This chapter will guide a candidate in the knee questions and topics that regularly appear in Section 1 of the FRCS(Tr&Orth) exam. The chapter deals with trauma, elective arthroplasty and soft tissue knee questions. Up to date information, higher order SBA questions and detailed explanations along with an evidence based approach to the most appropriate answer.

This chapter will guide a candidate in the core trauma topics that regularly appear in Section 1 of the FRCS(Tr&Orth) exam. The chapter deals with trauma questions providing high quality clinical based SBA questions that provide up to date current thinking in trauma and detailed explanations of management plans along with an evidence based approach to the most appropriate answer.

This chapter will guide a candidate in core hand topics that regularly appear in Section 1 of the FRCS(Tr&Orth) exam. The chapter deals with hand questions providing high quality clinical based SBA questions. Detailed explanations of the SBA options with a clear logical approach to selecting the most appropriate option.

This chapter will guide a candidate in the core trauma topics that regularly appear in Section 1 of the FRCS(Tr&Orth) exam. The chapter deals with trauma questions providing high quality clinical based SBA questions that provide up to date current thinking in trauma and detailed explanations of management plans along with an evidence based approach to the most appropriate answer.

Eighteen management and ethics cases with model answers and follow-up questions provide essential practice for the interview. Cases covered are similar to those expected at interview. We go into depth on specific areas of management and ethics as relevant to the interview, including GMC guidance on consent, treatment escalation plans, never events, and assessing capacity. We provide follow-up alternate scenarios for candidates to practice with their colleagues.

An overview of the core surgical training interview, detailing the relevant steps from starting your application to getting a core surgical training job, including application statistics from recent application cycles.

By going through these cases we hope that you have developed:

• – A consistent structured A–E approach for both acute and trauma cases, which you can tailor to the specific case at hand.

• – Mini-scripts for common sub-scenarios, such as resuscitation of a septic patient, examination of a limb, or working a patient up for CEPOD, which you can comfortably fall back on when required.

• – A structured approach to answering follow-up questions.

• – Confidence in handling variations in interviewer technique, such as being interrupted mid-case, or being moved on quickly to a latter part of the case.

We break down the leadership station, including the leadership speech. We reveal how we tailored the content, structure and delivery of our leadership speech to obtain full marks. We discuss how you start writing your speech, what resources to read, and what makes a winning leadership speech. We offer a checklist for you and your practice partners to help provide feedback each stage of the speech. We provide scripts that scored full marks at interview alongside our own analysis. We discuss potential follow-up questions for candidates to prepare.

This chapter is the crux of the book and covers our templates for tackling clinical scenarios. We provide scripts that were used at interview for candidates to adapt as they see fit. We show candidates how to build a set of scripts of their own, and then adapt these for a given scenario. We cover trauma, acutely unwell, and stable patient presentations.

We provide 37 clinical scenarios with model answers, vetted by specialty doctors. We build your clinical knowledge and delivery through a spiral curriculum, designed to help you and a practice partner cover a level of depth to allow you to excel at interview. We walk you through the investigation and management of a wealth of clinical scenarios, and provide numerous follow-up questions after each case to expand your knowledge on key topics.

A breakdown of the mark schemes of each station for the core surgical training interview, along with new data on the distribution of scores at interview. We then provide a thorough guide for the practice methods we used with each other to top the interview process. We cover common questions like which interview time and date to book, whether or not to do practice courses, and which other resources we found most helpful.

We provide the template and approach we adapted together and used at interview. We provide model scripts that shows you how to use this approach.

Top tips on preparing for the MSRA, including never-before-seen data on the MSRA distribution for core surgical trainee applicants. We discuss how we revised, how long we prepared for, and which question banks we found most useful.