This is the implementation companion to our BMJ OnExamination MRCP Part 1 analytics audit — read that for what the dashboard measures; read this for the week-by-week routine. The job is narrow: use BMJ OnExamination's revision plans and difficulty selection for what they are good at, override them where they under-sample the blueprint, and switch to timed simulation on objective criteria — while ignoring the daily leaderboard, which optimises for engagement, not readiness.
What you are working with
BMJ OnExamination offers 3,190 BMJ-edited questions (£53.99 for one month to £159.99 for twelve), with selectable difficulty, revision plans, peer comparison, a daily leaderboard, editorial mock tests and an offline app; verify current figures on the product page. The exam is two three-hour papers of 100 best-of-five questions, weighted clinical sciences 25, pharmacology 15, the organ specialties at 14 each, down to ophthalmology and palliative medicine at 4.
Week structure at a glance
| Phase | Weeks (typical 10-week run) | Primary mode | Exit trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 1 | Blueprint-stratified sample at exam difficulty | ~100 items logged across domains |
| First pass | 2–6 | Revision plan + domain-floor overrides | Every domain above its floor |
| Consolidation | 7–8 | Timed mixed blocks + transfer | First-attempt accuracy stable 2 weeks |
| Simulation | 9–10 | Full editorial mocks at exam pace | Pacing on target; go/no-go |
Baseline at exam difficulty
Because BMJ OnExamination lets you choose difficulty, baseline at exam difficulty specifically, not at a comfortable setting. A blueprint-stratified sample at realistic difficulty gives you a true starting distribution; a sample at "easy" flatters you and a sample at "hard" frightens you, and neither matches the paper.
Follow the revision plan — then override it
The revision plan steers you toward your weak areas, which is genuinely useful in the first-pass phase. But override it on coverage, because it optimises for your improvement curve, not the exam's weighting. Set domain floors and force clinical sciences and pharmacology (40 marks combined) and the micro-domains that any self-directed plan under-samples. And override the difficulty setting: spend most practice at exam difficulty, not at whatever level keeps your accuracy comfortable.
Ignore the leaderboard
The daily leaderboard is motivating and irrelevant to readiness. It rewards volume and streaks, which pulls you toward easy, fast questions that lift your position without building blueprint coverage or transfer. Use it for momentum if it helps, but never let a streak substitute for a floored, blueprint-aligned plan — a leaderboard position is not an exit criterion.
Error taxonomy and the mixed-block switch
Sort each miss into the six types — knowledge gap, misread stem, premature closure, guideline error, calculation error, time-pressure error — and match the fix to the type. Move from revision-plan practice to timed random blocks when every domain floor is met, first-attempt accuracy on unseen material has held for two weeks, and pace is within 1.8 minutes per item. Then invert to mostly-mixed. Exit when coverage, stability, pacing, retention and a calibration against official MRCP sample material all hold.
A worked example
Suppose after four weeks the revision plan has driven your weak organ specialties up nicely, but your blueprint audit shows clinical sciences and pharmacology attempted lightly (because the plan rated them acceptable early) and ophthalmology and palliative care barely touched. This is the override moment: force clinical sciences and pharmacology blocks at exam difficulty, put the micro-domains on a rota, and resist the leaderboard's pull toward another easy streak. The revision plan owns depth on your weak subjects; you own breadth across the blueprint.
A seven-day pattern for busy trainees
Monday: 40 BMJ OnExamination questions in a floor-deficient domain at exam difficulty, explanations read, misses taxonomised. Tuesday: 30 questions plus transfer questions for knowledge-gap errors. Wednesday: a timed, unseen 50-question mixed block in iatroX's free MRCP Part 1 bank — your uncontaminated readiness signal and a source of transfer questions BMJ's repeats cannot provide. Thursday: light spaced review. Friday: 40 questions on the next floor-deficient domain, timed. Saturday: a BMJ editorial mock or a second iatroX mixed block; same-day review by error type. Sunday: rest. BMJ OnExamination supplies edited-content volume, floors and mocks; iatroX supplies unseen transfer and measurement; your blueprint audit is the steering wheel.
