Part A MFPH Examiners Selection and Training

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Job Description

The following is a brief guide to the responsibilities and workload of an Examiner for the Diploma & Part I Membership Examination. It is intended to provide some background information on the role of the Examiner and the examination system in practice.

Who are the Examiners?
Examiners are experienced Members (honorary or by examination) or Fellows of the Faculty or other Colleges or Faculties who have specialist knowledge of at least one area of the curriculum, who are willing to give up some time to ensure that the education standards of both medically and non-medically qualified candidates are tested and maintained over time. It is a responsible position, as candidates feel powerless and anxious during this hurdle in their career and the Faculty needs to ensure that the whole process is confidential, thoughtful, unbiased and fair to all candidates, whatever their background.

Examiners are not paid, but they can claim reasonable travel expenses at Faculty rates for travel to meetings.

How are Examiners chosen?
Potential Examiners are usually nominated by Board members, Faculty Advisers, Heads of Academic Departments, Training Co-ordinators or apply personally. All nominations and applications are screened and judged by the Chair of the Part A MFPH Examiners against the criteria for appointment and then formally considered by the Education Committee. The latter makes recommendations for appointment by the Board. Once approved by the Board, potential Examiners are brought on to the panel as current Examiners retire. The term of service is usually for three years, with a maximum further three years extension.

All Examiners must be thoroughly conversant with the examination syllabus, with the contents of the supplied training pack, and must be able to demonstrate the knowledge required and their commitment to the principles underlying the examination to the Chairman of Examiners or the Academic Registrar before taking up their responsibilities. Examiners are normally to "dummy mark" a series of papers in their subject area drawn from past sittings of the examination prior to undertaking full marking duties, in order to gain experience and to standardise their marks against those of previous examiners.

There are some 'specialist' examiners who are chosen for their connections with the background of candidates from particular sub-groups: there is always at least one statistician on the Board of Examiners, and there is always at least one examiner representing the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine, whose job it is to ensure that the total content of the examination and phrasing of questions does not put non-UK candidates at a disadvantage. They are fully integrated into the main panel of Examiners however, and do not mark only Hong Kong scripts.

Keeping up-to-date
The Faculty expects all Examiners to keep up-to-date with developments in the specialty. For medically qualified Members and Fellows of the Faculty, examiners must meet the minimum continuing professional development (CPD) requirements. The CPD Department will be asked to confirm this for all Examiners on an annual basis.

Doctors from other Colleges or Faculties are expected to comply with the appropriate Continuing Medical Education (CME) requirements. Examiners who are Honorary Faculty Members are expected to comply with any equivalent need for up-dating and professional development of their own professional organisation.

Personal qualities needed [E = essential D = desirable]

Knowledge:
* Specialist, up-to-date knowledge of at least one area of the curriculum (E)

Skills:

  • Ability to respect and preserve confidentiality (E)

  • Ability to stick to tight time schedules and turn around work quickly (E)
    (deadlines for question setting, marking and commenting)

  • Good communication skills (E)

  • Ability to work in teams (E)

  • Ability to make thoughtful and unbiased decisions (E)

  • Ability to argue their position coherently when taking a different view from other examiners and to arrive at shared judgements on contentious issues (E)

Experience:

  • Past or present experience of weighting evidence, making important and difficult objective decisions and ensuring that judgement is not swayed by personal bias or sectional interests (E)

  • Past or present experience of setting and marking examination papers (D)

  • Past or present experience of training specialist registrars (D)

Workload
Examiners sometimes underestimate the workload entailed in marking. Most of the work is done within the three weeks following the examination, and examiners are advised to clear sufficient space in their diaries to ensure they can get the work done on time.

There will often be in excess of 60 scripts to mark for each examiner, and the length of time taken up by marking will vary with the type of question being marked: a critical appraisal question can take twice as long to mark as a short answer. Examiners, particularly those marking for the first time, are advised to leave plenty of time (around 15-20 hours is typical) for marking, and to spread it out: four hours at a stretch is enough for most people. Remember, deadlines are crucial, and the marks, agreed with your co-examiner, must arrive at the Faculty by the specified time and date.

