The pass mark for the Primary FRCA SOE is currently a set pass mark of 37. This pass mark was agreed by the Examinations Committee following the analysis of historical data and has consistently provided a pass rate of 50 – 55%. Four examiners contribute to the assessment of each candidate.
The pass mark for the Final FRCA SOE is established using borderline regression (BLR). Six examiners assess each candidate across the Final SOE, giving marks for performance on each question and a global score for a candidate’s overall performance. This standard setting method these scores to determine a pass.
The use of more than one examiner in the assessment of a candidates contributes positively towards the reliability of the FRCA examinations (Van der Vleuten, C.P.M. and Swanson, D.B. (1990). Assessment of clinical skills with standardized patients: state of the art. Teach Learn Med, 2(2):58-76) and examiners undertake regular training and carry out benchmarking exercises prior to examining to ensure parity of scoring and standardisation.
