The Final FRCA is a postgraduate examination in anaesthesia, more fully called the Final Examination of the Diploma of Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Trainee anaesthetists in the United Kingdom are required to pass this examination during ST3-5 (6 months through ST5), otherwise training may be delayed or stopped. Admission to the examination The examination is open to intermediate and higher trainees in anaesthesia, those working in approved training posts, those who have recently left an approved training post, and other doctors on approval of the Royal College of Anaesthetists who have passed the primary FRCA or an equivalent exempting qualification within the last seven years. There are a maximum of six attempts at this examination, and there is a robust system in place to support candidates in the UK training system before they get to this point. Form of the examination The exam takes the form of a written Short-Answer Question (SAQ) paper (3 hours, 12 questions), and a Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) paper (3 hours, 60 five stem questions covering medicine, surgery, intensive care, pain and basic sciences and 30 Single Best Answer clinical questions) which can be attempted at several regional centres in the UK (such as Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and London). The Structured Oral Examination (SOE) Candidates who pass both the MCQ and the SAQ are invited to the Structured Oral Examination (SOE) ("Viva voce"), in Churchill House, London, the headquarters of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. The SOE component of the examination consists of two structured oral examinations: the first (clinical) consists of 10 minutes to review a prepared series of clinical data, followed by 40 minutes of questioning; the second (basic science) consists of 30 minutes of questioning. Marking scheme The examination is now staged into two distinct, separable components. The written paper must be passed prior to attempting the Structured Oral Examination (SOE). In the written paper, the marks from the short answer questions paper and the multiple choice questions and single-best answer questions are considered together. This part of the examination can now be passed independently, leaving the candidate to attempt the SOE without the need to resit the written paper. The marks from the written paper are no longer considered when attempting the SOE. To pass the examination, the written paper must be passed in full, followed by an independent pass of the structured oral examination (known commonly