Phase 7 · Your result
Re-sitting the Professional Review
What a re-sit involves, why it is a complete new application, and how to use the reviewers' comments properly.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage
A re-sit is the whole process again — new application, new sponsor statements, new report if the old one was the problem. Your reviewers will know nothing about the previous attempt.
What re-sitting involves
Institution of Civil Engineers
- If you have previously been unsuccessful, you will need to undertake the whole application process again.
- No information regarding a previous application will be made available to your reviewers.
- You should prepare in the same way you did for your original review, and upload your new application documents accordingly.
- New sponsor questionnaires will also be required.
- For a re-sit, the reviewers must be satisfied that you have demonstrated competence for all attributes at the review to be successful.
From Incorporated and Chartered Professional Review Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
The clean slate cuts both ways
Your new reviewers start from nothing. Nothing from last time counts against you — but nothing counts for you either, and the areas you were strong in have to be evidenced again from scratch.
That is worth internalising, because the instinct after an unsuccessful review is to fix only the criticised part. If the comments said your commercial evidence was thin, it is tempting to bolt on a commercial section and resubmit the rest unchanged. Sometimes that is right. Often the report has drifted since it was written, or the weak area was a symptom of a structure that made everything hard to see.
How to approach a re-sit
- 01
Work out what kind of failure it was
Missing experience, invisible experience, or undefended experience. They need completely different responses, and the reviewers' comments usually say which — read them with that question in mind.
- 02
If it was missing experience, do not rush back
Getting a real commercial or leadership responsibility takes six to eighteen months. Reapplying at the next session with the same experience and better wording is the most common way to fail twice.
- 03
If it was invisible experience, rebuild the report
Do not edit. Start from the list of decisions and write it again — the structure was probably the problem, and edits leave the structure in place.
- 04
If it was the day itself, practise out loud
Mock reviews with different people, until answering is comfortable. Reading and thinking about answers does not transfer.
- 05
Ask your sponsors to be harder on you
Sponsors are often generous with a first draft. Ask directly: which attribute would you struggle to defend on my behalf? New statements are required in any case.
- 06
Have somebody new read it
Someone who did not read the first version and has no investment in it. They will see what everyone else has stopped noticing.
Re-sit checklist
10 items · saved in this browser only
Related pages and tools
- ResultsWhen the result arrives, what a successful outcome means, and what to do with reviewers' comments if it is not.
- Gap analysisFind the areas where your evidence is thin, and turn each one into a development action you can actually ask for.
- The report5,000 words in which two strangers have to see your competence: what ICE asks for, how to structure it, and how to edit it.
- Mock reviewRun a practice sequence of questions and follow-ups, in coaching mode or under timed conditions.
- SponsorsWho can sponsor you, what the lead sponsor's role actually involves, and how to approach both without leaving it late.
- Application plannerWork backwards from your target review: tasks, dependencies, your own confirmed dates, and what is blocking what.