Free guide
The Raw Interview Score decides your rank, and three rules decide whether you are appointable at all. Both are simpler — and more unforgiving — than most candidates realise.
Source: PHST interview scoring . Always confirm against the official guidance for your own round.
Depending on the specialty, you are assessed across four, five or six domains. Each domain is scored independently by two interviewers, and each awards their own mark. Nobody averages anything on the day — the marks are simply added up.
That means every domain contributes twice, and a single weak domain costs you up to eight marks rather than four. It is also why the non-clinical domains matter as much as the clinical one: they are scored on exactly the same scale.
| Mark | Rating | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Excellent | A highly performing trainee. |
| 4 | Good | Above average ability. |
| 3 | Satisfactory | Met the expected core trainee level for readiness for higher training. |
| 2 | Area for concern | Performed below the expected core trainee level. |
| 1 | Poor | Not considered appointable. |
Note where the midpoint sits. A 3 is not a good score — it means you met the level expected of a core trainee ready for higher training. Ranking happens in the 4s and 5s, and the gap between a 3 and a 4 is usually structure and specificity rather than knowledge.
Your Raw Interview Score is the sum of every mark awarded, before any weighting. Two interviewers per domain means the number of marks is double the number of domains.
| Domains | Marks awarded | RIS range | Appointable at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 domains | 8 | 8–40 | 24 |
| 5 domains | 10 | 10–50 | 30 |
| 6 domains | 12 | 12–60 | 36 |
The appointability threshold is 60% of the maximum in every case.
All three must be met. Failing any one makes you non-appointable no matter how well you did elsewhere.
A single 1 ends it. One interviewer scoring you 1 in one domain makes you non-appointable even with 5s everywhere else. In practice this is the strongest argument for never leaving a domain unanswered — a structured, average answer scores 3; silence or a refusal to engage scores 1.
Because marks are summed rather than averaged, and because two 2s is the maximum you can carry, your weakest domain matters more than your strongest. Candidates reliably over-prepare the clinical scenario — the part that feels like medicine — and under-prepare ethics, registrar capability and the portfolio, which are scored identically.
The self-assessment gets you to interview; it does not follow you into the ranking. See the person specification for what has to be true before you can apply at all, and the timeline for when each stage falls.
Domain counts and thresholds vary by specialty. Confirm yours on the official PHST page for the specialty you are applying to before relying on any figure here.
Interviews are October–November 2026. The practice libraries cover every domain the panel scores — clinical scenarios, registrar capability, ethics, portfolio and the presentation — with model answers and the Score-5 anchors.
Browse the specialty libraries