How the FRCS (Plast) Part B Exam Works

A plain-English walkthrough of the FRCS (Plast) Part B exam — the format, what examiners are marking, and how to prepare so your knowledge actually comes across under pressure.

By Ardit Begaj, post-FRCS plastic surgery registrar (ST8) · Last updated July 2026

Part A vs Part B — where Part B sits

The FRCS (Plast) is the exit exam for UK plastic surgery training — passing it is what confirms you've reached the standard expected of a day-one consultant. It's split into two parts. Part A is a written exam (multiple-choice / extended-matching style questions) testing the breadth of your knowledge across the specialty. Part B is the clinical and oral component, sat after you've passed Part A, and it tests something different: not just what you know, but whether you can apply it — examining patients or clinical material, and defending your reasoning out loud to senior examiners in real time.

Part B is where most of the anxiety sits for most candidates, and for good reason: it's the part of the exam where preparation strategy matters as much as raw knowledge. You can know the material cold and still underperform if you haven't practised delivering it under exam conditions.

The Part B format

Part B runs over two days — clinical cases on the first day, vivas on the second. Both days are built from repeating blocks of stations with a break in between, so the overall rhythm is predictable even though the cases and topics aren't.

Day 1 — clinical cases

The day is built from three types of case, each grouped into its own 30-minute block:

• 2 long cases (real patients), 15 minutes each — take a focused history, examine the patient, formulate a plan, then present to the examiners.
• 3 medium cases (real patients), 10 minutes each — same format: history, examination, plan, present.
• 5 short cases (clinical photographs), 6 minutes each.

Each grouping is a 30-minute block, and you get a 30-minute break between each block. During breaks you're free to read, talk to other candidates, and use your phone, tablet or laptop — worth bringing something to read if you're the type to cram right up to the last minute.

Day 2 — vivas

Three 30-minute blocks, with a 30-minute break between each. Every block is made up of 6 stations of 5 minutes each, based on clinical photographs, grouped by theme:

• Block 1 — Trauma, burns and adult upper limb
• Block 2 — Head & neck, cleft lip & palate & craniofacial, perineal and chest wall reconstruction
• Block 3 — Aesthetics and ethics

How you're actually marked

Each station is typically marked by more than one examiner, independently, against defined criteria — not a single person's subjective impression. In practice, this means:

• Structure is rewarded as its own skill. A candidate who works through a case systematically (history → examination → investigations → differential → management, or the equivalent structure for a viva topic) is easier to mark well than one who jumps around, even if both know the same facts.
• Examiners are trained to probe until they find your ceiling. Reaching a question you don't fully know the answer to is normal and expected — it happens to almost every candidate, including those who pass comfortably. What matters is how you handle it: reasoning out loud from what you do know, rather than freezing or guessing wildly.
• Safe, day-one-consultant judgement is what's being tested — not encyclopaedic recall. Examiners are specifically listening for whether you'd know when to escalate, when a case is beyond straightforward management, and when to involve a subspecialist.
• Fluency under time pressure is part of the mark, not separate from it. The exam is timed tightly enough that disorganised answers genuinely cost you the chance to reach your strongest material before time's called.

Where candidates lose marks

• Presenting findings as a list of facts instead of a structured clinical argument.
• Going silent or visibly flustered on reaching the edge of their knowledge, instead of reasoning through it out loud.
• Not explicitly stating safety-netting or escalation points that they clearly know but assume are "obvious."
• Over-preparing narrow, rehearsed answers to "spotted" topics instead of building genuinely flexible structure that transfers to any topic.
• Practising recall alone (reading, flashcards) without ever rehearsing the actual spoken, examined format until the real exam.

How to prepare properly

Knowledge acquisition and exam performance are two different skills, and Part B specifically tests the second one. A few things that consistently separate strong performances from weaker ones at the same knowledge level:

• Rehearse the spoken format, not just the content. Reading and knowing the answer silently is a different skill from presenting it fluently, structured, out loud, under a clock, to someone actively probing you.
• Practise being pushed past your comfort zone. The exam deliberately takes you to the edge of your knowledge — you need to have practised that exact feeling beforehand, so it doesn't derail you on the day.
• Drill structure until it's automatic for both clinical cases and viva topics, so that under pressure you fall back on a reliable framework instead of improvising.
• Get feedback from someone who knows what examiners are marking for — not just whether your answer was "right," but whether it was structured, timed, and delivered the way the exam rewards.
• Repeat across the breadth of the curriculum, not just your strongest subspecialties — the viva format is specifically designed to find gaps.

Free revision resources

Two resources to help you structure your revision and understand the numbers behind the exam:

Frequently asked questions

How many stations are there, and how long is each one?

See the full breakdown above — in short, Day 1 is 2 long cases (15 min), 3 medium cases (10 min) and 5 short cases (6 min); Day 2 is three 30-minute viva blocks of 6 stations × 5 minutes each. This reflects a recent diet and can change — check current official guidance before you sit.

What's the pass rate?

It varies by sitting — over the last few years it's typically been somewhere in the 60–80% range. See the full official statistics table above for the exact figures for every sitting since 2009.

What's the pass mark?

The pass standard is set by the exam board and isn't a fixed public percentage you can rely on year to year — refer to current official guidance.

Do I need to have passed Part A recently to sit Part B?

Eligibility rules (including any time limits between Part A and Part B, and the number of permitted attempts) are set by the exam board — check the current eligibility criteria directly rather than assuming they're the same as a previous year.

Is one mock session enough?

For most candidates, no — the first attempt at any new format is where the biggest, roughest mistakes show up. The real value comes from doing it, getting specific feedback, fixing the specific gap, and then testing again to confirm it's actually fixed.