There are 8 questions in each SOE exam, each has 5 sections, all relevant to the topic of the question.
Each question is written by an examiner from the SOE subgroup then reviewed and revised as necessary by a group of SOE examiners. Questions in the bank are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain up to date. SOE questions are Angoffed, to establish a ‘difficulty’ score for each question.
Question selection is done by the SOE subgroup leads, to provide a wide and similar range of topics from across the curriculum in each exam. The Angoff score for each question is also used in question selection, so that the mean Angoff score of each question set remains similar. The SOE and OSCE question selections are also arranged to avoid a clash or duplication in topics, so that candidates who sit both components in the same sitting are not examined on the same narrow topic area in both components.
Examiners work in pairs, each asking one question and marking both their question and that of their partner examiner independently. The five sections of the question have a fixed opening question to ask, then the examiner appropriately explores the topic as required.
Examiners award a score for each of the two individual questions and also an overall global score for the candidate on the two questions, judged against the expected standard of a candidate who is at the end of Stage 2 training. The scores take into account factual knowledge, understanding of the topic, organisation of ideas and how much prompting was required. The borderline regression method is used to establish the SOE pass mark, using the sum of the individual question scores against the sum of global scores for each candidate.
