This plan is for FFICM candidates who have access to Crit-IQ and want a disciplined way to use a broad, multi-format platform without four versions of the same passive activity. It targets the written MCQ and the data-interpretation skills that also feed the OSCE. The principal limitation is scope discipline: Crit-IQ is an integrated learning ecosystem, not a high-volume exam-replica bank, so its parts must be assigned distinct jobs or they blur into unstructured browsing. It does not deliver the live OSCE or SOE.
What Crit-IQ offers for FFICM right now
| Item | What we found (last checked 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Exams covered | Fellowship exams for FICM, CICM (paediatric and general streams) and ACEM, plus primary sciences in critical care (vendor-reported) |
| Question volume | 250+ multiple-choice questions in FICM format and 300+ data-interpretation questions — ECGs, blood gases, bloods, radiology and waveforms (vendor-reported) |
| Content type | Modules, videos and podcasts; viva-instruction videos; "Critikipedia"; a Procedure Centre and Echo Module; Crit-Cases; a Data Interpretation Database; a monthly journal club; a logbook and e-learning passport |
| FFICM components supported | The MCQ knowledge layer, strong data-interpretation practice relevant to OSCE data stations, and viva-instruction material relevant to the SOE; example SOE/OSCE questions are described as in development |
| Adaptive / AI features | None confirmed at the last check |
| Price / access period | Not shown on the pages we checked — verify on crit-iq.com |
The figures are vendor-reported and were last checked on 20 July 2026. The honest read is that Crit-IQ's strength is breadth and its data-interpretation library, not exam-replica MCQ volume: a FICM-format pool in the low hundreds is useful for knowledge checks but is not enough, on its own, for the repeated unseen timed practice a written exam demands. Plan around that. Use Crit-IQ for what it does distinctively well and bring separate volume for measurement.
The exam you are actually preparing for
The Final FFICM is three components and the MCQ must be passed first; that pass is then valid for three years. The MCQ is 130 single-best-answer questions in three hours — 80 short one-mark items and 50 longer two-mark scenarios, maximum 180 marks — and has been entirely single-best-answer since June 2022, so multiple-true-false material is off-format. The OSCE is 13 seven-minute stations spanning Data, Equipment, Professionalism and Resuscitation, which is exactly why Crit-IQ's data-interpretation and equipment content is relevant. The SOE is four 14-minute stations from eight questions, each double-marked. iatroX and Crit-IQ both sit at the knowledge and preparation layer; neither is the live OSCE or SOE. Anchor everything to the FICM curriculum, regulations and official sample material.
Assign one job to each feature
The failure mode of an integrated platform is doing everything a little and nothing to competence. Fix a single job per feature before you start:
- Diagnosis: a blueprint-stratified baseline (below) tells you which domains are weak.
- Teaching: modules, Critikipedia and podcasts fill the specific gaps the baseline exposed — not whatever autoplays next.
- Retrieval: the FICM-format MCQs are for spaced knowledge checks, used sparingly so you do not exhaust the modest pool.
- Data interpretation: the 300+ data questions are your deliberate-practice engine for OSCE-style data stations.
- Simulation of reasoning: viva-instruction videos and Crit-Cases rehearse the structure of an SOE answer.
- Feedback: your own error log, checked against the FICM sample answers, not a self-marked impression.
Begin with a blueprint-stratified baseline
Before you follow any default module order, run a short baseline across the curriculum domains and record accuracy per domain. Choose your first modules from the two or three weakest domains, not from wherever the platform opens. This turns Crit-IQ from a playlist into a targeted system, and it prevents the comfortable error of re-studying strong material because it is enjoyable.
Build the weekly sequence
Each week, learn only the gaps the baseline identified, test them, retest them after an interval, then integrate them into a mixed timed block. Concretely: two teaching sessions on identified weak domains, one focused data-interpretation session, one viva-structure session, and one mixed timed assessment block that ignores topic boundaries. The sequence matters — learn, test, space, integrate — because integration into a mixed block is where isolated knowledge becomes retrievable under exam conditions.
Protect your unseen questions as assessment assets
This is the discipline most candidates get wrong. A question you have already seen measures memory of that question. Ring-fence a pool of Crit-IQ items — and any full block you intend to use as a mock — and do not touch them during casual study. Spend your everyday practice on teaching content and a rotating unseen source, and keep the protected pool sealed until you want a genuine readiness reading. Because Crit-IQ's exam-format MCQ pool is modest, this protection matters more here than on a large bank: burn it early and you have no clean unseen block left to measure with.
Set switch criteria between features
Decide in advance what makes you move between notes, Q-bank, data practice and official material, and base it on observed errors rather than boredom. If your misses are recall failures, switch to teaching content and spaced retrieval. If they are reasoning failures on data, switch to the data-interpretation database and work stems, not facts. If they are pacing failures, switch to timed mixed blocks. If they are format failures — you are surprised by how FFICM asks the question — switch to the official FICM sample material immediately.
