The MRCGP SCA Consultation Skills Course
A free, full-day advanced clinical communication skills course of observed, 12-minute simulated consultations mapped to the MRCGP Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA) — with individualised, written expert feedback against the SCA's three marking domains.
Wigmore Room, 4th Floor, 1 Wimpole Street, Marylebone, London W1G 0AE · registration from 08:30 · coffee break & lunch included · no fee, no deposit · 20 delegate places.
Consult under exam conditions — then hear exactly what an examiner would say
Most SCA preparation is passive: videos, books, and someone else's consultations. This day is deliberate practice. You consult in observed, 12-minute simulated consultations built to the SCA's published case blueprint, led and observed by expert clinical faculty — and you receive immediate, individualised feedback mapped to the SCA's three marking domains: Data Gathering & Diagnosis, Clinical Management & Medical Complexity, and Relating to Others.3 You leave with a written, domain-mapped personal feedback summary and a concrete action plan for the weeks before you sit.
A flavour of the format — 12 minutes on the clock. Priya, 34, requests a repeat of her sertraline following a recent bereavement, asks to be "signed off" work, and mentions in passing that her period is late. Three agendas, one consultation, twelve minutes. The skill being marked is not knowing the guideline — it is gathering data systematically, sharing a safe plan the patient owns, and getting there in time.
The SCA is sat remotely. So why spend a Saturday in London?
Because remote practice cannot replicate being watched closely by an experienced clinician who then tells you, case by case, precisely what an examiner would have written about you.
The course is free. There is no fee and no deposit — nothing to pay at any stage, and morning coffee and lunch are included. Places are allocated in booking order. We ask one thing in return: if your circumstances change, email us so your place can be released to another candidate.
Built for the SCA — valuable far beyond it
Our primary audience is MRCGP trainees, at any stage of training. The consultation competencies rehearsed here also exceed the benchmarked standard the GMC's MLA CPSA and PLAB 2 OSCE expect at the point of UK graduation — advanced training with reach across the postgraduate clinical examinations.
MRCGP trainees · primary audience
GP registrars at any stage of training preparing for the SCA — the clinical consultation component of MRCGP, taken in ST3. The whole day is engineered around the SCA's published blueprint, marking domains and feedback statements.
Senior medical students
Senior and final-year students, UK and international, who want consultation training that exceeds the benchmarked GMC MLA CPSA and PLAB 2 OSCE standards — building the person-centred, time-disciplined consulting that UK assessors reward.
Allied postgraduate exam streams
Doctors upgrading their clinical communication competency for the breadth of postgraduate clinical examinations — MRCP(UK) PACES · MRCS · MRCPCH · MRCPsych CASC · FRCS — and for everyday practice. Transferable consultation training, not exam-specific preparation.
The SCA, in one view
The Simulated Consultation Assessment is the clinical consultation examination of MRCGP — the successor to the CSA.
| Format | Twelve simulated consultations, each lasting twelve minutes1 |
| Delivery | Taken remotely, usually from the candidate's own practice, during ST31 |
| Marking | Each case is graded in three domains — Data Gathering & Diagnosis · Clinical Management & Medical Complexity · Relating to Others — from Clear Pass to Clear Fail, against the standard of a newly qualified, independent GP3 |
| Cases | Drawn from a curriculum-mapped bank across twelve clinical experience groups — unpredictable by design, so preparation must cover the breadth2 |
Twelve clinical experience groups
The SCA samples across these published case categories.2 Our simulated consultations are built to the same blueprint.
| Patients under 19 | Gender, reproductive & sexual health |
| Long-term conditions (incl. cancer, multimorbidity, disability) | Older adults, frailty & end-of-life care |
| Mental health (incl. addiction & substance misuse) | Urgent & unscheduled care |
| Health disadvantage & vulnerabilities (incl. safeguarding, capacity) | Ethnicity, culture, diversity & inclusivity |
| New presentation of undifferentiated disease | Prescribing |
| Investigation & results | Professional conversations & dilemmas |
Built around the feedback statements trainees actually receive
The RCGP publishes the exact statements examiners use when candidates underperform.4 Every station in this course is engineered to rehearse — and your written feedback is mapped to — the statements that recur most.
