Exam Prep · SBCA · 2027 Cycle
ICGP SBCA 2027: The New Interview Format Explained
Worth 40% of your ranking, and role-play now replaces the old Q&A format entirely
The ICGP interview has a new name and a new format for 2027. It is now the Scenario Based Competency Assessment (SBCA): three live role-play scenarios instead of a panel Q&A. This guide covers what actually happens in the room, what it is worth, and how to prepare for a format built on improvisation, not memorised answers.
Situational Judgement Test
Three role-play scenarios, formerly the interview
Clinical Problem-Solving Test
For the 2027 GP training intake, the ICGP interview has been replaced by the Scenario Based Competency Assessment (SBCA): three separate role-play stations, sat live rather than answered as a Q&A. Each scenario puts you opposite a different counterpart, a patient, a patient's family member, or a work colleague, and you respond as the situation unfolds. The SBCA is worth 40% of your final ranking, second only to the SJT's 50%. It is sat on 3 and 4 February 2027.
If you prepared for the old interview format, most of that groundwork still applies: the same professional judgement is being tested. What has changed is the delivery. You are no longer telling a marker about a past situation from a chair. You are acting the current one out, in real time, opposite an actor.
Role-play rewards a different skill than a rehearsed answer does. A candidate who has memorised a perfect STARR script but has never said it out loud to another person will freeze the moment the "patient" says something unscripted. The SBCA cannot be crammed the way a knowledge test can. It has to be rehearsed as a live conversation, out loud, with someone playing the other part.
SBCA at a Glance: 2027 Intake
- Three separate stations: one each with a patient, a relative, and a colleague
- Each station is 14 minutes: 1 minute reading, 10 minutes live interaction, 3 minutes silent scoring
- An actor is visible at every station; the interviewer scoring you is not
- Around 15 minutes of identity verification before Station 1 begins
- Stations run back to back automatically, roughly an hour online in total
- Worth 40% of your final ranking
- Also a pass/fail hurdle: a minimum standard applies before the 40% counts
- Wed 3 – Thu 4 February 2027, randomly allocated day and time
Sources: ICGP, 2027 Recruitment Process and the ICGP 2027 GP Training Prospectus selection flowchart. Scenario structure (patient, family member, colleague) reflects GP Journey's understanding of the current SBCA rollout.
Every ICGP selection cycle has ended with some form of assessed conversation, and the name and format have shifted more than once: multiple mini-interviews with a single marker per station in some years, simulated patient stations in others. The 2027 cycle brings both a new name and a real format change. The SBCA is built around live role-play rather than a candidate narrating a past example to a panel.
The three scenarios are deliberately different from each other. A patient scenario tests your clinical communication and bedside manner under pressure. A family-member scenario tests something harder: managing someone else's distress, expectations, or anger about a situation that isn't fully in your control. A colleague scenario tests how you handle disagreement, escalation, or a difficult professional conversation with a peer. Together, the three cover most of the working relationships a GP navigates daily.
The marking is blind in a way worth knowing before you walk in: the interviewer scoring each station has no knowledge of what you wrote on your application form, and no knowledge of your SJT or CPST results. Whatever happened on the tests earlier that week, or whatever you wrote months ago on Application A, buys you nothing here. Each station is judged purely on what the interviewer sees in those fourteen minutes.
Three conversations, three different pressures. Prepare for all three separately.
Yes, more than any component except the SJT. The ICGP's official Guide to Applicants states the SBCA (previously the interview) is worth 40% of your final ranking, against 50% for the SJT and 10% for the CPST. The 2027 selection flowchart confirms the same structure: SBCA sits inside Rank & Match as a scored input, right alongside the SJT and CPST.
Like the CPST, the SBCA also has to be passed before that 40% means anything. The flowchart shows a Minimum SBCA Requirements checkpoint: fall short of it, and you are removed from the process regardless of how strong your SJT or CPST scores were. There is no compensation between components. Each one is assessed on its own terms.
Because it is worth 40%, the SBCA is not a component you can afford to under-prepare the way you might the CPST. A strong SJT score cannot cover for a weak SBCA performance the way it can absorb a merely-passed CPST. Treat the SBCA with the same seriousness as the SJT: it is nearly as valuable, and unlike the SJT, it rewards a skill, live conversation under pressure, that most candidates have not deliberately practised since medical school.
