The overall exam pass rate was 56% with 89 candidates to be congratulated on being awarded the FFICM. These pass rates are within the range of those from previous face-to-face and virtual FFICM examinations.

The examiners noted that many candidates had answered a number of topics poorly. These included some which continue to feature in these reports such as, applying basic sciences, radiology interpretation, non-invasive ventilation, dermatology as relevant to ICM, the coroner/procurator fiscal’s process (this question had a number of versions according to the region of the candidate) and consent. The lack of systematic description of radiology images and ECGs had been commented on in a number of these reports. It was, however, noted that some candidates did this very well, while others still missed marks by omitting this.

A number of candidates were noted to perform poorly on questions involving communication with relatives or patients and would benefit from teaching and feedback in the workplace on these skills.