Current Exam Facts
Key Takeaways
- MFDS Part 1 is the written part of the Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, delivered by the Dental Examinations Executive for the three UK surgical royal colleges (RCS Edinburgh, RCS England, RCPS Glasgow)
- The new format, first sat on 28 October 2026, is 180 single best answer questions in two discrete 2-hour papers of 90 questions, assessed over four hours with a short rest break after the first paper
- Each SBA has one best answer and four plausible distractors, there is no negative marking, and candidates can navigate freely within a paper until they submit
- The legacy RCS England paper (150 SBAs in one three-hour online remotely invigilated sitting, final diet 20 October 2026, resit candidates only) is closed to first-time takers, and a legacy Part 1 pass cannot be carried into the new MFDS
- There is no fixed pass mark and the Dental Examinations Executive publishes no percentage weightings for the syllabus domains — treat any published domain percentage as unofficial
What Is MFDS Part 1?
The Membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery (MFDS) is a postgraduate dental membership diploma. From 2026 it is a single tri-collegiate examination developed and delivered on behalf of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow by the Dental Examinations Executive (the body behind dsfe.org.uk, often abbreviated DSFE). Candidates who pass all components may join any of the UK surgical royal colleges as a Member, and may join more than one.
MFDS has two parts. Part 1 is the written paper; Part 2 is a 14-station Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), each station lasting about 10 minutes and assessing two broad content areas — communication/history taking and clinical judgement/professional practice — both of which must be passed. You must pass Part 1 before you are eligible to sit Part 2.
MFDS is pitched at the level of a GDC-registered dentist completing the third year of Dental Core Training (DCT3) — equivalent to about four years of postgraduate training after the primary dental degree. It also serves as a criterion for entry to the Dental Specialty Fellowship Examinations.
Note on RCSI: the tri-collegiate MFDS is run by the three UK surgical colleges. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland runs its own separate MFD RCSI qualification through its Faculty of Dentistry; do not confuse the two when reading revision material.
The October 2026 Format Transition
| Feature | New tri-collegiate MFDS Part 1 | Legacy RCS England MFDS Part 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Questions | 180 SBA (two papers x 90) | 150 SBA (one paper) |
| Options per question | 5 — one best answer plus 4 plausible distractors | 5 |
| Timing | 2 hours per paper; assessed over four hours with a short rest break after the first paper | One three-hour paper |
| Delivery | Online within an assessment centre | Online, remotely invigilated from home (BTL Surpass) |
| First / final sitting | First sitting 28 October 2026 | Final sitting 20 October 2026, resit candidates only |
| Centres | Glasgow, London and Manchester on the Dental Examinations Executive schedule (Birmingham also appeared in the colleges' initial announcement — always check the published diet) | Remote |
| Attempts | 4 at Part 1 (and 4 at Part 2) | 6 |
| Fee | £800 (Part 2 is £1,100); reviewed annually | £535 (£631.30 for candidates sitting in India, inclusive of 18% local tax) |
| Booking / results | risr/apply portal; results published on risr/advance | College booking; results emailed |
| Curriculum | COPDEND Dental Core Training curriculum, DCT programme syllabus years 2/3 | Legacy college syllabus |
Action: confirm which diet and format you are entering before you pay. A pass in the legacy Part 1 cannot be carried over to the new MFDS, because the two examinations sit at different assessment levels. Only one further legacy Part 2 is scheduled, in Spring 2027, and places are limited.
Legacy arrangements also differed between colleges — RCS Edinburgh described a 180-question three-hour legacy paper at a £587 fee, and RCPS Glasgow ran its final legacy diet on 6 October 2026. Revision notes written for one college's legacy exam do not describe the new common paper.
Pass Mark and Scoring
There is no fixed pass mark. The legacy college regulations describe an Angoff standard-setting procedure: a panel defines a borderline candidate, judges the probability that such a candidate answers each item correctly, and the item probabilities are summed to give the cut score for that diet. The Dental Examinations Executive has not published the standard-setting method for the new tri-collegiate paper, so do not assume a fixed percentage.
Scoring rules that are published
- No negative marking — never leave a question blank; an unanswered item and a wrong item score the same.
- Free navigation — you may move between questions and change answers at any point before you submit that paper.
- Equal marks — every SBA counts the same, so no single stem is worth extra time.
- Results are released roughly 4-8 weeks after the examination (the legacy RCS England paper quoted 5-6 weeks) and every candidate, pass or fail, receives a feedback report.
- Appeals cost £100, refunded if the appeal is upheld.
What the Exam Tests — the Official Syllabus Structure
The examination is mapped to the COPDEND Dental Core Training curriculum, specifically the DCT programme syllabus for years 2 and 3. The published MFDS Exam Syllabus organises the learning outcomes into three domains, and tags each outcome as assessed by SBA, by OSCE, or by both. Around 140 outcomes carry an SBA tag — those are your Part 1 revision target.
| Domain | Sub-sections |
|---|---|
| A — General Professional Outcomes | A1 Professional knowledge & behaviour; A2 Patient-centred care; A3 Communication & interpersonal skills; A4 Teamworking; A5 Clinical & patient safety |
| B — General Clinical Care | B1 Underpinning clinical knowledge; B2 Clinical examination & assessment; B3 Diagnosis, patient management & treatment planning; B4 Emergency care (dental and facial injuries); B5 Preventative care & maintenance of oral health |
| C — Specialty Outcomes for all Core Trainees | C1 Restorative dentistry; C2 Orthodontics; C3 Oral surgery; C4 Paediatric dentistry; C5 Special care dentistry; C6 Oral medicine; C7 Oral & maxillofacial pathology; C8 Oral & maxillofacial radiology; C9 Oral microbiology; C10 Dental public health & epidemiology |
No published weightings. The Dental Examinations Executive does not publish a percentage weighting for any domain or sub-section. Percentage blueprints circulating online (for example "clinical dentistry 40%, human disease 20%") are not official. Plan your revision from the number and breadth of SBA-tagged outcomes instead: Domain C alone contains roughly two-thirds of them, and within Domain C restorative dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery and oral medicine are the largest sub-sections.
The published examples of content covered are physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, application of guidance, diagnosis, treatment planning and interpretation of radiographic images. Stems are clinical vignettes that reward higher-order reasoning — most ask for the most likely diagnosis, the next best step, or the correct interpretation, rather than an isolated fact.
After Part 1
Passing Part 1 unlocks Part 2, the 14-station OSCE. Under the MFDS Regulations, Part 2 must be passed within four years of passing Part 1, and candidates have four attempts at each part. From 2027 the steady-state calendar is two diets a year: Part 1 in January and August, with Part 2 running April-June and October-December (the Spring 2027 diet runs February-April 2027, and there is no April-June 2027 diet).
Under the new tri-collegiate MFDS Part 1 format, how are the 180 single best answer questions delivered?
A candidate asks what percentage of MFDS Part 1 is devoted to each syllabus domain. What is the correct answer?
Which statement about the legacy RCS England MFDS Part 1 is correct?