Data Gathering & Diagnosis
Clinical Management & Medical Complexity
Relating to Others
An indicative timetable
Three circuits of observed 12-minute consultations, sampled across the SCA's clinical experience groups, with domain-mapped feedback after every case. Every case is different — no scenario is repeated across the day.
| 08:30–09:00 | Registration & arrival coffee |
| 09:00–09:40 | Welcome · the SCA's domains and descriptors · examiner calibration — faculty demonstrate one exemplary and one deliberately flawed consultation, and you grade them |
| 09:40–11:00 | Circuit 1 · undifferentiated new presentations & urgent / unscheduled care |
| 11:00–11:20 | Coffee break (included) |
| 11:20–12:45 | Circuit 2 · long-term conditions & multimorbidity · prescribing · investigation & results |
| 12:45–13:45 | Lunch (included) |
| 13:45–15:15 | Circuit 3 · mental health · health disadvantage & vulnerabilities · the professional dilemma |
| 15:15–15:35 | Break |
| 15:35–16:45 | Group debrief · time-management drills for the 12-minute frame · your personal action plan |
| 16:45–17:00 | Close · written, domain-mapped feedback summaries issued |
Timetable indicative; final station structure is confirmed nearer the date. All catering (morning coffee break and lunch) is included.
Convened by Prof Rajesh Varma
Prof Rajesh Varma is a GP Trainer and Convenor for GP Trainers, West Hertfordshire, an experienced communication-skills tutor and trainer, and a former examiner for the GMC PLAB examination. For this course he has assembled a clinical faculty of expert communication-skills tutors — so that every delegate consults under experienced eyes and receives feedback of examiner-level specificity.
Faculty take both roles — patient and examiner. Each consultation is played by an experienced clinician who then marks it. The person giving your feedback is the person who experienced your consultation from the patient's side: how the opening landed, where the cue was missed, whether the plan felt shared or imposed. That dual perspective is the distinctive feature of this course, and it is why the feedback is specific rather than generic.
Feedback is anchored in the Calgary–Cambridge model — the consultation architecture UK examiners and trainers expect — applied through the SCA's own domain language, so what you hear on the day translates directly to how you will be marked.
The Royal Society of Medicine — Wigmore Room, 4th Floor
Free to attend — no fee, no deposit
There is nothing to pay. The course is free, including the morning coffee break and lunch. There is no fee, no deposit and no card details taken at any stage. Places are limited to 20 delegates and allocated in booking order.
Who should book. Primarily for MRCGP trainees at any stage of training — and equally relevant to doctors preparing for MRCP(UK) PACES, MRCS and other postgraduate clinical examinations, and to senior medical students (UK and international) developing advanced consultation skills that exceed the benchmarked GMC MLA CPSA and PLAB 2 OSCE standards.
One thing we ask. If your circumstances change and you can no longer attend, please email us so your place can be released to another candidate.
Book online
Reserve your free place through the booking link. Twenty delegate places, allocated in booking order.
Confirmation
Booking confirmation by email; venue access, timing and what to bring issued ahead of the day.
Attend
Join us on the day and leave with your written, domain-mapped feedback summary and personal action plan.
The booking link opens our secure scheduler in a new window. If it does not load, email enquiry@mdacumen.com with the subject "MRCGP SCA Course booking" and we will reserve your place by reply.
Independence & scope. An independent educational course delivered by MD Acumen Ltd. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or delivered on behalf of the RCGP or the GMC; MRCGP, SCA and MLA are the examinations of those bodies, and this course maps its content to their published, publicly available material. Attendance does not guarantee any examination outcome. Candidates should treat the RCGP's own SCA resources as their primary reference.
Sources this page is mapped to
The RCGP's published SCA material, current at the last editorial review (17 July 2026). Links open the issuing body.
- Royal College of General Practitioners. MRCGP: Simulated Consultation Assessment (SCA). rcgp.org.uk
- RCGP. Preparing for the SCA — the twelve clinical experience groups. rcgp.org.uk
- RCGP. Marking and results for the SCA — the three marking domains and word descriptors. rcgp.org.uk
- RCGP. Feedback statements for the SCA. rcgp.org.uk
- General Medical Council. Medical Licensing Assessment — Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA). gmc-uk.org
Twenty places. One day. Examiner-level feedback on your own consulting.
Saturday 12 September 2026 · Royal Society of Medicine, London · free to attend.
MRCGP SCA Course · CAS Programmes · Legal & Regulatory · enquiry@mdacumen.com