The four transferable chapters, how the exam is scored, the rules that apply at every station and a mark-weighted study plan — all drawn from the AMaC MRCS Part B station book.
The methods the stations keep asking for: bounded answers, consent for any procedure, what the patient gives up, and knowing when you have finished.
What ICBSE expects at all stations regardless of the task, and the single sentence that costs candidates most: marks are awarded only for the task you were set.
The one thing the book never covers: borderline regression, the separate Knowledge and Skills pass marks, the 9-minute format, and what the published pass rates show.
Sequences the stations by the marks each one actually covers, keeping the two sections on separate tracks because they are passed separately.
Verified directly against the primary intercollegiate candidate guide (RCPSG, effective August 2021):
Domain
Stations
Notes
Surgical Anatomy
3
Knowledge
Surgical Pathology
2
Knowledge
Applied Surgical Science and Critical Care
3
Knowledge
Communication Skills
4
Skills — includes 2 generic history-taking, 1 giving information, 1 receiving information
Clinical and Procedural Skills
5
Skills — includes 3 physical examination, 2 generic skills
Total
17
8 Knowledge stations, 9 Skills stations
Each station is 9 minutes, preceded by a short reading period outside the station.
History-taking is not a separate exam category — it is two of the four Communication stations. Physical examination and procedural skills are one combined domain of 5 stations, not two separate ones. This book separates Communication from History-Taking, and Physical Examination from Procedural Skills, into four parts rather than two, purely for revision clarity. That is an editorial choice about how to organise study material, not a claim about how the exam itself is structured.
This book is organised into nine parts of stations, plus four chapters covering skills that apply across many station types, plus a short appendix. The station library is in preparation; the chapters are published here.
Each station follows the same structure throughout: Task, Think, Say, Do, Examiner Lens, Common Failures, Model Performance, and Rapid Recall. Once you know this structure, every station in the book uses it the same way.
The four chapters — The Bounded Answer, Consenting for Any Procedure, What You Are Asking the Patient to Give Up, and What Is Making You Feel Finished — each describe a skill or failure pattern that recurs across many stations rather than belonging to any single one. Individual stations refer back to the relevant chapter where it applies, rather than repeating the explanation each time.
The appendix contains additional topics that may be relevant to current practice but whose presence in the current exam rotation has not been independently confirmed against the official syllabus. They are kept separate from the main numbered parts for that reason, and are marked accordingly.
Find the station you need and read it. Each one is complete on its own — the checklist at its end (Rapid Recall) carries the essential points, and the fuller sections above it explain the reasoning if you have time to read them.
Read the four chapters when you have time to think rather than the night before. They are the part of this book most likely to help you in a station this book does not specifically contain, because they describe transferable skills rather than station-specific content.
Named Chapters
The parts of the library in preparation, largest first:
| Part |
|---|
| Anatomy |
| Physical Examination |
| History Taking |
| Communication |
| Procedural Skills |
| Critical Care |
| Surgical Pathology |
| Applied Surgical Science |