Foundation Programme SJT Preparation Course
🏆 Foundation Year Situational Judgement courses taught by Dr. Abdul Mannan, fully qualified NHS doctor, Foundation Year and GPST educational supervisor.
📚 Gain the knowledge and skills you need to boost your SJT score and get one of your top Foundation year choices. We offer you a full day of live training, including a mini mock exam, up to date question bank and video recording of the live session.
Foundation Year Situational Judgement Test SJT Courses
👉 The Situational Judgement Test (SJT) is a critical part of applying to the UK foundation years programme. You only get one attempt and the score you get can shape the direction of your career for years to come. Get it right by learning with our experienced team of doctors.
Who will be teaching me on the Foundation Year SJT Course?
👨⚕️ Our full day SJT course is designed and taught in person by fully qualified practising NHS doctors Dr. Abdul Mannan and Dr. Imran Khan
🎓 We are both trained at Masters level in Medical Education and have been teaching sixth form and medical students as well as junior doctors since 2005
🏆 We teach, supervise, and assess Foundation Year and GP specialist doctors in our own platinum award winning NHS training GP surgery, Hazelvalley Family Practice in Lancashire, England.
👁 We supervise and train medical students from Years 1-5 from the University of Manchester and UCLAN Medical Schools
🦉 We help students prepare for medical school exams, including finals as well as postgraduate GP trainees for the MRCGP examination. We help sixth form students with UCAT, BMAT and Medical School Interviews.
🧬 Medical Training is in our DNA. It is what we do every day, and you can benefit from this experience to help you boost your SJT score
🙂 We are friendly and approachable and can help you answer SJT questions quickly and accurately in a supportive learning environment.
👉 There is no better qualified or experienced team to teach you and help you get the foundation rotation in the location you want and the specialities which will help you in your own career.
🙋♂️ Any questions? Send us an email at support@bluepeanut.co.uk
What will I learn on the live one-day Foundation Year SJT Course?
🔎 Our course is fully updated for the 2022 entry exam with the latest guidance from the UKFPO and the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice. We have done the hard work for you.
📚 We include all 3 sections of the SJT exam, including rating questions, ranking and selection, as well as the new video-based questions.
🔎 We specifically target all the key competencies relating to the foundation year programme based on our experience as foundation year assessors.
🙂 Our course is also suitable for FY2 standalone SJT (which consists of only the new ratings questions)
🦉 You will learn the knowledge, skills and principles you will need to approach the questions that come up in the SJT exam and how to apply them.
📚 We will teach all critical elements of the SJT exam such as GMC guidance, leadership, team working, ethics, consent and capacity, raising concern and safeguarding. You will gain an understanding of the domains and attributes that are being tested.
⚖️ You will learn about the latest guidance from the GMC, including social media, working during the COVID pandemic, as well as updates to end of life care.
📖 We teach using proven, evidence based methods similar to those used at medical school. We are open and transparent in what we offer you.
What do you include in your course to help me with my SJT preparation?
⚠️ You must prepare for this exam as you would for your medical school finals. Don’t get put off by comments such as ‘be yourself’ or ‘use your common sense’. The range of marks is narrow and every mark counts.
😨 Low scores not only risk you being placed in a location you don’t want or in a rotation with specialities that don’t benefit your future career, but also being put on a waiting list or even removed from the process altogether.
📹 Included is access to our live interactive intensive study day, taught in person with Dr. Mannan and Dr. Khan.
🔎 We give you a timed mini mock exam during the course, complete with extensive feedback and strategy on how to approach the styles of questions.
📚 You will get access to over 100 SJT questions, written by ourselves as foundation year supervisors. You will not find these in any other books or with other providers.
💾 We will record the course and give you access to this shortly after the course. This allows you to go back and review and reinforce your learning on the day. It also allows you to benefit from the course if you cannot attend the live course or wish to study at your own pace.
👉 Courses for 2022 entry have been released. Book your place now as we strictly limit the number of students we can have on each live course.
We have over 20 years experience teaching students and doctors, from sixth form to GPST level.
We are foundation year and GPST supervisors with trainee doctors in our own practice.
2021 courses are by live webinar. Photos are from pre COVID pandemic.
Who will be teaching me on the UK Foundation Programme SJT Course?
Dr. Abdul Mannan MBChB, DFSRH, PG Cert, MRCGP
🎓 Dr Mannan qualified in Medicine in 2000 from the University of Manchester. After a brief stint as a junior surgeon, Dr Mannan decided he wanted to be a GP.
🏆 He is trained at Masters level in Medical Education and helps supervise medical students from local medical schools. He is also a GP trainer and educational supervisor for foundation doctors and GP specialist trainees.
⭐️ Dr Mannan, as well as running a successful NHS university training practice, is also the Medical Director of the local Primary Care Network (PCN). He is currently helping with the 💉COVID vaccination role out in Rossendale.
⭐️ Dr Mannan is an excellent public speaker and a talented tutor. He records many of our video tutorials and teaches in person on all of our courses.
🔎 Dr Mannan designs the UCAT courses as well as the highly successful NHS work experience placements. He also helps the local Deanery with postgraduate training assessments for the MRCGP exam.
🚲 In his spare time, Dr Mannan maintains his fitness by mountain biking and has a keen interest in food, particularly of the Thai and Indian varieties.
Dr. Imran Khan MBChB, LLM, DFSRH, FRCGP
🎓 Dr Khan qualified with Dr Mannan in Medicine back in 2000 at the University of Manchester. Dr Khan initially wanted to be a physician and spent a considerable amount of time in cardiology, coronary care and oncology. He then decided to become a GP.
🏆 He is trained in Masters level in Medication Education and also has a Masters degree in Medical Law and Ethics from the University of Edinburgh. He has also trained as a GP expert witness at the University of Cardiff.
