FFICM Examination Report March 2021

Questions for an individual exam are selected, according to the structure described above, to provide breadth of curriculum coverage, a stable mix of questions and a similar degree of difficulty. Hence the pass mark remains stable within the range of 155 -163 (out of a maximum 240 marks). The GMC approved process for setting the pass mark for each day of the exam is the sum of the Angoff scores for 12 of the 13 questions used in that exam (excluding the ‘test’ question, see below). 

After the exam, one of the 13 stations is designated as a ‘test’ station, based on pre-defined criteria. If there is an operational problem that resulted in the question not being able to run consistently for all candidates, this ’unfit station’ is designated the ‘test’ station. If there is no ‘unfit’ station, the newly Angoffed question in which the average mark has the maximum difference below the Angoff score for that question is designated the ‘test’ station. If no newly Angoffed questions score below, then the question with the minimum difference above the Angoff score is designated the ‘test’ station. This approach removes the least reliable question and is therefore favourable for candidates.

The majority of OSCE questions used in the October 2021 exam, as above, were questions that had been used in previous sittings and, therefore, were unaltered. As such, the Angoff score for those questions was unchanged from previous examinations. There were no ‘unfit’ stations in the October 2021 OSCE, so the test station was removed according to the rules outlined above. We also modelled removing the worst performing station each day instead; this changed the overall number of candidates who passed the exam by only one.   

As a criterion-referenced method is used to set the pass mark, the pass rate fluctuates. The highest pass rate was 100% in the first OSCE sitting, the most recent exam has the lowest pass rate.  There has been an overall downward trend in pass rate over time which has been previously attributed to the exam becoming a mandatory element of the CCT training programme (it was voluntary when first established).

In October 2021, 31 of 110 candidates examined (28%) passed OSCE, representing the lowest ever OSCE pass rate.   

Table 1 FFICM OSCE pass rate