If you are a DOccMed candidate reaching for the exam body's own material, read this first: the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM) publishes only a small calibration set, not a sittable mock. This workflow is for candidates who want to extract the format-calibration value from that scarce official material — the example questions and the portfolio template — without burning it up, and get their question volume from third-party banks and iatroX instead. The principal limitation is stark: there are only a handful of official example items, so official material can calibrate you once, not train you.
What the Faculty of Occupational Medicine actually publishes right now
The FOM is the examining body, so its material is authoritative — but it is deliberately limited. The inventory below was checked on 21 July 2026; verify current items on fom.ac.uk, which is the definitive source.
| Official FOM resource | What it is (checked 21 July 2026) | Calibration use |
|---|---|---|
| "Best Fit Questions – Examples" (PDF, dated Nov 2023) | A short illustrative set of best-fit MCQs (around seven items), five options each | Format and answer-discipline calibration — once |
| DOccMed Portfolio Template (DOCX, dated July 2024) | The official scaffold for the two written reports | Structures the portfolio component; reusable |
| DOccMed regulations and guidance | The authoritative rules: components, timings, attempts, pass criteria | Planning; not practice material |
| Recommended Reading list | The FOM's endorsed texts and references | Directs your learning and recency checks |
| Example questions via approved-course and SOM signposting | The same small official set, surfaced through partners | No additional sittable items |
Notice what is absent: there is no full specimen paper, no bank, and no large released question set. The honest consequence is that you cannot "sit the official mock," because none exists. What you can do is calibrate deliberately on the few items that do exist, and never waste them.
The DOccMed exam, briefly
The DOccMed has two assessed components plus a prerequisite FOM-approved training course. The MCQ paper (verify on fom.ac.uk) typically runs to around 80 best-fit questions over 1 hour 45 minutes with no negative marking; you select the best possible fit from up to five options. The portfolio and oral component requires two written reports totalling roughly 1,500–2,000 words (one clinical case, one workplace assessment) and a 20-minute oral with two examiners, passed at an aggregate of 50% or more. MFOM Part 1 holders are exempt from the Diploma MCQ. Both components sit inside a five-year window with up to six attempts each. The FOM's official material calibrates the MCQ's format and scaffolds the portfolio; it does not supply MCQ volume.
Step 1: Inventory the official material and label each item honestly
List every official item and tag it "unseen", "attempted once" or "contaminated by review". For most candidates the honest labels are unforgiving: the seven-or-so example questions are your only genuinely sittable official items, and the moment you read the answers they become contaminated. So the discipline is unusual — protect them. Do not skim the example questions casually in week one. Treat them as a scarce calibration asset to be spent deliberately, close to the exam, under timed conditions. The portfolio template, by contrast, is not a test to be protected; it is a reusable scaffold you should open on day one.
Step 2: Choose your calibration date
Because the official items can be spent only once, timing matters more than usual. Choose a calibration date late enough that your knowledge is broadly built — so the exercise is meaningful — but early enough that there is still time to act on what it reveals, typically three to five weeks out. Sitting the example set too early wastes it on a version of you that does not yet exist; sitting it the night before wastes the chance to correct anything it exposes. Put the date in your diary and leave the PDF unopened until then.
Step 3: Reproduce exam conditions on the material you have
On the calibration date, reproduce the exam as faithfully as the small sample allows: strict timing at the exam's pace, no notes, no interruptions, the same best-fit response discipline of committing to a single best option even when two feel defensible. Seven questions will not fill 1 hour 45 minutes, so do not pretend they are a full mock — instead, immediately chain them to a longer unseen, timed block from a third-party bank or iatroX so you get a realistic run under identical conditions. The official items calibrate the flavour and standard; the third-party block supplies the endurance and volume the official set cannot.
Step 4: Code every error by domain, process and format
After the sitting, code every error three ways, not merely by subject. By domain (which blueprint area — law, surveillance, hazards, fitness for work). By cognitive process (did you misread the stem, misapply a rule, or simply not know the fact?). And by format (did the best-fit structure catch you, choosing a defensible-but-not-best option?). This three-way coding is what turns a handful of official questions into disproportionate value: each one, properly dissected, reveals a pattern you can then hunt across dozens of third-party items.
Step 5: Map errors to fresh third-party practice
Take each coded error and map it to fresh, unseen practice — never by re-reading the official question, but by finding new items that test the same principle. If a best-fit ethics item caught you, drill unseen ethics vignettes until the discrimination is automatic. If a health-surveillance calculation slipped, do a run of unseen surveillance items. Keep the official questions out of your daily rotation entirely; their job was to point, not to train. iatroX is well suited to this transfer step, supplying unseen, timed items on the clinically overlapping knowledge without you having to re-use the scarce official material.
