2013-14 Year 6

In case you haven’t seen them, there is basic information about SJTs on these links:
SJT FAQs
How the ranking system works

As you know, allocations to your F1 posts are going to depend on a new scoring system about which much is written on the intranet. A brief summary is given below.

There are 100 points on the scoring system. Half of these will come from the Educational Performance Measure (EPM). The worst possible mark you can get for the EPM is 34/50. This will occur if you are on the tenth decile and have no other points. If you come in the top decile, you will get 43/50. You can get an extra 5 points for a PhD, 4 points for a First in your BSc, or 3 points for an Upper Second. Details are on the EPM framework document [pdf]. You can get up to 2 more points for posters, papers, etc. The fact that all of you have a BSc will give you all an advantage.

The other half of the points come from the SJT exam, and you all know the markscheme, which is summarized here

How your SJT score is converted to a mark out of 50 is given below.
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home/how-to-apply/SJT-FAQs#answer379

Using that scoring system, for those of you who did our SurveyMonkey quiz, and you have already received your total score and feedback, you can look up the score you would have obtained using the above formula on this spreadsheet [Excel], which anonymously lists all your scores, and in column C, the score you would have obtained out of 50 according to the SJT site.

As you will note, there is very little difference between most of your scores, and those who did badly probably didn’t try very hard. It is apparent that the aim of this test is to look for competence rather than excellence, which is why the Medical School’s Council think you cannot “practice” for this exam.
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home/how-to-apply/SJT-FAQs#answer374

Once you know what they want (which you will once you have had a go at the mock exam), you are likely to get a high mark. While I think you should look at that mock exam again as we approach the SJT proper, I wouldn’t waste too much time trying to get 50/50, as doing the quiz will take you all to over 45. Half of you obtained that score the first time anyway! I have spoken to the organizers, and it is clear that they want the SJT and the EPM to be equivalent for most candidates. Their pilots (similar to ours) show that most candidates will get between 36 to 46, which is what the EPM almost does also.

Where you do your Foundation Programme will have no impact on your future long term career. The next two years is generic training. After that, when you start core training, then where you work becomes more important. However for the first two years, you are simply choosing a geographical area, and each and every one of them has a range of posts.

For all these reasons, it is not worth wasting too much time trying to “revise” for the SJT. The best preparation is to be exposed to the mock exam, and they have now also put the mock exam to be seen as a pdf or you can have a go online.
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home/how-to-apply/SJT/EPM has links to the practice paper in both pdf and online format. You can also have a go at that exam and get some feedback on the link below, although if you have done it on surveymonkey, you will already have an e-mail from August with very detailed feedback.
http://sjt.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/ for the mock exam.

Many thanks

Professor Karim Meeran
Deputy Director of Education

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