UK ST3 Medicine: 2026 dates, format and scoring
Round 1 applications for most physician specialties open in late January and close in late February on Oriel. Interviews run from late March to May depending on the specialty, with invitations about three weeks before.
Updated 27 October 2026
- When to apply
- Round 1 applications for most physician specialties open in late January and close in late February on Oriel.
- Some specialties run a second round in the autumn.
- When interviews run
- Interviews run from late March to May depending on the specialty, with invitations about three weeks before.
- Offers follow in May and June.
- The format
- Three stations of about ten minutes each, online, with two assessors per station.
- Suitability and commitment, a clinical scenario with communication scored inside it, and an ethical scenario.
- Who is on the panel
- Two assessors per station, consultants in the specialty.
- How it is scored
- Four scored domains: suitability and commitment, clinical reasoning, communication and ethical reasoning.
- Clinical reasoning carries about twice the weight of communication within the clinical station. The interview score is combined with the application score.
- What to prepare
- Evidence of commitment to the specialty with what each item taught you.
- The group 1 or group 2 structure and dual accreditation explained in two sentences.
- The ten acute presentations a registrar in your specialty must manage alone, with the communication task attached.
- Ethical scenarios at registrar level with the next step ready.