This workflow is for candidates preparing for the Diploma in Geriatric Medicine (DGM) Part 1 Knowledge-Based Assessment who want to use the Munro DGM Question Bank as a low-cost, dedicated MCQ resource. It addresses the KBA only — the written best-of-five paper — and not the Part 2 Clinical OSCE. The principal limitation to plan around: Munro is a small, non-adaptive resource whose public offering is free sample questions plus paid mock papers, so you will need a second source for unseen volume, transfer practice and analytics.
What the Munro DGM Question Bank offers right now
Current state, vendor-reported and last checked 21 July 2026: the bank is operated by Munro Medics at dgmquestionbank.com (migrating to munromedics.com/exams/dgm-question-bank). The publicly visible offering is a set of free sample questions — 50 free questions via a linked form — plus a 100-question mock exam for £10, with a second mock referenced. There are no published AI or adaptive features, no stated access period, and the material is best-of-five MCQ aimed at the KBA. A total bank size is not published; verify the current count, access terms and price on the product page before relying on any figure here.
One honesty point belongs at the top. The DGM is awarded by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), developed in collaboration with the British Geriatrics Society (BGS); the RCP administers the exam, sets the paper and publishes the official material. The BGS does not run the exam or sell a question bank. Munro's own copy describes the diploma as "the British Geriatric Society's" diploma — a common slip worth correcting, because the body you calibrate against, and whose blueprint and sample questions you should treat as authoritative, is the RCP.
Exam anchor: the DGM Part 1 KBA
The KBA is an online written paper of 100 best-of-five questions over three hours in total, held once a year, with no negative marking (RCP; BGS-published format note; last checked 21 July 2026). The 2026 sitting carried a £336 examination fee. The published RCP syllabus (February 2025) maps the 100 questions as follows:
| Domain | Questions (of 100) |
|---|---|
| Epidemiological, demographic and social factors | 5 |
| Clinical aspects of old age (total) | 85 |
| — Basic science and biology of ageing | 2 |
| — Common geriatric problems / syndromes | 40 |
| — Other illnesses affecting older people | 15 |
| — Pharmacology and therapeutics | 15 |
| — Principles of rehabilitation | 8 |
| — Transfers of care and community care | 5 |
| Administrative aspects, ethics and law | 10 |
Part 2 is a separate Clinical examination — four live stations, roughly 90 minutes, in person at the RCP assessment centre at The Spine in Liverpool — with a four-year window from KBA success to complete it (RCP, 21 July 2026). Munro, iatroX and any MCQ bank address the KBA only. Nothing in this workflow prepares you for the OSCE.
Build a blueprint inventory and protect an unseen pool
Before your first pass, copy the blueprint above into a tracking sheet with a row per domain. As you work through Munro's items, tally which domain each belongs to. Because the biggest single block is common geriatric syndromes (40 of 100), that is where your practice volume should concentrate — a bank that over-samples "other illnesses" at the expense of syndromes is miscalibrated for this exam. Set aside a protected pool of questions you have not seen — ideally from a second source — and do not touch it until you run timed mixed assessments. Practising on items you have already reviewed measures recall, not readiness.
First pass: topic-filtered only where foundations are weak
Do not start with topic-filtered blocks across the board — it cues you to the answer domain and flatters your accuracy. Use topic filtering only where a domain is genuinely weak and you need to build baseline knowledge (for many candidates that is pharmacology and therapeutics, or capacity and law). Everywhere else, start mixed, so each item forces a genuine differential. Given Munro's modest size, treat the free samples and the first mock as a diagnostic first pass rather than your main volume.
Review each miss with an error code and one corrective action
For every wrong or lucky answer, log an error code — knowledge gap, misread stem, wrong differential, guideline out of date, or timing — and write exactly one corrective action. Do not transcribe the whole explanation into your notes; that produces a passive re-reading pile you will never revisit. One item, one code, one action. This keeps the log short enough to actually work through and turns each miss into a testable next step.
Use transfer practice: a new item on the same principle
The strongest signal that you have learned a concept, rather than memorised a question, is getting a different item on the same principle right. After a miss on, say, delirium precipitants, answer a new unseen item testing the same idea before you ever re-attempt the original. Munro's limited pool makes this hard to do inside one product, which is exactly where a second source earns its place — the point of transfer practice is that the stem is new even though the principle is not.
Switch to mixed timed blocks when domain floors are met
The moment every domain clears a minimum floor of first-attempt accuracy, stop topic drilling and move to full-length timed mixed blocks — even if you have not "finished" every available question. Coverage of the blueprint at an adequate standard beats completion of the product. The KBA is a three-hour mixed paper; your practice should look like the exam well before exam week.
