MFPH Part A
Examination
UK Information Pack
12 & 13 June 2017
Introduction
The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Part A MFPH examination is intended to test candidates' knowledge
and understanding of the scientific basis of public health, and their ability to apply their knowledge
and skills to the practice of public health. It consists of two written papers (Paper I and Paper II). Both
Papers I and II are split into two parts/components A and B (Paper IA, Paper IB, Paper IIA and Paper
IIB) and taken over two consecutive days.
This pack is designed to provide candidates with all the information they will need to undertake the
Part A MFPH examination.
Contents
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Information about the examination venue
pg. 2
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The examination timetable
pg. 2
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Information about taking the Part A examination
pg. 2-5
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Withdrawing from the examination
pg. 6
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Extenuating circumstances
pg. 6
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Notification of results
pg. 7
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Feedback
pg. 7
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General Advice to candidates from examiners
pg. 7-8
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Directions to the examination venue
pg. 8-10
1
Examination Venue (change of venue for June 2017)
The UK examination will be held at Park Crescent Conference Centre, 229 Great Portland
Street, London, W1W 5PN.
On arrival at the venue, signage and/or staff will direct you to registration.
Candidates are advised to arrive at the venue at least 30 minutes before the start of the examination.
(In the event that the examination is held in more than one examination hall, candidates will be notified
of their allocated hall at registration.)
Examination Timetable
Monday 12 June 2017
Paper IA:
10:00 - 12.30
Paper IB:
14.00 - 15.30
Tuesday 13 June 2017
Paper IIA:
10:00 - 12.30
Paper IIB:
14.00 - 15.30
Documents to bring to the examination
1.
Candidate’s examination allocation email; and
2.
One of the identification documents listed below as proof of identity. It must be original,
current and bear a photograph:
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Passport
UK Immigration and Nationality Department identification document
Home Office travel document
UK driving licence
EU identity card
If the name on the identification document is different from that on the examination allocation
email, original evidence must be provided to show that the candidate is the person named in
that email. FPH will accept:
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A marriage certificate; or
A declaration from the awarding body which granted the primary medical
qualification stating that both names relate to the candidate.
If candidates do not bring the documents listed above, or if the identification document does not bear
a photograph, they will not be allowed to take the examination. The examination fee will not be
refundable under these circumstances.
2
Examination materials
Candidates should bring at least one ballpoint or ink pen (with dark ink). Pencils, rulers and erasers
may also be brought to the examination but please note: candidates are required to use pen to
answer the questions to facilitate the examiners’ marking process.
Prohibited items
Prohibited items include:
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English and/or foreign language dictionaries
calculators
laptop computers
mobile phones including PDAs, personal organisers and radio pagers
Calculators will be provided by the invigilators. The model provided will be a basic (non-scientific)
pocket calculator with memory and square root functions but no floating decimal point. A knowledge
of engineering notation will therefore be useful in the calculation of extremely large or small numbers
(over 8 digits in length). Statistical tables will not be provided.
Invigilators
Each examination is supervised by an invigilator to ensure that the examination is conducted in
accordance with the rules and regulations of the Faculty. The invigilator has authority in matters
regarding admission to the examination hall, permission to use the toilets and discipline in general.
Each invigilator will report any queries or problems to the Chair of Part A Examiners. In cases of
serious and prolonged disruption of the examination the invigilator will liaise with the Chair and
Academic Registrar to determine the most suitable course of action.
Admission to the examination hall
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Candidates will be invited to enter the examination hall approximately 10 minutes before the
examination is due to start.
Candidates should ensure that the name and examination number on the front of their
answer folder are correct.
Coats and bags must be left in the designated area. Mobile telephones and alarm clocks must
be switched off. An envelope will be provided to candidates to store their mobiles under their
desks.
Valuables should not be left in the examination room between Papers. FPH cannot accept
responsibility for any items that are lost or stolen.
3
Late arrival
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Candidates must arrive at the examination centre at least 15 minutes before the examination
is due to begin.
Candidates who arrive late, but within 30 minutes of the start of the examination, will be
admitted but will not be allowed any extra time.
Candidates will be expected to explain their late arrival to the invigilator who will record this
in their report.