Duties
Examiners will be scheduled to participate in one examination per year. However, they must be prepared to stand in at an additional sitting when needed, such as if a colleague should fall sick or retire early.

For each examination, every participating examiner is required to:

  1. Propose a minimum of 2 questions with key points for the paper they will mark

  2. Mark the scripts and consult with their co-examiner

  3. Help in finalising key points and comments on questions they have marked, for candidate feedback

  4. Meet specified deadlines for return of question proposals, marks and comments

One of each pair of co-examiners must attend the examiners' results meeting for each sitting in which they have participated. All examiners are expected, but not required, to attend the annual examiners' meeting for setting papers. Co-examiners should try to ensure that at least one member of each marking pair attends.

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How the Examination is run

Sittings
Under the regulations coming into force from June 2001, there will be two examinations a year in January and June. Past experience indicates that many examiners have found difficulty in both completing the marking of papers and the setting of new questions in the short period of time between the examination and the meeting of the examiners. For the reasons set out above examiners tend to concentrate on getting marks in on time, and this has led to considerable confusion and delay surrounding the setting of questions and, of equal importance, the setting out of key points to guide the markers of those questions. For this reason there are to be some changes to the examination setting and marking process.

Setting the Examination Papers
There will be a single question setting meeting each year, to which all examiners are invited, in order to separate the setting and marking of papers. Examiners are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting. All examiners are required to propose a minimum of two questions with key points for the examination paper they will mark, which must be received by the Part I Examination Administrator by two weeks prior to the date of the question setting meeting. If an examiner cannot attend the meeting, either for reasons of completely unavoidable other commitments, ill-health or geographical inaccessibility (for instance examiners from Hong Kong), they must ensure that the Part A Examination Administrator receives proposed questions AND key points at least two weeks in advance of that meeting, and they must make every effort to ensure that their views are known and represented by an examiner in their subject area whom they know to be attending the meeting.

Stand-by Examiners
To ensure that there are examiners in reserve at any one sitting who can cover for the unexpected inability of colleagues to mark, there will be in future two sets of examiners, one which marks the January paper, and one which marks the June paper. In the past difficulties have been caused by examiners who fall ill during the marking period. In these circumstances examiners must be prepared to participate at a sitting of the examination for which they are not scheduled to mark, as they function on these occasions as deputy or standby examiners. Examiners can be assured that their co-operation in this process will be much appreciated and that they will receive time in lieu for such emergency duties.

Marking Papers
For each examination for which they are scheduled to mark, or at which they function as a standby examiner, each examiner is required to:

  1. Mark the scripts and consult with their co-examiner, and return both initial and agreed marks to the Part I Examination Administrator by the agreed date

  2. Help in finalising key points and comments for the general report on the examination.
Results meetings
There will be two Examiners' meetings a year, to agree the pass list for the most recent sitting. These meetings will be open to all those who have marked papers in the most recent sitting, but it is not required that all attend. It is necessary only that one of each pair of Examiners attends, attendance to be agreed between them. Assuming that only one will choose to attend on each occasion the group will typically consist of:
  1. Academic Registrar
  2. Chairman/Deputy Chair of Diploma & Part I Membership Examination Examiners
  3. one Examiner from each of the five sections of Paper I
  4. one Examiner from each of the two sections of Paper II
  5. Administrative support
This group will meet twice year a year in the Faculty offices, typically in February and July.

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Examiner guidelines on Question Setting, Marking and Confidentiality

Key Points
Key points should be written by the examiner who sets the question and agreed with his or her co-examiner before submission. After the examination has taken place and candidates' scripts have been marked, additional points can be incorporated into the "Examiners' Comments" (comments on how candidates approached the examination question).

Key points are "key points" and not "model answers". Thus, they should be written in note form with bullet points and be succinct (usually not more than a page, when typewritten).

