After submission

Once your application has been submitted recruiters will begin to carry out 'longlisting'. For cascadable specialties longlisting is carried out to a defined timetable by which all regions must have completed longlisting their candidates; this is published on the timeline page of the website.

For all other specialties longlisting will be completed no later than seven days prior to the first interview date for that specialty.

The region will check your application and any information accompanying it against the ST3 eligibility criteria (as described within the ST3 person specifications, and detailed on the am I eligible? section of this website). There are three possible outcomes during longlisting:

• Your application is found to be eligible and you can proceed to the next stage (see below).

• Your application is found not to be eligible, you will be emailed confirmation of this as soon as it is confirmed.

• More information is required to establish your eligibility. Where this is the case you will be given a deadline by which to repsond. It is highly important to respond by the deadline as otherwise your application is likely to be rejected. Upon receipt of the requested information it will be decided whether or not you can proceed.

If you do not hear anything during the longlisting period this is likely to mean that 'no news is good news' as recruiters only initially contact applications where they require clarification or they are not eligible.

Acceptance of application form

Once longlisting has been completed, eligible candidates will receive an email to confirm this and information about the next steps.

This is not a guarantee of eligibility - in the event information arises later in the process showing that you are not eligible, your application can still be rejected at that point.

For more information on the eligibility criteria and the process by which you can demonstrate that you meet them, please see the am I eligible? section of this website.

If your application is judged to be eligible, it will then progress to shortlisting, where it is established if and where you will be interviewed. Shortlisting takes place once longlisting is complete; this is included in the timeline for the round.

This process will vary somewhat between different specialties depending on the recruitment model being used.

Application forms are scored via self-assessment of the answers provided by you in the scoring section of the application form.

To give transparency and guidance on how to complete your form, an application scoring page has been published on this website, which details the scores available for each area of achievement  - eg experience, achievements, qualifications, etc.

The total score of each application, referred to as a 'shortlist' (or 'SL') score, will be the basis upon which all applications are ranked and assigned to interviews.

To view the scores awarded to all submitted applications, including average scores and distribution nationally, for previous years please visit the relevant specialty's page.

Cascadable application model

(Applies in round 1 only, and to the following specialties: acute internal medicine, cardiology, endocrinology and diabetes, geriatric medicine and renal medicine.)

Where possible, you will be invited to interview at the region you gave as your first-choice preference.

However, in the event the interview capacity of that region has been filled by candidates with higher SL scores, you will instead be invited by your second-choice preference region. If your second-choice region has also filled its interview capacity with higher SL-scorers, you will be invited by your third-choice; and so on.

If you do not score high enough for any or your choices you will be placed on a reserve list and contacted if interview places become available due to higher scoring candidates withdrawing their application.

Once this shortlisting cascade is complete, you will be emailed to confirm whether you have been shortlisted and your interviewing region can be confirmed. Shortlisting for all cascadable application model specialties will be conducted to a national timeframe. 

All other specialties

As there is only one overall region to which candidates can be allocated, this is just a question of whether the number of eligible applicants is greater than the overall interview capacity for the specialty.

Shortlisting for all specialties will be completed at least seven days prior to the start of their interviews. By this date, all candidates will be emailed confirmation that they will be invited to interview or have been placed on a reserve list. Reserve list candidates will be subsequently invited if places become available due to higher scoring candidates withdrawing their application.