🩺 Dr Khan works as a GP with Dr Mannan in Hazelvalley Family Practice in Rossendale, Lancashire. He is the safeguarding and clinical lead there, as well as supervising medical students and physician associates.
⭐️ He has previously worked as a clinical lead in the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) as well as been a district representative for the Royal College of General Practitioners.
🔎 Dr Khan designs the highly successful Medical School Interview Courses as well as training for Situational Judgement.
💾 Dr Khan has a keen interest in IT and looks after the Blue Peanut website and social media. He also has a cat called Lizzy – a British short hair silver tabby to be precise.
Why is the situational judgement test (SJT) used in the application to the foundation years programme?
Those of you who are training the UK and Australia may have come across situational judgement before in the form of the UCAT examination.
The FY1 SJT is actually very similar in term of concepts that they test, but obviously at a much more advanced level with the candidate having to ranks answers to more complex scenarios rather than choosing a single answer.
In some countries this is referred as ‘behaviour and morals’ in your training. You sit this as you are applying for your first NHS post in the United Kingdom as part of the foundation year programme. It accounts for 50% of your score for the foundation programme application so your performance on this is critical.
The remainder of the score comes from whether you rank in your medical school as well as scores for whether you have another undergraduate degree or any published papers.
In our experience, most students from the UK will not have an undergraduate degree or papers and fortunately the relative weight for these two components is low. You will also come across SJT again in interviews for jobs as well as when you apply for specialist training.
There is evidence that shows that scores of SJT can be used to predict your performance in your future role.
The questions are designed by clinicians (usually doctors).
As with many things in medicine there can be a difference of opinion between doctors as so the exam does give marks for ‘second best’ answers. The ‘correct best’ answer is determined by a group of ‘experts’.
In addition, if you are from outside the UK, there will be further challenges for you as the ethical and moral standards may be slightly different from the country you are currently studying in. Our doctors know this and will guide you.
The examiners have indicated that new operational papers are constructed each year.
How do I prepare for the foundation years programme situational judgement test (SJT)?
⚠️ The SJT test has been designed to test the professional attributes required for doctors during the foundation year FY1 role.
👉 Commitment to professionalism
🔬 Coping with pressure
🎙 Effective communication
📚 Learning and professional development
🔎 Organisation and planning
😷 Patient focus
💡 Problem-solving and decision-making
🦉 Self-awareness and insight
👨👩👦👦 Working effectively as part of a team
💾 This is a computer marked multiple choice type of exam. The professional standards required from doctors comes from guidance produced by the General Medical Council in the document ‘good medical practice’. New professional guidance is coming out on a regular basis as we face new challenges in medicine, for example the COVID-19 pandemic and doctors use of social media.
👁 Whilst you can read Good Medical Practice, you have to be able to apply the principles it contains to scenarios that they will give you in the SJT exam. This is where it can get more complex, especially if you have trained in a non-western medical school.
👉 Although professionalism and other elements of the professional attributes mentioned above are assessed during medical school, they are often done as a tick box at the end of each clinical attachment with the supervisor confirming there are no concerns for the student. You may not have undertaken specific situational judgment questions in your exams, whether these are clinical or written.
Essential tips to help your preparation for the foundation year programme situational judgement (SJT) exam
⏱ Practise as many past questions as you can under timed exam conditions.
Past papers are available from the official foundation training website (UKFPO), some with an answer key with explanations. This should let you work out the thoughts of the doctors who wrote these questions and how they come out with the conclusions and priorities. It the simplest sense it is possible to create a set of rules that doctors follow, with more priority given to certain aspects, for example the care of the patient must come before your own personal priorities.
However, more recently there has been a move not to give the answers to questions and therefore this task is made more difficult for students without further help. We do not agree with this decision as even experts can differ on the best answers to these questions, but we are where we are.
⚠️ Don't overthink the answer to any specific scenario or make any assumptions.
If you are not sure the answer to a question, make an informed guess and move on to the next question. You should answer using the information that they have provided you in the question and not make any assumptions. You can use the process of elimination to remove incorrect answers to help you increase your accuracy.
There is no negative marking with the SJT and you will not get marks removed for wrong answers. You may be able to get partial marks, for example if your choice if answers is not quite in the correct order.The exam is designed to test you as if you are a FY1 doctor.
The questions will be relevant to the FY1 role correlated with the GMC guidance on good medical practice. It does not test your clinical knowledge or any practical skills – these will be tested by your medical school and the future UKMLA (medical licensing assessment) examination.
You may be able to obtain situational judgement skills and guidance whilst on placement on the wards and in your GP practice.
👨⚕️ Remember the welfare of your patient is your primary concern.
The examiners will attempt to cloud your judgement by putting the concerns of the patient against your own perceived priorities. For example, some of the answers will appear to make you blame others or ask you to come back to work after your shift has ended. The care and welfare much always come first – you must never be seen to abandon a patient to fail to handover to the relevant person.
🤝 Be honest in your approach, act with integrity and be fair to your patients and fellow colleagues alike.
Any answer that makes you lie or commit any type of fraud, as well blame others to deflect from your own problems should be excluded. If you see something that is not right, you must try and correct this (if you can) and escalate appropriately. Doing nothing, trying to cover up mistakes and ignoring something going wrong is an incorrect response.
⚠️ Remember not to do anything outside your competence or what is expected of a FY1.
Remember asking for help from others is a reasonable approach if the answer requests you to do something which you are not trained for at your level. Remember FY1 doctors have only provisional registration with the General Medical Council.
⚖️ Ensure you have a basic understanding of medical ethics and UK medical law.
Make sure you are aware of the four pillars of medical ethics and basic medical law relating to the care of patients.