It is important to adhere to deadlines given by the Education Department as delayed submission of examination questions and key points by examiners creates difficulties in finalising the document for the Chair's approval and despatching to the printers.

Key points are divided into two categories:

  1. The first group (in bullet points) must contain the essential key points for a pass. They are headed: Most or all of the following would be required for a pass

  2. The second group (in bullet points) must contain additional or optional points (if any) which would improve an answer from a pass to a good or excellent answer. They are headed: The following are additional points which might improve the answer to "good" or "excellent"
Please note that the examination questions and key points produced by examiners are widely circulated to candidates, Faculty Advisers/Heads of Academic Departments, trainers and libraries.

Examiners are expected to compile key points, agreed with their co-examiner, for relevant questions which have been chosen for the exam paper. If additional key points are required for additional choices within a multi-part question, for example, these are written by the Specialist Group Examiners in consultation with the examiners setting the remainder of the key points for that section.

A copy of the Examiners' Key Points must be distributed to every unsuccessful candidate after notification of their result. It is therefore essential that these are agreed between examiners before being sent to the Education Department and that the deadline for submission is adhered to. If an examiner wishes to make revisions to their key points after marking, they must forward these with their marks.

In order to assist the examination administrator to compile key points for distribution, it will be much appreciated if questions and accompanying key points are submitted electronically. Hard copies should be typed and not hand-written.

Submission of marking sheets
Provisional marks must be submitted to the Faculty by the agreed deadline using the appropriate summary forms. Examiners are required to submit their individual marks before consultation with their co-examiner and their agreed marks after discussion with their co-examiner. Separate colour coded forms are provided for this purpose.

Examiners' Comments
All Examiners are expected to provide comments on the general performance of candidates. These should be kept concise and address issues such as how well questions were answered, any common deficiencies, points not referred to in the Key Points, and examination techniques.

Deadlines
A timetable of deadlines for the submission of marks, questions etc. is agreed on a yearly basis. Reminders are sent out approximately three to four weeks before each deadline. It is essential that the schedule is adhered to. If Examiners anticipate any problems they are asked to telephone the Education Department immediately.

Confidentiality
Confidentiality is of vital importance and examiners are asked to practice care in the exchange of marks and other information and to give clear guidance to their secretarial staff, especially if Specialist Registrars have access to department papers and the fax machine.

When returning marks, or submitting questions or key points, all correspondence must be marked "Strictly Personal and Confidential" for the attention of the Diploma & Part I Administrator. A double envelope system should be used for added security.

If marks or questions are to be faxed, examiners must use the fax number for the Education & Training Department (020 7935 4954) and not the general Faculty fax otherwise confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Please ring through to the office to say that marks are coming through. The originals should be posted to the Faculty even if a fax has been sent.

The Examiners should not use fax machines to liaise with their co-Examiner, unless these are at their homes, or if someone is immediately on hand to collect the fax after a warning telephone call has been made.

Examiners may not discuss candidates or their work with others apart from fellow Diploma & Part I Membership Examiners.

Examiners may be asked to give advice to trainees on the preparation for the examination. They are warned to take care and are recommended to respond to trainees' requested areas of revision rather than to initiate topics. During the period between the examination and up to the Examiners' meeting no direct feedback is allowed between Examiners and candidates.

Communication
Each question in the Diploma & Part I Membership Examination is marked by the same pair of examiners for all candidates. Examiners are expected to work closely with their co-examiner in order to agree key points and comments. After submitting individual marks to the Faculty, examiners are asked to discuss all candidates particularly where there has been a large discrepancy between the marks of two examiners. This can be done by telephone or by fax - but with due regard to confidentiality, which means preferably using only fax machines in the examiners' homes. If faxes in the office are the only ones available, faxing can be made safer by telephoning immediately before the fax is sent to ensure that the recipient is waiting by the fax machine.

Care must also be given to e-mailing information. Computers used for this should be password protected, and messages deleted from files as soon as possible after they have been read or printed out.

Dr Steve George
Chair, Diploma & Part I Membership Examiners (December 2000)

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