Questions r/ausjdocs keeps asking

The RACP doesn't select you — a state network or a single hospital does, and the PGY floor has split by jurisdiction. NSW will not approve PGY2s and puts you on a three-year contract; QLD, SA and some Victorian services still take PGY2s. Queensland took 242 of 309 applicants for the 2027 year. Physician training (BPT / general medicine) guide full answer

Two applications, not one. You need 24 months of general hospital experience, so you apply in PGY2 to start PGY3, and you need both a RANZCP Branch Training Committee selection and an accredited job. Research scores zero. Nationally it is not competitive — intake fell 455 to 429 — but your preferred metro service is. Psychiatry guide full answer

Buy a CRVN ($800, expires 31 December whatever month you bought it), fill in the RANZCR templated CV, then apply to jurisdictions — everywhere except Victoria advertises posts directly. Two full postgraduate years by commencement, so you can apply in PGY2 and start PGY3. Four non-consecutive attempts, lifetime. Radiology guide full answer

RACS selects, not the hospital. Register college-wide in January, apply to the specialty in February, and clear the gates first: PR or citizenship, general registration, a GSSE pass, 26 weeks of general surgery and 8 weeks of critical care. Then rank top 50% to be interviewed. 2026 intake: 195 applications, 50 offers. General surgery guide full answer

You don't apply to ANZCA — you get hired. The college floor is general registration plus two years' general hospital experience, at most 12 months of it anaesthesia or ICU. A department or state scheme then appoints you and you register afterwards. Apply June–July of your feeder year for the 2027 clinical year. Anaesthetics guide full answer

RACGP: sit Casper, pick up to six pathway/region preferences, and that is the whole application — no CV, no referees, no interview. You can apply as an intern. ACRRM is the opposite: five 250-word essays at 40% and a six-station MMI at 60%. Every 2027 place went in round one. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

RACP allows entry from PGY2, but the employer decides and most states want PGY3. Victoria is the only PGY2 door — the RCH JRMO, applied for as an intern, no paeds needed. NSW is one application across three networks; Queensland goes through the June RMO campaign; WA and Tasmania want you in a paeds job first. Paediatrics guide full answer

Two gates. Win an ED job through your state campaign, bank six clean FTE months in one Level 3+ ED, then apply to ACEM in Round 1 or Round 2 — 4 May – 2 Jun and 3 Aug – 1 Sep 2026 for the 2027 intake. No interview, no exam, no quota: selection is against a standard. Emergency medicine guide full answer

Backwards from every other college: get the job first, then register. You cannot apply to CICM until you already have six months in an accredited ICU. Then it is a structured CV, three references and a $3,250 fee — no interview, no ranking. Two two-week intake windows a year. Intensive care guide full answer

Check your college's rubric before you pay. Orthopaedics caps all courses at 3 points; urology scores ASSET, CCrISP, EMST and CLEAR at zero; vascular gives EMST and CCrISP one point each; O&G gives 6 for the Prevocational Pathway and 1–3 for anything else, never both. ALS2 is credentialing, not points. full answer

One national RANZCOG round a year — applications mid-March to mid-April, interviews June, offers late July. For the 2027 intake the score was CV 35%, mini-MSF 20%, interview 45%, and everyone gets interviewed. Roughly the top third to half of Australian applicants get on. Three attempts. Obstetrics & gynaecology guide full answer

Not your CV. Reputation is now formally scored — general surgery samples 15+ non-consultant referees and under five valid reports makes you unsuitable; cardiothoracic's unit assessment can rule you ineligible outright; ACEM's institutional reference is written by the ED Director. Lying, being two-faced and being untrainable are what people report as fatal. full answer

Queensland on base, at every junior grade: intern $97,509 against NSW's $80,638. But Victorian and Tasmanian registrars work a 43-hour ordinary week and WA a 40-hour one, so the annual ranking is not the hourly ranking. Overtime and penalties move people further than base does. full answer

Record it contemporaneously, claim it through your award's process, and keep your own copy. Published research found 73.5% of doctors worked five or more unrostered hours a fortnight but only 15.6% claimed all of it. Three jurisdictions have since settled unpaid-overtime class actions worth over $400 million. full answer

