The FRCS Section 1 syllabus, topic by topic

FRCS (General Surgery) Section 1 is a single best answer examination set by the Joint Committee on Intercollegiate Examinations. EssentialFRCS organises its 946 questions the way the exam is organised, so you can see at a glance how much practice material sits behind every topic and where your revision time should go. Every topic page below explains what the examiners test and, where the topic has free-trial questions, shows one in full.

Applied Basic Sciences

201 questions across 6 topics

The basic science paper tests anatomy, physiology, pathology, microbiology and pharmacology as they apply to surgical practice, alongside the principles of peri-operative science. Questions are clinical in framing: a scenario in which the answer turns on a structure, a mechanism or a drug property rather than on a list of facts.

Principles of Surgery in General

211 questions across 12 topics

The generic surgical principles that every general surgeon is examined on regardless of subspecialty: peri-operative and critical care, trauma, sepsis, nutrition, wound healing, fluids, haemostasis, oncology, transplantation, surgical technology, and the ethics, consent, governance and research methods expected of a day-one consultant.

Major Clinical Specialty Areas

384 questions across 14 topics

The clinical specialty paper covers the whole of general surgery at the level of a new consultant: upper gastrointestinal, colorectal, hepatopancreatobiliary, breast, endocrine, vascular, transplant, emergency and trauma surgery, together with hernia, skin and soft tissue, paediatric, urological and bariatric problems a general surgeon must recognise and manage.

Image based questions

150 questions across 7 topics

Radiology, clinical photographs, endoscopic views, ECGs, histopathology slides and operative images, each presented the way it appears in the exam, with the diagnosis and the next step tested rather than the description of the picture.

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