This workflow is for trainees using PassMRCPsych as their primary bank for MRCPsych Paper A who want reasoning that transfers, not a set of remembered answers. It addresses the written knowledge paper only. The principal limitation to design around is the one every large bank creates: by your second pass you recognise items rather than reason through them, so your percentage climbs while true readiness stalls. The fix is structural — protect unseen questions, review by error type, and measure on items you have never met.
Current state, last checked 20 July 2026
PassMRCPsych's Paper A offering, per its product page (vendor-reported): a bank of 5,000+ peer-reviewed multiple-choice questions, revision notes and an online textbook aligned to the RCPsych 2023 syllabus, custom quizzes after each lesson, and five full-length 150-question mock exams. Pricing (vendor-reported, GBP): £79 for three months and £129 for six months. The product page does not describe a proprietary AI or adaptive-difficulty engine. Verify counts, prices and features on passmrcpsych.com before buying. One format note worth planning around: the bank is described as MCQ-led, so extended-matching-item practice — a third of the real paper — may be under-represented; check the current EMI provision yourself.
Exam anchor
MRCPsych Paper A is approximately 150 questions in three hours, roughly two-thirds single-best-answer MCQs and one-third EMIs, delivered by computer at Pearson VUE; confirm the current count on rcpsych.ac.uk. Paper A covers the scientific and theoretical basis of psychiatry: behavioural science and sociocultural psychiatry, human development, basic neurosciences, clinical psychopharmacology, and classification and assessment. The College publishes free official sample questions — these are the gold standard for style and difficulty, and you should treat any vendor's claim about "what comes up" as a claim, not a requirement. The CASC is separate; iatroX is a knowledge and unseen-MCQ layer, not a CASC simulator.
Build a blueprint inventory and protect an unseen pool
Before your first block, list the Paper A domains as rows and reserve a protected pool of PassMRCPsych questions — and a separate iatroX pool — that you will not open until you need a clean, unseen mixed block. Everything else is fair game for learning. The inventory does two jobs: it stops the bank's topic mix from silently deciding your coverage, and it guarantees you can still measure yourself in the final weeks. Update attempts per domain weekly against the blueprint-coverage matrix so that "5,000 questions available" never gets mistaken for "blueprint covered."
First pass: mixed by default, topic-filtered only where foundations are weak
Start mixed. Topic-filtered blocks cue the answer — when every stem is a pharmacology question, you reason differently than you will in a mixed paper. Reserve topic filtering for domains where your foundations are genuinely absent (commonly neuroscience and psychopharmacology mechanisms), and even then only long enough to build the base before you fold them back into mixed practice. Mixed-by-default is the single most effective way to stop the bank teaching you its own order instead of the material.
Review each miss with an error code, not a transcript
Do not transcribe the explanation. For every miss, assign one error code and one corrective action, and move on:
- K — knowledge gap: you did not know the fact. Action: one-line note plus a scheduled re-test.
- R — reasoning error: you knew the facts but drew the wrong conclusion. Action: articulate the discriminating feature you missed.
- M — misread: you misread the stem or the lead-in. Action: a pacing/technique flag, not a content note.
- D — distractor pull: a plausible wrong option beat the right one. Action: write the one reason the correct answer wins.
Copying whole explanations feels productive and mostly builds a document you never reread. Error codes turn each miss into a specific, retrievable action and expose whether your problem is knowledge, reasoning or technique.
Use transfer practice before you repeat a question
When you get an item wrong, do not immediately redo that same item — you will just learn its surface. Instead, answer a new question testing the same principle, ideally from your unseen pool or from iatroX, and only later re-test the original. If you can apply the principle to an item you have never seen, you have learned it; if you can only get the original right again, you have memorised it. This single habit is what separates using PassMRCPsych from memorising PassMRCPsych.
Switch to mixed timed blocks when domain floors are met
Do not wait for 100% completion. Once every domain has cleared a minimum attempt-and-accuracy floor, switch your primary mode to mixed, timed blocks at exam pace (about 72 seconds per item), even if large parts of the bank remain unopened. Completion is not the outcome; timed performance on a representative mix is. An unfinished bank with even coverage and a stable unseen score beats a finished bank with three neglected domains.
Exit criteria
Leave the bank behind — move to mocks and spaced review — when five things are true: coverage of every domain is complete; unseen timed accuracy is stable across two or three mixed blocks; pacing meets the per-item budget; retention holds on items re-tested after a spacing interval; and your performance on official RCPsych samples matches your in-bank level. None of these is "bank finished," and all of them are measurable.
A seven-day plan for a busy trainee
One job each: PassMRCPsych for learning and review, iatroX for unseen transfer measurement — no proprietary-algorithm claim on either side, and no question answered twice across the two.
