RACP Basic Training: Complete Guide
How RACP Basic Training actually works: the 36-month time requirements, why entry is state-by-state, and what selection panels are really scoring.
You’re probably a PGY2 or early PGY3 doctor — postgraduate year two or three, counting from the year you graduated — staring at three tabs, five conflicting opinions, and one big question: how do you get into RACP Basic Training without wasting months on the wrong prep? Some advice makes it sound like a single national process. It’s messier than that, and that’s exactly where people lose time, miss local requirements, and walk into interviews undercooked.
RACP Basic Training — the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ three-year first stage of physician training — is not hard because the college is vague. It’s hard because the pathway has a central framework and a local selection layer. If you treat it like a generic application, you’ll miss the parts that matter most. If you treat it like a state and network recruitment problem first, then an examination pathway second, you’ll plan better and waste less effort.
Table of Contents
- Why RACP Basic Training Feels Overwhelming at First
- The 36 Month Pathway Structure Explained
- State and Network Entry Requirements That Catch Candidates Out
- What Selection Panels Actually Score in MMI Stations
- Aligning Rotations and Exam Readiness Across Three Years
- Navigating the 2025 Curriculum Changes and New Training Platform
- Your Preparation Action Plan and Common Mistakes to Avoid
Why RACP Basic Training Feels Overwhelming at First
A PGY2 doctor hears that RACP Basic Training is the next step, opens a few tabs, and immediately gets conflicting advice. One page treats it like a national process, another points to local interviews, and the hospital network says the Director of Physician Education has to approve the application. That mix is exactly why people stall.
The pressure comes from structure, not weakness. Basic Training in Adult Internal Medicine requires 3 years of full-time equivalent training — 36 months of certified training time — and you progress to Advanced Training only after passing both the Divisional Written and Divisional Clinical Examinations (RACP Adult Internal Medicine Basic Training). Advanced Training then runs for a further three years in most specialties, so the honest total is at least six years after internship, not three.
Entry is local as much as it is national. Every rotation has to be approved by your Director of Physician Education (DPE — the consultant at your hospital or network responsible for physician trainees), and the College publishes separate entry guidance for each state and territory, in both divisions (RACP entry into Basic Training). That page is a list of jurisdictions for a reason.
What juniors usually get wrong
They keep hunting for one clean answer. There isn’t one.
Practical rule: if your plan ignores the state process, your hospital network, and the Director of Physician Education, it is incomplete.
Generic checklists miss the core bottleneck. They tell you that you need to be eligible, but they do not tell you how selection works in a specific hospital or network. They tell you to prepare for the pathway, but they skip the fact that the pathway sits inside local workforce processes that can differ sharply between states.
Timing trips people up too. Many doctors wait for a vague supervisor nod and assume they can sort the rest later. That is backwards. The local selection step often decides whether an application moves at all, long before the College side matters.
The 36 Month Pathway Structure Explained
A lot of juniors treat RACP Basic Training like a single application with a clean finish line. It is not. It is a three-year clinical program with time requirements that are more specific than most applicants realise. Of the 36 months, at least 24 must be core training rotations, at least 24 must be in general medicine and its specialties, at least 24 must be completed in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand, at least 12 must be at a Level 3 principal training hospital, and at least 3 must be outside one — ideally at a Level 1 hospital or a rural secondment site (RACP Adult Internal Medicine Basic Training). Those are not suggestions; they are what “certified” means when your training time is signed off.
What happens across the three years
Entry comes first, and this is where the national-versus-local split bites. There is no single published national eligibility checklist you can work from — the College routes applicants to their own state or territory’s entry page, separately for Adult Internal Medicine and for Paediatrics & Child Health (RACP entry into Basic Training). What is common everywhere is that you need general medical registration, a post in an accredited hospital, and your DPE’s involvement. What differs is the recruitment calendar, the interview format and who runs it. Read your own jurisdiction’s page before you read anything else, including this one.
Once you are in, the pathway is active, not passive. Basic Training is a structured national program, so rotations, assessments, and compliance all need attention from day one. Leave those until exam season and you will already be behind. The written exam is meant to test readiness for advanced training, while the clinical exam assesses clinical skill at the end of Basic Training.
The non negotiables trainees forget
Alongside the clinical time there is a fixed set of courses and work-based assessments, and they are part of the program rather than background admin. The College requires an Advanced Life Support course or equivalent before the end of Basic Training, and the Australian Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety online course for anyone who commenced from 2022 onwards. On top of that, each year: two Learning Needs Analyses, four Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercises, two Professional Qualities Reflections, a Ward or Service Consultant Report per rotation, and mid-year and annual progress reports (RACP Adult Internal Medicine Basic Training).
- Entry eligibility: sort this before you assume any training offer is secure.
- Every rotation: the Ward or Service Consultant Report is due at the end of it, not later.
- Across the program: treat structured learning as part of training, not a side task.
