This workflow is for GP trainees who own the FourteenFish AKT package and want it to produce marks rather than screen time. FourteenFish is a video-led course with clinical updates and a single mock; that makes it a good teaching layer for the AKT's 80% clinical and 10%/10% evidence and organisational domains, but a weak retrieval engine on its own. The principal limitation is passivity: watching a module feels productive and changes very little unless you convert it into active recall and unseen testing.
What FourteenFish offers for the AKT right now
Vendor-reported, last checked 19 July 2026 — confirm on fourteenfish.com:
- Format: an online video course covering AKT preparation and exam technique, plus over 80 clinical-update video modules via the FourteenFish Library.
- Mock: one mock AKT exam with randomised questions across all areas, returning a weak-and-strong-area report.
- Analytics: the mock's performance report; no adaptive engine or AI described.
- Price and access: vendor-reported at around £95 including VAT for 12 months, then around £50/year to renew.
- What it is not: it is not a large daily-quota question bank and has no spaced-repetition scheduler, so the retrieval load is on you to build.
Most trainees already hold a FourteenFish account for the ePortfolio, which makes the AKT course low-friction to add — but that convenience is also the trap, because an account you already have can lull you into passive watching.
The exam anchor
The AKT is 160 single-best-answer questions in two hours forty minutes, four sittings a year at Pearson VUE, weighted roughly 80% clinical, 10% evidence-based practice (statistics and critical appraisal) and 10% organisational (RCGP, 19 July 2026), at about one minute per item. The exam rewards higher-order application, not recognition of a lecture you watched. That single fact is why a video course must be converted into retrieval to be worth its hours.
Step 1 — Diagnose before you watch
Before each module, answer a short diagnostic set of five to ten questions on that topic. Two things happen: you expose what you already know (so you can skip or skim), and you create a reason to watch the parts you got wrong. Watching to answer a question you have just failed is retrieval-primed; watching cold is entertainment.
Step 2 — Watch in bounded segments, then close the resource
Watch or read in short, bounded chunks — one subtopic, not one marathon module. Then close the video and, from memory, produce a concise recall: the key decision rule, the threshold, the first-line management. Only after you have written it down do you re-open the notes to check. The act of retrieving before checking is where the encoding happens; skipping it wastes the module.
Step 3 — Convert each learning objective into three questions
For every objective a module teaches, generate three prompts of your own:
- One discrimination question — how do I tell this from its nearest mimic?
- One management rule — what is the first-line UK action, and the threshold that triggers it?
- One "why not the alternative?" — why is the obvious wrong answer wrong?
This converts passive exposure into a small, reusable test you can revisit. It also mirrors how the AKT actually asks — application and discrimination, not definition.
Step 4 — Test with fresh questions at 24–48 hours, then again after a gap
Within a day or two of a module, test the material with fresh questions — not a replay of the module's own examples. Then test it again after a longer interval. Replaying the lecture as "revision" produces recognition, which flatters you; unseen questions produce recall, which is what the exam measures. This is where a separate bank earns its place.
Step 5 — Build a weekly mixed block
Once a week, assemble a mixed block that ignores the course's module order. If you only ever test biochemistry right after the biochemistry module, the module order becomes a cue that props up your answer. Interleaving removes that crutch and rehearses the exam's random topic order. Mix domains too, so the 10% statistics and 10% organisational items are not quarantined.
Step 6 — Protect the mock as an assessment asset
FourteenFish includes one mock. Do not fritter it away in the first week or pick it apart question by question as a study aid. Sit it once, cold and timed, when your coverage is broad — its weak-area report is far more informative then. Because a single mock is a small sample, treat its percentage cautiously; one paper is a snapshot, not a verdict, and your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score.
Step 7 — Exit on performance, not completion
Leave the course when your objective, exam-format performance improves — stable first-attempt accuracy on unseen questions across all three domains — not when you reach 100% module completion. Completion percentage measures consumption; it is not the outcome. A trainee who has watched every module but cannot retrieve under time is not ready; a trainee who has watched half but tests well on unseen items may be.
Three mistakes that keep a video course passive
The AKT package can be turned into an active-recall system, but three habits quietly defeat the conversion:
- Watching to completion instead of watching to answer. A progress bar at 100% measures consumption, not learning. Always enter a module with a failed diagnostic question you are trying to resolve, so watching is retrieval-primed rather than a passive stream.