Each scenario tests a genuinely different working relationship. Preparing for one does not prepare you for the others; the pressures involved are not interchangeable.
The Patient Scenario
You are in the room with a patient, played by an actor, in a situation that requires clinical communication under some form of pressure: a difficult diagnosis, a disagreement about management, a safety concern the patient is minimising.
The Family Scenario
You are speaking with a patient's family member, who may be distressed, frustrated, or pushing for information or action you cannot fully give them. This scenario is rarely about clinical facts and almost always about managing someone else's emotion while protecting the patient.
The Colleague Scenario
You are in conversation with a colleague, a peer, senior, or team member, in a situation involving disagreement, a performance concern, or a professional boundary. This is the scenario most candidates practise least, and it shows.
The STARR framework, Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection, was built for interviews where you narrate a past example to a panel. The SBCA is different: you are not narrating, you are doing. STARR still has a place, but its job changes from a script you deliver to a mental checklist you carry into a live conversation.
Each station opens with exactly one minute of reading time. You may read the candidate instructions, but you must not begin speaking until that minute has elapsed. Use every second of it to identify who you are talking to, what they want, and what is actually at stake.
What is your actual job in this scenario? Reassure, inform, de-escalate, escalate, set a boundary. Decide this before your opening line, because the actor will respond to whatever you signal first.
This is the whole scenario, and it is live. Respond to what the actor actually says, not to what you rehearsed them saying. A memorised speech that ignores their reaction reads as exactly that: memorised.
Scenarios usually have a natural resolution point: an agreement, a next step, a boundary that holds. Aim for that rather than talking until time runs out.
The ten-minute interaction is followed by three minutes of silent scoring built into every station. You can still see the actor, but you must not interact with them, and you cannot see or hear the interviewer marking you. Camera and sound stay on throughout. Nothing you do in this window changes your score, so there is no reason to keep talking or try to add a late point.
Even though the SBCA is role-play rather than narration, drawing on real memory still matters. The candidates who perform best in the moment are usually the ones who have lived through something similar and can pull genuine instinct from it, not just technique.
Before you start rehearsing scenarios, write down three or four real situations from your own clinical experience for each of the three scenario types: a patient conversation that was genuinely difficult, a family interaction that tested your patience, a colleague disagreement you actually had to navigate. You are not going to recite these in the room. You are building the emotional and practical memory that makes your improvised response sound like it is coming from someone who has actually done this before, because you have.
A candidate with no real reference point tends to perform a version of "what a good doctor would say," which sounds hollow under pressure. A candidate drawing on a real memory, even one they never mention explicitly, responds with instinct rather than guesswork the moment the actor deviates from what they expected.
Preparing a script instead of a skill
Candidates write out what they plan to say almost word for word, then freeze when the actor responds in a way the script didn't cover. A memorised script is brittle. The SBCA is designed to test what happens when the conversation doesn't go where you expected.
Treating all three scenarios the same
A patient conversation, a family conversation, and a colleague conversation require different registers. Candidates who default to one mode, overly clinical, overly soft, overly formal, underperform in whichever scenario doesn't suit that mode.
Only ever rehearsing alone
Reading through scenarios silently or talking through them in your head builds false confidence. Role-play tested only in your imagination collapses the first time a real person responds unpredictably.
Avoiding the colleague scenario in practice
Most candidates rehearse patient and family scenarios heavily because they feel more familiar, and skip the colleague scenario because confrontation with a peer feels uncomfortable to practise. That discomfort is exactly why it needs deliberate rehearsal.
Starting preparation the week before
Live conversational skill under pressure does not improve overnight the way memorising facts can. Candidates who start a week out are relying entirely on instinct they haven't sharpened.
Because the SBCA rewards a live skill rather than recalled knowledge, the preparation curve looks different from the SJT or CPST. Progress is gradual and comes from repetition with a real practice partner, not from reading.
Build your example bank.Write three or four real situations for each scenario type: patient, family, colleague. Do not script dialogue yet, just capture the real memories you will draw on.
Begin low-stakes role-play.Run one scenario of each type per week with a practice partner. Focus on staying in the moment rather than getting it right; getting comfortable with live improvisation matters more early on than polish.
