structure is constant. The Year 5 CCA has been deemed by the GMC to meet the requirements for the CPSA component of the Medical Licensing Assessment.

The CCA will, in most ways, be similar to previous experience in Years 1 to 4. There will be 16 stations each of 8 minutes, plus an additional 90 seconds of preparation time at the start of each station. Some stations will involve examination of real patients and therefore testing skills of clinical examination and interpretation. Some stations may contain simulated patients, data interpretation and management of individual situations.

Detailed information on the format and potential content of the Year 5 CCA is available on the Year 5 Assessments page of 1MedInfo.

What is the standard required?

This assessment is designed to determine if you have the skills and knowledge needed to start work as an FY1 doctor. Examiners are not comparing students with each other or comparing you against the standard we would expect for that point of your final year.

The level of clinical skills required to succeed in the assessment will be the same as a recently qualified graduate from any other UK medical school. To help us ensure that our standards are neither too high nor too low, all our CCA stations are scrutinised very carefully by several experienced examiners from other medical schools. They will also observe the marking carefully during the actual CCA. We also have careful internal monitoring arrangements to ensure that the standards are fairly applied across all teaching hospital sites.

CCA Marking 

Each station is marked in 3 sections: [1] the sub-domain ratings, [2] your global judgement and [3] typed free-text feedback from the examiner.

The sub-domain rating scales are selected to match the station content and are intended to provide you with formative feedback. The full list of rating scales (and their respective elements) are available on 1MedInfo.

The global rating is the examiner’s expert judgement of your overall performance on the station. It reflects how skilfully and competently you performed the station overall – it allows examiners to take into account aspects of your performance not captured by the sub-domains, and how you integrated the various components. The global rating is judged using a competency rating scale with details of each descriptor available on 1MedInfo.

EXCELLENT DEMONSTRATION OF COMPETENCY GOOD DEMONSTRATION OF COMPETENCY SATISFACTORY DEMONSTRATION OF COMPETENCY FAILURE TO DEMONSTRATE COMPETENCY MAJOR FAILURE TO DEMONSTRATE COMPETENCY

CCA Outcomes

In order to pass the CCA, students must demonstrate competency in at least 12 stations out of the 16. Other grade outcomes are determined using combinations of stations passed and stations marked as Excellent as shown below: