Royal Medicare
GP training · the three assessments
The MRCGP is the qualification you need to finish GP training and join the GMC's GP register. It has three parts: a written exam, a consultation exam and a portfolio that runs the whole way through. Two you sit; one you build. This page is the map. The AKT and SCA each have their own guide.
Two exams and a portfolio. Pass all three and the RCGP recommends you for your CCT.
AKT
The written exam: 160 single-best-answer questions in 2 hours 40 minutes at a Pearson VUE test centre. 80% clinical medicine, 10% evidence-based practice, 10% organisation and admin.
SCA
The consultation exam: twelve video consultations of twelve minutes with role players, sat from your own surgery, each marked across three domains by a GP examiner.
WPBA
The portfolio: evidence gathered in your posts across all three years and reviewed at each ARCP. Case discussions, observed consultations, multi-source feedback, a patient survey, a quality improvement project, procedural skills and your learning log.
Year by year
The order is not fixed by the RCGP beyond the earliest points, but there is a sensible one, and most trainees who finish on time follow it.
Dr Omar's courses cover the AKT paper in its own proportions: one course for the 80%, one each for the two 10% blocks. Every course runs once before each sitting and is recorded.
AKT · clinical medicine
Live on Zoom, three sessions a week, recorded. The 128 clinical questions, system by system.
£360.00AKT · evidence-based practice
The 16 statistics questions most candidates guess at, taught so you don't have to.
£90.00AKT · organisation & admin
Certification, prescribing rules, ethics and the contract: the other 16.
£90.00AKT · practice
Questions in the exam's format with explanations, and full-length mocks on a screen laid out like the test centre's. Opening soon.
Free account holders hear firstSCA preparation is in development. Ask us about it.
Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners, the licensing assessment for UK GP training. Passing all three components leads to your Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) and entry to the GMC GP register. You cannot practise independently as a GP in the UK without it.
The Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), a computer-based exam of 160 questions; the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA), twelve video consultations with role players; and Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA), a portfolio of evidence collected across all three years and reviewed at each annual ARCP.
WPBA starts on day one of ST1 and never stops. The AKT can be sat from ST2 and most trainees take it in ST2 or early ST3. The SCA is sat in ST3. Taking the AKT early leaves room for a resit before the SCA, which is the more expensive exam to repeat.
The RCGP fee is £481 per AKT attempt and £1,207 per SCA attempt. WPBA has no exam fee; it is part of your training programme. Both exams offer staged payment through MyRCGP.
The GMC caps attempts at all national professional exams: six if you entered GP training on or after 2 August 2023, four if you started before. Each exam is counted separately.
You rebook the next available sitting. Your training may be extended to allow time for it, agreed at ARCP. Failing at the attempt limit means you cannot complete GP training in the UK, which is why structured preparation for the first attempt matters more than anything else on this page.
Facts checked against the RCGP's MRCGP pages on 15 September 2026. The RCGP is the authority on eligibility, fees and attempts; treat this page as the guide, their site as the rulebook.