Interviews

Applicants who are successful at longlisting and have completed the MSRA, may be invited to attend an online interview.

Interview invites are subject to reaching the required score for each of the MSRA exams and agreed interview capacity.

A cut off score will be implemented for the MSRA which will be effective from Round 1 2027 onwards. Applicants will need to meet this minimum score to be eligible to be invited to interview. Invite to interview will remain subject to interview capacity. Further details regarding MSRA cut off score will be published in due course.

Applicants will be invited to attend one online interview and will be considered for appointment within their preferenced cluster only.

The region within the England and Wales cluster that an applicant interviews with will not affect any offer they are made in the England and Wales cluster, should they be successful at interview.

Applicants who chose the Northern Ireland cluster will be invited to attend an online interview conducted by Northern Ireland and will be considered for posts in Northern Ireland only.

Applicants who chose the Scotland cluster will be invited to attend an online interview conducted by Scotland and will be considered for posts in Scotland only.

Interview dates per region

• East of England
  • Date to be confirmed
• North East
  • Date to be confirmed
• Nort West
  • Date to be confirmed
• South West
  • Date to be confirmed
• Wessex
  • Date to be confirmed
• West Midlands
  • Date to be confirmed
• Yorkshire and Humber
  • Date to be confirmed
• Northern Ireland
  • Date to be confirmed
• Scotland
  • Date to be confirmed
• Wales
  • Date to be confirmed

For applicants being considered in England and Wales you can interview at any selection centre in these regions and will be considered for all posts in these regions.

For applicants applying to Northern Ireland and Scotland you can only interview in Northern Ireland and be considered for posts in Northern Ireland and interview in Scotland and be considered for posts in in Scotland.

Selection Centre Dates can be subject to change and will not be on every date of the window.

Shortlist reserve

As invitations to interview are made based on interview capacity, applicants who have completed the MSRA and scored above the cut off score but did not rank high enough to be invited to online interview will have a status of "shortlist reserve" following the completion of shortlisting.

Candidates may be called with 24 hours' notice if a space becomes available.

Booking an online interview

If an applicant is invited to attend an online interview, they will be required to log into their Oriel account and use the self-service functionality to book an online interview on a date and time of their choosing, subject to availability.

When booking an online interview slot, it is strongly recommended to avoid booking from a mobile device or on internet browsers that have reached the end of their product support lifecycle such as Internet Explorer as these are unlikely to be supported.

The online interview booking window will be confirmed in due course.

Slots will be available on a first come, first served basis.

Applicants who incur any problems whilst booking an online interview slot should contact ANRO immediately using the Freshdesk portal.

Adjustments under the Equality Act 2010

All recruiters are aware of the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and will make reasonable adjustments to accommodate applicants at online interviews provided these are made known in advance.

Applicants who require adjustments for their interview (for example, extra time) will be required to submit supporting evidence to substantiate the required adjustment.

This evidence will need to be uploaded to Oriel via the Document Upload dashboard as "Supporting evidence" and attached to the application form at the point of application.

ANRO will be unable to review the request if supporting evidence is not provided.

When booking interview slots, applicants are advised to add detail of their reasonable adjustments as a confirmation on their online booking notes.

Failure to provide this information in your booking notes may result in ANRO not being able to accommodate your adjustment.

Any additional adjustment requests, not already in your application form, need to be reviewed by ANRO, applicants will need to contact ANRO using the Freshdesk portal.

Once applicants have booked a slot for an online interview, ANRO expects the applicant to forward any reasonable adjustment requests to the lead contact of the region that is conducting their interview.

If applicants would like their assessors to be aware of the reasons for the reasonable adjustment requests, they will need to let the lead contact of the region that is conducting their interview know when they contact them.

Confirmation of booking

Once applicants have booked their online interview, they will receive an automated confirmation of booking message in Oriel and a secondary automated message will be sent to their registered email address. 

If this confirmation is not received, applicants are advised to log into their Oriel account to confirm if the booking process was completed in its entirety.

Online interviews

The online interview window is between Tuesday 23 February and Friday 19 March 2027.

Please note regions will select dates for their interviews within the specified window. It does not mean there are interviews on each day of the window.

If applicants are invited to participate in an online interview, instructions regarding access to the online system, proof of ID and participation guidelines will be provided in due course.

If applicants are invited to an online interview and are unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances or an emergency, they must contact the region directly to ascertain whether alternative arrangements can be made. It is important to note that alternative arrangements cannot be guaranteed.

Online system and interview format

All online interviews will be a two-station format performed online via Qpercom.

Candidates will be assessed in a Clinical Judgement Station and a General Interview Station against the domains described.

This is available in the Downloads section on this page. 

Each station will last 15 minutes and the whole process should take 50 minutes. This includes ID checks prior to interview, 5 minutes reading for the clinical judgement station, and 5 minutes waiting prior to the general station.

Mock interview videos can be found on the RCoA website.

Before the online interview date, applicants will receive information regarding how to login to the Qpercom system as well as a walkthrough video showing how the system works and looks.

Applicants will be expected to login before their interview date to complete a compatibility test on their device for the Qpercom system.

Each station is assessed by 2 assessors who score the applicant independently in each of the scoring domains and with a global rating score.

Applicants are permitted to make notes during the interview process but are also allowed to bring notes with them to support them in answering the interview questions. Applicants should be advised of this in their invitation to interview. This is open to all applicants.

Interview panels should be advised that notes are permitted.

Notes should only be on paper and not on an electronic device and should be prepared by the applicant i.e. a book would not be counted as notes.

Applicants should be advised that while notes are permitted, relying on these too much could disrupt the flow of the interview and engagement with the panel members. Applicants should ensure that when using notes, that they only use these to answer the question being asked and don’t just read everything they have prepared on the subject area.

Observers present during the online interview

As well as two assessors, there may be observers during an interview. These include Lay Representatives, external assessors from the RCoA and future assessors taking part in training. These roles are to ensure that quality, consistency, and standardisation is present throughout the interview process.

Only the two assessors will take part in scoring the applicant. Observers have no role in the assessment of an applicant nor in deciding the appointability of an applicant at any stage of the process. Any observer will have their camera and microphone off and will not be visible to the candidate once they have been introduced at the start of the interview station.

Concerns on the day

If you have any issues with the way that the interview is conducted or a concern, you will need to raise these by email with the recruitment team, after your interview and within the day of your interview being completed by sending a ticket to the Freshdesk support.

Complaints procedure

All National Recruitment Offices use a nationally agreed process for handling complaints about recruitment.

If an applicant feels their application has not been managed correctly and have evidence of a failure in the process, they should explore this route.

Complaints should be made in line with the MDRS Complaints Policy and Procedures. This can be found within the MDRS Complaints Policy page on the Medical Training website. A Complaints Policy Submission form is also available on this page.

Raising concerns

Applicants wishing to raise concerns about any part of the recruitment process, where this falls outside the scope of the complaints policy should forward these, in confidence to MDRS: [email protected]

Concerns raised without detail are difficult to investigate due to the volume of applications received. Applicants are therefore requested to provide details of the specialty and, where applicable, the applicants concerned. Any information provided would be treated in the utmost confidence.

Online interview courses and websites

ANRO and the RCoA do not recommend that potential applicants book commercial courses, sign up to websites or purchase advice and guidance books specifically aimed at doctors undertaking the Anaesthetics selection process.

The RCoA have prepared free guidance for preparation of the CT1 interview which will be available on the RCoA website prior to the interview in 2027.