Application and scoring
How does O&G ST1 selection work?
Applicants apply nationally through Oriel, pass eligibility checks, complete the MSRA and then follow one of three routes: removal below the progression threshold, direct offers among the highest scorers, or interview according to capacity. Interviewed candidates are ranked using MSRA and interview performance before preferences and offers are matched.
Check the 2027 person specification, Foundation competence, registration and 24-month experience ceiling.
Submit one national application through Oriel and complete longlisting requirements.
Sit both parts of the MSRA; the assessment is used for progression and direct-offer selection.
If invited, complete the online clinical-prioritisation, ethics or governance and structured-question tasks.
Receive a national outcome or rank and preference only programmes you would accept.
Follow Oriel offer, upgrade and deadline instructions for the current round.
MSRA · current live page
The live O&G MSRA page states that the score contributes one third of the final score, removes the lowest scorers and permits direct offers to the highest scorers.
Interview format · live baseline
The live interview page describes six minutes of clinical prioritisation, four minutes of ethics or governance and ten minutes of structured questions, subject to change.
Detailed marks · legacy official
These figures and the 50/100 appointability threshold appear on an official page titled for the August 2023 intake. They explain the model but are not confirmed 2027 rules.
Portfolio score
The national and RCOG pages do not publish a separate O&G ST1 portfolio self-assessment or evidence-upload grid. Examples still matter for structured answers and professional credibility.
Portfolio and evidence
What evidence is actually useful?
Build experiences against the person specification and the functions of the structured interview. Keep accurate records of what you did, what changed and what you learnt; certificates have no hidden value in a scoring system that has not been published.
Informed commitment
Exposure across obstetrics and gynaecology that supports a realistic account of acute work, surgery, clinics, patient contact, nights and training.
What to do: Arrange contrasting sessions and write specific reflections rather than collecting attendance alone.
QI and patient safety
A defined problem, method, personal contribution, result or recommendation, implementation and honest follow-up.
What to do: Finish and present one bounded project before starting a larger one.
Teaching and communication
Teaching designed around need, evaluated and improved, plus clinical examples of consent, difficult explanations and multidisciplinary communication.
What to do: Repeat one session after feedback and document the change.
Research and evidence-based practice
A precise contribution and understanding of method, limitations and relevance; publication is not an entry prerequisite.
What to do: Choose a bounded role with a supervisor and deadline.
Leadership and teamwork
Real decisions, delegation, conflict, speaking up and outcomes rather than titles or committee membership.
What to do: Prepare examples with context, action, impact, feedback and later change.
Interview process
What happens in the O&G ST1 interview?
The live national page describes five minutes of clinical-prioritisation reading followed by two online stations. The first combines a six-minute prioritisation question with four minutes of ethics or governance; the second uses ten minutes of structured questions.
- Reading
- 5 min · clinical prioritisation material
- Station 1
- 6 min prioritisation + 4 min ethics/governance
- Station 2
- 10 min structured questions
What is assessed?
- Recognition of immediate risk and defensible prioritisation
- Safe delegation, escalation, monitoring and reassessment
- Applied consent, capacity, confidentiality, candour and governance reasoning
- Concise evidence of commitment, QI, teaching, research, leadership and teamwork
- Judgement and communication appropriate to ST1 entry
O&G ST1 guide library
Go deeper without losing the overview
The main hub keeps the application and interview picture together. These dedicated guides hold the longer career, portfolio and training material so you can jump straight to the question you are trying to answer.
Application roadmap
Work backwards from eligibility and MSRA while finishing only the experiences that can still improve informed answers.
MSRA strategy
Turn MSRA practice into better judgement by diagnosing errors, retesting weak reasoning and resisting unofficial cutoff predictions.
Evidence & examples
Map completed work to the current person specification and structured-answer functions, with clear ownership and reflection.
Evidence pack
Keep factual records that help supervisors verify completed work and help you answer follow-up questions precisely.
Avoid waste
Protect time for the MSRA, completed work, real specialty exposure and answers that survive detailed follow-up.
Getting involved
Start close to the clinical work, accept a bounded responsibility and follow it through instead of chasing prestige.
Working life
See the decisions, interruptions, documentation and sensitive communication hidden by simple descriptions of O&G.
On-call
Follow how junior trainees maintain oversight across two acute services while working within competence and calling help early.
Training roadmap
See how a seven-year curriculum develops independence without assuming every deanery follows one rigid rotation timetable.
MRCOG exams
Plan for a demanding three-part examination pathway and distinguish career knowledge from an invented application requirement.
