European Exam in Core Cardiology (EECC)

The EECC is a joint venture between the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the Union of European Medical Specialists Cardiology Section (UEMS-CS), the participating National and Affiliated Cardiac Societies and is also supported by independent academic oversight.

The purpose of the EECC is to provide a broad, balanced and up-to-date test of the core cardiology knowledge required by cardiology specialty trainees for independant practice. It is intended to encourage the acquisition of a wide range of knowledge and complement workplace-based assessments as part of a comprehensive cardiology training programme.

The EECC supports best practice by testing evidence-based knowledge from current guidelines and published research aligned to the ESC Core Curriculum for the Cardiologist published in 2020. This is intended to facilitate progressive improvement and harmonisation of cardiology training and clinical practice.

Each participating national society is free to use the exam in the most appropriate way for the cardiology trainees in their training programme. It is recommended that trainees sit the EECC once they have completed core training, and that they have the opportunity to re-sit the exam if they are unsuccessful before the end of their overall training.

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EECC 2023

The exam

The EECC is a multiple-choice written examination in English.

The examination consists of 120 questions and runs over three hours, with no break.

Questions are designed to assess the candidate's knowledge:

Based on a clinical scenario
Five options with only one single best answer.
No negative marking

Questions are drawn from the entire spectrum of core cardiology reflecting the ESC Core Curriculum for the Cardiologist.

Exam date

The 2023 EECC will take place on 13 June 2023.

Exam delivery

The EECC examination is delivered once a year, using an online proctoring platform (CYIM/ProctorU^®).

This provides candidates with the safety and convenience of an online platform while retaining the integrity and quality of an on-site supervised exam.

The online format of the EECC exam is:

Accessible anywhere in the world.
Taken on the candidate’s own device (computer only) and monitored by a human proctor online through ProctorU^®.

Please find more information here.

Exam registration

Eligibility for the EECC is determined by individual National and Affiliated Cardiology Societies. If you want to sit the exam, you need to contact your National or Affiliated Cardiology Society to determine whether they are participating in the EECC and how you can register to the exam.

Registration is strictly restricted to the candidates identified and registered by their National Cardiology Society and is not available to individuals.

Exam fee

EECC fee for cardiology trainees are determined by individual National and Affiliated Cardiology Societies.

Participating National and Affiliated Cardiac Societies

In 2023, 22 ESC National Cardiac Societies, 2 ESC Affiliated Cardiac Societies and APSC are participating in the EECC. We are also pleased to welcome 4 new participating National Cardiac Societies (Egypt, Georgia, Romania, Syria) and the Gulf Heart Association.

APSC Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology	ASOCAR Costa Rican Association of Cardiology	Austria Austrian Society of Cardiology	Bulgaria Bulgarian Society of Cardiology
CSANZ Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand	Cyprus Cyprus Society of Cardiology	Egypt Egyptian Society of Cardiology (pilot)	Finland Finnish Society of Cardiology
Georgia Georgian Society of Cardiology (pilot)	Germany German Cardiac Society	GHA Gulf Heart Association (pilot)	Greece Hellenic Society of Cardiology
Ireland Irish Cardiac Society	Israel Israel Heart Society	Latvia Latvian Society of Cardiology	Lithuania Lithuanian Society of Cardiology
Luxembourg Luxembourg Society of Cardiology	Malta Maltese Cardiac Society	Netherlands Netherlands Society of Cardiology	Poland Polish Cardiac Society
Portugal Portuguese Society of Cardiology	Romania Romanian Society of Cardiology (pilot)	Slovenia Slovenian Society of Cardiology	Spain Spanish Society of Cardiology
Sweden Swedish Society of Cardiology	Switzerland Swiss Society of Cardiology	Syrian Arabic Republic Syrian Cardiovascular Association (pilot)	Tunisia Tunisian Society of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery
Turkey Turkish Society of Cardiology	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland British Cardiovascular Society

Exam preparation - EECC Preparatory course

The EECC is designed to test a wide range of cardiology knowledge aligned with the ESC Core Curriculum for the Cardiologist. There is no single source from which all questions are developed, and candidates are encouraged to read widely, including ESC guidelines, the ESC textbook and practice-changing clinical trials.

The ESC offers an online preparatory course to support candidates in their preparation for the EECC. Access is restricted to candidates who are registered by their National or Affiliated Cardiac Society.

Access to the preparatory course will be granted from 13 March 2023.

Please note that to be granted access to this course, the candidates must have a MyESC account (free of charge) and provide their ESC ID to their National Cardiac Society. Candidates without ESC ID will not be able to access this resource.

Exam results

After the exam, each candidate’s performance in the exam, and the statistics for each question are calculated and analysed by an independent psychometrician. This analysis is reviewed by the Chair of the Standard Setting Group. Any question which has not performed as expected, is reviewed by the Standard Setting group. They may decide to recommend excluding some questions from the final calculations. The Chair of the Standard Setting group makes recommendations on the exclusion of questions and the exam pass mark to the EECC Board. These proposals are reviewed at an EECC Board meeting which takes place few weeks after the exam, and a final pass mark is determined.

Once approved by the EECC Board, results are sent to National and Affiliated Cardiac Societies who are responsible for releasing them to their candidates.

Under no circumstances will the ESC communicate results directly to candidates.

Further information

You can find additional information on the EECC procedures on the UEMS website.

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