# Practising for General Surgery (ST3) with MedMock

Canonical page: https://medmock.com/exams/general-surgery-st3

## What is the General Surgery ST3 interview, and how do you practise for it?

General Surgery ST3 national recruitment interview, run online by NHS England: about 40 minutes over three stations, each with two consultant interviewers. The Clinical and Management stations each give you a written scenario and 5 minutes of reading time, then 10 minutes of questions about it and related questions. The 10-minute Professional Development Station asks about your career to date; no portfolio is reviewed at interview. Here one examiner voice speaks for the panel. MedMock lets you practise it out loud against an AI interview panel, with examiner-style feedback on any station you finish.

## About General Surgery (ST3) recruitment (official sources, checked 2026-10-13)

- 2025 recruitment round, NHS England figures for General Surgery ST3: 834 applications for 161 posts, a competition ratio of 5.18.
- General Surgery interviews are held online. The stations cover aspects of the person specification, last approximately 40 minutes, and are split into clinical, management and professional development stations.
- Each General Surgery interview station has two consultant interviewers, and one observer at most may be present who does not assess the candidate.
- The clinical and management stations each give 5 minutes of reading time and 10 minutes of questions. The professional development station gives 10 minutes of questions about the applicant's career to date.
- Portfolio evidence is not available to the General Surgery interviewers during the interview, and applicants do not need to prepare or present a hard copy of their portfolio.
- For 2026 entry, General Surgery applications and uploaded evidence are used to shortlist candidates for interview, and the shortlisting scores are added to the interview scores in the overall candidate score.
- From 2026, the minimum number of appendectomies applicants must have completed at Supervised Trainer Scrubbed (STS) level or above increased from 6 to 10.
- General Surgery recruitment is a nationally coordinated process hosted by London Recruitment Office on behalf of the General Surgery Specialty Advisory Committee, covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Sources: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/competition-ratios/2025-competition-ratios https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/higher-surgery/general-surgery/overview-of-general-surgery/interviews https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/higher-surgery/general-surgery/overview-of-general-surgery/overview-of-general-surgery https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/higher-surgery/general-surgery/overview-of-general-surgery/how-to-apply

Recruitment dates: Applications 19 November 2026 to 10 December 2026 (national Round 2); Interviews within the national Round 2 window, 11 January 2027 to 9 April 2027 (source: NHS England Medical Specialty Recruitment, checked 2026-09-24).
All General Surgery (ST3) dates: https://medmock.com/exams/general-surgery-st3#dates

## Stations you can practise

- **Clinical station** — 5 minutes to read a written clinical scenario about a patient, then 10 minutes of questions about it and related questions: for example a post-operative complication such as an anastomotic leak or bleeding, or an acute surgical emergency.
- **Management station** — 5 minutes to read a written scenario about a management problem in the clinical environment, then 10 minutes of questions about it and related questions: for example governance, candour, conflict, a complaint or a trainee's performance.
- **Professional Development Station** — The panel asks about your professional development: training to date, audit and quality improvement, research, teaching, leadership, reflection and your plans in general surgery.

## Sample General Surgery (ST3) questions

- *Management station:* You disagree with a consultant’s plan for a deteriorating patient. How would you proceed?
- *Clinical station:* A 65-year-old man with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer. Counsel on surgical options.

## Example scenarios

- *Clinical station:* It is day 4 post right hemicolectomy. The patient has a heart rate of 120, temp 38.5, and a rigid abdomen. Talk me through your management.
- *Management station:* A foundation-year colleague on the previous take made a documentation error that delayed the diagnosis of bowel obstruction by six hours. The patient came to harm. The on-call consultant has asked you to discuss this at the next governance meeting. How would you approach it?

## How a practice session works

1. **Choose a station** — Choose the kind of question or scenario you want to rehearse — ethics, motivation, a role-play, and more.
2. **Have the conversation** — Speak naturally, out loud. The AI interviewer listens and asks the demanding follow-ups, just as a real interviewer would.
3. **Get instant feedback** — The moment you finish, you get specific, examiner-style feedback and a score — what you did well, what cost you marks, and precisely what to fix before the next attempt.

## Price

Start with a one-off £5 taster: 30 credits (30 minutes of speaking practice), not a subscription. After that, or instead, £69 per month for 350 credits. One credit is one minute of spoken practice, or two typed exchanges, and where the examiner or patient speaks first, that opening line is free. Examiner scorecards, mark schemes and model answers for finished sessions are included at no extra credit cost. Cancel at any time. Full details: https://medmock.com/pricing

## Frequently asked questions

### How does the feedback work?

When you finish a station you can have it marked, and the scorecard comes back in seconds — what you did well, what cost you marks, and exactly what to work on next. Scorecards, mark schemes and model answers are included at no extra credit cost.

### Can I practise specific General Surgery ST3 stations?

Yes. You can pick any of the 3 stations to drill a weak area, or run a mixed set to simulate the real interview.

### How much does it cost?

You can start with a one-off £5 taster: 30 credits, which is 30 minutes of speaking practice, with no subscription. After that, or at any time, you can choose a monthly plan, which includes a monthly credit allowance. Current prices are on the pricing page.

## About MedMock

MedMock is a web app for practising the spoken parts of UK medical and dental exams and interviews out loud. The candidate talks; an AI patient, examiner or interview panel answers in real time by voice; and when the station ends MedMock marks the performance against that exam's assessment domains and shows the model answer.

It covers 104 spoken exams and interviews — OSCEs, vivas, structured oral exams, simulated consultations, and specialty-training and consultant interviews. It does not cover written or multiple-choice papers, and it is not a question bank.

It was founded by Mr Sam Nahas, MBBS BSc MEd FRCS (Tr & Orth), a practising consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the UK, with co-founder and CTO Arjan Jandu. It is operated by VirtualPatients Ltd (company no. 16303492).

Pricing: a one-off £5 taster of 30 credits to try it (not a subscription, one per account), and a monthly subscription from £20 to £129 depending on the exam (student exams cost least, fellowship exit exams and consultant interviews most), or £199 to £275 for the Intensive plans, which carry more credits. One credit is one minute of spoken practice, or two typed exchanges, and where the examiner or patient speaks first, that opening line is free. Examiner scorecards, mark schemes and model answers for finished sessions are included at no extra credit cost. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any time.

It runs in a web browser on a laptop or phone; spoken practice needs a microphone. There is no public demo: practice needs an account with credits, usually from the taster or a monthly plan.

MedMock is for adults aged 18 or over. Sign-up asks every new account to confirm it.

MedMock is a revision tool. The patients, examiners and cases are fictional and AI-generated; it is not clinical guidance and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any Royal College, the GMC, the GDC or any examining body.

Start with the £5 taster: https://medmock.com/auth/signup