After 2 years of running revised patientless exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College has now been granted GMC approval to implement a new hybrid format for both exams starting from this coming November.
Combining elements of the pre-COVID and COVID-era exams, real-life patients will be reintroduced into both exams, whilst still utilising some of the simulated elements that were introduced in November 2020.
For the Refraction Certificate, this means that three subjective stations will be reintroduced using patients, whilst two stations will still use the retinoscopy simulators that replaced them in 2020.
For the Part 2 FRCOphth, each of the five stations in the OSCE component will utilise a mixture of real patients and videos which means that the COVID-era pre-exam workplace assessments will no longer be required as these elements will feature once again in the actual examination.
Please keep an eye on the College website as full details of these new hybrid exams will be released over the coming weeks.