We recommend that all candidates prepare for the examinations by gaining clinical experience in hospital posts involving the care of emergency medical patients, whether adults or children, and by studying up-to-date postgraduate clinical textbooks and current medical journals.
The examinations are mapped to the UK core medical training curriculum / internal medicine training and knowledge of this and UK national guidelines should form part of your preparation for the examinations.
- National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE guidelines)
- Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
Courses
There are a number of courses available that are designed to help you to prepare for the MRCP(UK) examinations. These preparation courses are run by the three Colleges that make up the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom, and are delivered in a range of formats:
Online/blended:
MRCP(UK) Diploma PACES
RCP Edinburgh: PACES preparation recordings and Evening Medical Updates
RCPS Glasgow: MRCP(UK) PACES23: Online Preparation
Training timeline
This diagram illustrates the timeline of a UK physician in training and the place of the MRCP(UK) and Specialty Certificate Examinations (SCEs). International candidates do not need to take MRCP(UK) before the SCEs.
Examination formats
For a more detailed explanation on the format of each of our examinations and the topics that will be included please see:
- Part 1
- Part 2 Written
- Part 2 Practical Assessment of Clinical Examinations Skills (PACES)
- Specialty Certificate Examinations
Examination curricula
To enable candidates to perform to the best of their ability we recommend that you familiarise yourself with the relevant examination curricula. This information can be accessed on the JRCPTB website.
Sample examination questions
A range of example questions are available on the website to assist candidates in their examination preparation. We recommend that you take the opportunity to review these questions as they provide a valuable insight into the type of material you are likely to find in our examinations. Please visit the relevant links below for further information:
Limit on attempts
All medical royal colleges and faculties are required by the General Medical Council (GMC) to introduce a limit on the number of attempts at their examinations. The GMC have specified that the maximum number of attempts allowed at each part of the examination should be six.
All medical royal colleges and faculties are required by the General Medical Council (GMC) to limit the number of attempts at their examinations. The GMC have specified that the maximum number of attempts allowed at each part of the examination should be six.
Candidates sitting MRCP(UK) Part 1 for the first time from the 2022/1 diet onwards, will be allowed a maximum of six attempts at each part of the MRCP(UK) Diploma (Part 1/Part 2 Written/PACES). Candidates who reach six attempts at any examination will be allowed to apply for an exceptional additional attempt; the procedure for this outlined below. Only one exceptional additional attempt will be permitted.
Withdrawals (as defined by the MRCP(UK)) will not be counted as attempts.
Applying for an exceptional additional attempt
You can apply for an exceptional seventh attempt at any part of the MRCP(UK) Diploma, based on additional educational attainment.
You should discuss previous examination attempts with your educational supervisor or a senior colleague to identify areas where you have performed less well. You should prepare an educational plan to target these areas for improvement.
After undertaking relevant additional learning, you should discuss when you intend to take the examination again with your educational supervisor. Once this has been agreed, you should complete the exceptional additional attempt form.
Your educational supervisor and training programme director (or equivalents) must sign the form confirming that you have demonstrated an improvement in your knowledge and skills so that a pass result is highly likely at the next attempt. Your educational supervisor must then scan in a copy of the form and email it to your College of Entry. Please note the form must be emailed from your educational supervisor’s work email address. For more information on this see our FAQs.
Forms must be submitted at least two weeks prior to the relevant application period opening. All requests for exceptional additional attempts will be considered by the MRCP(UK) Regulatory Sub-Group, whose decision will be final. Once approved, restrictions will be removed from your record on the MRCP(UK) database; this will usually take no longer than five working days from receipt of the form. You will then be able to apply for an additional attempt at the examination.
MRCP(UK) will not accept requests for additional attempts based on exceptional circumstances. The MRCP(UK) regulations make clear that any candidate who starts an examination is declaring themselves fit to sit it. You have a right to withdraw from an examination anytime up until it starts without penalty. If you believe your performance in an examination was affected by exceptional circumstances, you should inform MRCP(UK) about this as soon as possible after the examination and submit an appeal after you receive your results.
If you have already undertaken attempts at the examinations and receive a late diagnosis of any condition which requires reasonable adjustments to support them to sit, and which they had not previously received, should contact MRCP(UK) (via reasonableadjustments@mrcpuk.org) to discuss this situation.