- End of Basic Training: prepare for both the written and clinical exam gates.
The trainees who handle this well do one thing consistently, they build exam readiness while they are still rotating. They document progress, collect experience across the right settings, and keep their training requirements in view the whole time. The trainees who fall behind usually assume the final year will fix poor planning. It will not.
State and Network Entry Requirements That Catch Candidates Out
The first mistake with RACP Basic Training entry is treating it like a single national process. It is not. The College sets the baseline requirements, but the actual pathway sits inside state and network recruitment, which is why the entry pages are split by jurisdiction entry into Basic Training. That local layer is where capable applicants lose time.
National eligibility is only the starting point
The national baseline gets you considered, not selected. Registration, an accredited post and DPE involvement are the floor. Meeting them makes you eligible; the local process decides whether you get a place (RACP entry into Basic Training).
That distinction matters because local hospitals and networks still decide who fits their workforce needs. In practice, that means different interview structures, different panel expectations, and different timelines. If you prepare using one state’s process and then move interstate without checking the local rules, you create unnecessary problems for yourself.
Why one size fits no one
The College splits its entry pages by state and territory for a reason. Candidates keep looking for one universal answer because that would be easier, but the process is tied to hospital networks, recruitment calendars, and local approval pathways. The Director of Physician Education is not a ceremonial sign-off. That approval is part of the gate.
A better way to read the system is simple. National requirements tell you whether you can compete. State and network processes decide whether you get a training spot.
What to do with that reality
Check your state page first. Generic forum advice is rarely enough.
Ask about the local interview format early. Panels vary in style and emphasis, and that catches people off guard.
Confirm the network requirements before you assume anything is settled. An accredited hospital position and local approval are not optional extras.
Clarify your timing against your own jurisdiction’s recruitment calendar rather than a national rule of thumb, because the calendars do not line up.
State variation matters more than usual right now, because the curriculum and the administration platform both changed for trainees starting from 2025. Advice from a colleague two years ahead of you may be describing a different program.
What Selection Panels Actually Score in MMI Stations
A strong CV does not carry you through RACP Basic Training selection. Candidates often walk in ready to recite achievements, then freeze when the panel asks about judgement, teamwork, or a difficult conversation.
Before anything else: there is no single national RACP interview format, and any guide that gives you one has invented it. The College’s guidance to selection committees says a multiple mini interview (MMI — a circuit of short timed stations, each with its own assessor and scenario, rather than one long panel) typically runs five to ten stations, and that questions should be built from the selection criteria and asked wherever possible as past-behaviour questions rather than hypotheticals (RACP guidance on interviewing). The number of stations, who runs them and what they weight is set locally.
One worked example on that page is worth reading in full — Western Australia’s Adult Internal Medicine networks, which since 2015 have run a two-stage process of application review and a five-station MMI with two assessors per station, both stages scored equally, against criteria covering commitment to physician training, clinical and cultural competence, professionalism and ethical behaviour, and communication and interpersonal skills. That is one state’s arrangement described in a College case study, not the national rule, and it may have changed since. Check your own network’s current documentation.
What panels actually want
Panels want evidence that you can work with people, think ethically, communicate clearly, and act like a physician. They do not reward a polished speech. They reward specific examples, honest reflection, and decisions that make sense in a real clinical setting.
The common mistake is overpreparing content and underpreparing behaviour. Some candidates can describe a career plan in detail but cannot explain how they handled conflict, approached a cultural issue, or contributed to a team under pressure. That fails the station because the rubric is behavioural, not academic.
What to practise instead of cramming facts
Use situations you have handled. Keep each answer short, direct, and tied to the criterion in front of you. If the station is about ethics, show a clear decision process. If it is about teamwork, describe your actions, not your admiration for the team.
Strong MMI answers sound like a competent registrar speaking to a consultant, not like a candidate trying to impress a committee.
| Criterion (WA Adult Internal Medicine example) | What panels assess | Strong response characteristics | Common weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | Clarity, structure, active listening | Direct, organised, easy to follow | Rambling, over-explaining, hiding the point |
| Cultural competence | Respect, awareness, appropriate judgement | Specific, thoughtful, patient-centred | Tokenistic language, generic respect statements |
| Ethics | Reasoning, safety, professionalism | Balanced, principled, realistic | Giving a rule without explaining why |
| Teamwork | Collaboration, reliability, accountability | Shows actions, not just good intentions | Self-congratulation, no real example |
| Commitment to a physician career | Motivation and insight | Shows understanding of the role | Sounding interested in medicine but not physicians |
Selection tests readiness to enter the pathway. Training then asks you to complete the courses, assessments and clinical time, and to meet the exam standards. Candidates waste time when they blur those stages and prepare the wrong thing.
Aligning Rotations and Exam Readiness Across Three Years
The Divisional Written Examination and Divisional Clinical Examination are the main gates in RACP Basic Training. The College’s eLearning guidance is clear, the written exam checks readiness for advanced training, and the clinical exam checks clinical skill at the end of Basic Training. If you leave either one until the last minute, you make the whole pathway harder than it needs to be.
