About the Diplomate Exam and Frequently Asked Questions

We welcome applications from anyone who holds a university degree. It is not necessary to hold a medical qualification to sit this examination, nor is it necessary to be enrolled in a training course.

Yes.

No candidate will normally be permitted more than six attempts at the examination without providing evidence of additional educational experience. The attempt limit applies irrespective of whether a candidate has banked a paper or not. 

For more information please take note of the MFPH Regulations.

For guidance regarding the Additional Educational Experience process, please see the Guidance and Additional Attempt Form under the heading 'Useful information about applying' here.

What is the process for making a booking for the exam?

To apply for the exam, please follow the attached guidelines. 

You will be able to select your chosen test centre location. This location will be confirmed after the closing date.

Guidance for candidates on how to book an FPH Diplomate exam attempt - FPH registrars and candidates with a previous attempt

Guidance for candidates on how to book an FPH Diplomate exam attempt - Non registrars and candidates with no previous attempts

I have a disability which may affect my ability to demonstrate my knowledge and expertise without being disadvantaged. Can I apply for special adjustments?

Yes. Special arrangements for examinations can be made to enable candidates to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the subject notwithstanding their disability. For more information about the policy and how to submit a request please note of the FPH Examinations Policy for candidates requiring adjustments. 

Applicants who are enrolled on the UK public health specialty training scheme only need to submit an application form and appropriate payment. Specialty registrars must be enrolled with FPH before they will be allowed to sit the examination.

Applicants who are not enrolled on the UK training programme must provide documentary evidence demonstrating their eligibility. Registered members of a profession related to health will be required to produce documentary evidence of their professional registration (eg. with the General Medical Council (GMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council, etc.). Medical graduates not registered with the GMC must provide the original copy of their primary medical qualification with their application form. 

Applicants who are not professionally registered must also provide original evidence of their qualifications with their application form.

The current application fee, as well the application closing dates and examination dates, can be found here.

Once you have submitted your application you will receive an email with a payment link. Please make payment within 48 hours of submission of your form to guarantee your place.

If payment has not been received within 48 hours it will not be possible to hold your place. As such, we strongly advise you to make payment on the date you submit your form as spaces are limited and guaranteed on a first come, first served basis.

Yes, candidates who have previously banked a paper do need to pay the full application fee for any subsequent attempt. Fees for the Diplomate Examination (DFPH) are set by the FPH Board. The fees are designed to cover the costs incurred for the examination including costs of staff who are employed solely to run the examinations. Other fixed costs are those which are incurred by developing the examination, training examiners and running examiner meetings. All these are fixed costs which are incurred regardless of the number of papers any one particular candidate sits.  The only ‘saving’ which might be made by a candidate sitting only one paper is in the marking and examiners are not currently remunerated for their time.

The Diplomate examination (DFPH) is held in March and October each year. The specific dates are available here. 

Yes.

Past papers are held here for easy downloading. However, questions in the Paper IIB paper are not published, as they form part of a reusable question bank. Following GMC approval of Standard Setting in October 2016, FPH is working toward a closed bank of questions for all sittings from June 2017.  A selection of past papers will continue to be available on FPH website.

• 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 granted without written notice of intention to withdraw.
• A greater refund may be granted at the discretion of the Academic Registrar under exceptional circumstances. A letter from your  GP  and/or your TPD/employer will be requested to support this.

Please see the full Withdrawal Policy here.

The two days and all papers of the DFPH exam constitute one single assessment. Candidates are permitted to ‘bank’ a paper should they pass one paper at a sitting. This means that they can retain the pass for the next attempt providing the exam is taken again within a year. For example, if a candidate banked a paper in March 2024, they could miss a sitting and sit the remaining paper in March 2025.

The administrative and staff cost for processing a DFPH exam attempt is the same regardless of whether the candidate is sitting one paper or two, and this is the largest element of the fee for the DFPH exam, alongside educationalist input, question setting meetings etc. The transition to online delivery has had very little effect on the overall cost of the exam. Therefore, reducing the cost for sitting one paper would mean that the overall exam fee would need to increase. The FPH exam function is run on a cost-basis in order to keep the fees as low as possible; the fee for the DFPH exam has been frozen for registrars for five years.

Yes.

