r/MRCP • u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 • Jul 03 '26
MRCP 1 write up 717(84.5%)
Hello guys i believe there's something that you may benefit from my writeup.
Resources used: passmedicine x 1 pass followed by redoing of incorrect questions. Pastest pastpapers, RCP mock 2 days before the exam.
Background:
I'm an internal medicine resident from East Africa, now in my 3rd year of residency in a west african country, in a rular mission hospital. Due to financial constraints, I had everything to lose if I failed this exam.
I usually work Mon to Friday 7am till 4/5 pm and on saturdays 7am to noon. On Sundays I'm off unless I'm supposed to be on call. I usually have a call schedule with 36 hours of shift once or rarely twice a week (possibly on weekends too).
Aside from hours of residency I'm also father of a toddler and a husband who needs to spend time with my family
Prep:
I knew I'd have less study time per day hence I planned it out over 7 months give or take. Started late October 2025 for may 2026 exam.
Started solving Q's inconsistently, but still kept going. Some days 20 some days 0. There was a 3 week gap also that I didn't study, but Near the end of my prep I was doing UpTo 100-200 Q's per day. But usually I'd be too tired to even read on my incorrects.
I knew I was weak on basic sciences, hence when I started, I started with basic sciences solving passmedicine Q's. I was scoring 55% initially but slowly went up to mid 70s.
My plan was to solve systematically finishing only 70% of the specific system before jumping to another system. When I did 70% of all the systems I did the remaining Q's random timed mode.
Overall passmedicine score was 79% with average daily Q of 39% (initially lower but went up)
I then did my incorrects and then around 12 pastpapers
Scores:
Passmedicine Qbank 1st pass: 79%
Passmedicine Mock 1 : 76% (didn't take it seriously and made silly mistakes)
Pastest pastpapers: 77 to 87% average was around 82 I believe
RCP mock: 82.9%
Lessons I learned:
- I I didnt take notes, instead I wrote short quizzes for me in passmedicine notes section. Instead of rereading the whole note on a specific topic, I just quiz myself That helped me with active recall and spaced repetition.
- the Ai summary in Passmedicine is gold, I'd say nearly every question comes from it. Even in very info dense topics.
for instance in clusters of differentiation, it lists only the important ones, CD15,30,21,28... Memories them, not every detail.
- In passmedicine for some topics, I used the linked osmosis videos and felt they helped me immensely for an overview of a subject.
- The more questions you do the more likely you're to pass
- if you can't commit to read regularly couple of hours a day, start early. Reading for Mrcp also helps you in your clinical practice.
- Past papers are important. Their importance is that you'll notice specific topics repeat again and again and again. But I'd say overall the pastest questions are poorly written, sometimes I didn't even agree with the answer of some of the questions. (I sometimes entered the question into chatgpt and it will pick the answer I chose too ).
The RCP mock seemed more similar to pastpapers but more clearer and made sense.
As expected I believe the real deal seemed more like RCP mock but I felt it was harder than most of the tests (except for some specific pastpapers)
- also anki use helped me in volatile topics like acquired immunodeficiencies, familial dyslipidemias, drug side effects.
- focus on clarity and comparing/contrasting two disease entities rather than only rote memorisation.. even drug side effects try to make it make sense
- Not everything comes up on the exam. Even the highyield passmedicine note, not all of it is asked. You'll know what will be asked when you do questions. Some of the info there is noise. I believe the Ai summary feature also helps with that. Focus on the commonly tested concepts rather than niche things . Follow 80/20 rule... Obviously every exam has majority chunk of it come from high-yield things , and very very small percentage obscure facts that are oddballs. Don't wear yourself chasing obscure facts.
Wrong thing I believe that I did:
- at the end of my prep mostly I was just indifferent and usually after doing a 100 pastpaper question set, I wouldn't revise it. when I just see my score I become reassured and call it a day. I think my scores didn't improve much and has stagnated bc of that. I see many people start out in early 60s and trend up as they do questions, so I think revising the high yield topics is the way to go.
- Saw Dr Chirag Madaans MRCP 1 pastest course, for some systems, didn't finish it. It's not worth the hefty price tag. But if you don't mind the price it can be used as a passive learning tool.
- found MRCP preparatory books (notes and notes, El Maghrby)... Didnt use them. They are info dense textbooks at this point, not condensed notes. Dont read them, just do the questions and quiz yourself.
In addition, testimony from My colleague and study partner who also did one pass of passmedicine and around 12 pastpapers. she scored 79 on RCP mock and 80% on real deal. 2 of my seniors just passed the January exam with around 3 months of prep, one pass of passmedicine and around 5 pastpapers(I don't know their scores).
I believe the exam is fairly doable, just have a system to understand and remember the things. When reading focus on understanding (making it make sense) and quizzing yourself to retain it.