ATO 2023-24 puts the median GP taxable income at $156,733 across 27,776 GPs, with a mean of $196,060. That is income after business deductions, not what you bill and not a salary. GPs also work the shortest week of any medical group at 35.7 hours. Billing model matters more than anything else. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

Base of roughly $108,000–$160,000 depending on state and step — NSW Registrar Year 1 $117,745, Queensland L4 $133,848. Gross is a different number: overtime, penalties and on-call routinely add 20–60%, and a heavy NSW Year 3 roster reaches about $211,000. Divide by hours before you compare states. full answer

Three jurisdictions have settled: Victoria $175m across 30 actions and 36 health services, NSW in the range of $230m–$300m covering more than 20,000 doctors for 2014–2020, and the ACT $31.5m for 2,200 doctors. Individual shares came in well below assessed losses. New actions are running. full answer

Public hospitals are FBT-exempt up to a $17,000 grossed-up cap per employee, roughly $9,010 of actual pre-tax benefits a year. You nominate expenses, they come out before tax, and you keep the difference — except in NSW, where the tax saving is split 50/50 with the health agency by policy directive. full answer

Benchmark against booked shifts, not agency cards. Medlo's 2025 averages from actual bookings are $141.20/hr for RMOs (n=16,321), $176.30 for registrars (n=41,424) and $231.82 for consultants (n=6,063). Agency guide rates sit systematically below that. Then add ~30% for what you are giving up. full answer

For a year or two, often yes. As a career, it costs you training, security and a borrowing profile. Booked-shift averages run $141.20/hr RMO and $176.30/hr registrar, well above award hourly — but you fund your own leave, super and indemnity, and no locum year counts toward a training program. full answer

A median of $15,320 a year, per AusDoc's survey of 660 doctors — most between $10,000 and $25,000, full-timers $18,200 and part-timers $12,500. Registration alone was $1,027 for 2024-25. That is before college training fees, which run $2,350–$6,787 a year on their own. full answer

Separately, to each state, on its own portal and timetable. Nothing stops you applying to all of them — for the 2027 year WA and TAS opened 25 May, QLD 1 June, SA 10 June, NSW 14 July, Victoria 27 July. The work is that every campaign wants a different CV and a different referee count. full answer

Late May to early August, one central window per state, and they do not overlap neatly. For the 2026 campaign (2027 clinical year): WA and TAS 25 May, QLD 1 June, SA 10 June, NSW main round 14 July, VIC's PMCV match 27 July. Every date moves a week or two each year. full answer

Apply into the central campaign and then work the phone. In Victoria the internal pre-match offers close before the PGY2 Match even opens, so the pool you compete in is smaller than the number of jobs. In NSW you apply position by position. Outer-metro and mid-year vacancies are where external applicants actually land. full answer

All of them, in your honest order. Victoria's PMCV match takes 1–15 health services, SA takes four programs, WA three sites; NSW is not a preference system at all outside BPT and the surgical network — you apply per position. An unlisted service cannot offer you anything. full answer

Mostly geography. RMO/HMO2/JHO/TMO all mean PGY2. SRMO/HMO3/SHO all mean PGY3+ and still supervised. PHO (QLD), SMR (WA), "service registrar" (SA) and "unaccredited trainee" (NSW) are one job under four names — the non-training registrar. The title tells you the award step, not the work. full answer

Assume silence means nothing and work the published dates. NSW lists its offer windows — for the 2027 year, main-round offers late Aug to Oct and a second round from 29 Sep. Most NSW hospitals never send a rejection; they hold your application in case someone declines. Phone the workforce unit, then apply elsewhere. full answer

Stop refreshing portals and start emailing medical workforce units. There are formal late rounds — SA runs late-vacancy management from 22 Oct to 1 Feb, QLD an open round from 9 Nov, WA a mid-year pool from January — and NSW advertises ad-hoc vacancies year-round. People withdraw in December and January. Jobs appear. full answer

