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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 1; QLD, SA and some Victorian services still take PGY2s 23. Queensland took 242 of 309 applicants for the 2027 year 2.
Who actually picks you. The College runs no entry exam and no national match: you need general registration and an accredited BPT position, and selection is employer/network-based 4. That means the rules differ by state. NSW will not approve PGY2 applications and all new trainees commence on a three-year contract 1. WA wants at least two years' postgraduate experience 5. RACP Victoria permits PGY2 for BPT1 but RMH, Alfred and Monash require PGY3+ 6. Queensland lets you start effectively at PGY2 provided internship is complete by end of RMO term 1 2.
The only fully published rubric is Queensland's 2: six-station MMI 60%, five 250-word short statements 20%, QLD rural/regional clinical experience 10%, rural background 5%, clinical experience 5%, with two named consultant referees used for shortlisting only. The MMI also decides whether you start at SHO or registrar level 2. WA scores a written application out of 50 — CV 12.5, referee reports 10, selection criteria 10, professional development 10, research 7.5 — plus a separate MMI out of 50, with 7 additional marks for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants 5. SA is CV and cover letter 10%, referee reports 30%, interview 60% 3. NSW, VIC, TAS, NT and ACT publish nothing beyond "merit-based" 16.
Note what is not scored. Queensland's guide contains no higher-degree or publications criterion at all 2. WA's 7.5 marks for research is the only explicit research line in any Australian BPT rubric 5.
Dates for the 2026 campaign, 2027 clinical year: NSW main round 14 July – 4 August with network interviews and offers August to October 7; Queensland's RMO campaign 1–29 June 2; Victorian health services run their own windows from April 6.
The community read: getting into BPT is not the hard step — advanced training and consultant jobs are 8. But the 2026 threads are noticeably grimmer than the 2023 ones 9.
r/ausjdocs — community view, not policy; verbatim, cautionary beside positive where both exist, every quote linked to the comment.
We need to be honest with ourselves, if you worked hard for 3 years you would expect to be more competitive than a peer who decided this year to apply - regardless of their PGY.
It's fairly reasonable to get into; the vast majority get on within 1 - 2 goes.
Applicants now require a pulse *as well as* the ability to hold in their secretions
It used to be that BPT and GP were essentially available to anyone who was able to submit the application form, but it looks like it's very grim out there these days.
BPT is not the bottleneck for physican training. It's AT and consultant jobs that are the bottleneck, especially for competitive subspecities.
Asked 91 times on r/ausjdocs (title-regex count) · encoded by hand from the numbered sources, retrieved 12 Sept 2026; no AI wrote any of it. how the count was made
asked_count = posts in the r/ausjdocs dump (19,145 posts, 2022-09-13 to 2026-09-12) whose title matches /(?=.*(\bBPT\b|basic physician|\bRACP\b|physician training))(?=.*(get(ting)? (on|onto|into)|\bapply\b|applic|applying|selection|pathway|how (do|to)|network|interview|optimis|optimiz))/i. Quotes are the top-scoring comments in BPT application threads, chosen to show the 2023 'most get on in 1-2 goes' read directly against the 2026 unsuccessful-applicant threads.