MRCPsych examinations: cumulative results 1997-2002

An evaluation of the impact of country of primary medical qualification on performance in the UK Royal College of Anaesthetists’ examinations

“…It could be expected that, given the close language and cultural links between the UK and Ireland, the results between those two countries would have been similar. However, this data does corroborate a study of the examination results from the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Oyebode & Furlong 2007) which showed that UK graduates performed significantly better than Irish graduates.…”

International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in the UK—a Systematic Review of Their Acculturation and Adaptation

“…A number of studies have reported that over the board IMGs perform poorly in Royal College and other examinations and a number of factors are discussed like communication skills, methods of education, country of primary medical qualification, cultural differences and speaking non-English language in childhood (Ayres et al 1996;Tyrer et al 2002;MRCGP Statistics 2010;Oyebode and Furlong 2007;McManus et al 1996;Roberts et al 2000). The traditional methods of teaching, which are teachercentered and lecture-dominated, are prevalent in many countries, which pose a challenge to the IMGs when they are faced with more PBL pattern of learning in the education system in host countries (Majumder et al 2004;Abdulrahman 2008;Camp 1996;Tavakol et al 2006).…”

“…The Royal College of Psychiatrist's annual report (2008)(2009) stated that the pass rate for UK graduates was 87.5 % compared to 48.5 % for non-UK graduates in Autumn 2008, and in Spring 2009, it was 76 % success rate for UK graduates and 47.7 % for non-UK graduates. Regular mock exams as part of a postgraduate course could help the overseas graduates to gain necessary clinical knowledge and skills (Oyebode and Furlong 2007;Vassilas et al 2007). Roberts et al (2000) investigated the reason for lower success rate among Asian doctors passing oral exams of MRCGP using sociolinguistic analysis.…”

“…A study (Mahajan and Stark 2007) carried out in South Yorkshire among IMGs in paediatrics department found problems in communication skills due to different accents, use of colloquialisms and dealing with sensitive issues compounded with tremendous stress due to visa restrictions and job searching. Trainee's cultural aspects of communication appear to be affecting the final outcome of the examinations (Oyebode and Furlong 2007).…”

“…The exams in the UK are structured on the syllabus, which includes only a few topics that the IMGs have in their own syllabus in their countries of origin, and this appears to be a disadvantage to foreign graduates (Oyebode and Furlong 2007;McManus et al 1996).…”