Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists
The FRCA examinations are an integral part of the College's programme of assessments.
The FRCA examinations test the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes as defined by the anaesthetic training curriculum.
Our examinations remain internationally recognised for their fairness and high standards. They have evolved to reflect contemporary best educational and assessment practice and developments in anaesthesia, intensive care and pain medicine.
The College is returning to face-to-face delivery for the OSCE and SOE components of FRCA exam, with the written CRQ and MCQ components remaining online. Face-to-face exams will take place at the College.
The FRCA examinations
The FRCA examinations provide anaesthetists in training with the opportunity to demonstrate the required outcomes of the curriculum and determine satisfactory progression at each critical progression point within their training programme. The FRCA examinations are also open to anaesthetic doctors who are not in an approved training programme (conditions apply).
As an exams candidate, you will sit the FRCA in two parts:
- the Primary examinations, which are aligned to the core level training curriculum, followed by;
- the Final examinations which are aligned to the intermediate level training curriculum.
Each examination tests different outcomes and competencies using validated assessment methods to test a broad-spectrum of knowledge, understanding, skills, behaviours and attitudes. The exams are approved by the General Medical Council (GMC) for UK postgraduate medical training and follow the UK curricula and guidelines.
On successful completion of both Primary and Final FRCA examinations, you would become a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists by examination and can use the letters FRCA after your name.
Fellowship is also a valued professional distinction for the many international students who come to the UK to sit the FRCA exams.
Prioritisation of Applications for clinical examinations
Updated 16 August 2021
We will endeavour to examine as many candidates as possible during academic year 21/22, however, we anticipate the need for a continuation of the prioritisation policy, which has been revised for this next academic year. Changes to the policy have been communicated widely and the revised policy is available in section 4 of the FRCA primary and final regulations. Please refer to prioritisation of applications for details of this policy.
The College has also made derogations to the training programme and amendments to the ST3 person specification to support progression, details of the statements/information can be found at:
Curriculum derogations - https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/training-careers/training-anaesthesia/training-news/anaesthetic-training-update
ST3 person spec changes - https://anro.wm.hee.nhs.uk/st3
Guidance on number of attempts at FRCA examinations
(applicable from August 2021)
The temporary change to not count a first sitting of an examination in a new online format (online written with remote proctoring or online face-to-face clinical) towards the overall total six attempts if a candidates fails expired on 31 July 2021 and there is no intention to reinstate this.