Past papers are held here for easy downloading. However, questions in the Paper IIB paper are not published, as they form part of a reusable question bank. Following GMC approval of Standard Setting in October 2016, FPH moved to a closed bank of questions for all sittings from June 2017.  A selection of past papers will continue to be available on FPH website and specimen questions are available here.

There are specimen questions, but the real questions are not published. The specimen questions can be found on the Paper IIB Specimen Questions page and link for Additional Paper IIB Specimen Questions - June 2018 on the same page.

Is it good practice when answering such a question to identify one’s country so that the examiner can be clear of the context? Or is this seen as using potentially identifiable information?

Yes, it is good practice. FPH is an international examination body, and public health is carried out in many settings. For this reason, questions often ask candidates to specify a named country, setting or example to provide context for their answer and demonstrate understanding of the particular question's topic area. As papers are marked anonymously and each section by separate examiners, individual candidates should not be able to be identified.

There isn’t a clear, simple answer to this. It very much depends on the question, for instance what you are being asked to do (e.g. list… describe... discuss… , etc), whether there are sub-sections to the question that need addressing separately, and whether your ideas can best be summarised in this fashion.  The Diplomate exam is partly testing your ability to communicate sometimes complex ideas in a clear and structured manner, so the choice of whether to use bullets or other ways to summarise is part of that overall judgement.

The best advice is that many answers require clear reasoned argument that is then supported by the use of (for example) bullet points to clarify/emphasise key areas, or to give lists of examples. 

Question: I understand the questions for all sections of the Diplomate examination (DFPH) are from a closed bank. As a result exam regulations require that candidates do not share questions with others. I see the misconduct policy has also been updated to include not sharing examination materials after the examination. What can I do to support revision to ensure I do not fall foul of these requirements?

Answer: Yes the question bank is closed, this allows us to undertake comprehensive quality assessments for the DFPH examination and it is important for the fairness and robustness of the examination that tight question security is maintained.

Here are some dos and don'ts when helping colleagues revise for the exam

Do

• Use existing materials on FPH website. There are a range of questions from all parts of the syllabus and IIA and IIB specimen questions. And these will be added to over time.
• look at the Examiners' comments provided by the Chair of Examiners following each sitting with general advice on approach and technique.  
• Write questions of your own based on the comprehensive syllabus. 
• Set up or work with existing revision groups in your region
• Attend designated revision sessions
• practise writing answers to time
• let FPH or your SRC rep know if you hear of any question sharing

Don'ts

• Don't note down questions from the examination you sit
• Don't share questions after the examination by any route including word of mouth, social media or email
• Don't quiz examiners on topics that will come up in the examination (any topic in the syllabus may be in the exam)
• Don't forget that any questions known to be shared will have to be removed from the question bank, this will impact on the quality and robustness of the Diplomate Examination.
• Don't forget that sharing questions is subject to a fitness to practice investigation.

From Friday 3^rd May 2024, candidates will be able to log in to their FPH Membership Portal to access their exam results. 

Please see instructions below on how to do this.

Guidance For Candidates On How To Access FPH Examination Results

Results are released during the week after the Results meeting, usually around seven weeks after the examination.

The date of the Results meeting for the exam will be given in the Candidate Pack that is sent once the application period has closed.

A pass list and results summary will also be published on the FPH website in the week following results being sent to candidates. Examination results will not be given over the telephone or in person.

Yes, it is possible to 'bank' papers for the Diplomate examination (DFPH). This means that if the candidate does not pass the examination but has passed an individual paper, this result can be banked so that the candidate need not sit this paper again.

This is feasible due to the explicit separation of knowledge and skills between Papers I and II.

As of January 2017, we no longer stipulate that candidates who bank a paper at a sitting must then sit the remaining paper at each subsequent examination. A candidate may miss a sitting and sit the exam at the following sitting. For example, if a candidate banked a paper in January 2020, they could miss the June 2020 sitting but would need to sit the exam in January 2021 to retain their banked paper. If the candidate did not pass their banked paper in January 2021, they could miss a sitting again and sit their remaining paper at the following sitting. This is possible up to a maximum of six attempts.

If the candidate requires longer they should submit a statement from their educational supervisor or training programme director which will be considered by the Chair of Diplomate Examiners. This is because any longer than a year is likely to impact on training progress.

Please note the following:

• An individual paper (I or II) may be banked only when it has been passed.
• There will be no change in the examination fees for sittings of individual papers.
• Candidates must continue to take both parts (papers) of the examination at the same sitting, unless a paper has been banked previously.

