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ACCS Emergency Medicine · Portfolio station

How to prepare for the ACCS EM portfolio station

The confirmed 2027 format includes a portfolio station of up to 10 minutes, but NHS England publishes no ST1 self-assessment points grid. Build a small set of examples that make suitability, ownership and learning easy to test.

Last verified: 6 October 2026Parent guide: ACCS Emergency Medicine

Confirmed 2027 format: one portfolio station lasting up to 10 minutes within a two-station online interview. Detailed scoring anchors remain unpublished. Answer structures and original prompts below are Interview Bank guidance.

ContentsHow to approach it

How to approach it

What a strong answer needs to show

What the station can assess

The current person specification gives the safest map: informed commitment, safe work under pressure, communication, teamwork, leadership, development, research, QI, teaching and evidence-informed practice.

  • Know the difference between essential understanding and desirable prior experience.
  • Use a real example to demonstrate a criterion rather than repeating its wording.
  • Expect follow-up on what you personally did, what changed and how you know.
  • A certificate or role title supports an answer only when you can explain the work behind it.

Use an answer shape that leaves room for probing

Open with the claim and strongest evidence, then give enough context to understand your decision. Spend most of the answer on personal action, result and what changed in later practice.

  • Claim: answer the question in one sentence.
  • Context and responsibility: identify the risk and your actual role.
  • Action: explain the decisions and communication you personally made.
  • Outcome and evidence: state the result, feedback, measurement or limitation.
  • Reflection: give one specific change you carried forward.

Make commitment sound informed

A motivation answer should describe the job you are applying to, including trade-offs. Generic enthusiasm for acute care is difficult to distinguish from enthusiasm for anaesthetics, ICM or acute medicine.

  • Connect undifferentiated assessment, repeated prioritisation and short patient contact to experiences you have actually had.
  • Explain why the four ACCS placements support the Emergency Physician you want to become.
  • Acknowledge nights, interruptions, examinations and crowding without using them as a rehearsed disclaimer.
  • Name a current issue only when you can explain its patient and departmental consequence.

Prepare an example index, not a script

Map eight to ten examples across multiple criteria and practise choosing between them. A flexible example can answer different questions, but the emphasis must change with the prompt.

  • Keep dates, setting, verifier and exact contribution for every achievement.
  • Label unfinished work and team outputs accurately.
  • Prepare one example where the outcome was imperfect and the learning is credible.
  • Stop scene-setting early enough for interviewers to ask follow-up questions.

Original practice questions

Questions worth practising aloud

These are original preparation prompts written around published domains and entry-level expectations. They are not recalled interview questions.

  1. Which experience best demonstrates informed commitment to Emergency Medicine, and what assumption did it challenge?
  2. Tell us about a quality-improvement project. What was your exact role and how did you know whether the change helped?
  3. Describe a time you led a multi-professional team under pressure without formal authority.
  4. Give an example of feedback that changed your clinical or professional behaviour.
  5. How have you used research or a guideline to improve a decision for a patient?
  6. Tell us about teaching you designed for a specific learner need. What changed after feedback?
  7. What do you expect to find hardest about the ACCS years, and how have you tested that concern?
  8. Discuss one current pressure on Emergency Departments and a proportionate action at team level.

Common mistakes

Where otherwise good answers lose clarity

  • Presenting a list of courses, posters and memberships instead of answering the question.
  • Using 'we' throughout so the assessor cannot identify your contribution.
  • Claiming a completed QI cycle, leadership role or authorship that the evidence does not support.
  • Equating interest in adrenaline or procedures with understanding of everyday EM work.
  • Delivering a memorised two-minute speech after the question has moved elsewhere.
  • Quoting an unofficial portfolio score as though NHS England published it.

Preparation plan

How to practise this deliberately

  • Map your examples directly to the 2027 person specification.
  • Build a one-page index with ownership, outcome, evidence and later change.
  • Practise 60- to 90-second opening answers followed by unpredictable probing.
  • Ask a partner to challenge role, dates, result, limitation and reflection.
  • Use the hub's career, training, on-call and current-issues spokes to strengthen motivation answers.
  • Finish by checking the live 2027 interview page for any new scoring domains.

Continue into practice

Practise the answer, not just the reading

Spoken ACCS Emergency Medicine practice is launching soon. At launch, choose a Question bank prompt, work on your answer and use structured feedback to improve it. Explore the practice experience while you prepare with these free questions.

Explore ACCS Emergency Medicine practice

Official source

Check the live recruitment guidance

Interview formats can change between cycles. This focused guide should be used alongside the official source below and the full ACCS Emergency Medicine guide.

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