Using the App

Taking Practice Tests

Practice Tests are the fastest way to rehearse the style of questions you will meet in a real NHS Biomedical Scientist interview. They are a Premium feature. Free accounts can browse a sample of the question bank in the Interview Explorer instead.

Setting up a test

Open My training → Practice tests in the navigation bar, or go to /practice-tests. The page has five tabs: Dashboard, Practice Tests, Adaptive Assessment, Progress and Settings.

On the Practice Tests tab, choose:

• Specialty: Haematology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Blood Transfusion, Histology, Coagulation, Immunology, Virology, Genomics, Andrology, Quality Management or General Biomedical Science
• Band: Band 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8, or All Bands
• Quiz length: how many questions you want in this run

Band 5 covers core qualified-scientist competencies; Band 6 focuses on specialist knowledge and supervision; Band 7 and above move into leadership, service development and advanced clinical scenarios.

During a test

• Tests are not timed. Work at your own pace, and you can pause at any time.
• After you answer each question you see whether you were right and an explanation, so you learn as you go.
• Progress is not saved part-way through. If you close the page before finishing, the run is discarded; only the final score is recorded.
• The support chat is hidden while a test is running so it does not distract you.

Your results

At the end you see your score as a number correct and a percentage, and a Try Again button. The score is saved to your account and feeds:

• the Progress tab on the Practice tests page
• the Dashboard view (My training → Dashboard), which shows attempts and average score per specialty
• the Specialties section of your home page
• the Continue row on your home page, which links back to the specialty you last practised

Adaptive Assessment

The Adaptive Assessment tab runs a shorter test that adjusts difficulty to your answers within the specialty you selected. Use it to find your level quickly before choosing a band for a full practice test.

Who can see your results

Your results are private to you. If you belong to an organisation, its administrators only see cohort-level figures, never individual scores, unless you switch on Sharing your training record under Account Settings → Security. That switch is off by default. See Data and GDPR.

Who can take tests

• Premium subscribers, trial users and organisation members have full access.
• Free accounts see an upgrade prompt on the Practice tests page. The Interview Explorer offers free sample questions.

If you cannot open a test you expected, check that you are signed in and that your subscription or organisation membership is active, or email [email protected].