Assessment methods
This page gives an overview of how your IMT application will be assessed. There is more detailed information about each stage on the relevant sections of the website.
Your application will be assessed at three main stages:
- Longlisting – ensuring you can meet the main eligibility criteria to be considered for an IMT post; this is mainly foundation competence and minimum experience.
- Shortlisting - if capacity is insufficient to interview all eligible candidates, deciding who can be invited to interview.
- Interview – assessment by consultant interviewers based on your answers to a variety of question areas.
Shortlisting
The score by which applications will be shortlisted is generated by the methods below. Should applications exceed interview capacity, candidates will be invited in order of score; with tie-breakers being employed for applicants with the same total score.
IMT-only application
Applicants who have only applied to a joint IMT/ACCS-Internal Medicine (ACCS-IM) vacancy in Round 1 of national recruitment, e.g. general practice or another core programme, will be awarded 5 points to their shortlist score. Please note the following about the award of these points:
- Whether applicants have applied to IMT-only will be determined at the application closing date and will be based on 'live' applications at that time. Applications started but not submitted will not be counted and if you have submited an application to another specialty but withdrawn before the application closing date, this will also not be considered.
- Applications to academic programmes are recruited in a separate round and will not be counted when determining which applications are awarded the points.
- This score is only used in the shortlisting process, and does not contribute to the overall score used for offers.
Application self-assessment
When you apply, you will assess yourself against an application scoring matrix based on your achievements across a number of domains. This will generate a score out of 30, which will be combined with the IMT-only score to give an overall score out of 35.
Shortlisting is the only stage at which the self-assessment score will be used and it is likely that you will not need to provide any supporting evidence for your claims. However, you must have access to documentation proving every claim you make as you could be asked to supply evidence as part of a randomised audit or if concerns are raised about the accuracy of your claims. The evidence documents section of the website has further information about this area.
Although the application score will not directly contribute to your overall assessment score used for offers, you will have opportunity at interview to summarise and discuss your achievements, and this will form a significant contribution to the interview score.
Over-claiming
Assessors are aware that, on occasion, it will not always be clear exactly which option to choose and so will not treat most cases of perceived over-claiming as a serious offence. However, any instances of candidates blatantly or persistently trying to gain an unfair advantage by over-claiming scores for and/or exaggerating their achievements will lead to a probity investigation and applicants in this position should expect to be contacted to review their scoring.
Interview
There is an extensive section of the website with information about the interview, including the format and content. At interview it will be determined if you can be considered for appointment, and the interview alone will form all of the marks used for your total score, which is used to rank candidates for the offers process.