Your responsibilities
As a trainee on the STP, it is your responsibility to ensure you are fully prepared for the STP Final Year Assessment. Here, you can find out what you can expect in the assessment and some ways to prepare beforehand.
What to expect in the assessment
In the STP Final Year Assessment you will be presented with 7 scenarios which will sample the curriculum and focus on situations that may be faced by newly-registered Clinical Scientists in day-to-day practice.
For each scenario, you will have 3 minutes to read a summary of the situation you are being presented with and the questions posed about the scenario to allow you to prepare a response. There will be 1 or 2 questions asked. The pre-reading will be presented on screen and there will be no one else visible on screen for this part of the assessment.
When this pre-reading time is up, you’ll be moved into the station with an assessor. In the station, you’ll have 9 minutes to provide your response to the question(s) to your assessor. You’ll be able to see your assessor on screen. Once you enter the station, your assessor will invite you to provide your response as soon as you are ready. All the information about the scenario and the questions you need to answer are presented during the pre-reading. The assessor does not have any more information and cannot answer any questions. You can access the pre-reading and the questions again at any time during the station. The assessor may, on occasion, prompt you to revisit the scenario and questions, but otherwise will not talk to you during the station.
You’ll be expected to remain professional when providing your response to the question to the assessor, but you will not be marked on your presentation style.
The stations have been designed to include more time than we expect most people to need to provide their response. The time you have remaining in the station will be clearly displayed on-screen at all times. Once you have provided your response to the questions, you may find you have some time left in the station. This may feel uncomfortable. However, you must remain visible on the screen. You cannot turn your camera off or step away from the screen at any time during the assessment. You can add to your response to the question if you wish to. Bear in mind, anything you do say will be considered part of the assessment, so you need to remain professional. You must provide all of your response to the question before the end of the station. You can leave a station early if you wish to. If you wish to do so, you should inform the assessor you are leaving and then select the ‘Leave Station’ button. You cannot return to a station once you have left it.
You’ll continue to move through pre-reading and stations until you have completed a full circuit of all 7 scenarios.
The video below walks you through what the experience of the Qpercom assessment platform will be like for you as a trainee as you move between pre-reading and stations.
Preparing to respond to scenarios
In this video, the School’s Education and Training Manager, Sally Clee, talks about scenarios and ways to prepare to respond to scenarios.