The application form

In ST3 recruitment 2012, the number of applications you can submit within a specialty will dependent upon the specialty in question and the recruitment model they are using.

Each application you complete and submit will be regarded as entirely separate from, and independent of, any other applications you have made; when dealing with an application, recruiters/interviewers will not be aware of any other applications you may have made. So for instance, if you were to submit three applications, they would be treated as if they had been submitted by three separate candidates.

As noted earlier, candidates wishing to apply to ST3 in 2012must register, complete and submit their application(s) between Friday 2 and Wednesday 21 March 2012. All sections of each form submitted must be completed in full.

On each page, you will see a series of fields accompanied by explanatory text; some will be drop-down menus, some textboxes, some are fields for small answers. Those fields which are mandatory, ie where an answer must be given, are marked with an asterisk (*) next to the field title.

Menu

While logged in to your application, you will see a list of titles on the right-hand side of the screen - each of these corresponds to a section of the form. As can be seen, when you first come into the system, each title is accompanied by a red cross; this symbolises that no work has taken place in that section as yet.

Save regularly

Once you begin work in a section, we advise that you save it regularly. There is a 'Save Section' button at the foot of each page - once you click on this, you will see that the red cross next to that section's name will change to three amber dots, showing that this section is underway but incomplete.

Complete sections

Once you have entered all the necessary information within a particular page, click the 'Complete Section' button at the foot of the page. If all the necessary fields have been filled in, you will see that the relevant title is now accompanied by a green tick in the right-hand menu. If any mandatory fields remain unfilled, you will be given a prompt to complete these, and the fields in question will be marked with a red exclamation mark (!).

Please note that you will not be able to finally submit your application until all of the sections are completed - ie all are marked with the green tick.

While completing each application form, you will add information on your experience, qualifications, achievements, etc. Should you then be invited to interview, it will be necessary for you to provide evidence to backup all claims you have made on your application.

Each time you wish to add a claim to your application, please be aware that you will need to provide evidence at a later date, should you be invited to interview subsequently. Please visit the interview page of this website for further information on this, but please be aware that if the evidence you submit at interview to support your application is found to be inaccurate, it may result in scores being re-evaluated, or possibly may even lead to the incident being reported to the GMC.

There are a number of sections allowing 'free text' answers in the application form, as below:

The free-text box

The white space at the centre of each box is the space for free-text. The frame around this contains a word/character count feature in the bottom-right, and a spell-check function at top-left - both are discussed below - as well as a re-size button in the bottom-right corner . If you click and hold this, you can drag the box to re-size it at your preference.

Word count

Each of these sections will have a maximum word limit; at the bottom of this section's frame is displayed the number of words and characters which you have used in your answer so far.

Please note that the application system's word count method is slightly different to more common counting processes, such as that in MS Word. On the application, all punctuation marks other than the apostrophe are ignored and counted as spaces - so for instance, while 'Bose-Einstein' would be classed as one word on MS Word, it would count as two on the application system.

Any attempt to use wild card characters to try and exceed the word count (eg word'one'word'two'word'three) will be regarded as cheating, and the information provided in that section of your application may be disregarded completely.

Spelling & grammar

In the top-left corner of each free-text section is an 'ABC' button. Clicking this will have the application system check the spelling in your answer, allowing you to cycle through any suggestions the system has.

Please note that the spell-check will not change anything automatically; you will need to accept changes as necessary. Nor is spelling checked by the system automatically as you type, as is the case in applications such as MS Word, for example.

Further, the spell-check function in the system is generic and not medicine-specific. Therefore, it may be the case that some medical terms may not be recognised, even though you have spelt them correctly.

Grammar is not checked by the system

Please be aware that the spelling and grammar included within your application form is solely your responsibility, and will be assessed as such. Therefore, despite the spell-check and word-count functions, it is your responsibility to ensure that free-text answers are completed to your satisfaction before submission.

Login

When returning to your application, you will be able to log back in by clicking 'Returning User' from the left-hand menu, then entering your email address and password. This can be done at any time of day/night after the application window has opened.

Password

If you wish to log in but have forgotten your password, click 'Returning User' on the main screen, and then click on the 'I have forgotten my password' link. You can then enter your email address on the next screen, to which your password will then be sent (this might take a couple of minutes or so).

Please note that if you attempt to enter a password incorrectly on three or more consecutive occasions, the system will 'lockdown' for a period of 15 minutes, as a security measure. During this time, you will not be able to use the 'forgotten password' link, and even in the event you recall your password, you will not be able to log in until this period is up.

Timeout

This lockdown described above will also occur if your application 'times out'; that is, after 10 minutes of inactivity - nothing is edited on your application, no navigation between pages takes place, no logging in or out, etc. - you will be logged out of your application, and your application will be locked for the 15 minutes lockdown described above.

Please also be aware that this lockdown time-out will be reset if you attempt to log back in before the 15 minutes is up; in the event you do attempt to log back in during lockdown, the time-our will reset and you will have to wait a further 15 minutes from that point before attempting to log in again.

Therefore, if you plan to be away from your application at any period, it is advisable to save and then log out first. Even if you are just reading/reviewing the content rather than editing it, it is advisable to save a page every so often, so as to keep the form open.