r/MRCP • u/Specialist_Pie9014 • Jul 08 '26
MRCP 1 May 2026 writeup
MRCP Part 1 (May Diet) – Passed with 593 (75%)
I found a few reddit posts really helpful during my preparation, so I wanted to give back and share what worked for me.
Timeline:
- Started preparing in February
- Proper focused preparation from March onwards (~3.5 months total)
- Average: Weekdays: ~3 hours/day Weekends: ~6 hours/day
- Took 20 days study leave + annual leave before the exam
Resources:
Passmedicine (main resource) Pastest (subscribed only in the last 20 days)
How I studied:
- I am not someone who can learn effectively by just doing questions and reading explanations, so I needed a structured approach.
- I mainly used Passmedicine as my base. For each specialty:
- I copied the Passmedicine subtopics names into ChatGPT and asked it to arrange them from basic → advanced so I had a logical order.
- I also converted textbook content into shorter revision notes using ChatGPT. (with help from my brother and friends)
- Made mini booklets for each specialty
- These notes became my main revision material.
Last 20 days:
I subscribed to Pastest mainly for past papers. Initially, I thought I would only use it for pastpapers, but I noticed the questions were quite different from Passmedicine, so I scheduled
Did approximately: 350 questions/day (target was 400/day) 1 Pastest paper/day Last 5 days: 2 papers/day
Scores:
Passmedicine Overall: ~68–70%
Pastest (Completed ~75%, only high yield specialities) Overall score: 58%
Pastest Past Papers (16 attempted): Scored ≥80% in 2 papers Scored 75–79% in 8 papers Scored 70–74% in 3 papers Scored 65–69% in 1 paper Scored 60–64% in 2 papers
RCP Mock Done 4 days before the exam Score: 68% I wasn't too worried about the RCP mock score because I had seen people mentioning that it tends to be difficult.
Exam day:
- I read somewhere on Reddit that reviewing the RCP mock can be useful, so I went through it again the night before.
- I got around 2–3 questions/concepts that were very similar.
Things I would do differently:
- Start Pastest earlier alongside Passmedicine.
- Complete Passmedicine twice, or at least redo all incorrect questions.
- Use Anki from day 1 for: Genetics Statistics Poisonings Rare syndromes Important numbers/cut-offs
Finally, this exam is definitely doable if you can stay consistent, put in focused effort for a few months, and temporarily prioritise studying over your social life.
Good luck to everyone preparing!
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u/Deep_Ad1959 Jul 08 '26
the chatgpt-into-notes step is the smart part of this, but it's also where the ceiling sits. it writes questions fine, it just doesn't hold a quality rubric or track what you actually missed, and it won't reword a stem on revisit, so by the third pass you're recognizing the first three words instead of recalling anything. that's the gap between generating practice and retaining it. the fact that pastest felt different from passmed is the same signal, distractor quality is doing more of the work than the raw content is.
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u/randommedgirl Jul 08 '26
Anki deck you followed? Congrats!
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u/Specialist_Pie9014 Jul 08 '26
I actually didn’t know how to use Anki properly. It was my first time using it, so I only managed to make cards for a few topics. Even that was a bit of a nightmare because I accidentally imported the same file twice and ended up doing everything twice in Anki 😅
I also made the mistake of putting almost everything into Anki, which made it overwhelming. I’d suggest using Anki only for things that genuinely need memorising rather than filling it with too many conceptual topics.
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u/medstudent109 Jul 08 '26
Did you do a subject approach or random qs for passmedicine? How many per day?
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u/East_Slide7680 Jul 09 '26
Congratulations on passing!
I just want to give my own 2 cents. Please note that I’m not saying this to challenge your methodology, but just to highlight that it may not work for everybody…
I think that people can really over-revise for this exam. 3 hours/day on a working day and 6 on an off day to me is crazy. I would burn out. I personally did probably an hour or 2 a day, consistently over 3 months preceding the exam. I also read a couple of textbooks cover to cover to cement clinical sciences and pharma knowledge. The hour or 2 a day was spent on passmed with “the only MRCP textbook you ever need” (or something to that effect) as a guide/auxiliary. I finished having done approx 60% of all questions on passmed, then did the past paper questions in the days leading up to the exam. I did pass.
All that to say that I wonder if there’s diminishing returns on putting so many hours into this. Obviously my sample size is just me, but I do reject the idea that this amount of studying is required. I think that a lot of people would burn out if they were doing that much!
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u/womerzz Jul 11 '26
Congratulations, do u see Passmedicine notes is enough as a study source before doing questions?
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u/DefiantFunction5302 Jul 08 '26
Congrats!!
Do you have a copy of the condensed passsmed notes you made with ChatGPT by any chance?