Increase volume, target your weakest scenario type.Most candidates need extra reps on the colleague scenario. Ask your practice partner to genuinely improvise and push back rather than following an easy script.
Full mock sittings, then rest.Run all three scenario types back to back under timed, realistic conditions at least twice. Then stop drilling; live conversational skill degrades under exhaustion, not lack of last-minute practice.
Arrive rested, not rehearsed.Do not run a mock scenario the morning of. Arrive with a clear head; the SBCA rewards presence in the room more than anything you can cram at the last minute.
The SBCA is held online on 3 and 4 February 2027, with candidates randomly allocated to a day and time and notified in advance. Plan for either day; you do not get to choose.
The sitting itself runs on rails. You enter the interview link, complete an identity verification process that takes around 15 minutes, then move into Station 1. From there, the three stations run back to back automatically, 14 minutes each, roughly 42 minutes in total, before you exit the link. You do not control the pace and cannot linger on a station that went well or rush one that didn't; the system moves you on regardless.
The Sitting, Start to Finish
- Enter the interview link and complete identity verification, around 15 minutes
- Station 1: 1 minute reading, 10 minutes live, 3 minutes silent scoring, 14 minutes total
- Station 2: same structure, moves automatically once Station 1 ends
- Station 3: same structure, moves automatically once Station 2 ends
- Exit the interview link, roughly an hour after you started
Camera and sound must stay on for the full sitting, including every silent scoring window. Station timing and structure per GP Journey’s review of the current SBCA candidate briefing.
Because the stations run automatically with no break to compose yourself beyond the built-in 3-minute scoring window, carrying frustration or adrenaline from one station into the next is the single most avoidable way to underperform on a station you were actually prepared for. Use the silent scoring minutes at the end of each station as your reset, not as a chance to keep making your case. Build that same discipline into every practice run so it is automatic on the day.
GP Journey · SBCA Practice
Role-play, not recitation.
Practice it as one.
Scenario stations across all three types, with a practice partner script and marker-style feedback on structure, presence and resolution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ICGP SBCA?
The Scenario Based Competency Assessment (SBCA) is the renamed final stage of ICGP GP training selection, replacing what was previously called the interview. It is worth 40% of your final ranking and is sat as three separate scenario stations, each a role-play with a different counterpart: a patient, a patient's family member, and a work colleague. For the 2027 intake it is sat on 3 and 4 February 2027.
Does the SBCA count towards your GP training ranking?
Yes. Per the ICGP's official Guide to Applicants, the SBCA is worth 40% of your final ranking, alongside 50% for the SJT and 10% for the CPST. It is also a pass/fail hurdle first: the ICGP's own selection flowchart shows a Minimum SBCA Requirements checkpoint before Rank and Match, so candidates who do not meet the standard are removed from the process regardless of their SJT or CPST scores.
What are the three SBCA scenarios?
The SBCA is structured as three stations, one each with a patient, a relative, and a colleague. Each station runs 14 minutes: 1 minute of silent reading time, 10 minutes of live interaction where you play the doctor, and 3 minutes of silent scoring where you stay on camera but do not interact further. Stations run back to back automatically.
How long does the SBCA take in total?
Including identity verification, expect around an hour online. Verification takes roughly 15 minutes, then the three 14-minute stations run automatically back to back, about 42 minutes, before you exit. You do not control the pacing between stations.
Is the SBCA the same as the old ICGP interview?
The SBCA is the renamed and reformatted successor to the interview. Earlier cycles used formats such as multiple mini-interviews with a single marker per station; the SBCA moves to live role-play across three scenario types. The underlying purpose, assessing your professional competencies in realistic situations, is unchanged, but the format and name are new for the 2027 cycle.
When is the ICGP SBCA in 2027?
For the 2027 GP training intake, the SBCA is held on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 February 2027, per the ICGP's published selection timeline. Candidates are randomly allocated a day and time. Dates may be subject to change; always confirm on icgp.ie.
How do I prepare for the SBCA?
Build a bank of real, specific examples from your own clinical experience for each of the three scenario types, then rehearse them as live role-play, out loud, with another person playing the counterpart. The STARR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection) helps structure a response, but because the SBCA is role-play rather than a Q&A interview, practising the actual conversation matters more than writing the perfect script.
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