QMedica presents itself as a dedicated FFICM question bank, and for a UK ICM trainee that positioning is exactly right for the written MCQ knowledge layer. The honest headline first: as of 20 July 2026 its public marketing site did not expose a verifiable live question count, price or feature list, so this article gives you the method to audit it blueprint-by-blueprint yourself — and tells you which figures to confirm on qmedica.co.uk before you rely on them. Whatever the total, a bank cannot cover the OSCE or SOE.
This is a narrow child article that links up to the iatroX comparison hub; it does not reprint price tables or "best bank" rankings. It is a coverage audit you can run on QMedica — or on any FFICM bank.
What QMedica offers for FFICM right now — and what we could not verify
Lead with the finding. Current-state snapshot, checked 20 July 2026:
| Item | What we found (checked 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Product type | Presents as a dedicated "FFICM Exam Question Bank" (site title/description) |
| Question count | Not publicly extractable from the marketing site — verify on qmedica.co.uk |
| Price / access period | Not publicly extractable — verify on qmedica.co.uk |
| AI / adaptive engine | Not stated — verify |
| Explanations / mocks / analytics | Not stated — verify |
| FFICM components addressed | Positioned as SBA/MCQ knowledge; OSCE and SOE not claimed — verify |
Why the blanks? QMedica's homepage is a JavaScript-rendered single-page application, so its live figures did not surface to a standard fetch on the check date. This is not a criticism of the product — it may be an excellent bank — but it means you must not take any question count or price on trust from a third party, including this article. Confirm them on the live site. Everything below is a method that works whatever those numbers turn out to be.
The exam you are actually preparing for
The Final FFICM has three components (verified on ficm.ac.uk, 20 July 2026):
- MCQ — 130 single-best-answer questions in 3 hours (80 short SBAs at one mark, 50 long SBAs at two marks; 180 marks maximum), all-SBA since MTF was discontinued in June 2022.
- OSCE — 13 stations of 7 minutes across Data, Equipment, Professionalism and Resuscitation.
- SOE — 4 stations at 14 minutes, eight questions, two examiners.
A standard Q-bank — QMedica or iatroX — lives in the MCQ layer. No amount of SBA volume prepares you to perform in the OSCE or SOE. Hold that boundary while you audit. The blueprint follows the FICM curriculum; verify the current syllabus and regulations on the Faculty site.
Record the count — then break it down by domain
The number that matters is not the headline total but the distribution. A bank of "1,500 questions" with 600 on cardiology and 20 on toxicology is not a 1,500-question bank for your weak domain. Once you have QMedica's real total (from the live site), tag a stratified sample by domain and build this table:
| Blueprint domain (FICM curriculum) | Official emphasis | Questions available | First-pass accuracy | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resuscitation & the acutely unwell | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Cardiovascular & haemodynamics | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Respiratory failure & ventilation | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Sepsis & infection | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Renal, acid-base & RRT | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Neurocritical care | High | ? | ? | ? |
| Gastro/hepatic & nutrition | Medium | ? | ? | ? |
| Haematology & transfusion | Medium | ? | ? | ? |
| Metabolic & endocrine emergencies | Medium | ? | ? | ? |
| Trauma, burns & obstetric critical care | Medium | ? | ? | ? |
| Toxicology & poisoning | Lower | ? | ? | ? |
| Applied physics, measurement & equipment | Lower | ? | ? | ? |
| Ethics, law, consent & organ donation | Lower | ? | ? | ? |
| Statistics & trial interpretation | Lower | ? | ? | ? |
Fill the questions-available column from QMedica; fill the accuracy column from your own attempts. Empty or thin rows are your real study list — not the systems you already enjoy.
Sample the question style
A count tells you nothing about fidelity. Pull a stratified sample and grade the style:
- Recall versus application: FFICM SBAs are applied — a clinical vignette, a management decision, five plausible options. A bank heavy on one-line recall is teaching the wrong reflex.
- Stem length and realism: long SBAs carry a paragraph of context; check QMedica's stems are not artificially short.
- Option plausibility: good distractors are defensible; giveaway options inflate your percentage and your confidence.
- Image and data interpretation: verify ABGs, films, CT, echo, ECGs and waveforms appear as items, not just text.
- Management sequencing: the paper rewards "what next," not just "what is the diagnosis."
Jurisdiction and recency
Sample against current UK-relevant guidance and record the date and source. For ICM drugs the correct UK reference is the SmPC/eMC; for management, cross-check NICE, ICS/GPICS, and specialty-society standards (for example Surviving Sepsis for bundles, and current oxygenation-target evidence). Note any answer that looks anchored to superseded practice — sepsis steroids, transfusion thresholds, oxygen targets and glycaemic control all shift. A bank that does not show recent review dates is a recency risk regardless of its size.
The format gap — state it plainly
Be honest with candidates: a standard Q-bank cannot prepare you for the parts of FFICM that are not multiple choice. It builds the knowledge that underpins data interpretation and ethics, but it does not rehearse the live OSCE stations or the spoken SOE reasoning. QMedica, iatroX and every other SBA bank share this ceiling. Plan the OSCE and SOE with in-person mock circuits and viva partners from the outset; do not let a rising bank percentage lull you into thinking the clinical components are handled.
