Joint Committee on Intercollegiate Examination: Examiners’ Manual

To be appointed as an examiner for the Intercollegiate Specialty Boards should rightly be seen as a real privilege. Members of the panels of examiners in the nine surgical disciplines are however faced with some challenging responsibilities. Some of the practices used in our surgical examinations have been marked by traditions endured by successive generations of trainees. As practice has evolved, so elements of style have changed. As clinicians we have been rather less than sensitive to modern medical education thinking. Just as we would never think of ignoring evidence in our clinical practice so it is vital that we are aware of the latest evidence in the realm of assessment and apply that in as practical a fashion as possible to bring our examination system up to date.