Structure of the Public Health Assessment Centre

The Public Health Assessment Centre is 190 minutes in length and there are 3 component parts:

• A critical thinking paper (Watson Glaser).
• A numerical reasoning paper Rust Advanced Numerical Reasoning Appraisal (RANRA).
• Situational Judgement Test (SJT) paper.

Please note that this assessment is not the same as the Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) and completion of the Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) will not count towards public health recruitment.

Revision materials

None of the Public Health Situational Judgement question writers take part in or endorse any preparation courses or books.

The Public Health National Recruitment Office (PHNRO) understands that you may wish to revise and prepare for the Public Health assessments with each other in small groups. However, sharing information about the actual assessments is unacceptable and is viewed as unprofessional behaviour.

The Public Health Assessment Centre uses many different equated assessment forms and therefore knowledge of questions in one paper will not necessarily benefit others. We would also remind all applicants that entry to Public Health specialty training is competitive.

Time allocated for each paper

The time allocated for each paper is detailed in the below table, including examples of times if you have been awarded additional time in line with the Equality Act 2010 disability accommodation requirements.

The Public Health Assessment Centre is delivered as a single assessment. The 3 papers are independently timed and the time remaining in each paper is denoted by an onscreen countdown timer.

The Watson Glaser assessment will be immediately followed by the RANRA assessment. On completion of these, there will be an optional 5-minute scheduled break before the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) paper commences. In instances where a break of longer than 5 minutes is taken, the excess time will be automatically taken off the available time for the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) paper when you commence the paper.

Pearson VUE offer a generic demo to aid you in familiarising yourself with the controls and screen layouts in advance of the assessment. This demo can be accessed on the Pearson VUE website.  No calculators, other stationery or paper will be permitted for this assessment. A wipeable board will be provided in the test centre.