Yes, and they are on the official calendar. NSW's second round opened 29 Sep 2026 for the 2027 year, SA runs offer rounds to 8 Oct then late-vacancy management from 22 Oct to 1 Feb, QLD re-preferences unsuccessful applicants in early September. Victoria is the exception — PMCV runs no second round at all. full answer

Yes. Before you sign you are declining an offer; after you sign, the NSW award ends it on four weeks' written notice. The cost is reputational and local, not legal. Campaigns give you 48 hours to accept, which is exactly why people accept first and think later. full answer

Four weeks in NSW, VIC and QLD; two weeks in SA and the ACT; 14 days in the NT; four to twelve in TAS; and in WA it scales with contract length, four weeks up to 12 months. The Fair Work Act does not set employee notice — your award or agreement does. full answer

50 hours a calendar year: at least 25 reviewing performance and measuring outcomes, at least 12.5 educational, the rest wherever you like, plus a written plan before you start. A CPD home is the AMC-accredited body that sets the program and reports you to the Board; there are 23. Interns and most PGY2s are exempt. full answer

Any of the six insurers the Medical Board recognises — the real answer is "one of them, today". At JMO level it is free or near-free: MIGA advertises free cover for doctors in training until midway through PGY3. Your hospital indemnifies only what you do as its employee; everything else is yours. full answer

Someone raises a concern, Ahpra and the Board assess the risk, and you are usually asked to respond. Ahpra aims to finish assessment within 60 days. It publishes that 85-90% of cases need no regulatory action and about 3% reach a panel or tribunal. Ring your MDO before you write anything. full answer

Usually not, and the Board says so in the standard itself: not all applicants with a criminal history are refused registration. It weighs twelve factors — the nature of the offence and its relevance to practice, gravity, time elapsed, sentence, your age, conduct since, future risk to patients. Declare everything, including spent convictions. full answer

Yes. WA's agreement says it in terms — any contract "including a fixed term contract" ends on notice — and Queensland Health's own RMO policy lists resignation on four weeks' written notice as a normal way employment ceases. You serve the notice in your instrument. The cost is reputational, not legal. full answer

Get support first, document second, decide about a complaint third. Drs4Drs is free, confidential and 24/7 on 1300 374 377, with a service in every state; Lifeline is 13 11 14. Your union (ASMOF or the AMA) represents you in a grievance. And assume "anonymous" feedback is not anonymous. full answer

Get a GP who is not a colleague, get leave booked, and call someone tonight if you need to. Drs4Drs is free, confidential, 24/7 on 1300 374 377 with a service in every state; Lifeline is 13 11 14. Since March 2020 a treating doctor only has to notify Ahpra at a substantial risk of harm. full answer

Most don't leave — they leave the hospital. The accredited low-contact exits are real specialties: medical administration through RACMA, public health medicine through RACP's faculty, pathology through RCPA, radiology through RANZCR. Actual Australian attrition out of clinical practice is not published. full answer

Because the people who hold the training posts also hold your references, and complaining costs more than tolerating. RACS's own 2015 survey found 49% of Fellows, Trainees and IMGs reported discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment. Support: Drs4Drs 1300 374 377, 24/7 and confidential; Lifeline 13 11 14. General surgery guide full answer

Several colleges decide it for you. Plastics allows three eligible attempts and publishes the odds — 15.19% get on at the first attempt, 10.95% at the second, 4.24% at the third. Neurosurgery caps at four, extendable to six. Where there is no cap, the test is whether you are getting closer, not whether you still want it. full answer

Choose on where you want to work, not on prestige. FRACGP is 3 years FTE and selects on a single situational-judgement test. FACRRM is 4 years, requires 12 months in MMM4–7, and selects on referees, five essays and a six-station MMI. Both now lead to the same protected Rural Generalist title. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

A GP fellowship plus a year of advanced skills. FACRRM is 4 years — 3 years core generalist training including 12 months in MMM4–7, then 12 months of AST. FRACGP-RG is also 4 years: 12 months hospital, 18 months GP, 6 months core emergency and 12 months ARST. From March 2027 the title is protected. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

