How the RANZCR exams are marked
Each RANZCR exam turns your answers into a pass in its own way. Knowing how it is marked, and how much time each question gets, changes how you should answer.
Phase 1 Examinations (Anatomy and Applied Imaging Technology)
How it is passed: Each paper is standard-set (2024 S1 cut scores: Anatomy 56.9%, AIT 58.1%); Anatomy also needs a minimum in every body region, and conceded passes are possible.
On the clock: 29 questions in 3 h 48 min: about 8 minutes each.
How it is passed: On the day the MCQs count towards each paper's standard-set total, not as a separate pass.
On the clock: 120 questions in 2 h 12 min: about 66 seconds each.
Phase 2 Written Examinations
How it is passed: Case Reporting needs the overall standard plus minimums in a set number of components (2024 S1 cut 57.7%); Pathology is panel-set (2024 S1 cut 63.9); no negative marking.
On the clock: 45 questions in 4 h 8 min: about 6 minutes each.
How it is passed: Panel standard setting (2024 S1 cut 63.2); up to three attempts at MCQ plus Case Reporting, resitting only the one failed.
On the clock: 100 questions in 2 h: about 72 seconds each.
Objective Structured Clinical Examination in Radiology (OSCER)
How it is passed: Overall standard (62 in 2026 S1) plus a standard in each station; a component pass lets you resit up to three failed stations.
On the clock: 7 stations and 25 min each.
What that means for how you answer
Written answers are marked against a fixed list of points. A point you do not write earns nothing, however obvious it seemed; a long answer that misses the points earns nothing more.
Single-best-answer papers reward the best option for this patient, not a true statement. Read the last line of the stem first, and do not let one hard question eat the time of three easy ones.
Clinical stations are marked against a station guide. Do what the task asks, in the time given, and say your reasoning out loud so the examiner can credit it.
Where marks are most often lost
- Weak plain film interpretation: lobar collapse patterns, the trauma chest radiograph, the abdominal radiograph and non-standard musculoskeletal views. Examiners keep saying: report lots of x-rays.
- Listing differentials when the question asks for the single most likely diagnosis, or giving more answers than requested.
- Vague or incomplete findings, writing the diagnosis as a finding, and wrong terminology (calcification for ossification; not using IOTA or O-RADS descriptors for an adnexal mass).
Pass marks and formats change. Always confirm the current rules on the RANZCR website before you sit.
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