FCPS Part 1 Dentistry Syllabus & Passing Criteria: Complete Breakdown

FCPS Part 1 – Dental Surgery is scored very differently from a school exam, and the syllabus is split across two papers most candidates under-prepare for one of. Here's the complete structure, sourced from CPSP's own published format.

The Two-Paper Structure

FCPS Part 1 Dentistry consists of two papers, and your result is based on your combined performance across both — a strong Paper 2 does not rescue a weak Paper 1, or the other way round.

• Paper 1 — Basic Sciences. Shared across every FCPS Part 1 specialty: Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology and Community Medicine.
• Paper 2 — Dentistry-specific. Follows the official CPSP Dentistry prospectus: Oral Anatomy, Oral Pathology, Oral Medicine, Dental Materials, Prosthodontics, Operative Dentistry, Periodontics, Orthodontics, Oral Surgery, and Pediatric Dentistry.

Both papers are multiple-choice. See CPSP's official FCPS Part 1 syllabus downloads for the full prospectus PDF.

How Your Result Is Actually Calculated

CPSP does not simply count correct answers as a percentage. Before results are finalised, the paper goes through a statistical reliability analysis (Cronbach's alpha is the measure typically referenced) to work out which questions actually separated strong candidates from weak ones.

• Questions everyone answered correctly are treated as having no discriminatory value and can be dropped from scoring.
• Questions nobody answered correctly are treated as flawed or unreasonably difficult, and can also be dropped.
• What remains is weighted — a harder question that only strong candidates got right carries more weight than an easy one nearly everyone answered correctly.

Two candidates with the same number of correct answers can end up with different marks because of this weighting. Chasing only easy, high-yield recall gets you to the same place as everyone else — the marks that decide your result sit in the harder, more discriminating questions.

Component	What it covers	Indicative target
Paper 1	Basic sciences, shared across all FCPS Part 1 specialties	~70%
Paper 2	Dentistry-specific syllabus	~80%
Aggregate	Combined performance across both papers	~75%

No Negative Marking

There is no penalty for a wrong answer. A blank answer scores zero; a guess has a real chance of scoring. Make sure every question has an option filled in before time is called.

How to Prepare Across Both Papers

• Don't neglect Paper 1. Basic sciences make up half your result, and it's the paper candidates most often under-prepare because it feels less directly relevant to dentistry.
• Prioritise Prosthodontics, Operative Dentistry and Oral Pathology within Paper 2 — these carry substantial weight across CPSP's dental prospectus.
• Practise past-paper-style MCQs, not just textbook recall. Item-analysis weighting rewards the ability to reason through harder, discriminating questions.
• Review explanations, not just answers. Understanding why a distractor is wrong builds the pattern recognition the weighted scoring rewards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is FCPS Part 1 Dentistry marked as a simple percentage?

No — CPSP applies item analysis first and weights questions by how well they separated candidates, so your raw correct-answer count isn't the final mark.

Does Paper 1 matter if I'm focused on dentistry?

Yes. Your result is your combined score across both papers — a weak Paper 1 can fail you even with a strong Paper 2.

Is there negative marking?

No, in either paper.

Practise both papers with HighYield's FCPS Part 1 Dentistry QBank — questions across basic sciences and every dental discipline in the CPSP prospectus, each with a detailed explanation. Try 20 questions free.