Histopathology ST1 training Self assessment scoring guidance for applicants

Read guidance on self assessment scoring for applicants.

This page will provide details of the domains, marking range and points available in the self assessment and evidence verification stages of the 2027 Histopathology ST1 recruitment process.

Please ensure that you have read the following page in full prior to submitting your application.

This page should be read in conjunction with the Histopathology ST1 pages.

General Information

• All applicants will be required to complete a self assessment score based on their own achievements in various domains. Each score must be justified with uploaded evidence. This is mandatory and applicants will be unable to submit their applications without completing this
• The deadline for completing this is 10am Wednesday 23 December 2026. Further guidance on how to upload your evidence will follow in due course
• Evidence to support your self assessment score can only be accepted via the dedicated upload portal. Evidence provided to London Recruitment by any other means will not be accepted
• The self assessment information you provide on Oriel will be scored electronically according to the scoring system outlined below
• The self assessment score will be used to shortlist if received eligible applications exceed interview capacity. Further details regarding this can be found in the applicant guide
• The self assessment score cannot be changed at any stage between application and interview. Once you have submitted your application, you will no longer be able to amend the 'self assessment section of your application; you should therefore check it thoroughly before you submit your application

Guidance for selecting evidence

• It is the Applicant's sole discretion as to which response they select in the self assessment. Under no circumstances will the London Recruitment Office be able to advise you which option to choose
• If no evidence is uploaded in a single domain on the evidence portal at submission, then the evidence verification panel will award a score of zero for that domain
• Each piece of evidence can only be submitted once. If a piece of evidence falls into 2 categories (for example, teaching masters in domain 2 or 6, histopathology QI project in domain 7 or 10), please submit to the domain that generates maximum overall points. Instances of candidates submitting the same evidence into multiple domains may be treated as a probity issue
• All achievements should be completed at time of application unless permitted within a domain
• Any achievement claimed must have been undertaken after commencing your medical or first undergraduate degree (achievements completed from school or before university are excluded)
• Ensure the information you are uploading is accurate to the best of your knowledge and belief. Be mindful of the GMC's Good Medical Practice guidelines on probity
• Ensure you keep your evidence as succinct as possible. While there is no page limit upload per domain, if you upload excessive pages there is a risk that the verifier will not be able to identify your evidence easily and points may be missed. If you upload more than three pages of evidence for a single domain, then you must highlight/ direct the verifier to the exact page containing your evidence
• In domains where a criterion requests a piece of evidence to be related to "histopathology", acceptable topics include those recognised as part of  "cellular pathology", which include, but are not limited to, histology, cytology, autopsy pathology, and the subspecialties such as forensic pathology, paediatric pathology and neuropathology. Evidence related to other specialties such as haematology, microbiology, virology or chemical pathology will not be accepted
• In domains where the duration of a course of event is expressed in equivalent days, 6 hours is recognised to equate to one day
• In domains where a criterion requests a piece of evidence to be a "national" presentation, this includes presentations delivered in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland

Patient Identifiable Data (PID)

• No uploaded evidence should identify patients. This includes, for example, thank- -you cards/letters from patients' families, minutes from a departmental meeting or any document with a patient hospital number; if you wish to include these in your uploaded evidence, please ensure that they have been anonymised
• Instances where patient identifiable data is found in an applicant’s evidence will result in a score of 0 being awarded and the applicant may be reported to the GMC and further action may be taken

For more information on PID, please refer to the GMC’s confidentiality guidance pages

Verification process

• The score you award yourself will be checked alongside the evidence you have uploaded by a panel of verifiers
• All verifiers are histopathologists
• If the verifiers feel that there is insufficient evidence for the number of points you have claimed in your self assessment, they will reduce your score in that section to a number that they feel is appropriate
• If a verifier feels that an applicant is trying to gain an unfair advantage by submitting the same piece of evidence on multiple domains and/or over-claiming scores for and/or exaggerating their achievements, this will be taken extremely seriously. This could lead to an application either being marked down, removed from the recruitment process, or, in more serious cases, could be reported as a probity matter to the GMC
• If you disagree with the score awarded after verification you are eligible to appeal. Please note that the purpose of the appeal process is to review the initial score assigned by the verifiers against the evidence provided, and not to try and claim more points from the original self assessment. Please also be aware that subjecting your application to scrutiny by the appeals panel, you may end up with a lower score than originally awarded by the first verifier

2027 Histopathology ST1 training Self assessment Scoring Guide

The tables below outline how many points each achievement can score.

You must provide suitable evidence of all your achievements in order to be awarded points and this evidence must be uploaded to the Evidence Verification Portal.

Please note, the same scoring criteria are used for both the self assessment on Oriel and for the evidence verification process.