- Reviewing by re-watching. Re-playing a module feels like revision but only rebuilds recognition — you recognise the slide, not the rule. Replace every planned re-watch with a fresh, unseen question set on the same objective; if you can answer those cold, you did not need the re-watch, and if you cannot, the questions show you exactly what to restudy.
- Testing on the module's own examples. The examples a lecture uses are contaminated by context — you remember the answer because you remember the slide, not because you have learned the concept. Durable recall only shows up on questions the course has never shown you, which is why the 24–48-hour and delayed retests must come from a separate source.
Underneath all three is a single confusion: mistaking input for outcome. Hours watched, modules completed and notes highlighted are inputs; unseen first-attempt accuracy under time is the outcome. A trainee who watches half the library but tests well on unseen items is in a stronger position than one who has watched every module and never left the video player. Judge the week by the outcome, and let the course serve it.
A worked seven-day plan for a busy trainee
Four clinical days, short evenings, one weekend session. Give FourteenFish one job: teaching the topics you have just failed a diagnostic on.
- Monday: 10-question diagnostic on this week's target topic; watch only the modules covering your errors.
- Tuesday: closed-book recall of Monday's material; convert objectives into your three-question sets.
- Wednesday: a fresh, unseen iatroX block on the same topic — the 24–48-hour test — measured on items you have never seen.
- Thursday: a mixed, interleaved block across all domains at exam pace.
- Friday: rest, or review the week's three-question sets.
- Saturday: the delayed retest of last week's topic, to check durability.
- Sunday: plan next week from the topics that failed the delayed retest.
No proprietary-algorithm claim is involved: FourteenFish teaches, and a separate unseen bank measures. That division is the two-Q-bank rule, and it keeps your readiness score honest because you never test on the material you just watched.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue if converting modules into recall is lifting your unseen first-attempt scores.
- Supplement with a proper question bank for volume — one mock cannot carry a whole revision cycle.
- Switch to a bank-led plan if you have absorbed the teaching but need far more question exposure than the course provides.
- Stop re-watching modules once you can retrieve their content cold; re-watching is recognition, not revision.
Frequently asked questions
Is FourteenFish enough for MRCGP AKT on its own? For most candidates, no — the AKT package is a teaching course with a single mock, not the high-volume question practice the exam demands. It can be an excellent teaching layer, especially for exam technique and clinical updates, but passing the AKT requires far more unseen question exposure than one mock provides. Pair it with a dedicated bank and it becomes a strong part of the stack; rely on it alone and you will under-practise retrieval.
Which MRCGP AKT component does FourteenFish not reproduce well? The sustained, high-volume, timed question practice that builds recognition speed and stamina for 160 items at a minute each. Video teaches concepts efficiently, but it cannot rehearse the retrieval-under-time skill the exam actually tests, and one mock is too small a sample to close that gap. The evidence and organisational slices, in particular, need more items than the course supplies.
How many FourteenFish questions should I complete per day for MRCGP AKT? The package is not built around a daily question quota — it centres on video modules and a single mock — so the more meaningful daily target is a retrieval one: convert one module into a written recall and a three-question set, and sit at least 20–30 unseen questions on that topic within 48 hours. If you want a genuine daily question count, run it on a dedicated bank; use FourteenFish for the teaching, not the volume.
When should I stop using FourteenFish and move to mixed mocks? Move to predominantly mixed, full-length, timed mocks in the final three to four weeks, once your coverage is broad and your unseen first-attempt scores are stable. Save the FourteenFish mock for a cold, timed run during that window rather than spending it early. If you are still meeting untouched topics, keep building coverage before switching to mock-only revision.
How should I combine FourteenFish with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign non-overlapping jobs: FourteenFish teaches a topic through video and clinical updates, and a free UK-core iatroX block tests it on unseen questions 24–48 hours later. There is little duplication risk because one is a course and the other is a bank; the discipline is to never treat re-watching a module as if it were question practice, and to keep your measurement on items you have not seen.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 19 July 2026; FourteenFish figures and prices are vendor-reported and change, so verify on the product page. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing MRCGP AKT question bank; this article confines iatroX to the unseen-measurement and retrieval-volume jobs that FourteenFish's video course does not claim to provide, and does not present it as a replacement for the course's teaching. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: RCGP, Applied Knowledge Test, rcgp.org.uk/mrcgp-exams/applied-knowledge-test; FourteenFish AKT package, fourteenfish.com/about/akt; iatroX, "The Two-Q-Bank Rule"; iatroX, "Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score"; iatroX comparison hub.