The CST Portfolio Station
How the Core Surgical Training portfolio station works: two questions on portfolio domains, what examiners want, and how to prepare evidenced, reflective answers.
On this page
You have spent years building the portfolio. This is the ten minutes where it has to speak. After the presentation, the panel in the Core Surgical Training interview asks two questions from two different portfolio domains, around five minutes each, and marks the evidence you bring and how honestly you reflect on it.
What actually happens
The panel picks two domains and asks about them in turn, probing for specifics: what you did, your personal role, the outcome, what you learned. There is no correct answer to find. A modest audit you genuinely ran, understood and improved beats an impressive project you watched from a distance, because the follow-up questions expose the difference within a minute.
The portfolio domains
- Commitment to the specialty: why surgery, evidenced by what you have done.
- Quality improvement and audit: a project and its measurable impact.
- Research and publications: your involvement and understanding.
- Teaching: what you have taught and how you improved it.
- Leadership and management: leading a team, a rota, or a change.
- Training, courses, and the logbook: your operative and course record.
- Career insight and progression: realistic reflection on your path.
Where candidates lose marks
Listing achievements instead of telling one well. Claiming the team’s work as your own and getting caught by the second follow-up question. And skipping reflection: the panel wants to hear what you learned and what you would do differently, not just that it went well.
How to prepare
Go through your portfolio and prepare one strong, specific example per domain, each ready to tell in a couple of minutes using STAR and ending on reflection. Then rehearse being pushed on the detail, because the follow-up questions are where marks are won or lost. You can rehearse the portfolio station with an AI panel on Reviva, and it will keep asking until the detail runs out.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the CST portfolio station?
- After the presentation, the panel asks two questions drawn from two different portfolio domains, around five minutes each. Domains include commitment to the specialty, quality improvement and audit, research, teaching, leadership, training and courses, and career insight.
- What are you marked on in the portfolio questions?
- The evidence you bring, the depth of your examples, and your reflection. There is no single right answer. Concrete, personal examples framed with STAR land far better than general statements.
- How do I prepare for the portfolio station?
- Map your portfolio to each domain and prepare a strong, specific example for each, ready to tell concisely with reflection. Rehearse being probed on the detail, and be honest about what you learned.
Sources. Based on the Core Surgical Training selection format modelled by Reviva and the official HEE national recruitment guidance. Educational only. Confirm the current format against the official national recruitment portal.