It isn't any more. A record 1,772 doctors started AGPT in 2026, up 19%, with another 1,110 eligible applicants missing out; every 2027 place went in the main round and the second intake was cancelled. The old reputation came from hospital-only exposure and from Medicare rebates being mistaken for GP income. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

Length and exit cost, not prestige. FRACGP is 3 years FTE with a free application. FRACP is 36 months basic training plus 3–4 years advanced — six years minimum, with a $2,329 written and a $3,484 clinical exam. GP is now the harder door to walk back through: every 2027 place went in round one. full answer

The Generic Surgical Sciences Examination: two papers over two consecutive days, anatomy, pathology and physiology, required by all nine RACS specialty boards, A$4,850 incl GST per attempt. Component failure fails you overall regardless of total score. Budget roughly four months full-tilt and sit it early. General surgery guide full answer

Long runway, study group, and plan for more than one attempt. The ANZCA primary is 150 MCQs, 15 SAQs and three vivas, with separate hurdles — you must pass the MCQ, reach 42.7% on the SAQ and 50% combined SAQ plus viva. It costs $6,590 a sitting; CICM's First Part is $5,780. Anaesthetics guide full answer

Between about $2,000 and $7,000 a year in training fees, plus $2,000–$6,500 per exam sitting, plus registration and indemnity. RACP is $4,230 a year, ANZCA $3,930 with a $6,590 primary, RANZCR's OSCER alone is $6,519, and one GSSE attempt is A$4,850. Resits are full price. full answer

Not published. RACS does not publish a pass mark or a pass rate — the GSSE is criterion-referenced. Every number in circulation, including the widely quoted ~59%, comes from exam-prep vendors reconstructing it. What RACS does publish is the rule that matters: fail one component and you fail overall. General surgery guide full answer

CICM and RANZCR, on what little is published. CICM releases per-sitting examiner reports, not a headline rate; a 2023.1 Second Part sitting is reported at 31% and a recent OSCER at 38%. RACP sits far higher — 73.8% adult, 75.9% paediatric on the Feb 2026 written. RACS and ACEM publish no rate at all. full answer

Usually not, and a research masters beats a coursework one everywhere both are distinguished. Vascular pays 3 for research and 2 for coursework; OHNS 1 and 0.5; orthopaedics 2, and names public health, physiotherapy and health management as ineligible. RANZCOG scores none at all. full answer

No. Urology pays the most of any published rubric at 8 points, out of a CV worth 54. RANZCO pays 5 of 29 and makes it mutually exclusive with nothing; RANZCOG pays 3 but then you forfeit your publication and presentation points. Queensland BPT scores it at zero. full answer

ICMJE requires all four criteria — contribution, drafting or revising, final approval, and accountability. Collecting data alone does not qualify. For scoring, only the ends of the author list matter: general surgery counts first or senior author, urology pays half a point for second author and nothing from third onward. full answer

Join someone who already publishes rather than inventing a project. Do an audit first — WA's BPT rubric scores audit and QI alongside publications, and CICM bundles audit into one research domain. Check your college's recency window before you start: general surgery counts only the last five years. full answer

Fewer than you think, because every published rubric caps the section. Orthopaedics tops out at 4 points with first-author papers worth 3 each; neurosurgery caps at 2; RANZCOG at 2. Urology is the most generous and still tops out around five papers. Queensland BPT scores publications at zero. full answer

Sometimes half a point, often nothing. Orthopaedics and OHNS score case reports at zero. Vascular pays 0.5, first author only, capped at one; urology 0.5, capped at two. Plastics' 2028 gate excludes them outright. Write one to learn the machinery, not to move a score. full answer

Consultant, with one exception per state. Victoria wants 2–3 referees of whom at least two are consultants, so one may be a registrar. Queensland takes two reports with at most one from a registrar. NSW wants two, at least one a current or recent supervisor. SA's BPT excludes registrars entirely. full answer

Ask early, ask for a *strong* reference, and give them the deadline. Queensland's referee reports for the 2027 year were due 30 August 2026, two months after applications closed; SA's were due 8 July and an incomplete report makes you ineligible. Then chase by phone, not email. full answer

