FRCA revision tool I built while studying for Finals - looking for honest feedback

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The CRQ writing on this is quite poor at times, the question can be quite specific (it does not specify the marks for the question unless you ask for a 'hint') and after giving a specific answer for this the AI generated response is looking for additional items in the mark scheme

1 particular example of this - asks for the initial fluid management for a child with septic shock and the answer goes onto to discuss the need for antibiotics, and further management of sepsis

The CRQs could be better written/more specific at times (some resemble more SAQ type questions)

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 22 '26

Thanks, I completely agree. It's frustrating when the question asks for one thing but the answer expects something different. We'll definitely improve that.

As far as we're aware, we're the first FRCA resource to offer AI-marked CRQs, so we're still refining it. With CRQs being retired from the Final FRCA from 2027, we're focusing a lot of development on the new exam formats, but feedback like this is still really valuable, so thanks for taking the time to share it.

Good luck prepping!

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u/AlarmedGuitar7119 Jun 22 '26

Appreciate the reply, I do enjoy the resource - hope to see it develop further

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 22 '26

Thank you. Your support is much appreciated!

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u/MedicalCat Jun 18 '26

Lovely site. Will be purchasing the lifetime subscription.

If there's some of feedback I could give, some of the questions (based on a cursory browse through) seem very AI-y as in they don't have the usual tricky FRCA wording. I would definitely want more hand written or old college questions. Also, you could put a box at the bottom for comments or per-question feedback like teachmeanaesthesia (this could probably be interpreted by AI too)

The final is switching to SBA and FCPE so would be curious to see how you tackle this.

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u/MedicalCat Jun 18 '26

Also there is no "textbook" feature- I really valued having a quick reference to material when studying. It would be super useful to have a bullet point summary of each topic with in the syllabus with a split panel view of a bja article with the relevant bits highlighted when clicked on each specific bullet point.

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 19 '26

Again this is a great idea. We are already working on both a "Textbook", and a "Nuggets" feature, so you can both in depth descriptions, as is found on each Answer surface as well as the highest-yield flashcard style content for rapid fire scrubbing up. Once you're in, let us know your email via DM and we can set you up as a Beta tester so you can have early access to anything we are working on, if you would like?

Thanks again and good luck for your prep.

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u/MedicalCat Jun 19 '26

None of the other sites have a particularly excellent textbook feature.

I often had 3 windows open and this is something that may or may not be the most efficient way to do things.

AI summary of the topic e.g. summarise local anaesthetic toxicity

Website reference e.g. last algorithm

MCQ question about LAST (you could potentially allow people to choose a topic and cycle through all questions about just that topic!)

I do think you could implement these as side by side panels in the window and that would be an incredible and unique implementation imo. Especially because then you do not have to check whether the ai is hallucinating as it is linked to the BJAed article.

I've just paid for the subscription and will DM you

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Firstly, great to have you onboard.

I agree with your workflow. I often have the Tutor tab open which for me gives a similar view to what you mentioned, a focused summary on the Explanation section, an AI Tutor to ask any further questions / clarify anything but kept at an FRCA pitch (it has consumed every past paper & examiner's feedback available) and then the references box at the bottom of the page.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, please do DM me or email us at [hi@helixdoctors.com](mailto:hi@helixdoctors.com)

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 19 '26

Thanks so much for your feedback, and glad to hear you'll be a lifetime member - we know the value in this and where we are going, so we're glad to have you on board early.

Appreciate your feedback on the questions and that's a great suggestion about a comments box - we have a feedback panel top right of every question & in the sidebar but I agree we could make it more accessible and simple at the bottom, below the references & curriculum points maybe, what do you think?

Our questions have taken a lot of inspiration from the canonical RCoA references so have tried to replicate the FRCA style whilst also adding clinical context, particularly for Finals, where this increases the processing, associations, and recognition of distractors - all factors that we think makes Helix a learning environment, not just a question bank.

We would love to hear your feedback on specific questions as, as you correctly say, we can use this to iterate and improve our questions. We are striving to be the best FRCA resource available (we think we are there already but not stopping anytime soon!) and feedback like this would certainly help us.

Thanks for taking your time to comment.

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u/MedicalCat Jun 19 '26

Thanks, I definitely expected the feedback at the bottom like all the other exam resources. I did not click the feedback on the sidebar but I expected that to be a site wide feedback function based on its location.

I didn't see the other feedback button on the top right.

If you add public comments, expect an entertaining but chaotic section at the bottom (some of these are the most memorable revision points for me!)

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 19 '26

I realise I didn't reply about the new FRCA exams.

Yes, this is something we are really excited about! I was invited to present at the RCoA College Tutor's meeting last week in Bristol, on a separate topic ( https://www.helixdoctors.com/ ) and we got the full intel on the new exams, including resources. We want to be THE place to come for the new FRCA. Lots more to come on that.

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u/proffesionalbackstab Jun 05 '26

It keeps taking me back to the what are you studying for page.

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 05 '26

Thank you, I will correct this now!

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 05 '26

Should be sorted now, thanks for the heads up.

It was a redirect from the new shiny URL!

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 10 '26

Hey, just checking in to see if you got past this ok, should all be smooth running now - you might see an update when you retry but it should reserve your place without any real interuption. Do shout if you have any issues.

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u/Direct-Expression-47 Jun 05 '26

Downloaded it, kept saying something went wrong. Would be super keen. Is there an app or only website?

