Why access to the BNF will no longer be permitted during the SCA examination

Until now candidates sitting the Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) have been permitted to bring a paper version of the Adult and Children’s BNF into the examination room.  After careful consideration and agreement with stakeholders, this option will no longer be available from September 2024 as free provision of the British National Formulary (BNF) in paper form is being discontinued.

Why this change?

The SCA was designed to assess core consultation skills, and cases have not been written to assess a candidate’s ability to reference any external materials. Although prescribing may be assessed within the SCA, it has never been the central focus of the cases. The knowledge candidates acquire through workplace experience and preparation for the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) should be sufficient to manage any prescribing decisions required during the SCA examination.

Why not use the online BNF?

Following stakeholder feedback during development of the SCA, it was agreed to exclude access to the online BNF to ensure case security and meet invigilation requirements. This would also have added costs to the trainee fee to implement. Candidates are assessed on transferable consultation skills and not ability to look up information not needed for the cases. 

The way forward for SCA candidates

Whilst we understand that candidates may feel some degree of comfort in bringing a BNF to the examination, stakeholder feedback suggests almost nobody actually uses their BNF and doing so may slow some candidates down and detract from their consulting skills. As no cases are written that require BNF access, we have taken decision that from September 2024, candidates will no longer be permitted to bring the paper BNF into the SCA examination. 

Given that up-to-date versions of the BNF will no longer be available for free in paper form, we and stakeholders feel it’s unreasonable to expect practices or candidates to cover the cost of purchasing new copies of the BNF for an examination which does not require them. 

Candidates should be assured that SCA cases are written in such a way that the BNF is not required to meet the standards required in the examination. Training and preparation for the AKT will provide you with the necessary knowledge to succeed.

Get in touch 

We hope this change will ensure a fair and focused assessment experience for all candidates. Should you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us exams@rcgp.org.uk.