Between nothing and 40% depending on who is selecting. Orthopaedics scores the verbal referee report at 40% of the rank with the CV at 0%; SA adult BPT weights referees 30% against a CV worth 10%. Queensland BPT and ACRRM score them at zero. full answer

Treat it as feedback, not a dead end. SA makes an incomplete referee report an eligibility failure, Queensland requires two reports and Victoria two to three — so you need a route, not a workaround. Seek actionable feedback, then ask again on the strength of the change. full answer

Yes. For the 2027 intake RACGP filled every place in the main round and cancelled the second round entirely. In 2026 a record 1,772 commenced and a further 1,110 eligible doctors applied and missed out. There is no published applicant-to-place ratio — the 2,962-for-1,639 figure is a community read of the distribution matrix. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

Nationally, not very — and the trend is the other way. RANZCP intake fell 455 in 2024 to 429 in 2025, with NSW down 25% to 94, and WA, the only jurisdiction publishing a ratio, runs about 2:1. What is competitive is a specific metro service, not the specialty. Research scores zero. Psychiatry guide full answer

Very. ANZCA does not select — a hospital department or state scheme does, off a crit-care SRMO year that works as a six-month audition. Queensland's 2026 first-year round took 51 from 404 eligible applications. PGY4 is the modal entry year and PGY3 entry is now rare. Anaesthetics guide full answer

Harder than BPT, easier than surgical SET, and tightening. Queensland is the only jurisdiction publishing a ratio: 168 eligible applications for 29 first-year places. National first-year posts have been flat to falling — 134 in 2022 down to 121 in 2026, New Zealand included. PGY3-4 entry is normal; four attempts, then you are out. Radiology guide full answer

Intensive care, psychiatry outside the flagship metro services, and most pathology disciplines outside metro QLD, NSW and VIC. CICM has no entry interview or national ranking; psychiatry intake is falling and posts go unfilled. The catch in every case is that the hard part has been moved somewhere else. full answer

There is no national ranking, and the sub rejects the one number people try to build it from. Real published figures: RACS 2026 SET offers ran 16.7% cardiothoracic to 39.7% plastics, RANZCO 27%, and Queensland publishes per-specialty selection counts. Everything else is not published. full answer

Hardest mainstream program in the country on places alone, and shrinking: 39 entry positions in 2023 down to 18 full-time plus 2 part-time in 2026, with WA taking zero for two years running. ACD publishes no national applicant count, so no national success rate exists. Queensland's is 24 eligible applications for 6 places. Dermatology guide full answer

The program ratio is moderate and stable: 142 applications for 38 places in 2026 (27%), and 24-29% every year since 2022. What is hard is the seniority — the 2026 entrants averaged 5.2 years since graduation and 23 of 38 held a Masters. The bottleneck is the feeder eye job, not the round. Ophthalmology guide full answer

In several programs, demonstrably. General surgery cut its intake from 121 to 54 in one year; dermatology went from 39 entry places in 2023 to 18 full-time in 2026; RACGP cancelled its 2027 second round because the main round filled. Meanwhile Australian graduate output doubled between 2007 and 2020. full answer

RACS publishes them annually in its Activities Report, Table SET.4. For the 2026 intake: cardiothoracic 16.7%, general surgery 25.6%, vascular 27.3%, urology 27.9%, ENT 31.6%, neurosurgery 34.7%, paediatric 36.8%, plastics 39.7%; 668 applications, 230 offers overall. Read them as offer rates among people already eligible, not as your odds. General surgery guide full answer

Registration first, then the same JMO campaign everyone else uses. Which registration pathway you qualify for — competent authority, standard, or specialist — is decided by the Medical Board, not by the hospital. Then you apply to state campaigns on their published dates. Section 19AB restricts Medicare billing for ten years. full answer

A route to Australian specialist registration that skips college comparability assessment. Opened 21 October 2024 for GPs, then anaesthetics, psychiatry and O&G, then general medicine and general paediatrics from 19 January 2026. Eligible applicants go straight to Ahpra and do six months of supervised practice. full answer

