This audit is for paediatric trainees evaluating PassPaeds before they rely on it for MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice — the second written stage, sat as two same-day single-best-answer papers. The honest finding comes first: as of 19 July 2026, PassPaeds does not have a live AKP bank. Its AKP product is listed as in progress; the platform's live banks are Foundation of Practice and Theory and Science. So this article audits what PassPaeds' style transfers from its live banks, judges what AKP specifically demands, and tells you how to prepare for AKP right now while its bank is unfinished.
What PassPaeds offers for MRCPCH AKP right now
Lead with the finding. On 19 July 2026 the PassPaeds site lists MRCPCH: Applied Knowledge in Practice as "currently in progress" rather than a live, purchasable bank; verify its launch status on passpaeds.com before planning around it. What is live is FOP (a vendor-reported figure in the range of roughly 1,200 to 1,500+ questions, with the site's own pages differing — treat as vendor-reported and verify) and TAS (a vendor-reported 2,600+ questions), for a combined site total the vendor reports at over 3,900 MRCPCH questions.
PassPaeds is a paediatric-specific platform priced accessibly — a vendor-reported £20 for four months and £30 for six months (19 July 2026) — with revision and timed practice modes, revision notes under each question, a daily comparative performance histogram against other candidates, question flagging and personal notes, and a spaced-repetition "Knowledge Tutor". Those features are real and useful; the gap is simply that, for AKP specifically, there is not yet a bank to apply them to. The rest of this audit treats the live FOP and TAS banks as the best available proxy for what a PassPaeds AKP bank is likely to look like, while being explicit that a proxy is not the thing itself.
MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice: the official shape
AKP is the second written stage, sat after FOP and TAS and before the MRCPCH Clinical examination. It is 120 single-best-answer questions delivered as two same-day exams of sixty questions each, two hours and thirty minutes per exam, one mark per item, no negative marking, computer-based at an exam centre or online — roughly two and a half minutes per question. That extra time per item is deliberate: AKP rewards applied clinical synthesis. Expect data and image interpretation, growth charts, investigation and results reasoning, prescribing decisions and age-specific management, rather than the faster recognition of common presentations that FOP tests. The RCPCH publishes the AKP syllabus and official sample questions; those define the blueprint and the house style, and they outrank any vendor's tags.
Record the live count by blueprint domain — the method, and why you cannot yet apply it to AKP
The right way to audit any bank is to record the live question count and break it down by official blueprint domain rather than trusting the headline total. For a PassPaeds AKP audit that step is currently blocked: there is no live AKP count to stratify. Below is the template to apply the moment the bank launches, and it is exactly how you should audit the live FOP and TAS banks in the meantime.
| Blueprint domain (illustrative) | Items attempted | First-attempt accuracy | Weekly floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neonatology | — | — | set your own |
| Cardiology & respiratory | — | — | set your own |
| Neurology & neurodisability | — | — | set your own |
| Endocrinology & metabolic | — | — | set your own |
| Infectious disease & immunology | — | — | set your own |
| Safeguarding & community | — | — | set your own |
| Data, images & prescribing | — | — | set your own |
The RCPCH does not publish fixed per-domain question counts in the way some royal-college exams do, so build your own coverage matrix from the syllabus rather than assuming a headline total implies even coverage — the reasoning is in our guide on why completion is not coverage.
Sample question style: what PassPaeds' live banks tell us
Judged on its live FOP and TAS banks as a proxy, PassPaeds writes UK-focused, RCPCH-syllabus-matched single-best-answer items with revision notes attached to each question. The features that matter for style are the presence of application-oriented stems, plausible distractors, and image or data interpretation. Sample any bank you buy against five style axes: recall versus application (AKP needs the latter), stem length and clinical realism, option plausibility (weak distractors make items too easy), the presence of genuine image and data interpretation, and management-sequencing questions that ask for the next best step rather than a single fact. On these axes, a foundation-oriented FOP bank will over-index on recognition, which is appropriate for FOP but is precisely where an AKP bank must do more.
Jurisdiction and recency: check a stratified sample against current guidance
Take a stratified sample of items and check them against current UK guidance, then record the review date. For paediatrics that means NICE and CKS for management, the Summary of Product Characteristics via the electronic medicines compendium (eMC) for any prescribing or dosing item, and the relevant national guidance for areas such as safeguarding and immunisation. PassPaeds advertises evidence-based notes, which is encouraging, but "evidence-based" is a claim to verify, not to assume — spot-check a dozen items, confirm the guidance is current and UK-specific, and note any that lag. Doing this yourself is quick and tells you more than any marketing line.
Format gap: can a standard Q-bank prepare you for AKP?
State it plainly: a single-best-answer bank, however good, cannot fully prepare you for everything AKP tests. It can build and measure the applied knowledge — the diagnoses, the thresholds, the drug choices — but the exam's complex clinical synthesis, its image and data interpretation under a two-and-a-half-minute clock, and its age-specific management judgements are only partly reproduced by isolated items. A bank is a necessary component, not a sufficient one, and that is true even once the PassPaeds AKP bank is live. The official RCPCH sample material and full-length timed mocks close the part a topic-filtered bank cannot.
