In this guide
Use this material to examine your own work. Confirm current requirements, forms and dates with IStructE before applying.
Each of the three examinations tests your ability to work independently on an unfamiliar brief within one day.
One day, one question, no help
Whichever paper you sit, the shape is the same. You choose one question from the options offered, and you answer only that one. Everything else follows from it: the schemes, the calculations, the drawings, the details, the method statement. The paper is open book. You cannot bring a laptop.
This is the part of the Professional Review that cannot be prepared retrospectively. The interview assesses years of accumulated work; the examination assesses what you can produce, alone, between 09:30 and the end of the day.
The three papers
The Chartered Membership Examination asks for two distinct schemes, appraised against each other with sustainability as a key criterion, then full design of the chosen scheme.
The Incorporated-Membership Examination asks for one viable scheme rather than two, and puts proportionally more of its marks into the calculations and the drawings.
The IM–CM Supplementary Examination, sat by Incorporated Members moving to Chartered Membership, is a shorter paper. It returns to the two-scheme appraisal that distinguishes the Chartered paper, but stops before full scheme calculations: it asks for calculations on two principal elements rather than all of them.
What every version shares
- Sustainability is a key feature of all questions, and has been since January 2024. Only documents carrying "2024" in the version number describe the current paper.
- Structural stability is fundamental. An unsafe structure, or a scheme where stability is ignored, is an automatic fail: stated identically in all three sets of instructions.
- Generic answers earn nothing. The examiners are looking for candidates to identify and address the main structural challenges *in that question*.
- Carbon is assessed. Approximate A1–A3 footprints are required, and the Institution gives the method: mass multiplied by an embodied carbon factor.
The three papers side by side
| Situation | Chartered | Incorporated | IM–CM supplementary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schemes required | Two distinct, then a recommendation | One | Two distinct, then a recommendation |
| Total marks | 100 | 100 | 80 |
| Writing time | 7 hours | 7 hours | 3½ hours |
| Lunch break | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | None: the paper ends at 13:00 |
| Calculations cover | All principal elements | All principal elements | Two principal elements |
| Method statement | Yes | Yes | No |
From the three current Exam Guidance and Instructions documents. The supplementary paper is the one most often mis-planned, because its timetable is different.
How to use this phase
- 01
Find out which paper you sit
Chartered, Incorporated, or the IM–CM supplementary. They differ in structure, marks and (for the supplementary) in length. Read your own paper's page before anything else.
- 02
Learn the rules of the day early
Open book, prohibited devices, the entry cut-off, what may be written on. These are not last-week details: what you may bring shapes how you prepare the folder you will rely on.
- 03
Build a timetable from the mark allocation
Marks per minute is the only planning principle that survives contact with the day. Work it out for your paper, then adjust it after each mock.
- 04
Practise the sections separately
Schemes, appraisal, client letter, calculations, drawings, details, method statement, carbon. Each has its own page here, and each fails in its own characteristic way.
- 05
Then sit full mocks, in real conditions
Practise with an unfamiliar question for the full examination duration, using only the materials permitted for that paper.
Official sources
Selected publisher pages were rechecked in September 2026. Other source records were last checked in July 2026. Open the latest official document before relying on a requirement.