Fellowship of the West African College of Surgeons — General Surgery
Africa · multi-country · $99, the same everywhere
How this examination works
The West African College of Surgeons examines at three levels: Primary, Part 1 and Part 2. They are held every year in April and October, and not at a single venue but across different countries of the West African sub-region. Part 1 is sat after two years in the programme and once rotational training through most surgical disciplines at accredited institutions is complete; Part 2 comes two years after Part 1, with the specialty already chosen. The full pathway to fellowship usually takes four to six years. A published series on the college’s general surgery examination puts the average pass rate below 50% in both Part 1 and Part 2: that is a figure from the literature, not from the college, and it should be read as such.
Who can sit it
Anyone seeking exemption from the Primary has to start early: the college requires the process to be completed at least one year before the intended date of sitting Part I.
Checked against the body itself on 1 September 2026. Procedures change; if this no longer matches what you were asked for, write and tell us.
The structure above is taken from the examining body. What we have not done yet is transcribe its published syllabus domain by domain, which is what lets us show a coverage table instead of asking you to take our word for it.
5,000
active questions
20
topics with questions
No weighted breakdown for this examination, and why
West African College of Surgeons does not publish a general surgery syllabus we have been able to obtain, so this page shows no domains and no percentages. Anywhere you see a weighted breakdown for this exam, ask which document it came from. Where an authority does publish one, we transcribe it with the page number and link the original.
Common questions about this examination
What is the FWACS examination like?
The West African College of Surgeons examines at three levels: Primary, Part 1 and Part 2. They are held every year in April and October, and not at a single venue but across different countries of the West African sub-region. Part 1 is sat after two years in the programme and once rotational training through most surgical disciplines at accredited institutions is complete; Part 2 comes two years after Part 1, with the specialty already chosen. The full pathway to fellowship usually takes four to six years. A published series on the college’s general surgery examination puts the average pass rate below 50% in both Part 1 and Part 2: that is a figure from the literature, not from the college, and it should be read as such.
Who can sit the FWACS?
Anyone seeking exemption from the Primary has to start early: the college requires the process to be completed at least one year before the intended date of sitting Part I.
Is there a question bank for the FWACS?
This one. 5,000 single-best-answer questions across the whole of general surgery, each with the reasoning for every option rather than only the correct one, written by a consultant surgical oncologist. It is written to the discipline, not transcribed from the FWACS blueprint — general surgery is general surgery wherever it is examined, and we say plainly which boards we have mapped and which we have not.
What level are the questions for the FWACS?
2,051 of the 5,000 — 41% — sit at the hardest of three levels: trial results, guideline nuance and the cases that split examiners, which is the level an exit examination like the FWACS is decided at. Fifty questions are free with an account, so you can judge the level before paying.
How do I practise the FWACS oral component?
With the oral simulator, included in a subscription. Six stations as an examination sets them; you choose the station and the examiner chooses the case from more than a hundred scenarios built on this bank. It presses when an answer is vague and marks by domain — reasoning, guidelines, decision-making and communication.
What does preparation for the FWACS cost?
One payment of $99 for 180 days, the same from wherever you pay — there is no country pricing. It covers the whole bank, the oral simulator and the timed mock papers. Nothing renews and no card is kept on file afterwards. Fifty questions are free with an account, so you can judge the level before paying.
Every answer above is taken from the examining body’s own published document, not from our reading of it.
Other examinations in Africa
- College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa — FCS General Surgery — College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa
- National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria — Fellowship in Surgery — National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria
- Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa — Colleges of Medicine of South Africa
- Fellowship in General Surgery (Ghana) — Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons
Price for this board
One price, the same from every country. What you see is what you are charged, and nothing renews.
$99 · 180 days of full access
This examination has a viva or clinical component, and the access includes the oral simulator: an examiner that presents a case, listens to what you actually say and questions you back. It marks on the four competence domains the Saudi Commission publishes — the only oral rubric for general surgery published in full — which are the same competencies every one of these boards is testing.