The route to general registration for IMGs whose qualification was already assessed by a medical body the Medical Board recognises — the GMC, the Medical Council of Ireland, ECFMG in the US, Canada. You skip the AMC exams, take provisional registration, and do 12 months of supervised practice (minimum 47 weeks FTE). full answer

Two separate systems. Your employer pays it — NSW gives 14 weeks after 40 weeks of continuous service, plus Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay of 26 weeks for children born from 1 July 2026. Your college counts it — more than 8 consecutive weeks off makes it an interruption at RACP, which you register in advance. full answer

Yes, in every major college, but the floor differs: RACP will approve down to 0.2 FTE, while RACS, ACEM, ANZCA and RANZCP all set a minimum of 0.5 FTE. The college approves the training; your employer has to approve the roster. That second approval is the one that fails. full answer

Every college permits it; the difference is how low they go and how easily a roster absorbs it. RACP allows down to 0.2 FTE; RANZCP, ANZCA, ACEM and RACS all floor at 0.5. Shift-based and clinic-based work fractions cleanly. Procedural training with on-call and logbook volume does not. full answer

Three things are scored and can only be earned now: a full academic year at a rural clinical school (3 points at general surgery), coming first in a discipline (6 of 48 at RANZCOG), and a first-author paper. Societies, committees and electives score nothing anywhere. The rest of it is the job, later. full answer

Eight separate campaigns on one shared calendar, and everything turns on your priority category — built from citizenship and which state you graduated in. For the 2027 year, applications ran 5 May to 4 June 2026 and offers from 15 July. The top category is usually guaranteed a position somewhere in that jurisdiction. full answer

No. Every Australian medical program is AMC-accredited and general registration follows PGY1 regardless of which one you attended. No college rubric has a row for your university. Two real exceptions: the state you graduate in sets your internship priority category, and RACP Tasmania weighs being a UTAS graduate. full answer

Only if it becomes a publication with your name first, and only if it is still inside the college's window when you apply. RANZCOG counts first-author papers from the previous five years and caps all research at 3 of 48 points. RANZCO caps secondary authorship at 0.5 points total. Being author six of eight is worth nothing. full answer

Barely, and what is scored is prizes, not your GPA. Three colleges publish a number: RANZCOG gives 6 of 48 points for first place in the medical course, RANZCO 0.5 for Honours and 1 for Dux, RANZCP weights the CV's "academic performance and work experience" at 20%. Everywhere else, pass and move on. full answer

No college or workforce body has published anything saying it will — that projection does not exist. What does exist points the other way: RANZCR first-year places have held roughly flat, 134 in 2022 to 121 in 2026, and Queensland pathology applications went from 53 to 117 against 23 unchanged places. Demand is rising, not collapsing. Radiology guide full answer

Not off a list. Pick on the day-to-day work and on the life your consultants visibly lead, because that is the job you are buying. Weigh three things you can actually check: hours (GPs 35.7/wk, specialists 40.6), median income, and whether you can realistically get on. Prestige is not one of them. full answer

Radiology and pathology, on the sub's reckoning — and everyone else worked that out too. Queensland took 29 first-year radiology trainees from 168 eligible applications, and QLD anatomical pathology applicants went from 53 to 117 against 23 stagnant places. Introversion is not the barrier people think it is. full answer

Later than the CV arms race implies, and the deadline is set by the program, not by you. GP takes applications from interns; RACS says the earliest realistic point is PGY3 and in practice PGY4; ophthalmology's 2026 entrants averaged 5.2 years since graduation. Most people decide after a rotation changes their mind. full answer

Honest, and then visibly useful on the term you are actually on. Faking interest fails because the people you are faking it to select trainees for a living. It is also pointless: ACD's privacy consent lets the college contact anyone you have worked with, and it picks which referee to call, not you. full answer

No. You have to tolerate its worst day for thirty years, and want it enough to survive the entry process — which is the part that actually demands obsession. Scale the enthusiasm you need to the length of the queue: FRACGP is three years FTE from entry, surgical SET is five to six after the unaccredited years. full answer

