FFICM Examiners Report October 2018

Candidates

89 candidates attended the exam, of these 28 had a previous pass in either the Structured Oral Exam (16) or the OSCE (12).

SOE

The Borderline Regression (BR) and Hofstee methods were used in the standard setting of the SOEs, with Hofstee being used to cross reference the result achieved from the BR method.  All statistical analysis available was discussed by the Board of Examiners. The final pass mark of 27 out of 32 was reached through a combination of statistical analysis and expert judgement after consideration of borderline candidates.  73 candidates sat the SOE. Of the 73, 53 (73%) passed the SOE component.  Twelve candidates sat the SOE with a previous pass in the OSCE.  Ten from 12 passed giving an 83% pass rate for SOE only applicants.

OSCE

Standard setting was performed using modified Angoff referencing by the OSCE working party in advance and a cumulative pass mark of 158/240, 159/240 and 158/240 was reached for the three questions sets used over the two days of the exam. 77 candidates sat the OSCE. Of the 77, 57 (74%) passed this component.  Sixteen candidates sat the OSCE with a previous pass in the SOE.  Eleven candidates passed, giving a 69% pass rate for OSCE only candidates.

Overall

58 candidates from 89(65%) passed the exam overall and achieved the Fellowship in Intensive Care Medicine.  This compares with 57% in April 2018. An overview of results are set out in the table below: