I am a SAT 6 Trainee currently working in Galway University Hospital. During my previous rotations I have organised teaching sessions for medical students and subsequently our anaesthesia colleagues preparing for exams. When the opportunity arose via email application at the end of SAT 5 to become involved with the Examinations Department, I was keen to learn more about the exams process, question writing and assessment strategies. Upon completion of my training this July, I plan to travel to Melbourne for Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia.

My role as the examinations trainee commenced in June 2023 - the college kindly enlisted and sponsored me to attend the Health Professional Assessment Consultancy (HPAC) Course in London. This consultancy group aims to deliver best practice design and development of assessment for undergraduate and postgraduate trainees. This two day course was a comprehensive introduction to evidence-based assessment principles which was taught via both lectures and small group workshops. As my role this year was primarily with the MCAI OSCEs examinations - I opted to attend two OSCE workshops; mapping and blueprinting of OSCEs and how to produce, understand and use post exam metrics.

The examinations department over the past years has been anticipating a move to electronic platform based assessment, and so have been uploading all past questions to an online system – Risr. In preparation for the Autumn MCAI Prep Course, I helped to review, and at times edit, previous OSCE stations, implementing examiner feedback from previous years. These updated stations were then submitted for senior review and with eventual uploading to the online system. I had weekly zoom meetings with the examinations department to ensure we were on track with preparations.

The prep course was held at the end of October in Dublin, 16 trainees attended and 16 examiners were introduced to the new OSCE electronic marking scheme on iPad. This was the first prep course to be held since COVID and there were also new examiners in attendance. The value of the new online system was also highlighted in the almost instantaneous candidate results and psychometrics. This enabled an end of course discussion with trainees; with an overview of the course day and analysis of the individual OSCE stations presented via PowerPoint. Feedback from the trainees was very positive, and next term the date of the mock course has been moved two weeks earlier as per trainee request. The formal MCAI Examinations were held in Malahide in November over two days, this set of examinations saw an exceptionally large number of candidates. The new electronic iPad OSCE marking system operated well, and the feedback from all examiners was very positive – an easy to use system which was far superior to paper and pen marking. Again, the post OSCE statistics and psychometrics were reviewed Dr Gareth Morrison, who is quality assurance lead for the examinations department. Both afternoons involved multiple rounds of structed oral examinations due to large candidate numbers, but this was an excellent opportunity for new incoming examiners to attend and observe the examination process.

The examinations department are preparing to travel to and host a MCAI Prep Course, MCAI and FCAI Exams over a week in KL, Malaysia in January. This will also be the first post COVID hosting of these exams, again, with a new marking system. Preparations will then look to the spring Prep Course, and MCAI/FCAI Examinations in Dublin.