How to Become a GP in Australia: AGPT Entry Requirements

Prerequisites

Residency: Australian or New Zealand citizenship, Australian permanent residency, or a 309, 482, 485, 491, 494 or 820 visa. A 790 visa or a Bridging Visa A or B is assessed case by case
- Temporary visas: declare that you intend to gain permanent residency, or show an active application. Fellowship needs citizenship or permanent residency by the end of training
- Visa sponsorship: if your visa needs employer sponsorship, secure it at an accredited training site yourself, and preference only regions in a state your visa allows. Neither the RACGP nor the Department arranges sponsorship
Registration: general registration by the first semester of the intake year. Provisional or limited registration is enough to apply
- New Zealand registration: enough to apply on its own, with the application reviewed by the Training Program Eligibility Panel. Without Australian or New Zealand registration you cannot apply
Specialist registration: specialist registration in general practice makes you ineligible. Other specialist registration is reviewed by the Training Program Eligibility Panel
Eligibility Panel review: conditions on your registration, or a past withdrawal from a specialist program, need a CV on the RACGP template naming three referees, used only to decide eligibility
Other general practice programs: withdraw from another Australian General Practice Training place before you apply, or declare you will leave any other general practice program before you start
Fellowship exams already sat: at least 2 exam semesters remaining, if you have sat RACGP Fellowship exams since January 2019
Re-entry: if you left an RACGP program, reapply under the rules current then, with time still left within the maximum program time
Before the first general practice term: Australian Medical Council postgraduate year 2 certification, or general registration and a further 12 months of accredited supervised hospital rotations at postgraduate year 2 or above
Hospital rotations: completed within 10 years before the first general practice term, with at most 26 weeks in one discipline and 7 weeks of leave counted in each hospital year
- Locum work: counts only where it was like a training term, 4 weeks or more with supervision, education, feedback and a satisfactory assessment
- Older terms: terms more than 5 years old may need evidence of how you kept your skills
Paediatric competency: met within 5 years before the first general practice term, with at least 5 weeks at postgraduate year 2 or later, by one of five routes
- Route 1: a paediatric term of 10 weeks or more covering acute, critical and undifferentiated care. A subspecialty term such as neonatal intensive care may not fully count
- Route 2: 10 weeks or more in an accredited mixed adult and paediatric emergency department, seeing at least 100 patients aged 0 to 17
- Route 3: 10 weeks in a mixed emergency department, plus a half paediatric term, a hospital general practice rotation, or a second mixed emergency term
- Route 4: the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network child health certificate or diploma, plus mixed emergency, half paediatric or hospital general practice time
- Route 5: 20 weeks or more in an accredited general practice at postgraduate year 2 or later, seeing at least 100 children with acute presentations, plus an approved module

Applications

Timeline

Applications

Main intake applications open, early March

Assessment

National entry assessment sittings, late MarchBook in mid-March, in the booking window

When to apply

Apply in postgraduate year 1 at the earliest, to start the program in postgraduate year 2 with general registration. Later intakes run only where training places remain.

Selection format

Situational judgement test

Competition

Moderate

Every 2027 training place was filled in the main intake. No second round ran. You can sit the national entry assessment once a calendar year. The college does not publish an applicant to place ratio.

Program structure

Total training
4 years
From internship at the earliest: postgraduate year 1, then the 3-year program
Training program
3 years
Full time: a hospital year, three general practice terms and an extended skills term
Fellowship
Year 4
Of postgraduate work at the earliest, after the extended skills term

Throughout training

Hospital training: 52 weeks; At any accredited hospital in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand, which you arrange yourself
Outer and rural practice: 52 weeks; Of your general practice terms at least, on the General Pathway
Composite rural term: 26 weeks; In a rural area of a region of need, in a composite General Pathway position

Rules and conditions

Transfers between regions or pathways are not allowed in the first 6 months except for exceptional circumstances, and are never automatic
General Pathway: the 52 weeks are in outer metropolitan or non-capital city locations, regional, rural or remote locations, or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health post. Spend them in one, or 6 months in each of two
Rural Pathway registrars train only in Modified Monash 2 to 7 locations, and are expected to live in the rural area where they train
Across the general practice and extended skills terms: two different supervisors, two different business models, and diverse patient populations
Before each term you give your training intentions, around August for semester 1 and March for semester 2. Accredited practices list placements in the placement portal, and each practice chooses its registrars, some by interview
All training is in Australia. Telehealth can be part of your training, but never the majority of it
Recognition of prior learning can credit 12 to 52 weeks of the hospital year, never a general practice or extended skills term, with at most 26 weeks in one discipline except emergency medicine. Apply in the first 17 weeks of the first general practice term

Stage by stage

Stage 1 of 4

General practice term 1

26 weeks, full time

The first of three community general practice terms, from the second year, after the hospital training year.