Duplication and contamination: when completion becomes recognition
Every bank carries a contamination risk: repeated concepts, near-duplicate stems and the slow conversion of genuine problem-solving into pattern recognition as you work through it a second time. The daily comparative histogram PassPaeds shows is motivating, but it measures your standing on seen items, not your transfer to unseen ones. Guard against this by keeping a genuinely unseen pool you never study casually, and by treating any rising percentage on re-worked items with suspicion — your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score, and it drifts further from it every time you re-see an item.
Best-fit matrix: where PassPaeds sits for AKP
| Use case | Fit for AKP today | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation building | Not yet | AKP bank in progress; use the live FOP/TAS banks for earlier stages |
| First-pass AKP bank | Not yet | No live AKP items to make a first pass through |
| Second AKP bank | Not yet | Cannot be a second bank until it is a first one |
| Retake support | Not yet | Revisit once launched and audited against the blueprint |
| Final AKP simulation | No | Use official RCPCH sample material and full timed mocks |
The matrix is honest rather than harsh: PassPaeds is a credible, affordable paediatric platform whose FOP and TAS banks are worth including earlier in the pathway, but for AKP specifically it is not yet a resource you can rely on. Re-run this audit when the AKP bank launches.
A seven-day plan: a live AKP bank for one job, iatroX for transfer
Because PassPaeds cannot yet be your AKP bank, build the loop around a live AKP bank (BMJ OnExamination publishes one, and other paediatric vendors do too — verify current counts) for structured practice, and give iatroX the separate job of unseen, timed transfer measurement. No proprietary-algorithm claims are needed.
- Day 1 — baseline. Sit a mixed, timed, unseen block of forty to fifty items in the iatroX UK bank with no assistance; record first-attempt performance by domain.
- Days 2–4 — targeted practice. Work your weakest domains to their floors in a live AKP bank, tagging every miss and writing a one-line corrected rule.
- Day 5 — calibration. Attempt the official RCPCH AKP sample questions under time and compare your reasoning with the model answers.
- Day 6 — fresh transfer. Sit a new timed iatroX block on different topics and track your first-attempt trend, not your cumulative percentage.
- Day 7 — review and plan. Space this week's misses, retest last week's, and set next week's floors.
Continue, supplement, switch or stop
Decide on measurable gaps, not novelty or sunk cost. Continue using PassPaeds' live FOP/TAS banks if you are earlier in the pathway and they are moving your domains toward their floors. Supplement any AKP bank with unseen iatroX measurement, applying the two-Q-bank rule so you never repeat an item. Switch to a live AKP bank now, because PassPaeds cannot yet fill that role. Stop waiting for the PassPaeds AKP launch to begin AKP revision — start with a live bank and re-audit PassPaeds when its AKP product ships. Compare options on the iatroX comparison hub.
FAQ
Is PassPaeds enough for MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice on its own? No, and at present it cannot be part of your AKP preparation at all, because as of 19 July 2026 its AKP bank is listed as in progress rather than live. Even once it launches, no single bank is sufficient for AKP on its own, because the paper's image and data interpretation and complex synthesis need the official RCPCH sample material and full timed mocks alongside a bank. Verify the launch status on passpaeds.com.
Which MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice component does PassPaeds not reproduce well? Today it does not reproduce any AKP component, because the AKP bank is not yet live. Judged by its FOP and TAS style as a proxy, the areas a standard single-best-answer bank reproduces least well are AKP's image and data interpretation under time and its age-specific management sequencing — the applied synthesis that distinguishes AKP from the first-stage papers. Those are the parts to test against official material and timed mocks.
How many PassPaeds questions should I complete per day for MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice? None yet for AKP, because there are no live AKP items to attempt; the useful version is how many AKP-format items to do per day in a live bank, and a sustainable target around clinical work is roughly twenty to forty in timed blocks with same-day review. If you are using PassPaeds' live FOP or TAS banks for an earlier stage, the same twenty-to-forty guidance applies, paced by that exam's date.
When should I stop using PassPaeds and move to mixed mocks? For AKP there is nothing to move on from yet; for the live FOP and TAS banks, move to mixed timed mocks once every domain is above its coverage floor and your first-attempt accuracy has stabilised across at least two sittings. Full-length mocks and the official RCPCH sample material then give you the pacing and synthesis data a topic-filtered bank cannot, which matters most for AKP's longer, two-and-a-half-minute items.
How should I combine PassPaeds with iatroX without duplicating practice? For AKP, combine iatroX with a live AKP bank rather than PassPaeds, giving iatroX the job of unseen, timed measurement under the two-Q-bank rule. If you are using PassPaeds' live FOP/TAS banks, the same rule holds: learn in PassPaeds, measure on unseen items in iatroX, and never run the same question through both, because duplication turns measurement into recognition and inflates your apparent readiness.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 19 July 2026; product figures described as vendor-reported were taken from public product listings on that date and change without notice — verify the current count, price and launch status on the vendor's own page. Coverage finding: as of the last-checked date, PassPaeds lists its MRCPCH AKP bank as in progress rather than live; its FOP and TAS banks are live. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing UK question bank, so this article confines the iatroX role to unseen transfer measurement. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: RCPCH examinations (rcpch.ac.uk/education-careers/examinations) and the official AKP sample questions; the PassPaeds product pages (passpaeds.com); the iatroX comparison hub and the iatroX UK bank.
Run a fresh timed MRCPCH Applied Knowledge in Practice block in iatroX →