A small number of examiners (10 maximum per year) are added to the pool. No new examiners were appointed in 2020, 8 new examiners started examining in the October 2021 exam.
New examiners are selected according to their suitability for the role and assessed against a predetermined set of criteria by a panel of senior examiners and Faculty members. Most examiners have previous experience running exam preparation courses for ICM trainees. All examiners, including new examiners, undergo exam-specific equality and diversity training. All new examiners in 2021 had a full day of training in September, led by senior examiners. This training was delivered online and based on the face-to-face training the previous cohort of examiners had received. It included an overview of the exam and exam standard setting as well as instruction, video, and practical training on how to examine and score in the OSCE and SOE section. Each examiner had practice examining and scoring ‘mock candidates’ in both the OSCE and SOE with feedback on their technique (including scoring) from a senior examiner, as well as watching other new examiners doing the same. All new examiners were observed to be competent at examining at the end of this training.
In the October 2021 exam the new examiners were ‘supervised’ during the OSCE by a senior examiner for the first two full days of their examining, as well as being audited by another senior examiner. All examiners performed at the standard expected.
Because of the low pass rate in the October 2021 exam, we undertook a review of new examiners’ scoring on a sample of OSCE questions from the October 2021 OSCE, by reviewing the videos and score sheets from the exam. The new examiners scoring is consistent with that of very experienced examiners, and no overall trend towards them being ‘harsher’ has been identified.