The pass rate for the Diplomate examination (DFPH) can vary quite a lot across the sittings. This can be due to a combination of factors including the number and compilation of candidates that make up each sitting. 

The number of candidates who sit the exam can vary from between 70 to 120 candidates. These fluctuations in candidate numbers can have a significant effect on the pass rate. For example, candidates on the public health specialty training programme tend to do better on average than candidates not on the training programme. Therefore changes in the balance of registrars and non-registrars can have a significant impact on the pass rate.

Candidates do not receive further detailed individual feedback.

No.
All candidates will only receive feedback on their examination performance in the form of the marks they received for each of the questions (receiving a marks breakdown for each full question is the standard format for results). There is no individual feedback for successful or unsuccessful candidates. Candidates who wish to appeal against their examination results must consult the appeal procedures.

No.

FPH takes the examination marking process extremely seriously. Each section of the papers is marked by two separate examiners who come to an agreed mark for each candidate for the questions within their sections. The marks are then reviewed and ratified at a meeting of the Diplomate examiners where all the results are agreed. Further details about the marking process are available here.

Candidates concerned about the validity of their result have two actions available to them. They can request an office review or appeal their result. However, neither of these procedures involves a re-mark of the original script. 

Candidates may request an office review if they have reason to believe that there may have been an administrative error in their result for an examination. An office review will only involve a clerical check for errors in the examination process, particularly in the calculation or collation of marks or grades. There is a fee for an office review, which will be refunded if the candidate’s result is changed. 

With regard to an appeal, the FPH appeals policy does not permit appeals on the grounds that a candidate believes that their script has been under-marked. Candidates who wish to make a formal appeal against their examination result must write to the Chief Executive of FPH within one calendar month of the date of dispatch of the result, as indicated in the procedures. Candidates should ensure they read the appeals procedure, located within the MFPH Regulations, carefully to ensure that their grounds for appeal are legitimate before writing. For a full description of the appeals policy please consult the FPH Examination Regulations.

Yes - but only under certain circumstances.
Candidates who wish to appeal against their examination results should consult the appeal procedures and guidance document here.

Please note that marks/results will not be altered to reflect individual circumstances.

No.
The Freedom of Information Act covers public authorities and as such does not apply to FPH which is not a public authority. Upon the conclusion of the marking period for each sitting of the examination, the original scripts are stored securely until the conclusion of the appeals period. 

After successful completion of the Diplomate examination (DFPH), candidates are eligible to become Diplomate members (DFPH) of FPH.

FPH will contact the successful candidate to offer this.

Candidates are able to take the Final Membership Examination (MFPH) after successful completion of the Diplomate examination (DFPH).

Once the Diplomate examination (DFPH) has been passed, no candidate will be permitted more than seven years to pass the Final Membership examination (MFPH). The seven-year validity period will be calculated from the date that a candidate passes the DFPH examination. Should a candidate fail to achieve a Final Membership examination (MFPH) pass within the seven-year limit, they will be required to take the Diplomate examination (DFPH) again.

The Diplomate examination (DFPH) 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). Please note that there is now a rest day in-between Paper I and Paper II. More information on the structure of the exam can be found here.

Every candidate is allocated two and a half hours for Paper IA and one hour and forty minutes for Paper IB (except those with reasonable adjustments who are permitted extra time).

Every paper in the Diplomate (DFPH) examination has an element of time pressure and some candidates will find some of the four papers more pressurised than others. Each question in Paper I is worth the same amount of marks so some planning of time allocation can be based on that.

In Papers IA & IB, in order to pass that paper, candidates are required to score above the Angoff set pass mark and to pass 7 of the 10 questions. For Paper IIA or IIB candidates must score the agreed Angoff set pass mark for Paper II overall, pass 5 out of 9 questions across Paper IIA and Paper IIB and pass at least two questions in each paper (IIA and IIB).

Time pressure might also be alleviated for some candidates by following the instructions in the questions. For example, when bullet points are asked for, candidates should provide just that, as opposed to a mini essay. Candidates are strongly advised to do timed practice questions and papers during their preparation.

The Diplomate examination (DFPH) Syllabus

• Research methods
• Disease causation & prevention; health promotion
• Health information
• Medical sociology, social policy and health economics
• Organisation and management of healthcare
• Design and interpretation of studies
• Data processing, presentation and interpretation
• Communication, written presentation skills.

