MRCP Part 1
Coming on to share another interesting yet a bit tough experience of mine in the field of medicine. The writing is about the disclosure of what I chose to ace MRCP part 1, one of the known UK’s specialty certificates for doctors.
There are a myriad of blogs and posts which kindle the ways of coping with MRCP part 1 and reading onto others’ experiences is not at all a harm. However, I believe everyone should design their own format of study according to their suitability.
It was my first attempt and I made it with flying colors but I again emphasize on the fact that the exam was not easy as it usually sounds, especially for fresh graduates. I started preparing for it in the fall of 2020 though I had a lot on my plate simultaneously so didn’t give a justifiable time to the prep. However, I dedicated my full strength into it in the last three months which proved extremely helpful. The sources to prepare are enormous, all having different focuses of gravity which might be confusing for the candidates at times.
Initially, I started with an as usual subscription of Passmedicine that was undoubtedly the best with up to the mark questions with their explanations. But, later on, I faced some difficulties in using it. Firstly, the subscription is always for a limited period of time (either 3 or 6 months) and is paid. Moreover, it is an online site which means one cannot use the Qbank without internet. Lastly, the revision of the already done questions was nearly impossible once getting logged off from the site. Side by side, I started looking into a few offline past papers from Pastest, a majority portion of which was back-breaking and had a lot more disparity among answers with Passmedicine.
Thus, after a fine research and comparing a hell of stuff, I ended up following just one Qbank app named “Medprep”. It is an app that contains a vast ocean of all the passmedicine and pastest questions with a bunch of past papers, all under a single umbrella. Now that was a treat for me. :P
The installation of the app did not cost me a single penny and gave me an ownership for good.
Some of the inclining reasons of using the app:
It is just a one time initiation and you can get excess to all the questions for as long as you want.
It is an offline app which has all the questions already loaded in it.
Even though being an offline app, the questions and their explanations are totally updated according to the recent UK guidelines.
The app provides a few mock tests as well which appear near to the exam.
The app dispenses all the necessary past papers which are mandatory to be done.
It can be used easily in any electronic device with all data getting synced. .
I went through the Qbank just once and didn’t read any textbook or hand-written notes, supposedly my MBBS knowledge was enough to get through with it. However, it’s recommended to give two to three reads along with one book/course to get a fine grip on the explanations. Lastly, an active and time-constrained participation on a good WhatsApp group was an addition to my revision.
A quick tip from me is that I highly emphasize not to blindly follow the anonymous Facebook suggestions of just mugging passmedicine. It’s not gonna be enough! Though it’s the Bible of MRCP but the actual exam comes highly unpredictable. So, don’t underestimate pastest, onexamination and PAST PAPERS (the essentials) as many of the questions were from these resources.
To end up, choose any resource and put a firm faith into it till the end, design an efficient and a time-friendly study plan for yourself and gain more even from concise sources.