Hundreds of trainee doctors will be forced to resit a high-stakes medical exam after a technical glitch locked candidates out of an online test before they finished on Monday.
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The Royal Australasian College of Physicians said an "unknown technical fault" was to blame for trainees not being able to finish their basic training test at sites across Australia and New Zealand.
College president Dr Catherine Yelland expressed disappointment at the glitch and apologised to trainee candidates for "the distress caused" on Monday.
The test costs at least $1800 to sit and is considered a "gateway exam" for doctors who want to further specialise as a physician or paediatrician.
One candidate, who did not want to be named, sat the exam in Sydney and said an error message flashed up on her screen as she finished the first part of the exam.
"They couldn't tell me what it meant," she said.
She was at first reassured her answers from the first part of the two-hour exam hadn't been lost.
"[Later] we were told the server crashed and we couldn't start the second part of the examination ... it was a shambles."
An 'emotional roller coaster'
Candidates were later told the exam had been suspended due to "technical issues".
The candidate said news she would need to resit the exam was "devastating" and an "emotional rollercoaster" after spending hours studying each day.
"Everyone has to do this exam, it's looked at as a big deal."
It is understood this was the first year the first part of the test, which is followed by a clinical examination, was taken online rather than as a paper exam.
Candidates and members of the medical profession took to social media to voice their frustration, with one saying the first she'd heard from the college was a message on Facebook.
Dr Yelland said in a statement the college had explored its options with the exam's provider, Pearson Vue, to let the test to continue after the problem was detected.
A decision was later made to call the exam off.
She said the chairs of the college's adult and paediatric exam committees decided all candidates should resit a paper exam at a later date.
"We understand that some trainees have booked leave or holidays following today’s computer based test, and we are working as quickly as possible to reschedule a new exam."
She said it would likely to be more than 24 hours before they could inform candidates of a new exam date.
Dr Yellan said the college would hold "a full and transparent inquiry" into the cause of the error.