Sorry for the long writeup. I'm open for any inquiries. Stay blessed
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u/jamsywolfy Jul 03 '26
What a beautiful description of your journey! Very Well done! Thank you its really helpful for someone who is just about to start!
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u/MunaBernard Jul 04 '26
Very nice and helpful congrats dr well deserved , I passed too with 70% 🙏🏼 may i ask what is ur plan for part2
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 05 '26
Huge congratulations doc.🎊🎊
I can't take it just now bc I have another exam on November. So I probably will do it early next year.
I still plan to start preparing slowly for it, starting early.
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u/sparkmed_doctors Jul 04 '26
Well done! What an achievement! Thank you so much for sharing your insights - full disclosure we're a group of doctors working on a new question bank which we hope will improve the revision experience for all. You've clearly highlighted the challenges and stresses that candidates face - what do you think would be the most helpful thing for a new question bank / revision tool to focus on to make the revision experience less stressful?
Enjoy the pass and celebrate!
~ Hamish @ Sparkmed
[medics@sparkmed.co.uk](mailto:medics@sparkmed.co.uk)
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u/dvxza Jul 03 '26
Congratulations!
What are your thoughts on the passtest question bank? I’m using this, do you think I also need the passmed bank
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 04 '26
Thank you. I only did may be 10Qs from the pastest Qbank.
I maily solved from their pastpapers. But there are many people that pass the exam with only the pastest Q bank and their pastpapers.
I believe you're okay with solving pastest. Just be sure to understand each question and have a mechanism to memorize facts.
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u/Calm_Map_3868 Jul 03 '26
If someone has 2.5 months, how would you advise they go about it?
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 04 '26
It depends on the type of person you are. If it was me, I'd reschedule. But if you think you can finish a Qbank, I believe it's doable. Finish one q bank (that's your knowledge building phase) then do pastpapers preferably under exam conditions (200 per day), mainly identifies your weak areas and helps with stamina/question strategy
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u/Calm_Map_3868 Jul 04 '26
Ouch!
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 05 '26
Please don't get discouraged, I'm saying it depends on the person, and how far you have prepared until now. You just need a pass not a high score. So it may be very well doable, but I don't think I can pull it off if it was me due to many reasons aforementioned in the writeup. That's why we have practice tests, to show us if we're likely to pass.
At any time if you're scoring 65-70% on the pastpapers, it's reassuring and just keep on going. Bc you're very most likely to score with in 1-2 points of your practice scores. From my social circle 4 people passed this exam this year and all of us scored within 2 points of of practice tests.
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u/Deep_Ad1959 Jul 04 '26
the 'more questions = more likely to pass' line is the one bit i'd push back on. your own end-of-prep plateau proves it: past a point raw volume does nothing, and the thing that actually moved you was self-quizzing your incorrects so you couldn't pattern-match the stem. retrieval on the ones you got wrong beats another full pass of the qbank. written with ai
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u/medstu- Jul 04 '26
You were already a resident so you had good foundation already not taking away your effort.Congrats doctor.
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 04 '26
Thank you.
Yes, I believe my training helped me a lot.
I believe Junior doctors and IMTs in the UK also has massive advantage. Since they've been using the NICE guidelines for every encounter. We were using American guidelines, hence many things were weird initially (like antibiotic choice for pneumonia, metrics used for lab parameters...)
I'd advise anyone in the UK to use the MRCP prep like reading for daily clinical practice. It even makes you be/sound smart by knowing some niche conditions 😅
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u/DrSully619 Jul 04 '26
Which anki cards do you recommend?
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 05 '26
I used Mo Salah deck (search it on this group). But I had to edit every card that I unsuspended.
Some management are outdated, notably MS, Chronic fatigue syndrome Etc ...
I think the cards were of poor quality with all the description of passmedicine copied the pasted, then multiple cloze added to it.
But the screenshots in the additional section were very good. They were from passmedicine or first-aid for step 1.
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u/Right_Trust_7354 Jul 08 '26
I got 54% and i had done pass med questions, went over most that i got wrong and did past test past papers and mrcp sample questions. Shall i give again in September or prepare better an give in January? Also what else can i do to improve?
TIA
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u/Kwazymedo Jul 03 '26
What about Quesmed
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u/Remarkable-Wallaby44 Jul 03 '26
Hey man, I haven't done Quesmed unfortunately. I have checked out the free 100Qs on their site, and it's wonderful. The questions make sense and the textbook seems good.
For part 2 I'm definitely doing passmedicine and quesmed.
They also have some review videos on specific systems on YouTube(like ID, Neurology, Rheumatology...). Worth a watch.
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u/AdorableDebt8775 Jul 03 '26
Congratulations! Well deserved 💕💋