No candidate will be admitted to the examination hall after the first 30 minutes.
At the beginning of the examination
Place your identity card face up on your examination desk so that it can be checked by the invigilator.
Phones MUST be turned off and are not allowed to be kept on your person during the exam. They
should be left in bags / briefcases at the end of the room
.
Note that each question will be marked by a different examiner, so questions must be clearly separated
within the answer folder - make sure you follow the instructions below:
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boxes at the top of each sheet of paper to be filled in correctly, as in this example:
Candidate no:
14
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Question no:
3
Page no:
1
Each question to be started on a fresh sheet of paper
Page numbering to start from 01 for each question
Nothing to be written in the margins
Only the lined side of the sheet to be used
Any rough work on the page to be crossed through with a single line
For confidentiality, DO NOT write your name or other identifying information in your written answers.
Finishing the examination
Please note that you are allowed a MAXIMUM of 5 MINUTES at the end of each paper to put your script
folder in order. After 5 minutes, answer folders will be collected regardless of their condition.
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You MUST sign the front of the folder in the appropriate place; a new folder is issued for
each paper
Make sure all pages are numbered correctly within each question, and put in numerical
order
Arrange questions in numerical order and place in the script folder using the treasury tag
provided
Rough drafts which you do not wish to be marked must be left on the desk and NOT in the
folder
4
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DO NOT LEAVE the exam room until all folders have been collected by an invigilator
Dyslexic candidates receiving extra time in the exam are provided with a coloured sticker they can
attach to their examination scripts. This is to ensure that during anonymous marking they are not
penalised for spelling errors.
Leaving the examination hall
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No candidate may leave the examination hall during the first 30 minutes.
The invigilator will allow candidates to leave the examination hall (one at a time) for a short
period after the first 30 minutes to go to the toilet.
No candidate may leave the examination hall during the last 15 minutes of the examination.
Once the examination has ended, candidates must remain seated in silence until all answer
folders and question papers have been collected.
Examination materials, including question papers, may not be removed from the examination
hall.
If candidates feel unwell during the examination they should tell the invigilator immediately.
If they cannot continue they may leave the room. If the candidate wishes the Board of
Examiners to be informed of the illness they must complete and return the Extenuating
Circumstances Form, available on the FPH website
(http://www.fph.org.uk/timetable_and_fees) within three days of the examination.
Candidates are advised that marks and pass/fail decisions are unlikely to be changed as a result of
notification of illness.
Misconduct
The invigilator may stop any candidate suspected of misconduct during the examination from
completing it, and if necessary confiscate any unauthorised materials and expel the candidate from
the examination room.
Examples of serious offences include:
possession of any prohibited items in the examination hall (except those held in bags in the
designated area);
helping or receiving help from another candidate;
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consulting any materials outside the examination room during the examination;
Continuing to write after the invigilator has asked all candidates to stop at the end of the
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examination.
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If candidates do any of these things or engage in any other activity that may be deemed to constitute
professional or academic misconduct, they will be reported directly to examination officers and the
FPH Education and Training Department. All incidences will be investigated in accordance with the
FPH Examinations Misconduct Policy and Procedure (Appendix 2), and if found to have engaged in
misconduct candidates may have their examination result declared invalid and their name reported to
their professional regulatory authority.
5
Withdrawals
Candidates withdrawing from an examination after the closing date and up to one week before the
examination will normally be charged 50% of the fee.
No refund will be made to candidates withdrawing within seven days of the examination.
No refund will be made to candidates without written notice of intention to withdraw.
A greater refund may be granted at the discretion of the Academic Registrar under exceptional
circumstances.
Any candidate who holds a banked paper and withdraws can apply to retain their banked paper. This
can be granted at the discretion of the Academic Registrar.
Extenuating Circumstances
Candidates may complete the extenuating circumstances form (http://www.fph.org.uk/appeals) to
inform FPH of serious circumstances that occurred on the date of the Part A Examination and that
have adversely affected their examination performance. This information will be made available to
the relevant Chair of Examiners.
Please note, marks/results will not be altered to reflect individual circumstances. The only available
outcome as a result of a successful submission is that the attempt can be discounted. Please note the
record of the sitting will not be deleted.
