What happens in the Medical School UK exam

UK medical school finals have no single national OSCE format: each medical school sets and runs its own clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA), which schools call by different names such as an OSCE or OSLER, and chooses its format, the number and length of its stations, and how it is marked. What is national is the GMC's Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA): every student graduating from a UK medical school must pass both its parts, an applied knowledge test (AKT) and the CPSA, and each school's CPSA must meet the GMC's published CPSA requirements before it counts.

Checked against the official sources on 26 September 2026.

The parts, in order

How it is marked

Marking is set by each school: it decides how performance is scored within stations (for example by domain, checklist or overall global judgement), how results are combined across the whole assessment and how any marks from simulated or real patients contribute, and must explain its rationale to the GMC. The GMC requires every CPSA to assess professionalism and to draw its content from the GMC's MLA content map.

Passing

The GMC does not publish a national CPSA pass mark: each school sets its own standard at station and whole-assessment level, including any extra criteria such as a minimum number of stations passed, and must justify its method to the GMC. The MLA is part of your degree, so if you fail it you will not graduate.

Worth knowing

• The MLA has been required for UK medical degrees awarded from the academic year 2024-25; transitional arrangements cover some students who passed finals before then.
• You receive your results for both parts of the MLA from your medical school, and the GMC publishes its compliance report on each school's assessments.
• The version of the MLA content map that applies to assessments taken from September 2026 was published in October 2025.

Sources

• The Medical Licensing Assessment explained - GMC
• Taking the MLA: what the assessment involves - GMC
• Costs and test scores for taking the MLA - GMC
• Quality assuring the clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA) - GMC
• Requirements for the MLA Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (GMC, published September 2019, updated October 2024)
• Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment: additional information and guidance on creating and preparing a submission for the MLA (GMC)
• Assuring readiness for practice: a framework for the MLA - GMC
• Assuring readiness for practice: a framework for the MLA (PDF, updated October 2024)
• MLA content map - GMC
• MLA compliance reports for assessment providers - GMC