"DRCOG Revision Courses" is a category rather than a single branded product — several providers, from question-bank-plus-course packages to short intensive teaching, sell under closely similar names. This audit is for GPs and other doctors in women's health preparing for the DRCOG single-best-answer paper who want to judge those courses on content, questions, mocks and feedback rather than on marketing. The principal limitation to watch for across the category is thin unseen-question volume dressed up as a "course," and the fix is to measure coverage on questions the course did not write.
Current-state box (verified/vendor-reported, 20 July 2026)
Because this is a category, figures vary by provider; the following are representative and were checked on 20 July 2026 — verify current counts, prices and access on each product page.
| Provider (example) | Questions / mocks | Price | Notable features |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIPADOR DRCOG Revision Course & Question Bank | 500+ SBAs; 4 practice exams (A–D) | £50 (vendor-reported) | Seven-module structure; email tutor support; no video/AI indicated |
| RCOG official DRCOG Revision Resource | 140 SBAs across all seven modules | £64.80; 6-month access (RCOG-reported) | Authored/reviewed by DRCOG subcommittee and course faculty |
| Other course providers (e.g. face-to-face/online intensives) | Varies; confirm on the provider's page | Varies | Some are teaching-led with limited question volume |
The takeaway from the box is that question volume and price are not tightly correlated, and that the college's own resource — smaller but authoritative — sits alongside larger commercial banks. Do not assume "more questions" means "better calibrated."
Exam anchor: the current RCOG format and syllabus
The DRCOG is a single computer-based written paper: 120 single-best-answer questions in three hours, each worth two marks (240 marks in total), with the pass mark set by modified Angoff standard-setting. The current format is SBA-only — the older extended-matching component and the earlier two-part structure no longer apply, and there is no separate OSCE or clinical station to prepare for (verified against the RCOG DRCOG pages, 20 July 2026; confirm current details on rcog.org.uk). The syllabus spans seven modules: fertility regulation and sexual health; subfertility; early pregnancy; pregnancy; peripartum and neonatal care; emergency gynaecology; and non-urgent gynaecology — pitched at the knowledge of a competent UK GP. That single-format, single-sitting design matters for this audit: everything a course does should ultimately serve unseen SBA performance across those seven modules.
Mapping course modules to the blueprint
Well-built courses mirror the seven RCOG modules, which makes coverage easy to check. When you audit one, lay its module list beside the syllabus and mark three things: missing domains (rare, but sometimes subfertility or sexual health are thin), lightly covered domains (often the neonatal and early-pregnancy content), and over-taught domains (obstetric emergencies attract disproportionate teaching because they are dramatic). A course that spends most of its time on labour-ward emergencies but little on contraception and menopause is misaligned with a paper pitched at everyday GP women's health, however engaging the teaching.
Passive versus active assets
Separate what you consume from what you retrieve. Lectures, notes and recorded teaching are passive; questions, mocks and marked feedback are active. Across the DRCOG course market, the split varies widely: PIPADOR's package is question-led with practice exams and email tutor support but no video, whereas some intensive courses are teaching-led with comparatively few questions. For a single SBA paper, the active assets are what move the score, so weight your money toward question volume and mocks, and treat lectures as scaffolding rather than the main event.
Question quality, not testimonials
Judge questions on fidelity, not five-star quotes. Check that stems are single-best-answer at GP knowledge level (not specialist trivia), that explanations teach the reasoning rather than just naming the answer, that images and data appear where the syllabus expects them (ultrasound, CTG traces, growth and investigation results), and that guidance-sensitive content is current and UK-specific — anchored to NICE and RCOG guidance and, for medicines, to the approved product information (SmPC/eMC), never to an undated note. A large bank of stale or specialist-level items is worth less than a smaller, current, well-explained one.
Component gap
Because DRCOG has no OSCE, the "component gap" is not a missing clinical station — it is whether a course reproduces the specific demands of the SBA paper: applying NICE and RCOG guidance to primary-care scenarios, interpreting images and data, and covering everyday women's health as a GP meets it (contraception, menstrual disorders, menopause, early pregnancy, sexual health) rather than only secondary-care obstetrics. Test any course against that: if it teaches hospital O&G but not GP-facing women's health decisions, it leaves the gap that actually loses marks.
Time-cost calculation for three schedules
Estimate the trade between consumption and retrieval for your situation. A full-time trainee with about 10 study hours a week might spend two to three hours on course teaching or notes and six to seven on questions and one timed mock. A busy GP with 5 to 6 hours a week should protect retrieval even harder: one hour of teaching, four of questions, and a fortnightly full mock. A candidate in an intensive final fortnight at 15 to 20 hours a week should front-load full-length timed mocks and spend the balance reviewing misses. In each case, a course earns its place only if its passive hours demonstrably improve your active performance — otherwise the hours are better spent on questions.
Who benefits
A first-time candidate benefits most from a course's structure and a curated question set. A retaker usually needs targeted questions on identified weak modules more than another full course. An international medical graduate gains from a course's UK-guidance framing and primary-care context. A weak-foundation learner benefits from teaching that explains reasoning, not just answers. And a candidate who struggles with self-discipline benefits from the accountability a scheduled course provides. Match the course type to the profile rather than buying the biggest package by default.