Career branches
Understand how later O&G careers differ in surgery, clinic, diagnostics, patient contact, multidisciplinary work and acute responsibility.
Clinical workflows
Explain how information, decisions and responsibility move through the services applicants often mention without understanding.
Training programmes
Choose a programme by testing its clinical breadth, support and practical footprint against the way you need to train and live.
Societies & networks
Use professional groups to learn or contribute instead of collecting memberships that add no evidence of action.
Is O&G for me?
Test O&G against real work preferences and genuine downsides rather than a personality checklist or career myth.
Current issues
Move from a dated primary source to the clinical consequence and one proportionate candidate-level action.
Candidate intelligence
Use recurring preparation friction without treating recalled questions, rank claims or platform experiences as official guidance.
Resources by stage
Use authoritative external resources and the relevant Interview Bank guide when each becomes useful.
2027 Round 1 · checked 30 October 2026
Before you submit: deadline, competence and priority status
Complete these national checks alongside the specialty's eligibility, evidence and selection requirements.
Application deadline and limit
Round 1 applications close at 4pm UK time on 19 November 2026. The national limit is five applications per recruitment round. Some specialties also require you to choose a single regional vacancy, so check the application route before submitting.
Foundation competence and CREST
If CREST is required, national guidance accepts valid 2024 or 2027 forms for 2027 recruitment. Required competence evidence must accompany the application; there is no later upload opportunity. Check validity against the specialty person specification and resolve any conflicting specialty instructions before relying on an older form.
Check your priority status in Oriel
For standard 2027 specialty recruitment, prioritisation applies to interview invitations and training offers. Check the status displayed in Oriel after applications close. Round 1 requests to review an incorrect status are due by 5pm UK time on 24 November 2026. Priority status does not replace eligibility or appointability requirements.
Recruitment · verified 30 October 2026
What is confirmed for O&G ST1 2027, and what remains a baseline
The 2027 person specification is published. The live national MSRA and interview pages supply useful detail, but the separate detailed scoring page still identifies itself as the August 2023 intake. This hub keeps those evidence levels visible.
The 2027 person specification is current
Applicants need a recognised medical degree, full GMC registration when applying, a licence at post start and recent Foundation competence through an accepted route. The criteria also cover communication, teamwork, prioritisation, safe work under pressure, audit or QI, research awareness and informed commitment to O&G.
Check the conflicting CREST instructions
The national CREST page accepts valid 2024 or 2027 forms for this recruitment year, but the O&G applying page still says 2027 only. If you intend to use a 2024 form, ask the recruitment office to clarify this discrepancy before submitting. Required competence evidence must accompany your application.
Read the national CREST guidance alongside the O&G applying page
The 2027 application timetable is published
Applications open at 10am UK time on 22 October 2026 and close at 4pm on 19 November. Initial offers are due by 5pm on 6 April 2027. The specialty timetable still lists interview dates as to be confirmed; use Oriel for your invitation and booking window.
The O&G experience ceiling is 24 months
By the advertised post start, applicants may have no more than 24 months whole-time-equivalent O&G experience, excluding Foundation modules. Posts in every country count. Previous postgraduate O&G experience is not required for ST1 entry.
The live MSRA page confirms one-third weighting
The MSRA is used to remove the lowest scorers, allow the highest scorers to proceed directly to offers and select an intermediate group for interview according to capacity. For interviewed applicants, the live page states that MSRA contributes 33.3% of the final score.
The live interview page describes two online stations
The published baseline is five minutes of clinical-prioritisation reading, then a six-minute prioritisation task, four minutes of ethics or governance and ten minutes of structured questions. The page says the format is subject to change, so recheck it for the 2027 round.
Detailed marks are legacy official information
The detailed scoring page is still titled for the August 2023 intake. It describes a 100-mark interview, 50-mark appointability threshold and 40:20:40 split across prioritisation, ethics or governance and structured questions. These figures explain the model but are not silently presented as confirmed 2027 rules.
Recruitment prioritisation applies
The 2027 person specification states that the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 applies. Priority status and assessment performance are distinct parts of recruitment; check the national guidance and the status shown in Oriel.
Three published task functions
Map each O&G interview component to the decision it tests
The live page describes two online stations after clinical-prioritisation reading time. Prepare the functions separately, then combine them in timed mocks with interruption and new information.
Clinical prioritisation · current live format
Identify immediate harm, justify the order, delegate within competence, specify escalation, keep lower-priority patients monitored and change the plan when observations or resources change.
Ethics and governance · current live format
Apply consent, capacity, confidentiality, safeguarding, candour and professional duties to the actual clinical risk. Separate immediate patient care from reporting, documentation and later learning.