Exit criteria
Leave Crit-IQ-led study for predominantly unseen mock practice when four things are true: adequate coverage of the blueprint domains, stable first-attempt performance on unseen items, correct pacing near 80 seconds per mark, and demonstrable competence in the non-MCQ components you can rehearse (data interpretation and SOE structure). Completion of every module is not on that list.
A seven-day plan around clinical work
Use Crit-IQ for one defined job — teaching plus data-interpretation practice — and iatroX for unseen, timed transfer measurement. This describes a routine, not a proprietary algorithm.
| Day | Core task (around clinical duties) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Blueprint-stratified baseline; record accuracy per domain; pick two weak domains |
| 2 | Crit-IQ teaching on weak domain one; write recall prompts from memory |
| 3 | Data-interpretation session (gases, ECGs, imaging); log the reasoning steps, not just answers |
| 4 | 40-question unseen block on iatroX; classify errors as recall, reasoning, pacing or format |
| 5 | Crit-IQ teaching on the specific errors from Day 4; one viva-structure video, answered aloud |
| 6 | Weekly mixed timed block (45–60 questions), no topic filter, exam pace |
| 7 | Review by error type; update switch criteria and the exit checklist |
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
Continue with Crit-IQ if its data-interpretation and teaching content is closing your specific gaps and your unseen accuracy is climbing. Supplement with a higher-volume unseen bank as soon as you have worked through the FICM-format pool once — the platform's modest MCQ count makes a second measurement source close to essential. Switch from teaching to timed mixed blocks once domain floors are met. Stop any strand that has stopped changing your error pattern; re-watching a module you already understand is comfort, not progress.
Three mistakes this plan is designed to stop
The first is browsing dressed up as studying — moving between modules, podcasts and Critikipedia for an hour and finishing with nothing retrieved and nothing measured; assigning one job per feature is the antidote. The second is burning the exam-format pool early — because Crit-IQ's FICM-format MCQ count is modest, working through it casually in the first week leaves no clean unseen block to test against later, so you end up measuring memory and mistaking it for readiness. The third is treating data interpretation as reading — scrolling the Data Interpretation Database and nodding at the answers instead of narrating the trace, committing to a diagnosis and being marked against a rubric. The first two squander the platform's strengths; the third leaves your best OSCE opportunity untrained.
Frequently asked questions
Is Crit-IQ enough for FFICM on its own? Not for the whole written paper. Crit-IQ is a strong integrated learning platform with distinctive data-interpretation and viva content, but its FICM-format MCQ pool is reported in the low hundreds, which is not enough unseen volume for the repeated timed practice the MCQ requires. Use it for teaching and data skills and pair it with a larger unseen bank for measurement.
Which FFICM component does Crit-IQ not reproduce well? The live OSCE and SOE as performances. Crit-IQ's data-interpretation library genuinely helps with OSCE data stations and its viva videos help you structure SOE answers, but neither reproduces the timed, examiner-scored, in-person format. Rehearse those live with colleagues or on a course.
How many Crit-IQ questions should I complete per day for FFICM? Because the exam-format pool is limited, ration it: perhaps 15–25 FICM-format MCQs on a study day used as spaced knowledge checks, alongside a data-interpretation set. Do not race through the pool early — protect a portion of it for a clean assessment later, and get your bulk volume from a larger unseen source.
When should I stop using Crit-IQ and move to mixed mocks? When your domain coverage is adequate and your unseen first-attempt accuracy is stable, shift the centre of gravity to mixed timed mocks. Keep Crit-IQ open for targeted teaching and data practice on the errors those mocks reveal, but let unseen blocks, not modules, be the thing you are timing.
How should I combine Crit-IQ with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign non-overlapping roles: Crit-IQ teaches and drills data interpretation; iatroX supplies the unseen, timed FFICM blocks that measure transfer. That division follows the two-Q-bank rule and keeps your Crit-IQ pool intact as a second, clean assessment if you need it. Reading why a bank percentage is not an exam score will help you interpret both platforms' numbers honestly.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Vendor-reported figures (question counts, content types and coverage) reflect what the product pages showed on that date and can change without notice; confirm the live numbers, price and access period on crit-iq.com before relying on them. Disclosure: iatroX runs a competing FFICM MCQ bank; this article restricts the iatroX role to unseen, timed measurement — a job Crit-IQ's modest MCQ pool does not claim to serve — and does not present iatroX as an OSCE or SOE product. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (ficm.ac.uk) FFICM Final MCQ, OSCE and SOE pages, curriculum and regulations; crit-iq.com; iatroX's FFICM bank, the comparison hub, the Q-bank-percentage explainer and the FFICM article on what MCQ banks cannot prepare you for.