On the only national hours data, general practice: 35.7 hours a week against 40.6 for specialists and 43.8 for specialists-in-training. The sub adds ED, radiology, pathology, psychiatry and the outpatient physician specialties. Per-specialty hours are not published — the summary splits GP, specialist and trainee, nothing finer. full answer

Nobody publishes dollars per hour by specialty, so this cannot be answered cleanly. The closest real figure is MABEL's: top-quartile ophthalmologists at $456/hr against GPs at $101/hr. On medians, ophthalmology $497,094 and dermatology $234,005 — and dermatology's low salaried share is the tell that private hours drive it. full answer

Apply to every one you would actually work at. NSW has eleven HETI networks, you apply to each separately, and you get exactly one offer after preference matching. There is no penalty for breadth and a real penalty for narrowness. Pick on geography, rotation footprint and level-3 sites — not on a tier list. Physician training (BPT / general medicine) guide full answer

Yes for the networked programs, less than the sub thinks for everything else. BPT and crit-care jobs are selected by the network that already employs you, and NSW runs eleven separate BPT networks each with its own panel. Victoria's competitive PGY2 streams are filled by internal pre-match offers before the statewide match opens. full answer

Rural, if and only if your college scores it and your grade counts. General Surgery gives 10% of the total selection score to rurality; Queensland BPT gives up to 15%; cardiothoracics gives one point in twelve; orthopaedics gives none, using a separate progression measure instead. Read your own regulations before you move. full answer

Wrong question. Almost no college names a rotation you must not do; several name ones you must — RACP wants at least 20 weeks of medicine, ANZCA wants 104 weeks of prevocational training with no more than 52 in anaesthesia or ICU. Cover the prerequisites, then pick terms that produce a consultant who will vouch for you. full answer

Stay if the next job you want is inside this employer, move if it is not. NSW's two-year JMO contract is a retention device, not a lock — PGY2 positions are re-advertised in the same statewide campaign. Victoria runs a whole PGY2 match for exactly this move. The cost of moving is your rotation allocation. full answer

Only where a college scores them, and then very precisely. RACS paediatric surgery pays 3 points per 10–12 week resident term and 6 points per six-month unaccredited registrar term; RACP wants 20 weeks of medicine; Queensland BPT gives clinical experience 5% of the score. Outside those lines, your referees carry more. full answer

The medicine is not the problem; the town and the on-call are. Rural work is structurally rewarded — the AGPT priority framework puts rural origin and rural connection above the entry-assessment score, and the rural AGPT pathway grew 44% to 841 commencements in 2026. The Single Employer Model now salaries 315 posts. full answer

Like an exam, not a chat. The interview is 50% of the General Surgery score and 60% of the Orthopaedic and Queensland BPT scores, so it outweighs anything you can add to a CV in a year. Practise structured answers out loud, under time, with someone who does not tell you what is coming. full answer

A multiple mini-interview: several short, independently scored stations instead of one panel. ACRRM runs six stations, two minutes reading and eight minutes answering, against behaviourally anchored rating scales, worth 60%. Queensland adult BPT runs six stations at 60%, WA BPT five at 50 marks. One bad station cannot sink you. full answer

Against a published rubric, where one exists. General Surgery weights the interview at 50%, Orthopaedics 60%, Paediatric Surgery 75%, Queensland adult BPT 60%. Dermatology and Clinical Radiology do not publish their weightings at all. Most are hurdles as well as ranks — you must clear a minimum, not win. full answer

The sub is split and both sides are right. Interviewing is a skill and it is now 50–60% of the score in surgery, orthopaedics and Queensland BPT, so practice pays. It also produces rehearsed candidates panels can no longer read, and trainees who are interview and CV behemoths rather than good doctors. full answer

Build it to match the scoring sheet. Dermatology assesses six named categories; CICM scores eight structured CV domains; RANZCOG's CV is 48 points split across clinical experience, academic, research, professional and rurality. Contacts and AHPRA, terms by level, courses, teaching, audits, presentations, publications. full answer

Depends entirely on the campaign. NSW takes no cover letter at all. Queensland folds the cover letter text into a four-page CV. SA scores CV and cover letter together at 10%. Victorian health services set their own — the Austin wants one page naming your stream. full answer