Structured questions · current live format
Give concise, owned examples with context, action, outcome and reflection. The dated scoring page lists commitment, QI, research or teaching and leadership or teamwork themes; use them as a legacy preparation map until current descriptors appear.
ST1-level judgement means safe first actions
You are not expected to perform beyond competence. You are expected to recognise risk, start appropriate assessment, call the right help, communicate clearly and maintain oversight.
Practise being interrupted
Online interviews are short and assessors may move the discussion on. Put the safety-critical action early, answer the question asked and preserve a clear structure when follow-up changes the case.
Focused preparation
Go deeper on the interview tasks that need practice
These focused guides break the broader interview into specific question types, decision structures and original practice scenarios.
O&G clinical prioritisation
Clinical prioritisation is not just ranking four tasks. A strong answer explains why the order is safe, how urgent work is managed and how lower-priority patients remain supervised.
Ethics & governance
Apply professional principles to the actual clinical risk, then explain immediate care, communication, escalation, documentation and learning in the right order.
Structured interview
Choose a small set of owned examples, make your action and result easy to follow, and show how experience changed your later practice.
Free practice questions
Original O&G ST1 practice questions
These prompts reproduce the function of the published assessment areas, not recalled or proprietary interview questions.
Clinical prioritisation
- You receive simultaneous calls about heavy postoperative bleeding, reduced fetal movements and two routine ward tasks. Explain your order, delegation and review plan.
- A waiting patient's observations deteriorate while you are managing the first priority. Update your plan and explain how you will maintain oversight.
- Your registrar is in theatre and a midwife requests an urgent review while you are already with an unwell patient. What information and help do you need?
Ethics and governance
- A patient withdraws consent immediately before a time-sensitive procedure. How would you respond?
- You notice a recurring handover omission that has not yet caused harm. What would you do now and afterwards?
- A patient asks that clinically important information is not shared with their partner. How would you approach the request?
Structured evidence
- What has given you a realistic understanding of both obstetric and gynaecological work?
- Tell us about a QI project where your own action influenced the result.
- Describe a time you led or coordinated a team under pressure and what you changed afterwards.
- How has teaching or research changed your clinical practice?
Preparation plan
A focused preparation plan
- Confirm the 2027 eligibility rules and save the official documents for your round.
- Prepare both MSRA sections with timed practice and a reasoning-based error log.
- Build eight to ten distinct examples with personal action, outcome, feedback and reflection.
- Practise clinical prioritisation with delegation, monitoring and changing information.
- Practise ethics and governance answers that start with clinical safety and finish with learning.
- Use short structured answers and tolerate interruption or follow-up without losing the question.
- Understand training, MRCOG, on-call, career branches and the 2026 maternity-safety context.
- Recheck the live national interview page before final mocks because its format is subject to change.
Common questions
O&G ST1 recruitment FAQs
Do I need previous O&G experience?
No. RCOG says postgraduate O&G experience is not required or expected for ST1, but informed exposure helps you understand the work and explain your motivation.
What is the O&G experience limit?
The 2027 person specification allows no more than 24 months whole-time-equivalent O&G experience by post start, excluding Foundation modules. All other O&G posts count, including overseas posts.
Is the MSRA compulsory?
Yes for eligible applicants under the live national process. It is used for progression, possible direct offers and final ranking for interviewed applicants.
How much does the MSRA contribute?
The live national page states 33.3% of the final score for candidates who interview. Recheck the page for your round.
Can applicants bypass interview?
The live applying page describes interview bypass for the top 75 MSRA-ranked applicants. A fixed score cutoff cannot be predicted from that number. Check the current round, priority rules and Oriel outcome before assuming you will bypass.
What is the current interview format?
The live baseline is five minutes of prioritisation reading, then six minutes of clinical prioritisation, four minutes of ethics or governance and ten minutes of structured questions. It is explicitly subject to change.
Are the 40:20:40 station marks confirmed for 2027?
No. They appear on an official scoring page titled for the August 2023 intake, so this hub treats them as legacy context until a current-cycle scoring document confirms them.
Is there an O&G portfolio self-assessment?
No current official O&G ST1 portfolio scoring matrix or PDF evidence-upload process has been published on the national or RCOG application pages. Verify any future official update before acting on a commercial claim.
Should I sit Part 1 MRCOG before applying?
It is not required and RCOG says it gives no direct recruitment advantage. Sit it early only if the learning and timing suit you, not for assumed application points.
What makes a useful taster?
Exposure to contrasting settings, clear learning objectives, a debrief and specific reflection. Include labour ward and gynaecology rather than observing one narrow activity.
