Station guide

The Portfolio station is arguably one of the hardest to prepare for and one that fills the majority of candidates with fear. When answering questions try to consider the marking criteria. Examiners are scoring you in the following domains:

• Career motivation, Learning and Development
• Academic
• Leadership and team involvement
• Organisation and Planning
• Communication/Information giving

When answering questions try to draw in as many of the domains above as you can in order for the examiners to award you maximum points in each.

In order to maximise points in communication/information giving try to keep answers succinct and avoid waffling. Frameworks that can help with that include the CAMP, SPIES and BARER frameworks.

CAMP framework used for background and motivational questions e.g. Why should we choose you?

• Clinical
• Academic
• Managerial
• Personal

SPIES framework used for ethical dilemmas e.g. How will you deal with a drunk colleague?

• Seek information
• Patient safety
• Initiative
• Escalate
• Support/reflect

BARER framework used for giving specific examples e.g. when have you been a good team player?

• Background/event
• Action taken
• Reasoning
• End result
• Reflection