Guides LDS Part 1 format
LDS Part 1 exam format: two papers, sat at home
Two three-hour papers on consecutive days, remote proctored from your own room. What the format is, what kit you need, and the deadline that catches people out.
LDS Part 1 is the written paper of the Royal College route to GDC registration. It is the part you can prepare for systematically, and — unlike ORE Part 1 — you sit it at home, under remote proctoring. That changes what you have to get right on the day.
The two papers
Part 1 is two papers, A and B, sat on consecutive days: Paper A on day one, Paper B on day two. Each runs for three hours. Both belong to a single sitting, and both must be passed in that sitting — you cannot carry one paper forward.
| Paper A | Paper B | |
|---|---|---|
| When | Day one | Day two |
| Length | Three hours | Three hours |
| Question style | Single best answer | Single best answer |
| Delivery | Remote online proctored, through the Surpass platform | |
Sitting it at home is the part people underestimate
Remote proctoring is convenient and unforgiving in equal measure. You are responsible for the room and the kit, and a failure on the day is your problem, not the College’s. You need:
- A computer with a working webcam and microphone.
- A second camera — normally a phone — positioned to show your workspace.
- A reliable internet connection that will hold for three hours.
- A room you can keep clear and uninterrupted for the full session, twice, on consecutive days.
Test the whole setup well before the day, not the night before. If your connection is unreliable at home, solve that problem early — it is the one thing on this list you cannot fix in an hour.
Fees, attempts and deadlines
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Part 1 fee | £1,025 |
| Attempts allowed | Four at Part 1 |
| Time limit | Five years across all three parts |
| Eligibility documents | Due within one week of booking |
| Results | Five to six weeks |
What comes after Part 1
Part 2 is a 12-station OSCE plus six structured clinical reasoning cases, in person at RCS England. Part 3 is a three-hour operative assessment on a manikin. Both were restructured in 2026, and Part 2 in its new form is unproven — the full LDS route guide covers what changed and what the reported first-sitting pass rate was.
Capacity is going up: RCS England is expanding to 2,000 Part 1 places a year from 2027.
How to prepare for it
Part 1 rewards breadth and question volume rather than deep reading of a few topics. Two papers on consecutive days also means stamina matters — six hours of single best answers in forty-eight hours is a different task from one three-hour paper.
Our LDS Part 1 course is built for exactly this: 4,738 questions with every answer explained, and 431 revision topics written out in full across 23 subjects. There is a week-by-week plan if you want a structure to follow, and three hours of the whole course free if you want to see it first.
FAQ
Is LDS Part 1 taken at home? Yes. It is remote online proctored through the Surpass platform, so you sit it from your own room with a webcam, a microphone and a second camera on a phone.
How long is LDS Part 1? Two papers of three hours each, sat on consecutive days — six hours of examination in total.
Do I have to pass both papers at the same sitting? Yes. Papers A and B belong to one sitting and both must be passed in it.
How many attempts do I get at LDS Part 1? Four, within an overall five-year limit across all three parts.
How much does LDS Part 1 cost? £1,025 for the written part. Total LDS exam fees across all three parts come to about £4,554.
Sources
Fees, dates and formats change — confirm anything here with RCS England before you act on it.