How the MSRA is scored by specialty

Your MSRA result comes from two computer-based papers: Professional Dilemmas lasts 95 minutes and Clinical Problem Solving lasts 75 minutes. Together they take 170 minutes, with an optional five-minute break between them. You receive a score for each paper and an overall score. The scores are normalised, with the mean sitting around 250 for each paper, so a combined score around 500 is roughly the middle of the cohort rather than 500 marks earned from a fixed total.

Your total isn't a percentage. NHS England's GP scoring guidance says each paper is normalised around a mean of 250. There is no meaningful maximum score because the conversion depends on how that sitting's cohort performed.

There can still be a hard floor. For Core Psychiatry CT1, the published appointability rule is a raw score of at least 186 in each paper. Miss that in either paper and the total cannot rescue the application. Passing both floors only makes you appointable; it doesn't promise a post. GP applies a floor as well: each paper is placed in band 1 to 4, and a band 1 in either paper means the application does not progress. Our specialty scores and cut-offs page puts those floors beside the available FOI data.

What the number tells you

Normalisation lets NHS England compare candidates who have taken different equated forms of the MSRA. Your answers produce raw marks, but the number you usually discuss with other applicants is the converted score. That is why two papers can each be centred around the same number even though they test different things.

The practical meaning is relative. A higher score places you ahead of more people in that recruitment cohort. The same numerical result can lead to a different rank in another round because the people sitting it have changed. Core Psychiatry's score-transfer guidance confirms that a transferred result is ranked with the new cohort, so the rank may go up or down. The separate resit and score-carryover guide explains when an earlier result can be used at all.

And your overall total can hide an uneven result. If one specialty requires a minimum in each paper, a very strong Clinical Problem Solving score cannot cancel a failed Professional Dilemmas paper. Look at both component scores before celebrating or panicking about the total.

What each specialty does with the MSRA

The same MSRA sitting can decide one application and only secure an interview in another. The official MSRA specialty list is broader than GP and Psychiatry, but each recruitment office decides how to use the score.

The table shows the latest published recruitment model available on 3 August 2026. Some national 2027 specialty guides were still awaiting publication, so a percentage used in 2026 may change. The stage controlled by the MSRA is the more useful fact to carry into your planning.

Devolved-nation variations and individual vacancy rules can change the detail. Read the guidance attached to your Oriel advert. In particular, don't borrow a weighting from a previous year and build your entire target around it.

GP Stage 3 is gone

GP ST1 no longer has an interview, selection centre or portfolio stage. Current national guidance says selection is based solely on MSRA performance. Your rank and preferences are then used in the offer process.

If an older guide tells you to prepare for a GP Stage 3 selection centre, that part of the guide is out of date. There may still be eligibility checks before the MSRA and ordinary employment checks after an offer, but neither is a hidden GP interview. Core Psychiatry CT1 uses the same MSRA-only selection model.

What a good score means after the Prioritisation Act

Since the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act, a good score still improves your selection position but leaves your priority status unchanged. For 2027, prioritisation applies from shortlisting through offers, alongside the specialty's selection process.

Where the MSRA is the sole selection tool, your score determines your rank among the applicants considered in your tier. In specialties with an interview or portfolio stage, the MSRA helps decide who reaches it and may then contribute to the final selection rank. Performance orders the applicants a specialty considers.

NHS England's wording is admirably direct: prioritisation does not affect the rank applicants receive, which remains based on selection performance. Our Prioritisation Act guide explains who falls into each tier and when the tier is applied.

One policy question remained unsettled on 3 August 2026. Regulations expected in early autumn were to define any additional 2027 priority subgroup based on significant NHS experience and/or immigration status. Those rules may change your tier while leaving MSRA marks alone. Check NHS England's live page before submitting your application.

So don't choose one universal target and call it safe. Start with the specialty row above. Decide whether your score must clear a floor, win an interview place or carry the whole application, then use the current recruitment guidance to judge the rank you need.