This workflow is for FFICM candidates using Intensive Anaesthesia — a dedicated FFICM single-best-answer bank with revision notes attached to each question — who want to study around a clinical rota. It targets the written MCQ. The principal limitation is twofold: the revision notes are only as useful as your willingness to convert them into retrieval, and the platform's live specifics are hard to verify publicly, so you should confirm them before committing. It does not reproduce the OSCE or SOE.
What Intensive Anaesthesia offers for FFICM right now
| Item | What we found (last checked 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Product type | A dedicated FFICM single-best-answer bank with revision notes attached to each question (as described on third-party comparison pages) |
| Question volume | Not independently confirmed — verify the live count on the product page |
| Content type | SBA questions, per-question revision notes and peer-comparison histograms (reported) |
| FFICM components supported | The MCQ knowledge layer only; no OSCE or SOE simulation |
| Adaptive / AI features | None confirmed; the peer histogram is a percentile display, not an adaptive algorithm |
| Price / access period | Paid subscription (reported) — confirm the current price and access length on the product page |
Lead with the honest finding: Intensive Anaesthesia has a limited public web footprint, and at the last check on 20 July 2026 we could not independently confirm its question count, price or access period from an official product page — the details above are largely reported on comparison pages. Treat any figure you see as vendor-reported until you verify it directly. What is reasonably clear is the shape of the product: a purpose-built FFICM SBA bank with revision notes, which makes it a legitimate candidate for the written paper if the live specifics check out.
The exam you are actually preparing for
The Final FFICM has three components and the MCQ gates the other two; a MCQ pass is valid for three years. The MCQ is 130 single-best-answer questions in three hours — 80 short one-mark items plus 50 longer two-mark scenarios, maximum 180 marks — and has been all single-best-answer since June 2022. The OSCE is 13 seven-minute stations across Data, Equipment, Professionalism and Resuscitation. The SOE is four 14-minute stations from eight questions, each double-marked. A dedicated SBA bank such as Intensive Anaesthesia, like iatroX, addresses the MCQ knowledge layer alone. Keep the FICM curriculum, regulations and official sample questions as the reference against which you judge any third-party bank.
Start each block with a diagnostic, not the notes
The temptation with a notes-plus-bank product is to read the notes first. Resist it. Answer a short set cold, before reading, and label each item secure, shaky or new. The revision notes then earn their place only against the shaky and new items. This ordering turns the notes from passive reading into targeted correction, which is where their value actually lies.
Read the notes in bounded segments, then recall before checking
Take one question's revision note, close it, and reconstruct from memory the mechanism, the decision rule and the key threshold. Only then reopen the note to correct yourself. A note you can reconstruct is learned; a note you can only recognise is not. If a note is too dense to reconstruct in three lines, break it into two smaller retrieval targets.
Turn each objective into three prompts
For every objective, write one discrimination prompt (this versus its nearest rival), one management rule (the action and its trigger — a pressure target, an electrolyte threshold, a transfusion trigger), and one why-not prompt (why the tempting distractor is wrong). Where a note concerns a drug, verify dose and indication against the SmPC/eMC rather than trusting a secondary summary. These prompts, in your words, become the spaced-retrieval deck you actually re-test — far more exam-shaped than re-reading the notes.
Use the peer histogram carefully — a percentile is not readiness
Intensive Anaesthesia is reported to show a peer-comparison histogram. This is motivating but easily misread. Your position relative to other users depends on who those users are and how many questions they have done; it is not a calibrated probability of passing, and it says nothing about the OSCE or SOE. Use the histogram as a rough steer toward weak domains, never as a readiness verdict. The distinction between a bank statistic and an exam outcome is the single most useful idea to internalise here.
Test with fresh questions at 24–48 hours, then after a gap
Re-test each topic's prompts and a fresh block within 24–48 hours, and again after a week or more. Do not replay questions you have already answered as "revision" — that measures recognition of the bank, not transfer to an unseen paper. Rotate an unseen second source into the second exposure so the retest is genuinely fresh.
Build a weekly mixed block
When topics are secure in isolation, run one weekly block of 40–60 mixed, timed, randomly ordered questions near exam pace. Topic-filtered practice teaches the wrong cue — that the set's theme is the answer. A mixed block strips that cue out and is the closest a bank comes to the paper.
