The Prescribing Safety Assessment is the exam that stands between most UK final-year students and full registration, and it is unusual in being heavily weighted toward applied prescribing rather than recall. Good practice resources exist, but most charge. iatroX's PSA bank is free — more than 1,000 questions, with no subscription — built around an adaptive engine and a Socratic tutor and mapped to the exam blueprint. This guide explains what the free bank covers, how it sits alongside the official and commercial options, and how to prepare efficiently. Figures are as of mid-2026 — confirm current details with the awarding body and each provider.
The exam, briefly
The PSA is delivered by the British Pharmacological Society with MSC Assessment. It is a two-hour assessment of 60 items spread across eight standardised sections: prescribing, prescription review, planning management, providing information, calculation skills, adverse drug reactions, drug monitoring and data interpretation. The prescribing section carries the most weight — around 27% of the marks — because those items are worth more, with calculation skills, adverse drug reactions and prescription review among the next most heavily weighted. Final-year medical students typically sit it during their final year, with resit sittings for foundation doctors, and a pass is required for full GMC registration. Candidates are given access to an online formulary within the exam, so the skill tested is safe application under time pressure rather than memorising doses.
What iatroX's free PSA bank gives you
iatroX's PSA bank is free to use in full — more than 1,000 questions, not a trial or a locked sample. It is built around five things: a Socratic tutor that works back through the reasoning behind a wrong answer rather than handing over the model response; questions mapped to the eight PSA sections, so your dashboard mirrors the exam's structure; spaced repetition that returns missed items at widening intervals; an adaptive engine that surfaces your weakest sections first — the calculation and law-heavy areas especially; and native iOS and Android apps. Timed, full-length simulations let you rehearse under realistic conditions. PSA is one of iatroX's free core banks, alongside MRCP Part 1, MRCEM and PARA, so there is nothing to pay; the platform's other banks sit on a £29-a-month or £99-a-year subscription, with free samples for every exam.
The clinical content is grounded in UK prescribing guidance — NICE and CKS, the electronic medicines compendium for product information, and MHRA safety advice including the Yellow Card scheme — so the management thresholds match current UK practice rather than drifting from it. That grounding matters most in the sections candidates find hardest. Adverse drug reactions and drug monitoring reward knowing which medicines need which checks and when, and the calculation items punish small slips under time pressure, so both repay deliberate, repeated practice rather than passive reading. Because the formulary is provided in the exam, the marks are not for recall of doses but for navigating that reference quickly and applying it safely — a skill that improves only with timed practice. The adaptive engine suits this well, because it keeps returning you to the section where your error rate is highest, often calculations or prescription review, instead of letting a comfortable section absorb time it does not need.
How the other options compare
There are good resources beyond iatroX. The official British Pharmacological Society learner portal offers free PSA Prep eLearning — nine sessions written and reviewed by UK experts that walk through each question style and common challenges such as time pressure and calculations — alongside paid prescribing practice papers, around 120 questions across three timed papers using a replica exam interface, with detailed feedback and unlimited attempts. Students registered by their school for the final-year PSA also gain access to official interactive practice papers. Among commercial banks, Geeky Medics offers over 600 human-written PSA questions with detailed explanations, three mock exams and extra resources such as topic summaries and webinar recordings, by subscription.
The honest summary: the official practice papers are the closest thing to the real interface and are worth doing, and Geeky Medics is a solid, well-explained bank. What iatroX adds is scale and adaptivity at no cost — a large bank that targets your weak sections dynamically — which complements rather than replaces the official papers.
A sensible, low-cost plan
The efficient approach for most candidates is to make the free adaptive bank your daily engine, working sections in proportion to their weighting — heavy on prescribing, calculations and prescription review — and debriefing each miss through the Socratic tutor. Layer in the official free PSA Prep eLearning to learn each question style, and sit the official practice papers, and any your school provides, close to the exam to rehearse the exact interface under time. That combination covers format familiarity, weak-area targeting and realistic rehearsal while keeping the spend low or zero. Because the prescribing and calculation items carry the most marks, weight your practice there rather than spreading effort evenly across the eight sections. A practical rhythm is short daily blocks weighted toward the heavy sections, one timed full-length simulation a week as the date nears, and a habit of writing one line on why your answer was safe — not merely correct — for each prescribing item, since the exam is ultimately testing safe prescribing rather than pattern recall.
A few common questions
Is iatroX's PSA bank really free? Yes — the PSA bank, with more than 1,000 questions, is one of iatroX's free core banks, with no subscription required.
Are there free official resources too? Yes — the British Pharmacological Society offers free PSA Prep eLearning, and schools provide official interactive practice papers to registered final-year candidates.
What should I prioritise? The prescribing, calculation and prescription-review sections carry the most marks, so weight your practice toward them.
Can I use iatroX alongside the official papers? Yes — use the free adaptive bank for daily drilling and the official practice papers for exact-interface rehearsal near the exam.