Changes For Core Surgery Training Interviews 2021
Core surgery training recruitment will involve the following stages (which are also outlined in our Core Surgery Application Overview):
1. As part of the Oriel application form you will be asked to provide a self-assessment score depending on your personal achievements. See ‘2021 CST Self-Assessment Guidance for Candidates’ for full guidance on how to complete your self-assessment scoring.
2. Your self-assessment score, as submitted on your application form will be used to shortlist. The top scoring 1100 applicants (approximately) will then be invited to upload evidence of their achievements to the Evidence Upload Portal
3. The evidence you upload will be reviewed by surgical consultants. They will verify that you have claimed the correct number of points and can change your score if they feel your evidence merits a different score from your self-assessment. This produces your verified evidence score. Applicants will be given the opportunity to appeal, more information on this process will follow after the application closing date.
4. After the evidence verification process is complete, the highest scoring 960 applicants (approximately) will be invited to attend a remote interview
5. A combination of your verified evidence score (1/3 of total score) and scores at interview (2/3 of total score) will be used to determine your final total score and ranking.
Core Surgical Training Interview Dates 2021
For 2021 CST interviews will take place in February. We breakdown the updated core surgery interview timeline in our core surgery application overview.
Core Surgery Self-Assessment
In 2021 Self-Assessment will effectively replace the portfolio station. It involves the same scoring system and areas scored against the person specification but with extra emphasis on ensuring any claims are validated by uploading documentation to HEE's evidence portal. It is therefore vital to ensure you understand the scoring and evidence system and spend time collecting this. We cover the application in detail on our core surgery interview course.
Core Surgery Interview Format
In 2021 the interview will be conducted via a single online 20-minute interview consisting of a presentation, management questions and key clinical scenarios. In essence the Management and Clinical Stations of previous years. Our core surgery interview overview covers the format in detail.
How To Prepare Effectively For CST Interviews in 2021?
Just as in the in-person interviews preparation is key. The single interview offers less chance to differentiate between candidates and more chance for an error to affect your overall score. Online technique is also very different from that of in-person and the 20-minute interviews will likely be quick-fire questions which push you to work under pressure.
The good news is the scoring system is fairly similar and interviews are more convenient for you.
At Core Surgery Interview we have your back and as always our award-winning online core surgery interview questions bank has been updated with the latest questions matched against the person specification.
In addition we have updated our December and February Mock Core Surgery Interview courses to reflect the online interviews and help you to prepare under-pressure in as realistic way as possible.
