OSCE (objective structured clinical examination)

An OSCE is a performance-based exam. Instead of answering questions on paper, you move through a series of stations, read a short brief, and carry out a task in front of an examiner, often with an actor playing the patient or a manikin. Every candidate faces the same stations and is marked against the same criteria, which is what makes it "objective" and "structured".

The GMC describes PLAB 2 as a clinical and professional skills assessment, which you may also know as an OSCE. Stations are designed to reflect real settings, such as a consultation or an acute ward.

In PLAB 2, for example, you read the instructions and patient information outside each room, enter the cubicle and complete the task, and a timer announces when to move on. There are at least two rest stations. Each regulator sets its own marking and pass rules, so read the candidate guidance for your exam.

The format differs by regulator and country:

• NMC OSCE (UK nurses and midwives): part two of the Test of Competence. It has 10 stations: four linked around one patient scenario (assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation), four skills stations and two on values, behaviours and evidence-based practice. The NMC fee is £794.
• PLAB 2 (UK doctors): 16 scenarios of eight minutes each, around three hours in total, held in Manchester. See PLAB.
• ORE Part 2 (UK dentists): includes an OSCE alongside a manikin operative test, a treatment planning exercise and a medical emergencies test. See ORE.
• PRES Level 3 (Ireland, doctors): practical and communication skills are examined in one clinical exam where candidates rotate through scenarios or skill stations. See PRES.
• Irish nursing aptitude test: the RCSI test for overseas general nurses has a theory test followed by a practical OSCE. See aptitude test.

1. Download the official candidate information, mark schemes or station timings published by your regulator or test centre.
2. Practise each station type out loud and against a timer, ideally with someone playing the patient.
3. Learn the local guidance the exam is based on. PLAB 2, for example, uses drug names from the most recent British National Formulary.
4. Rehearse safety steps such as identity checks, consent, infection control and documentation, as these are often scored on every station.

• Running out of time on a station. Timers are strict and you move on when told.
• Following home-country practice rather than the guidance of the country setting the exam.
• Booking delays. Places for PLAB 2 and ORE Part 2 are in high demand, so waits are common.
• Resit rules. For the NMC OSCE you resit only the stations you failed, and the NMC says resits must be at the centre where you sat your first attempt.

For a station-by-station walkthrough of the nursing exam, read our NMC OSCE guide.

Results also come at different speeds. NMC test centres email OSCE results within 5 working days, with feedback on the stations and elements you did not pass. The GDC aims to send ORE Part 2 results within 20 working days, and Ireland's Medical Council issues PRES results about six weeks after the exam.