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Tips for candidates to improve KFP exam outcomes
The RACGP’s biannual Key Feature Problem report includes recommendations and advice to assist candidates when preparing for and sitting the exam.
The RACGP provides candidates a number of resources to assist with exam preparation.
The RACGP Fellowship (FRACGP) Key Feature Problem (KFP) exam consists of 26 cases, each of which is composed of 2–3 questions. Each case contributes equally to the overall score, making each worth 3.85% of the total mark.
Reports are released following each KFP exam, detailing statistics of pass rates, mean and standard deviation of the entire cohort that sat the exam, and potential areas for improvement.
The recent 2018.1 KFP exam revealed an overall pass mark of 56.83% and a mean score of 57.67% from a total of 1542 candidates who sat the exam.
The 2018.1 report also showed the common areas of the exam where candidates could improve are:
- providing non-specific responses to questions
- not reading questions thoroughly
- providing unrelated diagnoses in their answers
- providing further diagnoses rather than a cause for the presentation
- getting side-tracked by past medical history.
The RACGP recommends the following advice for candidates when sitting the exam:
- Read each question carefully and ensure their answers address the question
- Keep answers succinct
- Only consider the information provided in the question and avoid developing a collateral history beyond this information
- Be specific in answers that include treatments, prescribing information or further investigations
- Spell out terms in full rather than using abbreviations in answers
- Ensure they are familiar with current key guidelines and any updates
This guidance may also support candidates who are preparing for the other FRACGP exams – the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
RACGP resources
exam-preparation Key-Feature-Problem KFP-exam
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