Worked example: a seven-day plan for GPs in women's health
A realistic week using a DRCOG revision course for one defined job and iatroX for adaptive transfer practice, with no proprietary-algorithm claims. Monday to Wednesday: take one under-covered module per day — say contraception and sexual health, then early pregnancy, then menopause and non-urgent gynaecology — and work the course's questions and notes on it, reviewing every miss the same evening against NICE/RCOG guidance. Thursday: sit a short timed mixed block in iatroX on unseen SBAs to check the week's learning transfers beyond the course's own items. Friday: review only Thursday's misses and any high-confidence errors. Saturday: sit a full-length 120-question timed mock under real conditions — the closest rehearsal for the single paper. Sunday: rest or light review. The course learns and rehearses a defined module; iatroX independently measures transfer on unseen questions.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue with a course whose questions and teaching are measurably closing your weak-module gaps.
- Supplement with an independent unseen bank once you have worked through the course's items, so your mocks are not rehearsing recognised questions.
- Switch if the course over-indexes on secondary-care obstetrics and under-serves GP women's health, or if question quality disappoints — decide on measured gaps, not sunk cost.
- Stop buying additional courses when your per-module accuracy on unseen, timed SBAs is at target; further courses then add cost, not marks.
The bottom line: DRCOG revision courses vary widely, and the category label hides real differences in question volume, currency and jurisdiction fit. Choose on active-asset quality and blueprint alignment to everyday GP women's health, keep the college's own resource in view as the authoritative benchmark, and measure your readiness on unseen SBAs rather than on how many lectures you have watched.
Three mistakes candidates make choosing a DRCOG course
The first is buying on question count alone. A bank of a thousand items pitched at the wrong level — specialist obstetric trivia rather than GP-level women's health — is worth less than a few hundred well-calibrated SBAs with teaching explanations, so judge the questions, not the headline number. The second is paying for passive volume you will not convert. Long recorded lecture series feel comprehensive and reassuring, but for a single SBA paper it is retrieval, not viewing hours, that moves the score; if a course is mostly video with few questions, you are buying comfort, not marks. The third is treating the course as the finish line rather than the start. Candidates often work through a course, feel "done," and sit the exam without ever measuring themselves on unseen questions the course did not write — so recognition masquerades as readiness. The correction for all three is the same discipline used throughout this audit: weight your spending toward active, current, GP-level questions; keep the college's own resource in view as the benchmark; and prove your readiness on unseen, timed SBAs across all seven modules before you decide you are ready.
Frequently asked questions
Is DRCOG Revision Courses enough for DRCOG on its own? A strong course can be your core, but "enough" is about your measured coverage, not the product. Because "DRCOG Revision Courses" spans providers of very different question volumes — from 500-plus SBAs down to teaching-led courses with few questions (figures vendor-reported, 20 July 2026) — some will need supplementing with more unseen items than others. Judge sufficiency by whether you can hit target accuracy across all seven modules on unseen, timed SBAs, not by finishing the course.
Which DRCOG component does DRCOG Revision Courses not reproduce well? DRCOG has no OSCE, so the risk is not a missing clinical station but weak coverage of GP-facing women's health and current UK guidance. Courses that lean toward secondary-care obstetrics under-reproduce the everyday primary-care decisions — contraception, menstrual disorders, menopause, sexual health — that the SBA paper actually tests. Check the module balance before buying.
How many DRCOG Revision Courses questions should I complete per day for DRCOG? For most GPs revising around clinical work, 30 to 50 unseen, timed SBAs per day with same-day review is sustainable and effective; scale it to your weeks remaining and to your per-module gaps rather than chasing a raw daily count. Once you have worked through a course's bank, shift the daily volume to unseen questions so your numbers keep measuring reasoning rather than recall.
When should I stop using DRCOG Revision Courses and move to mixed mocks? Move to full-length 120-question mixed mocks once your per-module accuracy on unseen SBAs is at target and you need to prove you can sustain it across three hours. Because DRCOG is a single paper, the mock is your key rehearsal for pace and stamina; sit it under real timing, and use independent unseen questions so it is not rehearsing items you already recognise.
How should I combine DRCOG Revision Courses with iatroX without duplicating practice? Give each a distinct role. Use the course to learn and rehearse a defined module — its questions, notes and any tutor feedback — and use iatroX to measure transfer on unseen SBAs it did not write, plus spaced re-tests of your misses. Since you never re-answer the same items across both, there is no duplication: the course builds knowledge, iatroX independently checks it holds under unseen, timed conditions.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Course figures and prices are vendor-reported from the respective provider pages as at that date and vary across the category — verify current counts, prices and access on each provider's page, and confirm the exam format on rcog.org.uk, before deciding. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing DRCOG question bank; here it is confined to the unseen-measurement role a single course cannot fill for itself, and it is not positioned as a replacement for structured teaching. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: RCOG DRCOG exam, syllabus and resources (rcog.org.uk); RCOG official DRCOG Revision Resource (elearning.rcog.org.uk); PIPADOR DRCOG Revision Course (pipador.co.uk); iatroX, "Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score" (https://www.iatrox.com/blog/qbank-percentage-not-your-exam-score); iatroX DRCOG guide (https://www.iatrox.com/blog/drcog-exam-2026-complete-guide-revision-resources-iatrox-adaptive-qbank).