Table Of ContentOXFORD ASSESS AND PROGRESS
Series Editors
Katharine Boursicot
Director, Health Professional Assessment Consultancy (HPAC)
David Sales
Consultant in Medical Assessment
OXFORD ASSESS AND PROGRESS
your prescription for exam success
Written by clinicians and educational experts, these unique guides
present complete coverage for your exam revision, with illustrative
material and tips to help you succeed in your medical exams.
Also available and forthcoming titles in the Oxford Assess
and Progress series
Clinical Dentistry
Nicholas Longridge, Pete Clarke, Raheel Aftab, and Tariq Ali
Clinical Medicine, Third Edition
Dan Furmedge and Rudy Sinharay
Clinical Specialties, Fourth Edition
Luci Etheridge and Henry Collier
Clinical Surgery
Neil Borley, Frank Smith, Paul McGovern, Bernadette Pereira,
and Oliver Old
Emergency Medicine
Pawan Gupta
Medical Sciences
Jade Chow and John Patterson
Psychiatry
Gil Myers and Melissa Gardner
OXFORD ASSESS AND PROGRESS
Situational
Judgement Test
Fourth Edition
Harveer Dev
University of Cambridge
David Metcalfe
University of Oxford
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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Fourth Edition published in 2022
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DOI: 0.093/ oso/ 97809284340.00.000
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v
Foreword
Being a doctor is a huge privilege—w e touch and change lives and enjoy
unparalleled levels of public trust. But the high reputation enjoyed by the
medical profession depends on all who practise medicine behaving in a
way that continues to command confidence and respect. A great deal of
what we do depends on knowledge and skills, and we all keep learning
new facts or embracing new ideas throughout our careers. But there is
another and equally important aspect of being a doctor and that is about
knowing our limitations. Really good doctors will know the limit of what
they know and what they can do. No one— most of all the patient you’re
seeing at that moment—w ill thank you for doing something that you’re
simply not able to do. Whether it’s thinking that you remember the dose
of a drug but not checking, or soldiering on because you think it’s a sign
of weakness to ask for help, or advising someone about the risks of a
procedure you’ve never done, or myriad other pitfalls, knowing the limits
of your own abilities is one of a doctor’s most important qualities.
The General Medical Council has been guiding doctors in the area of
professionalism for over 50 years. The world has changed a lot over that
time, but some of the qualities that define the physician are timeless and
have endured. This book guides you through various scenarios where
your professionalism could be tested and helpfully references some of
our guidance. The message is simple but fundamentally important: saying
that you don’t know, but will find someone who does, is a sign of pro-
fessional maturity.
Professor Sir Peter Rubin
Former Chair, General Medical Council
vii
Series editor preface
The Oxford Assess and Progress series started as a groundbreaking
development in the extensive area of self-a ssessment texts available
for medical studies. The majority of volumes are linked to the Oxford
Handbook series, with specially commissioned modern- format ques-
tions constructed to test the problem- solving skills used by practising
clinicians in order to deliver high- quality and safe patient care by recog-
nizing, understanding, and treating common problems, as well as recog-
nizing less likely, but potentially catastrophic, conditions.
With the increasing emphasis on the professionalism of doctors,
and the requirement to test and demonstrate professional values and
behaviour, a new format of questions has been developed and intro-
duced into selection procedures for a number of postgraduate educa-
tion and training circumstances. These questions are known collectively
as a Situational Judgement Test (SJT), which is designed to test certain
attributes deemed to be desirable in practising medical professionals,
encompassing the values, attitudes, and behaviours expected of new
doctors as set out in the General Medical Council’s documents Good
Medical Practice (203) and Outcomes for Graduates (2020).
This particular volume is special as it is written for this new question
format, but in keeping with the rest of the series, it has a number of
unique features and is designed as much as a formative learning resource
as a self-a ssessment one. The current position of the SJT within the
selection to the Foundation Programme in the UK is explained in detail,
with advice on how to approach this new set of tests.
The test items place the candidate in professionally challenging situ-
ations, and a number of possible reactions are offered. Attention has
been paid to explaining learning points and constructive feedback on
each question, using clear fact- or evidence- based explanations as to why
the ‘correct’ response is the most appropriate and why the other re-
sponses are less appropriate. This is especially important as SJTs require
consideration of the most appropriate responses to a given professional
dilemma, where no single answer is completely correct or incorrect.
As the use of SJTs is likely to expand into more contexts where doc-
tors’ professionalism, values, and attitudes will be formally tested, this
volume is a leading- edge introduction on how to prepare for the future
of such testing.
Katharine Boursicot
ix
Author preface
With finals on the horizon, you might be tempted to coast through the
Situational Judgement Test (SJT). The Foundation Programme is gen-
eric as all trainees develop the same core skills and competencies, and
you might be told that your choice of FY/F Y2 rotations ‘doesn’t really
matter’.
The truth is that your clinical rotations might easily shape the rest
of your career. It’s unsurprising that most doctors settle in the area to
which they are allocated for their first job. But your rotations are also
important for progressing to the next stage of your chosen specialty.
Although specific clinical experience is never mandatory, it is easier to
argue convincingly that you want to work in a specialty if you have rele-
vant audit projects, contacts, and experience. The best way to develop a
specialty- specific portfolio is to secure your first-c hoice rotation. If you
have strong feelings about where you want to work or your future spe-
cialty, you need to maximize your SJT score.
You might also hear that you ‘can’t study’ for the SJT. We have sat
many exams between us and have yet to come across one that can’t be
beaten with hard work and adequate preparation.
This book will help you become familiar with the style and content of
SJT questions. Practice questions and familiarity with professional guid-
ance are vital to maximizing your SJT score.
Best of luck with the SJT and securing your first- choice rotation!
Harveer Dev
David Metcalfe
