ABOUT EXAMS

Please read these details about ACCO on line exams

Other than the Fellow exam, all on line exam are multiple choice exams. Every question has one of six preferred answers, denoted A, B, C, D, E or F. No question has two correct answers. There are two sorts of multiple choice questions, theory and image questions.

THEORY questions pose a clinical scenario. You have six possible answers. Sometimes multiple questions will take you through a case history. There are typically 10 to 20 questions per page.

IMAGE questions have six questions to a page with six images per page. Your task is to match each image with a question. As such each of the answers A, B, C, D, E and F will each appear once per image question page.

SUBMIT. At the end of every question page you press “Submit” at the bottom of the page. This will take you on to the next page. Click on your exam above to commence. You will first be taken to a certification page where you will be asked to certify that you will abide by exam conditions. This includes your certifying not to use reference materials or other help in undertaking the exam. Your time starts when you press “Submit” to agree to the conditions and you will be moved to the first question page. Your time starts then.

TIME. Your time course will be monitored throughout the exam. Each time you click “submit” your page will be downloaded to the exam server and the exact time will be monitored. As such, your exam conclusion time will be noted when you click “submit” on the final page. If you run over time, all questions submitted after the final time will be disregarded.

RESULTS. ACCO will typically make results available to candidates within two weeks and certificates to successful candidates will typically be available within a month of the exam to successful candidates. No detailed results will be provided and no correct answers will be divulged. You will not be told your exact score.

ROTATION. Each exam has a question bank. Question pages move in and out of the exams from time to time. No exam ever runs with all the same questions twice. Every question must go through a validation process before entering the exam bank.

QUESTION VALIDATION. Each question is “trialled” with a panel of doctors and is only included in the exam bank if the wording proves appropriate and with at least 2/3rds of doctors being asked the question picking the correct answer. Questions are also updated if new research or medical knowledge changes our understanding of the topic. Every question is then monitored ongoing. If less than 2/3rds of candidates correctly answer a question in any future exam, the question will be reviewed and revised or withdrawn from the bank as appropriate.

PAGE ACCESS. Outside of exam time the exam pages are not accessible. Clicking to commence exam will result in an error. When you register for an exam you will nominate your preferred exam time. The exam pages will be available to you at your chosen time. Shortly after you complete your exam the pages will be no longer accessible.

Note that you must not attempt to log in and access the exam section of the web site at any time other that the time you indicated you wish to sit your exam. Every time a registered user logs into acco.org.au it is monitored. As such, it will be apparent if you attempt to access exam pages at any other time.

SCREEN. Exams (other than the Fellow exam) include images. These images may include clinical photos, dermoscopic images and histopathology photomicrographs. Because you are looking at images on a screen, help yourself by doing the exam on a bright large screen. We do not recommend that you undertake this exam on an ipad or tablet type device. We certainly do not recommend that you attempt this exam on an iphone or smart phone.The images may appear to be lacking resolution at times. Rest assured that experienced dermoscopists have found no difficulty distinguishing images within the sets of six. The exam has been extensively proof tested before going "live". There are no histopathology photomicrographs in the Certificate in Primary Care Skin Cancer Medicine exam.

REGISTER.  You need to register for your exam here.