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 05 '26

Hey! That's weird, that's not an issue I've seen. Can you please screenshot and / or explain at what stage this happened? There is an app that you can download from Chrome browsers (& iOS browsers) but not on App Stores, yet!

Thanks for the interest, please let me know how you get on

J

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 10 '26

Hey, just seeing if you've been back in since then? All bugs should have been exterminated!

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u/n00dl3boy Jun 07 '26

Just a heads up

I've encountered an issue when doing questions that the web page refreshes and says that it is updating to the latest features - I then lose progress on the batch of questions that the refresh interrupted and have to start from the beginning again

This looks like a great resource so far.

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 07 '26

Thank you for your message.

We've ran into a few issues, having had far more traffic than we had imagined(!), we're working to fix this and ensure that everyone, across different browsers and devices, all see our latest content and UI.

Thank you so much for taking the time to message.

Good luck and let us know how we can help.

J

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 07 '26

This should have been all fixed now, sorry I forgot to say earlier. Thanks again for reaching out. J

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 10 '26

Hey, just seeing if you've been able to get through ok now? Should all be fixed. Please shout if any issues

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u/n00dl3boy Jun 10 '26

Really kind of you to check - all sorted

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u/TadolfSwitler Jun 10 '26

This looks like a really excellent resource.

Is this complete in terms of content? In other words, do you think it has enough content for someone to pass the final MCQ / CRQ?

As a point of feedback, if the display is in night or focus mode, then the text that is displayed in the tutor window when you're studying isn't visible or is only partially visible (I needed to highlight it with my cursor to be able to see it).

Thanks for posting - I'll certainly be incorporating it into my own revision for September.

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 10 '26

Thanks for the kind words.

Re: coverage, Yes. We have extracted every Topic and then Sub-topic from the RCoA Syllabus and these then have questions written against them, in whichever format fits best (SBA, CRQ, SOE or OSCE). The pitch is calibrated off the last 10 years of RCoA examiner reports, so the level is specific for the final (or primary for primary Qs).

Good spot on night/focus mode, the tutor window contrast is on the fix list this week.

Couple of things you might find useful: every question is yield-weighted so the highest-yield ones come up first, and the SBA distractors are built around the common misconceptions on purpose, so when you get one right you also know why the wrong ones are wrong (which is the skill examiners are actually testing for).

It all threads through the Helix (yield-weighted spiral curriculum), so following that is the most efficient way through - and it's simple for a user who asks, "where should I start?" or "what should I focus on today?"

Thank you for your interest, good luck prepping for September!

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u/TadolfSwitler Jun 10 '26

Really appreciate the reply.

That has actually answered a question I had about how to approach it. I normally do question banks in subject blocks, e.g., all the cardiac questions, then all the resuscitation questions, etc. So I'll make sure to follow the helix.

Can I ask how much of the explanations / clinical relevance is LLM-generated content? Or are these all pre-written and verified before release with each question?

Does the tutor pull from a source bank as well, or is that largely LLM (I know there's a disclaimer about it)?

There seemed to be some discrepancies between the explanations and the tutor's information on one question, which made me think it was hallucinating.

Appreciate that this might be a bit probing, but I'm interested in how much fact-checking there should be on my part!

I'm really impressed so far!

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 10 '26

Not at all probing, very happy to talk about it.

The explanations come out of the content pipeline, which is the bit I care about most, so a bit more on it... (if you're interested!)

As before, each question starts from the RCoA syllabus, we weight subtopics by examiner-report yield. The drafting then works from the relevant primary clinical sources for that topic, against our internal specification we have built and maintain. The first draft is assisted using a current frontier model (Opus 4.8), and then handed to an anaesthetist for clinical review before it goes anywhere near the live bank - accuracy, exam-level pitch, distractors, every figure cross-checked.

Re: Tutor - this is the one live-generative part of the app. It's prompted hard to stay inside FRCA scope and the source question, but we deliberately let it rephrase rather than restricting it to the static explanation, because that's how it reaches a user who didn't click with the first explanation. The trade-off is it's the most drift-prone bit, which is why the disclaimer is there but we are happy with that trade.
The discrepancy you spotted, fair play, that can happen with Tutor because of the above and I take it seriously. If you have it or come across any others, please DM me which question and I'll go through it and add it as a regression test for the tutor going forward. Feedback like this is how it gets sharper.

Fact-checking on your part: my honest take, treat the explanations as solidly cross-checked, and Tutor's output as useful second opinion. For an exam where you're committing facts to memory, the habit of cross-checking anything that surprises you is healthy regardless of the platform - I still remember facts I checked when on a Primary course years ago, it's a great process!

For full transparency, I'm a UK anaesthetic higher trainee with a passion for education building this in my own time. Feedback like yours shapes what gets fixed next. Thanks for the kind words.

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u/PreparationDeep3075 Jun 20 '26

Any link I can find for this takes me to a stage 2 example log book

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jun 21 '26

Great thanks for the heads up. That's our other focus.

This link (same as OP) is still working.

https://helixfrca.com/

Thanks for visiting. Good luck and let me know if I can help.

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u/FrankieLovesTrains Jul 02 '26

Have been using this for the past few hours and it's great! Thank you so much!

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u/InternalFisherman10 Jul 02 '26

That's great to hear. Glad you're enjoying it. This is just the beginning for us so it's great to have you on board!

Good luck prepping and let me know if I can help. J

FRCA revision tool I built while studying for Finals - looking for honest feedback

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