The MRCP Part 1 exam is your first step towards the very prestigious Royal College Membership. The exam is challenging, and students spend months preparing for it. You have to study while balancing work, recreation, and any other commitments you have going on, so it’s important to study smart. Here are some tips to prepare for the exam, so that you don’t spend crucial time trying to figure out what approach to take or what MRCP study materials to use.
Create a structured study plan
Familiarise yourself with the syllabus and estimate how much time each topic will take you depending on how fast you absorb the material. Allocate less time to topics you find easy or already know well, and more time to topics you find difficult or that require a more thorough understanding. Calculate the total time it will take you to study all of MRCP study material against the time you can spend studying in the upcoming months as well. Use your plan to stay on track with studying.
Find comprehensive course material
Online courses such as Diginerve’s Cracking MRCP Part 1 are the best comprehensive study material, as in one course, you get mentorship and webinars from distinguished faculty, a comprehensive course manual, notes, practice questions, mock exams, and performance tracking.
Do practice questions
Practice a lot. Anyone who has passed the MRCP exam will tell you that the key to passing the MRCP medical exam is to do as many MRCP practice questions as you can. Practice questions truly test your knowledge as they force you to apply what you’ve learnt. Diginerve’s Cracking MRCP Part 1 also has thousands of practice MRCP questions, ideal for thorough revision and practice.
Simulate the exam
The MRCP part 1 exam has 200 multiple choice questions split between 2 papers, each of which is 3 hours long. You need to build up stamina to keep your brain from tiring out in the middle of the medical exam. To keep working at your optimum pace throughout the MRCP medical exam, put yourself in the exact same conditions that you’ll be in when you take the exam- don’t take any breaks or talk to anyone during it. You don’t want to be sitting in the real medical exam with your brain fried and your fingers tired. The Cracking MRCP Part 1 course offers several mock exams you can take to gauge how you are doing. You can score yourself using Cracking MRCP’s mock papers, and then see how you’re doing compared to your peers on the course’s online leaderboard.
Study with a group
You may feel stressed as you study for the MRCP part 1 exam while handling work and a busy schedule. Working with others who are appearing for the medical exam will keep you motivated and make you feel like you’re not alone. When you work in groups, ideas are shared and questions are solved together. If you don’t understand a question, your friend might be able to explain it to you, which will help both your understanding and theirs.
Cracking MRCP Part 1 course offers the facility of Forums where you could interact with fellow participants and learn from each other.
The MRCP exam is one of the toughest exams to pass – but at the end of it, you walk away with an internationally recognized qualification that makes all the hard work worth it. Your job and studies are probably keeping you busy already, so it is important that you optimize your time and study for the MRCP the smart way. Here are seven tips on how to crack the MRCP Exam:
1. Stay focused on the exams
You want to allocate at least a few hours a day to MRCP exam preparation, as consistency is important. You don’t need to spend all day on the MRCP study material. Focused studying for a few hours everyday is the key to success.
2. Practice answering questions
The most important MRCP test preparation you can do is to get yourself a book of practice questions to ensure you understand the format of the test and recognize patterns in the questions. You can also try an MRCP questions bank, with Cracking MRCP Part 1, for practice.
3. Cover all the specialties in the curriculum
Try solving as many questions from the range of specialties covered in the curriculum as you can, to ensure you have a thorough knowledge of each topic. Diginerve’s app has notes and questions on every topic you need to know.
4. Find reliable MRCP study material
Make sure your MRCP study material is detailed, thorough, and covers everything you need to know. Jaypee has course manuals, revision notes, and practice papers for MRCP part 1 and MRCP part 2, and an online course with mentorship, webinars, practice questions, mock papers case studies, and revision notes for MRCP Part 1.
5. Do mock exams under timed conditions.
The MRCP tests are a marathon, not a sprint. You need to be prepared to answer hundreds of questions. Mock papers by Cracking MRCP Part 1 help you test yourself and measure your progress against peers on a leaderboard.
6. Understand the concepts, don’t just memorize
When you practice, you also need to understand the reasoning behind why an answer is wrong or right. If you only memorize, you might find yourself confused in the actual MRCP exam. Understanding the concepts will give you a better understanding and make you a better doctor overall.
7. Ask people who’ve passed the MRCP for advice
You probably know doctors who have passed the MRCP part 1 and MRCP part 2 and attained the MRCP degree. Ask them what to do and how to study. Whatever methods they used, they passed, so approaching the test in a similar way means you’re on the right track.
