The Three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom share a common membership examination in General Medicine: this is the examination for the Diploma of Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom.
Successful candidates are eligible to apply for the award of the MRCP(UK) Diploma.
The purpose of the MRCP(UK) Part 1 Examination is to identify those physicians in training who, have satisfied the entry criteria, possess a broad knowledge & understanding of common and important disorders as well as clinical sciences.
The MRCP(UK) Part 1 Examination has a two-paper format.
Each paper is 3 hours in duration and contains 100 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
MCQs are (best of five) format, where a candidate chooses the best answer from the five possible answers. Candidates will be tested on a wide range of common & important disorders in General Medicine as set out in the published syllabus.
The Composition of the Papers is as follows:
25 Clinical Sciences
20 Clinical Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology
15 Cardilogy
15 Endocrinology
15 Gastroenterology
15 Hematology & Oncology
15 Neurology
15 Nephrology
15 Respiratory Medicine
15 Rheumatology
15 Tropical Medicine, Infectious & Sexually Transmitted diseases
08 Dermatology
08 Psychiatry
04 Ophthalmology
Clinical Sciences may have the following distribution of questions:
05 Statistics, Epidemiology and Evidence based medicine
04 Clinical Biochemistry and Metabolism
04 Clinical Physiology
04 Immunology
03 Genetics
03 Clinical Anatomy
02 Cell, Molecular and Membrane Biology
BIG ADVICE
The MRCP Part 1 exam can be passed easily within 4 months of preparation but with the following key points in mind:
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Don’t waste your time in reading BIG Textbooks like PJ Kumar, Davidson, Cecil, Harrison etc for this exam instead keep these books on standby to read those specific topics which are making spaghetti in your mind.
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You should know SOMETHING about EVERYTHING instead of knowing EVERYTHING about SOMETHING. So, superficial & basics are enough instead of deep knowledge.
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Recommended books include:
- Essential Revision Notes for MRCP by Philip A. Kalra (For Reference)
- Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (For Reference)
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The Best option adopted by mostly all the doctors with 100% success rate is Solving MCQS, MCQs and just MCQs (Open Reference Books only to read that point for which you need some detailed knowledge or for complex topics)
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Best websites with online MCQs are PASSMEDICINE & ONEXAMINATION. Thoroughly solve MCQs from PASSMEDICINE and read the explanations. The explanation describes your answer and also that related topic in detail. Passmedicine will give you medical knowledge about basics and systemic topic wise review needed for the exam.
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After finishing from passmedicine start ONEXAMINATION and try to solve all the MCQs. This great site will give you the idea about the original exam i.e how questions come in the exam and what is required from you. It also includes explanation with each answer and almost covers all the systems.
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If you have extra time and if you can get hands on PASTEST & MRCPASS MCQs, it will be a "cherry on the cake top’ (just keep in mind about your timetable).
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At least revise PASSMEDICINE & ONEXAMINATION three times before the exam and try to memorize the topics and conceptual information required in MRCP exam.
Dear Colleagues, I hope these few points, if followed, will help you achieving 70% score in your exam and Ace MRCP Part 1 with pride and ease.