The Society has had a 24-month period of membership as a pre-requisite for sitting the CTASC examination for many years. It would not be fair to other members to allow some to sit the examination before the pre-requisites state that they are able to. Since 2015, many re-joining members have wanted to sit the exam prior to 24 months of membership. As they had previously been a member, they are able to sit the examination as long as they backpay their membership fees to cover the pre-requisite time.
Currently, we do not have the facilities to compare examinations and therefore the Society’s status is that we do not accept that there is an equivalent to the CTASC Examination. This statement is relevant to the Society only and other bodies may accept that there is an equivalent qualification.
We suggest that, in the first instance, it may be a decision for those who have decided on the requirements for Cervical Screening (ie the National Pathology Accreditation Advisory Council (NPAAC) Cervical Screening Committee).
We believe that other countries do not assess our CTASC qualification as equivalent to their qualifications either. We know of Australian cytologists who have had to sit UK exams to work in the UK and believe this may be true in other countries as well.
AIMS and NOOSR assess the equivalency of the Bachelor Degree as equivalent to an Australian bachelor degree, post-graduate qualifications are not assessed by these bodies.
From the CTIAC Certificate – “In countries where national registry examinations exist, this certificate is valid only in conjunction with a valid national registry certificate.”
Our organisation is member-run and we do not have access to any other country’s syllabus to check against our qualification, and if we did, we would need to have someone perform this task as part of their voluntary role on one of our boards. Once we performed the task for one country, we would then have to do it for all of the others.
No, the two exams are treated as separate exams. If you pass the Gynae, you only need re-sit the non-Gynae.
This question can’t be answered without all potential candidates completing the survey on the CTASC Exam Application page of this site. The Board of Examiners use the responses from this survey to decide possible venues at the October Board of Examiners meeting in the prior year. Invariably, the numbers of candidates for each state changes when all of the examination applications have been received in March and the Board of Examiners will then make a decision on where the examination will be held. If you apply to sit the examination and mark on the application that you only wish to sit the exam if it is held in “Sydney or Melbourne” and the board discovers that most applications are from Perth, you will be contacted before your application is processed.
