News
Latest FRACGP exam report released
This year’s final Key Feature Problem had a pass rate of almost 68%, highlighting the merit of preparation and readiness to sit the exam.
The paper-based Key Feature Problem assesses candidate’s suitability to practice as a GP unsupervised anywhere in Australia.
On 6 July, more than 900 potential GPs sat for the Key Feature Problem (KFP) exam on their pathway to Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP).
The KFP exam is designed to assess clinical decision and clinical reasoning in practice, and represents standard sessions in Australian general practice, with the breadth of demographics and cases reflecting this.
The RACGP has now published the results for the 2024.2 KFP, revealing an overall pass rate of 67.83% from a total of 945 candidates, all of whom surpassed the pass mark of 56.70%.
Dr Emilie Pitter is the RACGP National KFP Assessment Advisor. She told newsGP the latest results reflect the importance of exam preparation and readiness.
‘There was a similar trend to previous exam cycles where the pass rate was higher for candidates sitting the KFP for the first time, with a pass rate of 83.8% for this cohort,’ Dr Pitter said.
‘The pass rate drops for subsequent attempts at the KFP. This highlights the importance of being prepared to sit the KFP exam for the first time; make sure you are ready for the exam, through both your clinical practice and study plans.
‘Your patients are your best study resource – make sure you are seeing a broad range of patients and focus study on presentations you are not as familiar with.
‘It’s really important to allocate enough time for exam preparation, I would recommend at least six months of planned study and exam preparation.’
The KFP is a paper-based assessment consisting of 26 cases, each of which is composed of a number of questions which may either ask for written responses or to choose from a selection list.
Pass rates by number of attempts for the 2024.2 KFP show a general trend suggesting candidate success diminishes for each subsequent attempt:
- first attempt pass rate – 83.8%
- second attempt pass rate – 48.6%
- third attempt pass rate – 36%
- fourth and subsequent attempts pass rate – 19.3%
The KFP assesses candidate’s suitability for FRACGP, meaning they demonstrate competence to practice unsupervised anywhere in Australia.
According to Dr Pitter, this competency is not only about medical knowledge, but includes competency in all
RACGP core curriculum units, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, rural health, and practice management systems.
‘Candidates should expect to demonstrate their competency in all core curricular areas and incorporate these into their exam preparation plans,’ she said.
‘It’s really important that candidates take all the key features of a case into account when formulating their answers.
‘For example, the location of a case can make a big difference; your management plans in a remote location may be very different to those if you were in an inner-metropolitan location.’
Rather than a simple short-answer paper where candidates list all the possible answers, the answers in the KFP need to be in the context of the clinical case, relating to the age and gender of the patient, the clinical information given, and the location of the patient.
The RACGP notes that one of the most commonly encountered pitfalls in the KFP exam is to provide multiple answers that are not in the context of the question.
The 2024.2 KFP exam cycle included questions on examination findings, and Dr Pitter advised that candidates should ensure they are describing the finding or examination sign they are looking for, rather than the examination itself.
‘It’s the difference between answering with “heart rate” vs “tachycardia”,’ she said. ‘Examiners need to understand what candidates are looking for to award marks.’
To best prepare candidates for sitting the Fellowship exam, Dr Pitter said there are a range of ‘fantastic and invaluable’ RACGP resources, including online public exam reports going back to 2016 online and the Self-Assessment Progress Tests (SAPTs) on
gplearning.
The free online SAPTs are previous AKT and KFP exam questions containing answers, rationales and links for further study, set at the standard candidates should expect.
‘I would urge all candidates to include the SAPTs in their KFP preparation; I can’t recommend them highly enough,’ Dr Pitter said.
‘I [also] strongly recommend all candidates to review the public exam reports to gain further understanding of the breadth of the KFP exam.
‘It goes through each case in the KFP and describes the type of questions, what made a good answer and common errors candidates made.’
The RACGP has a
suite of resources to help with Fellowship exam preparation, as well as the
KFP and Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) exam guide and
FAQs for exam day.
The KFP 2025.1 is scheduled for Saturday 18 January, with results published on Monday 31 March on the RACGP’s exam results web page.
Log in below to join the conversation.
Fellowship exams general practice training Key Feature Problem KFP RACGP exams
newsGP weekly poll
Do you think changes are needed to make the PBS authority approval process more streamlined for GPs?