Continue, supplement, switch or stop
Continue while floors fill and unseen performance climbs. Supplement with unseen transfer blocks whenever repeat accuracy or leaderboard streaks outpace first-attempt accuracy. Switch only for a measurable gap, never for a streak. Stop drilling and commit to simulation once all exit criteria hold — usually the final fortnight.
A worked override example
Suppose after four weeks the revision plan has driven your weak organ specialties up nicely, and it keeps steering you there. Following it is correct for those subjects — but your blueprint audit shows what the plan's view hides: clinical sciences and pharmacology attempted lightly (the plan rated them acceptable early and moved on), ophthalmology and palliative care barely touched, and much of your practice sitting at "medium" difficulty rather than exam level. This is the override moment. You force clinical sciences and pharmacology blocks at exam difficulty, put the micro-domains on a rota, and resist the leaderboard's pull toward another comfortable streak. The revision plan owns depth on your weak subjects; you own breadth across the blueprint and practice at exam difficulty.
Three mistakes this workflow is designed to stop
First, optimising for the daily leaderboard, which rewards volume and streaks and pulls you toward fast, easy questions that lift your position without building blueprint coverage; set quotas from your audit and let the leaderboard fall where it may. Second, practising at a comfortable self-selected difficulty; the exam's difficulty is fixed, so most practice should sit at exam level and the only accuracy that counts is on unseen exam-difficulty blocks. Third, mistaking the revision plan's steering for coverage; it optimises for your improvement curve, not the exam's weighting, so domain floors and a blueprint audit have to guard breadth. None of these shows up as a bad dashboard number — a healthy percentage and a strong streak can coexist with thin coverage of 40 marks' worth of clinical sciences and pharmacology — which is why the workflow anchors on floors, exam-difficulty practice and unseen measurement.
Frequently asked questions
Is BMJ OnExamination enough for MRCP Part 1 on its own? Its BMJ-edited volume and mocks can carry much of the practice, but the workflow still needs unseen transfer questions and official sample material to close the loop, because a single bank cannot both drill you and independently measure you.
Which MRCP Part 1 component does BMJ OnExamination not reproduce well? The blueprint's enforced breadth and fixed difficulty under unseen timed conditions — which is why domain floors, exam-difficulty practice and a hard mixed-block switch are built into this workflow.
How many BMJ OnExamination questions should I complete per day for MRCP Part 1? 40–60 on weekdays and 80–100 on a weekend day; distribute by floor deficits and difficulty at exam level, and protect two timed mixed blocks weekly.
When should I stop using BMJ OnExamination and move to mixed mocks? When domain floors are met, first-attempt accuracy is stable for two weeks and pacing is on target — invert to mostly-mixed, typically the last two to three weeks.
How should I combine BMJ OnExamination with iatroX without duplicating practice? BMJ OnExamination for floored, exam-difficulty domain drilling and its editorial mocks; iatroX for unseen transfer questions, adaptive coverage and timed measurement — no question practised twice.
The bottom line for busy trainees
The honest one-line verdict on BMJ OnExamination for MRCP Part 1, in workflow terms: use its revision plan for depth on your weak subjects, override it for breadth across the blueprint, practise at exam difficulty, and ignore the leaderboard entirely. The plan is a good teacher and a poor guardian of coverage; the leaderboard rewards streaks, not readiness; and the difficulty selector means only exam-difficulty unseen blocks tell you the truth. Set domain floors from a blueprint audit, force clinical sciences, pharmacology and the micro-domains, and measure on an unseen source the plan never selected. The BMJ editorial mocks are the honest gauge inside the product; everything else is for learning, not measuring. Follow those rules and BMJ OnExamination's edited content is a strong core; chase the streak and the comfortable difficulty and its dashboard becomes the false comfort the audit warns about.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 19 July 2026; BMJ OnExamination figures are vendor-published — verify before purchase. Disclosure: iatroX operates a free competing MRCP Part 1 bank. Corrections via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: MRCP(UK) Part 1 format and blueprint (thefederation.uk); BMJ OnExamination product page (onexamination.com); related reading: the BMJ OnExamination MRCP analytics audit and why your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score.