Does my QI need to be in O&G?
No official current rule requires this. A completed project with clear ownership, measurement, change and reflection can demonstrate transferable capability; an O&G project may deepen specialty understanding.
Do I need a publication?
No. The 2027 person specification values research understanding and evidence-based practice but does not make publication a prerequisite.
What evidence should I keep?
Keep accurate dates, role, method, output, outcome, feedback, reflection and a verifier for each important activity. This supports truthful answers; it is not proof of an official upload process.
How should I answer clinical prioritisation?
Name the immediate threat, justify the order, call appropriate help, delegate safely, monitor those waiting and state what would make you change the order.
How should I structure an ethics answer?
Start with immediate clinical safety, then identify the ethical or professional conflict, gather facts, support capacity and consent, seek appropriate help, communicate, document and close the governance loop.
What examples should I prepare?
Prepare distinct examples for teamwork, leadership, prioritisation, communication, raising concern, QI, teaching, research understanding, conflict and informed commitment. Know your action, outcome and later change.
Can I use examples outside O&G?
Yes. The person specification contains transferable capabilities. Explain why the example matters to O&G rather than forcing a superficial specialty label onto it.
How long is O&G training?
It is normally at least seven years from ST1 to ST7, with progression based on curriculum capabilities, assessments and examinations. LTFT and individual progression alter elapsed time.
What are the training stages?
The 2024 curriculum has Stage One, Stage Two and Stage Three, moving from core safe practice through increasing independence to consultant readiness and selected special interests.
What are the MRCOG exams?
Part 1 covers basic and applied sciences, Part 2 applied clinical knowledge and Part 3 applied clinical and professional skills through structured tasks.
Can I train less than full time?
Yes. RCOG provides LTFT guidance. Out-of-hours work is generally proportional, while placement and module sequencing need local planning.
What does an O&G ST1 do on call?
They assess and review patients, prescribe, hand over, assist with procedures and coordinate tasks across maternity and gynaecology under supervision, escalating early and working within competence.
Is O&G mostly labour ward?
No. Training and careers also include acute and elective gynaecology, clinic, theatre, early pregnancy, cancer, fertility, pelvic-floor care, ultrasound, governance and teaching.
How much patient contact is there?
A great deal. The specialty involves repeated sensitive explanations, consent, shared decisions, examinations, procedures and communication with families and multidisciplinary teams.
What are the recognised subspecialties?
Gynaecological Oncology, Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Reproductive Medicine and Urogynaecology. Many consultants also develop interests through SITMs.
When does subspecialty or special-interest training begin?
Usually from ST5. Trainees generally undertake a recognised subspecialty programme or two Special Interest Training Modules, subject to competition and local access.
How should I compare regions?
Compare hospitals and commuting, DGH and tertiary balance, rota, operating and ultrasound access, teaching, supervision, LTFT, research, special interests and current trainee experience. Avoid unsupported rankings.
Which current issue should I discuss?
Choose one dated primary source you understand, such as the 2026 National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, and connect it to patient care, team behaviour and a proportionate action.
Are candidate reports reliable?
They can reveal recurring practical issues such as pacing or interruption. They cannot confirm future questions, score cutoffs, station marks or platform behaviour.
Where should interview practice start?
Start with the focused Clinical Prioritisation guide, then Ethics and Governance and Structured Interview. Practise aloud under the published timings and use original prompts rather than recalled questions.
Official sources
Official recruitment sources
- NHS England — O&G ST1 recruitment hub
- NHS England — O&G ST1 applying
- NHS England — live O&G MSRA page
- NHS England — live O&G interview page
- NHS England — O&G ST1 2027 recruitment timetable
- NHS England — detailed scoring page titled August 2023 intakeLegacy official detail; verify against the current cycle.
- NHS England — O&G ST1 2027 person specification
- NHS England — specialty recruitment prioritisation
- RCOG — application process at ST1
- RCOG — guidance for Foundation doctors
- RCOG — 2024 O&G curriculum
- RCOG — introduction to specialty training
- RCOG — 2026–27 training matrix
- RCOG — MRCOG examination overview
- RCOG — subspecialty training
- RCOG — less than full-time training guidance
- RCOG — choosing a career in O&G
- RCOG — specialist societies
- RCOG — trainee resources and representation
- Independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation — final reports
- UK Government — Nottingham Ockenden final report
- MBRRACE-UK — maternal mortality 2022–24
- RCOG — training data analysis 2025
- RCOG — surgical skills training matrix pilot 2026
- BUSOG — student network
- UKARCOG — academic O&G trainee network