About the MRCS Part A Exam
What is the MRCS Part A?
The Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) Part A is the first of two intercollegiate MRCS exams run by Colleges of Surgeons in Great Britain and Ireland. Earning a Diploma of Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons proves a candidates enhanced capabilities and clinical competence.
05/10/2022 The Joint Committee on Surgical training announced a change to all core surgical trainees.
The Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) will be introduced this year to shortlist CST applicants.
For ST3, MRCS (Part A & B) must be completed by the time of offers.
Learn more about the MSRA exam here:
MRCS Part A Exam Format
The MRCS Part A exam is 5 hours long and consists of two papers, both taken on the same day. Paper 1 (applied basic sciences) consists of 180 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and lasts for 3 hours. Paper 2 (principles of surgery in general) consists of 120 MCQs and lasts for 2 hours.
The full MRCS syllabus for both MRCS exams can be found on the
Royal College of Surgeons website.
Please note, since September 2018 Extended Matching Questions (EMQs) have been removed from the exam, and as such we have removed these from the Pastest resource. Find out more in our
MRCS Part A Blog.
MRCS Part A Revision
In order to effectively undertake MRCS Part A revision we recommend practicing high quality MRCS Part A questions. Our resource contains over 3000 exam-style questions covering all the specialties found in the MRCS Part A syllabus.
To further enhance your MRCS Part A exam preparation, our resource also contains past papers, mock exams, videos and TeachMeAnatomy images. In addition, our MRCS question bank is also available offline using our cutting-edge
MRCS Part A app.
For comprehensive coverage of all the topics within the MRCS syllabus, check out our
MRCS Part A books containing essential revision notes for the exam.
MRCS Part A Exam Sittings
In the UK and Ireland, there are three exam sittings or 'diets'. Exam dates vary between the UK and Ireland exams, and International exams. For a full list of MRCS Part A dates visit the
Royal College of Surgeons website.