u/NarwhalSpecialist185

MRCP Part 1

I’m sitting MRCP Part 1 and have been studying seriously since June, mainly using PassMedicine, past papers and targeted revision resources.

Someone who recently passed told me that my preparation may not be good enough because I haven’t been reading full theory books, and that the recent exams are becoming more vague and difficult and less like the question banks, and that relying mainly on PassMedicine/past papers may not be enough unless your basic medicine knowledge is already very strong

That has honestly knocked my confidence because I’ve been putting in a lot of work and learning a lot from the question explanations and past papers mainly.

For people who sat MRCP Part 1 recently:

Did you use full theory books, or mainly PassMedicine/Pastest and past papers?
Do you think preparation is genuinely inadequate without theory books?
Are strong basics from medical school/medical wards essential?
Did the real exam feel dramatically different from PassMedicine?

Would really appreciate honest recent experiences, especially from people who mainly used question banks and still passed.

I’m sitting MRCP Part 1 on 23 September and I’ve started working through the official RCP sample questions (the 193-question set). I was feeling reasonably okay before this — scoring around 70% on mocks/pass test past papers— but these RCP sample questions are absolutely battering my confidence. I’m getting several wrong in a row, and some of the associations/mechanisms feel like things I’ve barely seen despite having covered the topics on PassMedicine/Pastest.

For anyone who has recently sat Part 1: how did your RCP sample score compare with the actual exam? Did you also find the official sample noticeably difficult, than the real exam? I know I should use the mistakes as revision rather than obsess over the percentage, but with the exam getting closer it’s difficult not to panic when I suddenly feel like I know nothing. Would especially appreciate hearing from people who struggled with the RCP sample but still passed — and what scores you were getting in other mocks/question banks around this stage.