- Monday–Wednesday: 30–40 PassMRCPsych questions daily, mixed, with error-coded review; short topic blocks only for a genuinely weak domain.
- Thursday: 50 PassMRCPsych questions, mixed and timed, no mid-block explanations; log slipped domains.
- Friday: an unseen, mixed, timed iatroX block on the same domains — the transfer test that tells you whether the week's learning survives new items.
- Saturday: review only — re-test earlier misses (spaced), plus a handful of official RCPsych samples for calibration.
- Sunday: update the blueprint matrix; set next week's quotas from the measured gaps.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue if first-attempt accuracy is rising and unseen transfer tracks your in-bank scores.
- Supplement with a teaching source if a domain stays below floor because it was never taught, or with a measurement bank if your in-bank score outruns your unseen score.
- Switch primary mode to mocks once domain floors are met and pacing needs work; switch banks only if EMI coverage or a needed domain is genuinely thin.
- Stop new volume when misses are slips, coverage is even and the unseen score has plateaued.
Every branch turns on a measured gap, not on novelty or the sunk cost of a subscription.
Three mistakes this workflow is designed to stop
Grading yourself on questions you have already seen. The commonest self-deception with a five-thousand-question bank is watching the overall percentage climb on the second and third pass and reading it as progress; it is mostly recognition. Keep a protected unseen pool so that at least one block each week measures reasoning rather than memory, and never let the same number be both what you train on and what you trust.
Transcribing the explanation instead of coding the error. Copying a full rationale feels like studying and produces a document you rarely reopen. One error code and one corrective action per miss is faster and, unlike a transcript, tells you whether your problem is knowledge, reasoning or technique — which is the only thing that lets you target next week's effort.
Chasing 100% completion while a domain sits below floor. An emptied bank with three weak domains and no extended-matching practice is worse preparation than a half-finished bank with even coverage and rehearsed EMI sets. Completion is a consumption metric; coverage and unseen accuracy are the outcomes, and they are the numbers that should decide when you stop.
Frequently asked questions
Is PassMRCPsych enough for MRCPsych Paper A on its own? As a primary bank it can carry most of your content learning, and its notes and mock exams add structure, but "on its own" leaves two gaps. It cannot measure itself, because your percentage rises through re-seeing items, and its MCQ-led design may under-rehearse the EMI third of the paper. Used as the daily driver with the free official samples for calibration and a small unseen pool for measurement, it is a strong option; used as your only tool and only metric, it is not enough.
Which MRCPsych Paper A component does PassMRCPsych not reproduce well? The most likely gap is extended-matching-item practice, since the bank is described as MCQ-led while a third of Paper A is EMIs; verify the current EMI provision on the product page and, if it is thin, get EMI-style volume elsewhere. It also cannot give you a clean pacing or transfer signal, because a bank you are learning from is not a bank you can be graded by. Its notes are a genuine strength; its self-measurement is the part to distrust.
How many PassMRCPsych questions should I complete per day for MRCPsych Paper A? Tie the number to review quality, not to a target. For a trainee revising around clinical work, 30 to 40 questions a day with full error-coded review is sustainable, rising to timed blocks of 50 in the final weeks. Doing 80 questions you skim teaches less than 30 you interrogate. When your review starts slipping, cut the volume, not the review.
When should I stop using PassMRCPsych and move to mixed mocks? Move to mixed, timed mocks once every domain has cleared its floor, first-attempt accuracy has stabilised, and topic blocks no longer change your error pattern — usually the final two to three weeks. Mocks expose pacing and stamina across the whole blueprint, which filtered blocks hide. Keep PassMRCPsych for targeted review of mock misses, but make timed rehearsal the main event.
How should I combine PassMRCPsych with iatroX without duplicating practice? Give each a single, non-overlapping job: PassMRCPsych to learn and review with explanations, iatroX for unseen, mixed, timed blocks that measure transfer, with a protected iatroX pool you never pre-read. That is the two-Q-bank rule — one bank to train on, one to be graded by. If you answer the same items in both, the second bank measures memory rather than readiness and the calibration is lost.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. PassMRCPsych's question count, prices, syllabus alignment and mock provision are vendor-reported and change without notice; verify them on passmrcpsych.com and confirm the current Paper A format on rcpsych.ac.uk. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing MRCPsych Paper A question bank, so its role in this workflow is confined to the job PassMRCPsych does not claim — unseen, timed transfer measurement, not teaching and not CASC simulation. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: Royal College of Psychiatrists — exam pages and the free Paper A sample questions (rcpsych.ac.uk); PassMRCPsych Paper A product page (passmrcpsych.com); iatroX internal references — the MRCPsych Paper A bank and why your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score.