Step 6: Repeat only on genuinely unseen material
Repeat the calibration exercise only if the FOM releases genuinely new official material, or if you have a truly unseen sample you have deliberately held back. Otherwise, do not re-sit the same example questions and read the improved score as progress — you are measuring memory of seven items, not readiness across a blueprint. For every subsequent checkpoint, use transfer questions from a bank you have not exhausted, under the same timed, mixed conditions. The official set is a compass you consult once, not a track you run laps on.
A seven-day plan (worked example)
This plan uses FOM resources for their real jobs — format calibration and portfolio scaffolding — and iatroX for adaptive transfer practice and unseen volume. No claims are made about any tool's internal algorithm; the numbers are illustrative.
- Monday. Open the FOM portfolio template; draft the structure of your workplace-assessment report. No MCQs from the official set today — it stays sealed.
- Tuesday. Unseen, timed block (30 questions) in iatroX across law and fitness for work. Code every miss three ways.
- Wednesday. Map yesterday's errors to a targeted unseen block on the two weakest domains. Read the FOM recommended reading on one of them.
- Thursday. Portfolio hour: draft the clinical-case report against the template. Confirm one guidance-sensitive fact against a current UK source.
- Friday. Calibration checkpoint (only if you have reached your chosen date): sit the FOM example questions under strict timing, then immediately chain a 40-question unseen mixed block. Code all errors.
- Saturday. Consolidation: re-drill the principles the calibration exposed using fresh, unseen items — not the official questions.
- Sunday. Review high-confidence errors only; rest. Update your coverage table.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue using FOM material as a compass — the portfolio template throughout, the example questions once — while your learning is still consolidating.
- Supplement with a third-party bank and iatroX for the volume and unseen measurement the official set cannot provide; this is not optional, because the official material alone is far too small to prepare on.
- Switch your emphasis to full-length, timed, mixed mocks once coverage is complete and only pacing or nerves remain — the official examples have nothing more to teach you at that point.
- Stop consulting the official questions entirely once you have calibrated on them; re-sitting them is a familiarity effect dressed up as progress.
Frequently asked questions
Is Faculty of Occupational Medicine Resources enough for DOccMed on its own? No, and it is important to be honest about why: the FOM's official material is a small calibration set — a handful of example questions and a portfolio template — not a training resource or a mock. It is authoritative and worth every minute of careful use, but it cannot supply the question volume a candidate needs. Treat it as the gold standard for format and standard, then get your volume from third-party banks and an unseen-measurement layer such as iatroX. Verify the current official items on fom.ac.uk.
Which DOccMed component does Faculty of Occupational Medicine Resources not reproduce well? The official material scaffolds the portfolio through its template and calibrates the MCQ's format through its examples, but it cannot reproduce the oral examination — the live, 20-minute interaction with two examiners — and it does not provide MCQ volume. No PDF can rehearse an examiner's follow-up questions or the defence of your own case. Use the template and examples for what they do well, and rely on your supervisor and mock practice for the oral and the breadth of questions.
How many Faculty of Occupational Medicine Resources questions should I complete per day for DOccMed? This is the wrong frame for official material, precisely because there are so few items — roughly seven example questions in total. You should complete them once, deliberately, on your calibration date, not "per day". Daily question volume should come from a third-party bank or iatroX, where a sustainable target for a working doctor is around 20 to 40 well-reviewed items. Rationing the official set to a single, well-timed sitting is the whole point of protecting its calibration value.
When should I stop using Faculty of Occupational Medicine Resources and move to mixed mocks? You move to mixed mocks immediately for volume — the official set was never able to provide it — and you stop using the official example questions the moment you have calibrated on them once. Keep the portfolio template open until your reports are complete, but the example MCQs have a single, spend-once purpose. From your calibration date onward, mixed, timed mocks from banks you have not exhausted should be your default, with the official items retired.
How should I combine Faculty of Occupational Medicine Resources with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign clean, non-overlapping jobs. The FOM material is your one-time format calibration and your portfolio scaffold; iatroX is your unseen-measurement and transfer-practice layer, supplying the timed, mixed volume the official set cannot. Because the official questions are used only once and never enter your daily rotation, there is no duplication risk — you are not re-sitting official items, you are drilling the principles they exposed on fresh, unseen questions. That is the two-Q-bank rule adapted to a scarce official resource.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 21 July 2026. The description of FOM official material (a short "Best Fit Questions – Examples" set dated November 2023 and a portfolio template dated July 2024) reflects what was published on fom.ac.uk on that date; the FOM does not publish a full specimen MCQ paper, and item counts and dates should be re-verified on the FOM site. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing UK question bank and an unseen-measurement layer; here its role is confined to the transfer practice and unseen volume the scarce official material cannot supply, and it does not reproduce the DOccMed oral or replace the FOM portfolio template. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: FOM DOccMed diploma, regulations, example-questions and recommended-reading pages (fom.ac.uk); the DOccMed content-gap checklist; Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score; the two-Q-bank rule; the iatroX comparison hub and UK question bank.