Duplication and contamination
The larger a single bank, the greater the risk that completion becomes recognition: you start answering from memory of the item rather than the medicine. Watch for near-duplicate stems and repeated concepts inside QMedica, and — critically — do not let a second bank overlap it. When you add measurement (see below), keep the two banks non-overlapping so your unseen accuracy stays honest. This is the core of the two-Q-bank rule.
Best-fit matrix: where a bank like this belongs
| Role | Is a single FFICM SBA bank a good fit? |
|---|---|
| Foundation building | Partly — better paired with a textbook/course if notes are thin |
| First full pass | Yes — a coherent single bank is a sensible spine |
| Second bank | Only if non-overlapping with your first — otherwise it inflates recognition |
| Retake | Yes for volume, but prioritise unseen measurement over re-completion |
| Final simulation | No — use mixed, timed mocks and unseen blocks instead |
A worked seven-day plan (one job for QMedica, measurement on iatroX)
Assume you have verified QMedica's real counts and it is your primary bank. Give it one job — a full first pass by system — and use iatroX for unseen, timed, mixed measurement. You choose domains manually; no proprietary algorithm is implied.
| Day | QMedica (one job: first pass by system) | iatroX (unseen measurement) |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | 30 SBAs on the week's system; log misses | — |
| Tue | Redo misses cold; read explanations for repeats | 20-question unseen mixed timed block |
| Wed | 30 SBAs on the next system | — |
| Thu | Review flagged items | 20-question unseen mixed block; note weakest two domains |
| Fri | Targeted SBAs on the two weak domains | Retest those domains, 15 unseen items each |
| Sat | 40-question mixed timed set within QMedica | — |
| Sun | Update the coverage table above | 30-question unseen mixed block as the week's transfer score |
Track the iatroX unseen score as your readiness signal; a familiar-bank percentage overstates readiness, per "Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score".
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue if the coverage table is filling evenly and your first-pass accuracy is climbing.
- Supplement with a non-overlapping unseen bank once the table shows two or more thin domains, or your unseen accuracy trails your in-bank figure by more than about ten points.
- Switch or add a textbook if sampling reveals dated guidance or shallow explanations — do not trust volume over fidelity.
- Stop doing new SBAs when your limiting factor is OSCE/SOE performance; redirect to circuits and viva rehearsal.
Bottom line
QMedica is positioned as a dedicated FFICM bank, which is the right tool for the MCQ — but on the check date its public site did not expose verifiable counts, pricing or features, so confirm those on qmedica.co.uk and treat no third-party figure as gospel. Whatever the total, audit it by distribution, not headline; check fidelity and recency by sampling; add a non-overlapping unseen bank such as iatroX for transfer measurement; and resource the OSCE and SOE separately, because no SBA bank can reach them.
Frequently asked questions
Is QMedica enough for FFICM on its own? For the MCQ knowledge layer a dedicated FFICM bank can serve as a sensible spine, provided you first verify its live question count and blueprint distribution on qmedica.co.uk rather than trusting a headline. It is not enough for the whole Final: no SBA bank rehearses the OSCE or SOE. Add a non-overlapping unseen bank for measurement and resource the clinical components with in-person practice.
Which FFICM component does QMedica not reproduce well? The OSCE and the SOE, as with every question bank. It can build the knowledge behind data interpretation and ethics, but it cannot simulate 13 timed clinical stations or a spoken structured oral with examiners. Those require mock circuits and a viva partner; do not let a rising bank percentage substitute for booked, in-person clinical practice.
How many QMedica questions should I complete per day for FFICM? Until you have confirmed the bank's size, judge by review depth rather than a fixed quota: 20–30 SBAs daily on a rota, each miss reviewed the same day and re-tested cold within 48 hours; 40–60 in a study-leave block. If a domain is thin in the bank, top up from a non-overlapping source rather than re-cycling items, which turns testing into recognition and inflates your percentage.
When should I stop using QMedica and move to mixed mocks? Shift towards full, mixed, timed mocks in the final two to three weeks, once your coverage table is broadly even and per-system accuracy has stabilised. The trigger is diminishing returns: when a fresh block reveals few new gaps, your limiting factors are exam-condition stamina and cross-domain retrieval, which only mixed mocks and unseen blocks develop.
How should I combine QMedica with iatroX without duplicating practice? Keep them non-overlapping and role-separated: QMedica for your structured first pass and drilling, iatroX for unseen, timed, mixed blocks that measure transfer. Never re-test the same item across both, log misses in one place, and treat the iatroX unseen score — not either bank's internal percentage — as your readiness metric. That separation is precisely what keeps a second bank additive rather than redundant.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. QMedica's live question count, pricing and feature set were not publicly extractable from its marketing site on that date (a JavaScript-rendered single-page application); all such figures must be verified directly on qmedica.co.uk and are not asserted here. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing UK question bank; its role here is confined to the unseen-MCQ measurement and knowledge layer, and iatroX is not positioned as an OSCE or SOE simulator. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: FFICM Final MCQ, OSCE and SOE formats — ficm.ac.uk; Final FFICM overview — ficm.ac.uk; QMedica — qmedica.co.uk; iatroX FFICM bank, the FFICM content-gap checklist and "Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score".