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 of the Rheumatology trainee curriculum. This should involve extensive clinical practice in the field of Rheumatology as well as the reading of textbooks, journals and guidelines.
Experience of the MRCP(UK) examination provides an excellent background to the format of the examination.
Candidates should note that this is a UK exam and hence where relevant UK guidance (such as from NICE and the British Society for Rheumatology) should be taken into consideration when answering questions.
Suggested sources and reading are listed below:
Guidelines
UK
- NICE TAG and Disease Guidelines (NICE) / SIGN guidelines
- British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) guidelines
- You may also find the following guidelines useful
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)
Journals
UK
The BSR owns 2 international peer reviewed journals
- Rheumatology – Oxford journals
- Rheumatology advances in practice
- 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
You may also find the following helpful
Conferences
UK
You may also find the following conferences helpful
Digital Learning
UK
The BSR has a ‘Talking Rheumatology’ podcast which covers a variety of curriculum topics with additional bonus case based episodes. These can be accessed via the BSR eLearning site or downloaded via your usual podcast provider
The BSR eLearning site also has blended resources on curriculum topics including webinars, eLearning cases and single best answer questions to test your knowledge. (These may not conform to the style of questions in the SCE, and so it is strongly advised that candidates consult the sample questions on the Federation website to get a flavour of the types and style of questions asked in the SCE).
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.