Incidents during the exam

Incidents during exams

While the RACGP makes every effort to ensure exams run smoothly and without incident, occasionally the delivery might not go to plan.

If an incident occurs during your exam that you believe has a significant effect on your performance in the exam, we encourage you to advise the exam staff at the venue immediately after the incident, or notify the RACGP by emailing examinations@racgp.org.au within two business days of the exam. You may receive compensation. Any incident reported later than two business days will not be investigated.

Issues that are not considered incidents

If something happens during an exam that isn’t considered an incident, you won’t be compensated. Examples of issues that aren’t considered incidents include, but are not limited to:

• someone sneezed or coughed during the exam
• a staff member, examiner or standardised patient had an accent that you had difficulty understanding
• a disturbance caused staff to pause the exam
• you misread the exam instructions or case details and missed important information
• technical issues (eg computer glitches) occurred before the exam began
• hospital announcements (MET calls etc) were heard in the exam room
• a staff member knocked at the door or entered the exam room
• you recognised one of the examiners
  • sometimes an examiner may be known to a candidate. Examiners declare if they have a conflict of interest with any candidate; however, not all levels of conflict warrant the replacement of an examiner. If you know an examiner, you should proceed with the case, focusing on the specifics of that case and the simulated patient in front of you, and not dwell on the examiner in the room.
• name of the simulated patient on the case instructions is not gender-specific
  • Where a case is not gender-specific, you should apply the case instructions to the gender the simulated patient identifies as.

Compensation

The Council of Censors (or delegate) investigates all incidents, including the impact of the incident on a candidate’s performance, before results are released. If a candidate fails the exam and an incident is determined to have impacted their performance, compensation may be provided. Compensation is available in the form of a reduced enrolment fee for a future exam of the same segment. There are no other forms of compensation available. We won’t re-mark your exam or adjust your results.