Exit criteria (not 100% completion)
You are ready to stop drilling when five things hold: every blueprint domain is covered at an adequate unseen accuracy; your unseen timed performance is stable across two or more mixed blocks; your pacing fits the three-hour, 100-item budget with margin; previously missed items stay corrected after a spacing interval; and your judgement is calibrated against the RCP's own sample questions. Note what is absent from that list — "completed the Munro bank" and "hit a particular percentage" are neither necessary nor sufficient.
Worked example: a seven-day plan for a doctor caring for older adults
A GP or non-geriatrician using Munro for one defined job — dedicated DGM MCQ drilling — and iatroX for adaptive transfer practice and unseen measurement.
- Day 1: RCP sample questions + a 40-item unseen baseline in iatroX; record weak domains on the blueprint sheet.
- Day 2: Munro free set as a topic-filtered first pass on your two weakest domains; error-code every miss.
- Day 3: iatroX transfer practice — new items on the same principles you missed on Day 2; no re-attempting seen items.
- Day 4: Munro 100-question mock under timed conditions; review high-confidence errors first.
- Day 5: Mixed timed block in iatroX for pacing; log slow items separately from wrong items.
- Day 6: Consolidation — revisit Day 2–5 misses; confirm each corrective action holds on a fresh item.
- Day 7: Second timed mixed block as a readiness check; update exit-criteria checklist.
This uses Munro for what it is good at (cheap, dedicated DGM items) and iatroX for unseen breadth and spaced transfer practice. It makes no claim about any proprietary algorithm — the mechanism is simply new items, timed, spaced and logged.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue with Munro if you still have unseen items and your error log is producing new, actionable codes.
- Supplement (the usual outcome) if you have exhausted Munro's small pool but still have floored domains — add unseen volume from iatroX or the RCP material rather than re-running seen mocks.
- Switch primary tool if Munro's coverage does not match the blueprint weighting (for example, thin on syndromes or pharmacology) — measurable mismatch, not preference.
- Stop new questions when the exit criteria above are met; consolidate and rest instead of drilling for reassurance.
FAQ
Is the Munro DGM Question Bank enough for DGM on its own? For most candidates, no — not because it is poor, but because it is small and non-adaptive, and its public offering is free samples plus £10 mock papers rather than a large blueprint-mapped bank (vendor-reported, 21 July 2026). It is a reasonable, low-cost source of dedicated DGM items, but you will run out of unseen volume before you have measured yourself across the full blueprint, so pair it with the RCP official material and a second source for unseen timed assessment. And it addresses only the KBA; it does nothing for the Part 2 Clinical.
Which DGM component does the Munro bank not reproduce well? The Part 2 Clinical OSCE — four live stations at the RCP in Liverpool — is entirely outside its scope, as it is outside the scope of any MCQ bank. Munro is a written-paper (KBA) resource. If your gap is the Clinical, no amount of Munro practice will close it; you need coached station practice, real geriatric clinical contact and feedback against the RCP rubric.
How many Munro DGM questions should I complete per day for DGM? There is no fixed number, and Munro's modest size makes a daily quota beside the point; what matters is that every item is reviewed with an error code and one corrective action, and that you leave a protected pool of unseen items for timed assessment. A realistic rhythm is 20–40 reviewed items on drilling days and one timed mock when you move to mixed practice — quality of review, not raw count, drives progress on a small bank.
When should I stop using Munro and move to mixed mocks? Move to mixed timed mocks as soon as every blueprint domain clears your minimum accuracy floor, even if unseen Munro items remain. The KBA is a mixed three-hour paper; rehearsing under those conditions is more valuable than finishing every topic block. Use Munro's 100-question mock as one such rehearsal, and add unseen mixed blocks from a second source so you are not re-testing on items you have already seen.
How should I combine Munro with iatroX without duplicating practice? Give each a single, distinct job. Use Munro for a dedicated DGM MCQ first pass and its mock papers; use iatroX for unseen transfer practice, spaced review of your misses and timed mixed measurement. The rule is that a second resource exists to measure you on genuinely new items, never to re-read the same content twice (the two-Q-bank rule). If you find yourself answering near-identical items in both, you are duplicating, and your combined score will read higher than your true readiness (your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score).
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 21 July 2026. Munro DGM Question Bank figures (free sample count, £10 mock price, absence of published adaptive features and total count) are vendor-reported as of 21 July 2026 and may change — verify on dgmquestionbank.com / munromedics.com before relying on them. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing UK question bank that includes DGM-level content; this article confines the iatroX role to unseen-MCQ measurement and adaptive transfer practice, jobs the Munro product does not claim, and states plainly that neither tool prepares you for the Part 2 Clinical OSCE. Corrections via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: RCP Diploma in Geriatric Medicine pages and February 2025 syllabus (rcp.ac.uk); BGS DGM information page (bgs.org.uk); Munro DGM Question Bank (dgmquestionbank.com); and, internally, the iatroX DGM bank, the DGM content-gap checklist and Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score.