Leave the material when performance, not the progress bar, improves
Exit a topic when unseen first-attempt accuracy is stable and prompts return cleanly after a gap. Finishing the bank is not the goal; secure transfer is. A completed bank you can only recognise is weaker preparation than a partially finished one you can genuinely retrieve.
A seven-day plan around clinical work
Use Intensive Anaesthesia for one defined job — converting its notes into retrieval and drilling topics to competence — and iatroX for unseen, timed transfer practice. This is a routine, with no claim to any proprietary algorithm.
| Day | Core task (around clinical duties) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cold diagnostic on two weak domains; label items; read only shaky/new notes in bounded segments |
| 2 | Convert Day 1 notes into three prompts each; glance at the histogram only to confirm weak domains |
| 3 | 40-question unseen block on iatroX; classify errors by type |
| 4 | Re-test Day 1 prompts from memory; diagnostic on a third domain |
| 5 | Targeted note-reading on Day 3 errors; rewrite two prompts that failed |
| 6 | Weekly mixed timed block (45–60 questions), exam pace, no filter |
| 7 | Review by error type; update the leave-or-stay call per domain |
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
Continue if the notes are resolving your specific errors and unseen accuracy is rising. Supplement with a second unseen bank once you are recognising rather than reasoning, or if you cannot verify Intensive Anaesthesia's scale and want assurance of adequate volume. Switch from note-reading to timed mixed practice once domain floors are met. Stop a strand that no longer changes your behaviour — re-reading notes you can already recite is sunk cost, not study.
Three mistakes this workflow is designed to stop
The first is reading the notes before you test — the notes are correction tools, and reading them first turns them into passive review that feels productive and changes little. The second is trusting the histogram — a favourable percentile against an unknown, self-selected group of users is not a pass probability, and it is silent on the OSCE and SOE, so use it only as a rough steer toward weak domains. The third is replaying seen questions as revision — re-answering items you have already met measures recognition of the bank, not transfer to an unseen paper, and it is the commonest way a well-drilled candidate over-estimates readiness. Each mistake is comfortable, which is precisely why it needs a rule to stop it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Intensive Anaesthesia enough for FFICM on its own? It can carry a large share of the MCQ preparation if its live question count is adequate, but no single resource covers the whole Final FFICM, which also has an OSCE and SOE. Because its scale was not independently verifiable at the last check, it is prudent to pair it with a second unseen source for measurement and to rehearse the clinical components separately.
Which FFICM component does Intensive Anaesthesia not reproduce well? Both non-written components — the 13-station OSCE and the structured oral. It is a written SBA product with notes; it does not simulate live stations or an examiner-led viva. Train those with partners, courses or simulation.
How many Intensive Anaesthesia questions should I complete per day for FFICM? For most trainees revising around clinical work, roughly 40–60 well-reviewed questions per study day is sustainable. The quality of your review — the prompts you generate and the errors you correct — matters more than the raw count, so do not chase completion at the expense of retrieval.
When should I stop using Intensive Anaesthesia and move to mixed mocks? When your unseen first-attempt accuracy across weak domains has stabilised and your pace is near 80 seconds per mark, make mixed timed mocks the main event. If you find you are recognising items rather than reasoning, that is itself the cue to switch. Keep the notes for targeted error correction.
How should I combine Intensive Anaesthesia with iatroX without duplicating practice? Split the roles: Intensive Anaesthesia is the learn-and-drill layer through its notes and bank; iatroX is the unseen, timed measurement layer. Never re-run the same items across both — that is the two-Q-bank rule, one bank to teach and one to measure. Read why a Q-bank percentage is not an exam score so neither the histogram nor your iatroX figure is over-interpreted.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Intensive Anaesthesia has a limited public web footprint; its question count, price and access period could not be confirmed from an official product page on that date and are reported here from third-party comparison sources — verify all of them directly before you buy. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing FFICM MCQ bank; this article confines the iatroX role to unseen, timed measurement — which Intensive Anaesthesia does not claim to provide — 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; the Intensive Anaesthesia product and comparison pages; iatroX's FFICM bank, the comparison hub, the Q-bank-percentage explainer and the FFICM article on what MCQ banks cannot prepare you for.