Specialty Certificate Examination in Rheumatology
| Diets | Exam date | Application period | Reasonable Adjustment Deadline | Results release | Certificates posted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/01 | 26 June 2024 | 06 March-03 April 2024 | 10 April 2024 | 24 July 2024 | 24 September 2024 |
| 2025/01 | 25 Jun 2025 | 5 March - 2 April 2025 | 10 April 2025 | 4 weeks after exam | 8 weeks after results release |
Please ensure you apply for your examination within the application period and have submitted your reasonable adjustment request by the reasonable adjustment deadline.
The Specialty Certificate Examination in Rheumatology is delivered once a year.
Eligibility requirements
There are no entry requirements for the SCE in Rheumatology, although candidates in UK training posts would normally take the SCE in Rheumatology in their penultimate year of higher specialty training.
Qualification: Certificate in Rheumatology
Trainees who hold MRCP(UK), have gained the Certificate in Rheumatology and who are recommended for a CCT will be entitled to apply for the postnominal MRCP(UK) (Rheumatology).
For further details please see the FAQs.
Curriculum and blueprint
The Specialty Training Curriculum for Rheumatology is published by the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB).
The examination is made up of questions covering the whole curriculum, selected by a predetermined blueprint:
Resources for trainees
Preparation for the SCE requires a wide breadth of knowledge around the curriculum and should involve reading of textbooks, journals and guidelines. Experience of the MRCP(UK) examination provides an excellent background to the format of the examination.
Suggested sources and reading are listed below:
Conferences
- American Congress of Rheumatology
- British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) AGM
- EULAR Congress
Journals
- Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (ARD)
- Arthritis and Rheumatism – official journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
- Arthritis Research and Therapy
- Current Opinion in Rheumatology
- Journal of Rheumatology
- Nature Reviews Rheumatology
- Rheumatology – Oxford journals
Textbooks
- Oxford Handbook of Rheumatology (Eds Hakim, Clunie and Haq. Published by Oxford University Press)
- Oxford Textbook of Rheumatology (Eds Isenberg, Madison, Woo, Klars and F. C. Breedveld. Published by Oxford University Press)
- Primer on the Rheumatic Diseases (Eds Klippel, Stone, Crofford, White)
- Rheumatology 5th edition (Eds Hochberg et al. Published by Elsevier)
- Textbook of Pediatric Rheumatology (Authors Cassidy, Petty)
Websites
Sample questions
The questions are in ‘best of five’ multiple choice format. This format, in addition to testing core knowledge and comprehension, also assesses the ability to interpret information and to solve clinical problems. There will be five options – one correct answer and four alternatives to the correct answer. The four distractors will be closely related to the preferred option but less correct, therefore acting as plausible alternatives.
These questions give an indication of the type of question you can expect in the exam. Please take part in this interactive sample test:
Results report
The selected metrics report provides details about the previous year's examination. All the statistics are intended to help candidates to be more informed and better prepared for the examination. The reports are also available to other stakeholders (e.g. deaneries’ representatives, board members, trainees’ supervisors) who would like to find out more about candidates’ performance in order to be able to make informed decisions about training programmes or examination standards.