Training time

Community general practice
An accredited practice in your region, under a designated supervisor

Courses

Basic life support
A course meeting RACGP criteria, in the 12 months before this term starts
Orientation
Onboarding modules before the term, and a mandatory orientation workshop at its start

Assessments

Early assessment for safety and learning
An online knowledge test, case reviews and observed consultations in the first weeks
External clinical teaching visits
Two

Dual training

Dual training with
Rural Generalist Medicine
Rural Generalist Fellowship (FRACGP-RG)
Rural Generalist Fellowship
4 years
To be completed within 6
Additional rural skills
12 months
Added by the fourth year
Core emergency medicine
6 months
Added by the fourth year, and can be the extended skills term
Rural general practice
12 months
At the least, of the general practice terms in Modified Monash 3 to 7 locations

Selection criteria

Score your portfolio

Rural & regional

Pathway choice: a General Pathway across metropolitan and rural areas, or a Rural Pathway in Modified Monash 2 to 7 only, chosen at application
- Composite general pathway: at least 26 calendar weeks in a designated rural area of need
- 10-year moratorium: an overseas primary medical degree, or not being a citizen or permanent resident at medical school enrolment, limits you to the Rural Pathway
- Rural pathway exemption: with exceptional circumstances that stop you training rurally, ask for an exemption by the close of applications. It lasts for the program only, not the moratorium

Application process

Online assessment: the national entry assessment, Acuity Insights' Casper test: a situational judgement test of interpersonal and professional dilemmas, taken online and remotely proctored
- 11 scenarios with two questions each. Four are answered by 1-minute video and seven typed in 3.5 minutes. It takes 65 to 85 minutes, breaks included. Clinical knowledge is not tested
- Competencies: collaboration, communication, empathy, fairness, ethics, self-awareness, resilience, problem-solving and motivation
- Standard: a result below the minimum standard ends your RACGP applications for that calendar year
- Score: the quartile score is for your own information and does not decide offers
- Joint applicants: partners can apply together with identical preferences. Both are placed on the lower of their two assessment scores
- One below the standard: the two applications are separated, so the partner who met the standard can still receive an offer. A priority group either partner qualifies for covers both

Practise this interview with each station timed. Interview practice

Offer priority

Australian and New Zealand citizens, and Australian permanent residents

1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, or Australian Defence Force, applicantsGuaranteed offer
With a rural or general pathway first preference.
2. Enrolled with a state or territory Rural Generalist Coordination Unit
With a rural or general pathway first preference.
3. Rural origin, with a rural pathway first preference
Living in a Modified Monash 2 to 7 area for at least 10 cumulative years, or 5 consecutive years in childhood including schooling.
4. Rural connection to your first preference region
At least 24 consecutive months there, living, at rural clinical school or on placements, or in clinical work.
5. First preference in a region of need
New England and North West NSW, the Northern Territory, Murrumbidgee, or Western NSW.
6. All other citizens and permanent residents

Temporary visa holders

7. Rural connection to your first preference region
8. First preference in a region of need
9. All other temporary visa holders

Only the first tier is guaranteed an offer, once the online assessment is passed.

Entry tips

Medical school

Choose a rural clinical school or a longitudinal rural placement in the region you would put first, since 24 consecutive months there is a rural connection for offers.

Postgraduate years 1 and 2

Take rural hospital rotations in that region, since 24 consecutive months of clinical work there is a rural connection too.
Plan a paediatric term early, since general practice terms cannot start without paediatric competency.
Ask for a hospital general practice rotation, since 10 to 12 weeks of it counts toward paediatric competency alongside a term in a mixed emergency department.

Application

Register a free Acuity Insights account early and sit its full 11-scenario practice test, since it shows the timing of the typed and video answers before your sitting.
Sit the national entry assessment after your eligibility is confirmed, since you may be found ineligible after sitting it, and you would miss the distribution matrix of places and applicants.
Preference only regions where you can meet the training location commitments, since your general practice terms stay in the region you are offered. Listing one preference twice does not help.

Prior learning

Keep your hospital term assessments and a letter confirming your terms, since onboarding and recognition of prior learning both ask for them soon after you accept.

What the college has changed

2026-01
From the 2026 intake, the Australian General Practice Training application has no referee reports, and one online assessment replaced the multiple mini interview and the Candidate Assessment and Applied Knowledge Test.

Workforce

Fellows

29,476

At 31 December 2025

2027 intake training positions

1,694

Australian General Practice Training

Most Fellows, 23,010 of 29,476, trained through Australian General Practice Training. The others reached Fellowship through an RACGP route outside it, the ACRRM Independent Pathway, the Remote Vocational Training Scheme or the specialist pathway.

Fellows 2025 by Pathway and State

Fellows 2025 by Pathway and State
Pathway	ACT
ACRRM Independent Pathway	9
AGPT	495
RACGP	108
FSP	0
PEP Specialist	12
PEP Standard	9
Practice Eligible	87
RGTS	0
RVTS	10
Specialist	1
All pathways, total	623

Source: Australian Government Department of Health. Medical Education and Training (2025), Chapter 4: Fellows, College Fellows by state, as at 31 December 2025.

Workforce data by state

QLD: Queensland Health medi-nav. NSW: NSW Health Map My Career. VIC, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT: Australian Government Health Workforce Data.

General Practice