Further information is available here.

Candidates are advised to cover the whole syllabus in revision as the examination can test any part of it.

The level of knowledge, skill and understanding required within all sections of the syllabus is that which could reasonably be expected of a competent practitioner in public health who may aspire to attain specialist status. 

The Diplomate examination (DFPH) syllabus outlines the core statistical techniques that will be required in the examination and lists a number of specific examples. These can be found on page three and five of the Diplomate examination Syllabus. The Diplomate examination syllabus is available here.

No. FPH gained approval from its two regulators for a new public health specialty training curriculum in 2015. No changes to either of the MFPH examinations were made as an outcome of this review, and the Diplomate examination (DFPH) has separately been subject to lengthy review (including external scrutiny in the case of DFPH) and have their own development timetable. The recent review of the DFPH examination has led to some changes but these are primarily around standard-setting with no changes to the content or format of the examination and do not affect the way candidates should prepare. Please see separate document on FPH website relating to standard setting.

FPH examiners would prefer to provide non-redacted journal articles. However, it is often necessary to make redactions so that the article is of an appropriate length in relation to the time permitted for Paper IIA. It also is not always appropriate to provide candidates with sections which will significantly aid their answer.

An increasing number of journal articles are now published online and are too lengthy for examination purposes, while a paper journal format for articles such as in the British Medical Journal is too short.  Redactions are made to the paper in order to control their length. In certain instances redactions are also made to sections which would render questions pointless. For example, if a question required candidates to comment on the strength and limitations of a paper and the paper included a section on strengths and limitations, that section would need to be redacted. Great care is taken in proof reading to ensure that the redactions are appropriate and that candidates are given any necessary instructions concerning the redactions.

Following a review of Paper IIA in 2013 and 2014, the Diplomate Examination Development Committee agreed that to improve the focus of the paper, the critical appraisal question would be adjusted so as to make it more specific, focused and with a word limit provided for the answer.

The new Paper IIA was introduced for the first time at the June 2015 sitting of the Diplomate examination .

April 2017 - Advice to candidates: enforcement of word count limits for Paper IIA question 1

Candidates have been asked to limit answers to approximately 600 words for the first part of section IIA (the critical appraisal) since June 2015. The majority of candidates succeed in doing this remarkably accurately, though a small number of candidates do not. From June 2017 the following guidance will be in place to examiners. Examiners will be asked not to mark any material provided by candidates in excess of 660 words (ie. word count + 10%).  

Candidates are strongly advised to keep within this word count. Candidates are welcome to write less than 600 words, and equally will not be penalised if their answers are between 600-660 words. The TestReach answer pad has a word count and will turn red when the answer exceeds 660 words.  

Following a review of Paper IIA in 2013 and 2014, the Diplomate Examination Development Committee agreed that to improve the focus of the paper, the critical appraisal question would be adjusted so as to make it more specific, focused and with a word limit provided for the answer.

Question 2 in Paper IIA is usually a short technical question about the statistical techniques used; knowledge tested here is also tested in Paper 1 (section A) and in questions in Paper IIb. 

 The purpose of the follow-on questions (Q3 and 4) is to test candidates’ understanding of how information from published papers might encountered in a ‘real life’ public health situation. 

The scenario at the start of the question will describe this and should be considered when answering Q3 and 4; the information in the scenario will guide the candidate in considering the audience they are dealing with, the expectations that they might be facing and the level of conflict, anxiety or challenge they might face in presenting their findings.

When answering questions 3 & 4, candidates should be able to summarise their findings, consider the practical aspects that might need to be considered in any local response / implementation. Often there are questions about implementation, establishing and managing working groups etc.  Candidates may apply knowledge that they have used in answer to questions in section E on Paper 1.

The examiners consider the best way to prepare for these questions is to practice in real-life situations; this can be either in real-life work settings (for instance, looking at correspondence that might come in to their department, tasks that colleagues are undertaking in establishing working groups or developing a strategy) or through summarising papers for different imagined audiences, using different formats (letters, short briefing notes, press releases, bullet points in preparation for an interview).

The Diplomate examination (DFPH) is taken by candidates from a variety of countries. The DFPH examination is designed to test public health knowledge that is translatable across countries and healthcare systems. As such candidates are given an option to select a country of their choice with which to apply their public health knowledge. Diplomate Examiners are aware of this and mark accordingly.