MFOM Written

It is the written paper within the Faculty of Occupational Medicine's Membership assessment, testing applied knowledge across the specialty. It sits alongside the other stages of Membership rather than replacing them. Because the Faculty's own examination page was unavailable when this page was compiled, treat any specific format claims you read elsewhere as unverified.

Typically doctors in occupational medicine training who need to demonstrate specialty knowledge, and occasionally more experienced practitioners returning to assessment. Eligibility rules are set by the Faculty and can change, so check your own position against the current Faculty guidance rather than relying on what a colleague sat under a previous version.

Five areas of roughly equal weight: clinical occupational medicine and health assessment; hazards, toxicology and exposure assessment; law, ethics and service delivery; fitness for work, rehabilitation and disability; and public health, epidemiology and research methods. Expect integrated questions that combine a clinical scenario with a legal, ethical or epidemiological decision.

We do not publish a duration or item count, because the Faculty's examination page could not be retrieved when this page was compiled and we will not carry forward figures we cannot verify. Confirm the current timing and structure directly with the Faculty before you plan your pacing strategy for the day.

Not stated in any source we could verify, so it is left blank here rather than guessed. Pass standards are commonly set by examiner panels after each sitting and may be reported differently from year to year. Check the Faculty's published results and examination regulations for the current position.

Retake rules and any attempt limits are set by the Faculty and are not confirmed in the material available to us. Do not assume unlimited attempts or a fixed number. Ask the examinations team directly, and factor the answer into your study timeline, since a failed attempt can affect training progression dates.

It is a postgraduate specialty paper, so the difficulty lies in breadth and application rather than obscure recall. Candidates most often come unstuck on law, ethics and service delivery, and on epidemiological reasoning - areas clinicians tend to read rather than practise. Practising written answers under timed conditions exposes these gaps early.

Start with clinical occupational medicine and hazards, since those build the vocabulary the other sections assume. Then work through law, ethics and fitness for work, which are best learned through cases, and finish with epidemiology and research methods, which reward repeated short bursts of practice. Revisit all five in the final weeks.

No. This is independent study material produced by a third-party platform and is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or approved by the Faculty. Use it alongside - not instead of - the Faculty's official curriculum, examination regulations and past-paper guidance, which remain the authoritative source for anything you are assessed on.