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Posted: 13th December 2024

Changes made to Stat Exam process
Changes have been made following feedback from candidates.
RCVS says the changes will make the exam “more accessible”.

Changes to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Statutory Examination for Membership (Stat Exam) are set to come into effect from 1 January 2025 after a Statutory Instrument to make the changes was approved by the Privy Council.

The Stat Exam is taken by veterinary surgeons who want to practise in the UK but hold a degree that is not recognised by the RCVS. Most of the changes have been made following feedback from candidates.

The changes allow candidates to take resits of the written exam papers for each of the three clinical subjects in the same year, rather than waiting a year, and make it possible for candidates to pay for the written exam stage and the objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) separately.

Candidates who fail one or more of the clinical domains of the OSCE, but have passed the written exam, will be able to proceed directly the next year to the clinical domains they failed instead of needing to resit all the written papers and clinical domains. The RCVS will also be able to update the cost of the exam in line with inflation.

This year saw a record number of candidates pass the Stat Exam, including two candidates with refugee status.

Dr Linda Prescott-Clements, RCVS director of education, said: “We have been listening to the concerns of various stakeholders, including those who have undertaken the Stat Exam previously and veterinary employers, and we used this feedback to work with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to come up with a set of practical, deliverable changes that improve the experience of Stat Exam for all candidates, and hopefully alleviate some of the stress involved around timescales, opportunity and finance.

“These changes will make the exam more accessible, as it will allow candidates to have two attempts at the written papers within the same diet, which need to be passed before being allowed to proceed to the practical exam and it will also help improve accessibility to the exam from the perspective of candidate finances.”

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