New question writing

All examiners are required to write or peer review at least two examination questions per year and the process for doing this is below.

Question selection for exam sitting

1. Question Lead (QL) reviews question bank and selects 6-8 questions to be sent to Exams Administrator (EA) 12 weeks before exam date. Balance of the following:

• At least one from each of the four domains:
  • Health Protection
  • Health & wellbeing
  • HCPH
  • Data
• Three actor and three role-player questions
• Variety of Public health topics

2. EA sends latest versions of these questions and date last used to QL (2 working days)
3. QL checks they are fit for purpose. Includes quality check of contents/layout. Confirms the six questions for exam and returns to EA (10 working days)
4. EA shares questions with the Chief Officer (CO) to sense check the balance of scenarios in terms of settings, topics and role player/actor roles, and a high-level overview of the quality and content of the scenarios. Confirmation given to QL and EA (2 working days)
5. EA to send for Devolved Nation’s To check questions for acceptability and that no country-specific details are included. Return comments to EA, any issues to QL (5 working days).
6. Once returned – EA does final formatting and removes track changes (3 working days)
7. EA send questions to Logistics Lead (LL) for FINAL proof reading (5 working days)
8. LL sends back to QL and EA
9. Final selection sent to CO for info
10. EA prints questions (3 weeks pre exam)