Build the year around exposure, not hope
Rotation choice should do two jobs. It should give you broad internal medicine exposure so you are not scrambling to fill gaps in the final year. It should also keep you close to cases that sharpen reasoning, deterioration recognition, procedural confidence, and handover discipline. The written exam rewards breadth and clinical reasoning. The clinical exam exposes anyone who has spent three years avoiding direct patient discussion.
A lot of juniors still say, “I’ll study later.” That is the wrong mindset. The exam is not just a knowledge check. It is pattern recognition built from repeated clinical exposure, and that starts on the ward.
Treat compliance as part of study
The Advanced Life Support course, the cultural competence and cultural safety course, and the work-based assessments due each year are not separate from exam readiness. They are part of professional formation, and they keep your training certified while you build the clinical base you will need later.
Put them in your calendar the same way you would a term review or clinic. Do not leave them until you are buried under exam revision. People who do that end up juggling course completion, supervisor sign-offs, and study at the same time, and everything starts to feel urgent.
Practical rule: the best exam plan starts in year one, not in year three.
Where to focus across the pathway
Use the early years to build breadth, the middle years to sharpen judgement, and the final stretch to rehearse under time pressure. And if you are still deciding whether physician training is the pathway you want, our guide to specialty selection interviews in Australia sets out how the other colleges select — some nationally, some through a state network, and in the largest entry cohort in the country, with no interview at all.
One more practical point. Local selection rules, rotation access, and Director of Physician Education approval can vary by state and network, so do not rely on national advice alone. Check the local process early, then build rotations and exam prep around what your region expects.
Navigating the 2025 Curriculum Changes and New Training Platform
If you are starting RACP Basic Training now, you are on a different curriculum from anyone who started before 2025. Trainees who began before 2025 follow the PREP curriculum — Physician Readiness for Expert Practice — while first-year trainees starting from 2025 follow a new curriculum, administered through a new Training Management Platform rather than the old PREP portals (RACP Basic Training). Old screenshots, old handbook PDFs and advice from someone who trained under PREP will not map cleanly onto what you are doing.
What changes and what doesn’t
The curriculum has changed, and the admin platform has changed. The pathway itself has not. You still need to meet eligibility, enter through a local selection process, complete the required learning components, and pass the relevant exams to progress.
That distinction matters because public guides often blur three separate tasks into one. Interview preparation is about behavioural evidence. Compliance is about meeting program requirements. Exam preparation is about clinical reasoning and knowledge under pressure. Treat them as one thing and you end up studying the wrong material for the wrong milestone.
How to keep your prep current
Start with the College’s current pages, then check whether any guide you use matches the latest curriculum and training workflow. If a resource sounds confident but cannot show where its process comes from, assume it is stale.
That matters even more now because system changes create avoidable errors. A missed update, a wrong assumption about timelines, or confusion about the new platform can burn time you do not get back.
Keep interview prep, compliance tracking, and exam study separate from the start. One document should not try to do all three jobs.
Your Preparation Action Plan and Common Mistakes to Avoid
A common failure point is treating RACP Basic Training like a single national process. It is not. Start by checking your local state or network pathway, the interview format used in that region, and the Director of Physician Education approval step. Miss one of those, and strong preparation will not save you.
Then prepare for what your panel actually scores. Find your network’s published selection criteria and build a past-behaviour example against each one — a thing you did, not a thing you would do. Generic interview polish is weak here. Panels want evidence, not rehearsed lines.
Your training plan also needs to run alongside exam preparation. Do not wait until you feel settled before you start studying. Spread it across the whole 36 months, and get the courses and work-based assessments done on schedule rather than in a block at the end of the year.
The highest impact actions
- Map the local process now: check your state page, your network expectations, and the Director of Physician Education approval step.
- Prepare against your own network’s published criteria, not a generic domain list — then build past-behaviour examples for each one.
- Treat the pathway as continuous: build study habits while you’re still rotating.
- Keep assessments current: Learning Needs Analyses, Mini-CEXs, reflections and consultant reports, on schedule rather than in arrears.
- Keep the curriculum current: use materials that reflect the 2025 curriculum and the new training platform.
The biggest mistake is assuming one checklist covers everyone. Candidates copy national advice, then get tripped up by local recruitment rules, local interview formats, or approval steps that were never mentioned in the generic guide. The second mistake is overstudying knowledge questions for a behavioural selection process. That wastes time and gives you poor interview answers.
If you are already in the process, sort the recruitment step first, then the interview format, then your training and exam plan. Do it in the wrong order and you stay busy while staying unready.
CliniRoo is building preparation material for the Australian pathway, including specialty selection interviews and the college examinations. Nothing is on sale yet. If you want to be told when there is something to use, CliniRoo takes an email address and does nothing else with it.