Two stations of 15 minutes each, as published for 2026: the Management and Clinical Station and the Portfolio Station. Your mock interviews follow the same two stations, scored as one interview.

NHS England has confirmed the two 15-minute stations and the 10, 45 and 45 split for 2027. The portfolio guidance online is still the 2025 to 2026 version; it says the domains will probably be regrouped under Good Medical Practice headings from 2027, a change it calls cosmetic. Extra CST posts start from February 2027, offered from existing reserve lists since August 2026. We check every specialty against each year's official guidance when it is published.

NHS England recorded 4,975 applications for 720 posts in 2026, against 5,399 for 630 in 2025. These are applications rather than people.

Applications open on 22 October 2026 and close on 19 November 2026 (Round 1). Interviews are on 1 to 10 March 2027. Initial offers are released by 6 April 2027.

For 2027, about the top 1,200 MSRA scorers. Your portfolio doesn't count at this stage: you upload your evidence only once you're invited. The new prioritisation rules also apply to interview invitations from 2027, so candidates in the priority group are considered first.

It may. From 2027, the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 applies to interview invitations as well as offers (in 2026 it applied at offers only). You are in the priority group if any of these apply: your primary medical qualification is from the UK or Ireland (unless you trained mostly outside them), or from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland; you are a British or Irish citizen, or have the right of abode, indefinite leave to remain or status under the EU Settlement Scheme; or you have completed, or are on, the UK Foundation Programme. Trust-based posts do not count. It does not change the interview or your rank. Your status shows in Oriel, and the deadline to ask for a review is 5pm on 24 November 2026.

In 2027 you can make at most five applications in each recruitment round, across all specialties.

Yes. In the Prep Lounge you meet another CST candidate on video: one of you interviews, the other answers, and you both score the answer with the same mark scheme. Core includes 10 sessions, Pro 20 and Elite 40.

We read it once to list your experience and never store the file. You check the list, and only the list is kept, private to your account. It's used to point out what you left out of career answers, and it never changes your scores. You can edit or delete it at any time.

Every plan opens the whole Core Surgical Training Interview Library and your progress and prep plan. If you add your CV, you also get feedback on what you left out of career answers. The plans differ in their tutor sessions, mock interview sittings and Prep Lounge sessions: 90, 3 and 10 on Core; 180, 6 and 20 on Pro; 360, 10 and 40 on Elite.

Yes. Sign up free, confirm your email and choose Core Surgical Training, and four of its questions open: read each model answer as often as you like and practise each question out loud twice with the Virtual Tutor. The rest of the Library, the mock interviews and the Prep Lounge come with a plan.

Three months from the day you buy it. It is paid once and does not renew.

No. A plan covers one specialty, which you choose when you sign up.

The moment you press Start, even if you leave before answering. A Prep Lounge session is held when you book it and used only when it runs, so a cancelled session, or one your partner never joins, uses nothing. Reading the Library never uses anything.

Yes. Sitting one again uses another sitting from your plan, and your earlier report stays.

Yes. You pay the difference in price, and your end date stays the same.

You get one for each friend who signs up, and can hold up to three at once.