RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) · UK · RCVS, with modules through accredited universities
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersRCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) is a professional certification run by RCVS, with modules through accredited universities, for candidates in UK. Modular postgraduate certificate: 1 A module, 1 B module and 4 C modules. Designated certificates carry a synoptic oral exam.
Source: rcvs.org.uk.
Checked against the exam body's published information. Formats and fees change; confirm the current edition there before you book.
Designing research, appraising evidence and writing it up: study design, critical appraisal, systematic reviews, research ethics, scientific and grant writing.
Our 19 RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice questions in this subject: 7 easy, 12 medium, 0 hard, across 6 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice and are not shown on any other exam's page.
Why does a systematic search for veterinary evidence normally include CAB Abstracts as well as PubMed/MEDLINE?
A. CAB Abstracts indexes more veterinary, animal-science and non-English sources
Comparisons of database coverage have found CAB Abstracts covers more veterinary journals, including many from outside Europe and North America. MEDLINE does index many veterinary journals and has its own vocabulary (MeSH), and PubMed is free.
Which of the following is grey literature?
A. A doctoral thesis held in a university repository
Grey literature is material not published through conventional commercial channels: theses, conference proceedings, agency reports, trial registers. Searching it reduces publication bias.
Which resource is a short, structured, pre-appraised answer to a single veterinary clinical question?
C. A BestBET for Vets or an RCVS Knowledge Summary
BestBETs for Vets and Knowledge Summaries are critically appraised topics: a question, a search, appraised evidence and a bottom line. A single trial or abstract has not been appraised against the rest of the evidence.
Evidence for a feline treatment comes only from well-run randomised trials in dogs. In GRADE terms, the cat evidence would mainly be downgraded for:
C. Indirectness
A different species from the one in the question is a form of indirectness (the population differs). Imprecision concerns wide confidence intervals; inconsistency concerns unexplained variation between studies.
What does a critically appraised topic (CAT) end with?
B. A clinical bottom line stating what the evidence means for practice
A CAT summarises the question, search and appraised studies and ends with a concise clinical bottom line, with its search date so readers know how current it is.
A practice wants to enrol client-owned dogs in a trial of two wound dressings. Which element must the owners' informed consent include?
B. The right to withdraw without affecting the standard of their dog's care
Consent covers purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, costs, data use and the right to withdraw without penalty. Promising benefit is misleading, and blanket consent for any future study is not informed.
Which feature is a warning sign of a predatory journal?
D. Acceptance within days with an unexpected fee and no real peer-review comments
Predatory journals charge fees without genuine peer review or editing. DOAJ listing, COPE membership and a slow, careful review process are signs of a legitimate journal.
Which reporting guideline should a practitioner follow when writing up an unusual single clinical case for publication?
D. CARE
CARE is the reporting guideline for case reports. CONSORT is for randomised trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews and ARRIVE for animal experiments.
A sales leaflet says a new drug 'halves the risk' of a disease. Before deciding, which additional figure should the practitioner most want?
A. The absolute risk in untreated animals like their own patients
A 50% relative reduction means an NNT of 2 if baseline risk is 100% but 100 if it is 1%. The baseline risk turns the relative claim into an absolute benefit and NNT.
Why should a clinician record the date and the strategy of a literature search used to answer a clinical question?
D. So the search can be repeated and updated as new evidence appears
Recording the search makes it transparent and repeatable, and tells readers of a CAT how current it is.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
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