Two to four pages as a JMO, and check the campaign first — Queensland caps the CV at four pages on its own template with the cover letter inside it, Tasmania mandates an RMO CV template, NSW takes one global resume upload. Too short is a real risk against a scoring rubric. full answer

Stop fixing the CV. Orthopaedics scores it at 0% and ranks on interview 60% plus referees 40%; paediatric surgery at 0% with interview at 75%; SA adult BPT at 10% against a 60% interview. Fix the interview, the references, and where you apply. full answer

Yes, in a separate "in progress" section with the date — never as complete. Dermatology has a dedicated study-in-progress section requiring enrolment evidence. Scoring is a different matter: RANZCO scores an incomplete degree at zero, orthopaedics requires the doctorate awarded by a fixed date. full answer

Nobody publishes it. RACS sets no PGY gate but its specialties require registrar-level surgical terms that put the earliest realistic application at PGY3–4. First-hand accounts on the sub cluster at three to four unaccredited years and PGY5–6 at offer, with real tails from PGY4 to PGY12. Never quote a single number. full answer

The first two or three probably do. After that you are paying for points, not learning. RACS specialties price unaccredited registrar terms explicitly — paediatric surgery scores 6 points per six months to a cap of 12 — which tells you the system values the years as currency whether or not they make you better. full answer

They exist and none of them are free any more. GP is the biggest, and in 2026 a record 1,772 people started AGPT while a further 1,110 eligible applicants missed out. Radiology, ED, pathology, psychiatry, medical administration, private assisting and the CMO grade are the others. Each wants a dedicated year first. full answer

The fixed costs are published and they are not the big number. RACS charges $655 to register for selection plus about $920 per specialty you apply to, and the GSSE is $4,850 per attempt, pass or fail. A peer-reviewed analysis put successful surgical applicants at roughly $50,000 of CV building over about three years. full answer

Not published, and the number everyone quotes is measuring something else. RACS reports offer rates among people who applied — 230 offers from 668 applications for the 2026 intake, 34.4%. That is where "about a third" comes from. It is not the fraction of unaccredited registrars who ever get on, and no college publishes that. General surgery guide full answer

There is a permanent job for it, and it is not called unaccredited registrar. NSW defines a Career Medical Officer as a non-specialist in a permanent, non-training position under its own award; Queensland's CMO grade requires at least six years postgraduate experience and is non-rotational. The unaccredited reg job itself is annual and re-contested every year. full answer

The sub splits and the split is predictable: people who took a short program and finished say yes, people still in the middle of a long one say no. FRACGP is three years FTE; general surgery is typically PGY4–5 entry plus five. Same degree, very different twenties. full answer

Depends what you're comparing it to. Base pay is modest for a decade — NSW intern $80,638 — and roughly half the training cohort sits in unaccredited or non-specialist posts. The tail is enormous: median taxable income $457,287 for anaesthetists against $156,733 for GPs. The sub splits, hard. full answer

It stopped being the fallback and became a genuine choice. FRACGP is three years FTE, every 2027 place went in the main round and the second round was cancelled, and there is now a $30,000 incentive over your first community GP term. ATO 2023–24 median taxable income for GPs is $156,733 — read that number carefully. General practice & rural generalism guide full answer

Transiently, almost everyone; permanently, far fewer. The regret in these threads clusters in the pre-exam years and lifts after fellowship. It is expensive to act on: ANZCA needs five years FTE minimum and CICM six, with Core Training not eligible for recognition of prior learning. Switching late restarts most of the clock. full answer

Partly. The exams are real but the pass rates are good — RACP quotes a five-year mean of 78% on the written and the 2026 clinical ran 83.0%. The genuine complaint is the med-reg job in an understaffed hospital, plus the advanced-training bottleneck afterwards: only about 25% of gastroenterology applicants succeed. Physician training (BPT / general medicine) guide full answer

Only if you set an exit criterion before you start. RACS made 230 offers from 668 applications across nine specialties for the 2026 intake, and general surgery appointments were cut from 121 to 54 in one year. There is no attempt cap, which is exactly how people reach PGY8 still unaccredited. full answer