It is the candidate's responsibility to complete and return this form to arrive at the FPH no later than
three days after the examination date.
Types of circumstances that the Faculty may consider to be serious include:
 The death or critical illness of a dependant or close relative on the day of the
examination
 A severely debilitating illness/accident that strikes on the day of the examination.
 A serious deterioration of a long standing illness on the day of the examination
Circumstances that would be considered ineligible:
 Late arrival to the examination
 English as a second language
 Long standing illness which was unchanged on the day of the examination
 Existing conditions/disabilities for which modifications are required but which were
not notified to the FPH ahead of time.
6
Notification of Results
Examination results will be sent first class normally within two to three working days of the Part A
results meeting (21 July 2017). A pass list and results summary will also be published on the Faculty
website on the second Monday following the Part A results meeting. Examination results will not be
given over the telephone. Results are not posted in the Faculty premises.
Candidates who have passed the examination will have their names passed to the Membership
Department of the Faculty for election to Diplomate Membership.
The results for all candidates will be sent to Faculty Advisers and Training Programme Directors.
Feedback
All candidates who are unsuccessful in the examination will receive feedback on their examination
performance in the form of marks as well as the question key points and examiners' general
comments. Candidates will not receive detailed individual feedback.
General Advice to Candidates from Examiners
Examination preparation
You are advised to practise writing exam papers under exam conditions including timing yourself
taking a past paper and practising hand written answers.
Taking the examination
You are advised to read the question papers carefully and follow the instructions.
Answer all the questions. Where marks are divided across questions these provide an indication of
how you should divide your time in answering the questions.
Expectations and characteristics of good answers:
Examiners look for clarity, brevity, focus, structure, an appropriate use of technical terms, legibility,
avoidance of irrelevant material, and a suitable level of neatness.
Candidates need to show an understanding of key public health principles, demonstrate that they can
apply them to a problem and give answers that are framed from a public health perspective.
Candidates are expected to demonstrate evidence of public health knowledge, applied with care and
where necessary show an ability to make connections across narrow subject areas. An answer is
unlikely to require simply a statement of facts or definitions (although this may form part of an
answer), nor should an answer include material irrelevant to the question.
Some questions require evidence that candidates demonstrate knowledge of ‘real life’ public health
practice, rather than an abstract discussion of the concepts.
7
A good answer will have logical order and an appropriate structure, framework or headings; judicious
use of bullet points where appropriate can be helpful, although the expectation is that the bullet
points will contain explanatory sentences not single words. Candidates should be able to present facts
and other material in an accessible, clear and logical way. Examiners need to see evidence that the
candidate understands and can illustrate all aspects of the question in their answer.
Characteristics of poor quality answers:
Illegible writing: examiners are unable to give credit for answers they are unable to read.
Inappropriate answers: writing information that has not been asked for in the question, even if the
information itself is factually correct, will not gain credit.
Lack of focus: candidates who use a ‘scattergun’ approach that is, using a well-rehearsed general
answer to a specific question, will not gain credit for relevant key points they happen to mention
along with other material which is irrelevant to the question asked.
Finding your way to Park Crescent Conference Centre
PARKING
There is limited space in the Centre’s car park at the front of the building so please contact them
to book space in advance. Alternatively there is an NCP car park about 500m down the road in
Carburton Street. Please note that the venue is within the congestion charge zone.)
BY BUS
We are located at the north end of Great Portland Street which is just a few minutes walk away from
the following bus routes;
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C2
Parliament Hill Fields
Oxford Street
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18
Sudbury
Euston
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27
Chalk Farm
Turnham Green
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30
Hackney Wick
Marble Arch
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88
Old Town
Camden Town
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205
Mile End
8
Paddington
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453
Deptford Bridge
Maylebone
BY TUBE
Great Portland Street tube Station (Opposite) and within a two to five minute walk of Warren
Street and Regent's Park tube stations
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Great Portland Street
Circle
Hammersmith & City
Metropolitan
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Warren Street
Northern Line
Victoria Line
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Regent's Park
Regent's Park
BY TRAIN
Euston and Kings Cross mainline stations are 10-15 minutes walk away.
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Euston
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Kings Cross
9
Park Crescent Conference Centre, 229 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PN
10