A College Learning Series plan should start with the curriculum and finish with something you can explain or answer. A completed lecture is useful evidence of attendance to the material, but it does not tell you which parts you understood. Put the intended learning output beside each selected session before pressing play.
The RACP's online learning platform, checked on 19 September 2026, describes the College Learning Series as curriculum-mapped learning for Basic Trainees. It also signposts Divisional Examination Readiness resources. Access to the detailed series requires the appropriate account, so a public description should not be mistaken for a hands-on review of every lecture.
This article is published by iatroX and includes its RACP written-question pathways as possible supplementary practice. The purpose is to organise the learning you already have, not to persuade every trainee to replace College teaching.
Choose Adult Medicine or Paediatrics before choosing a playlist
The two pathways share a broad educational setting but not an interchangeable revision syllabus. Write the discipline and examination component on your plan. Then check the applicable curriculum and official preparation information.
Do not select a lecture solely because its title contains a familiar disease. Ask whether it teaches the mechanism, interpretation or decision that you need at your current stage. A paediatric learner may need to understand the effect of developmental context; an adult-medicine learner may need a different set of comorbidities or practical assumptions.
Keep clinical-examination preparation in a separate column. Written learning can support a case discussion, but it does not demonstrate physical examination or the performance of a long or short case. This distinction becomes important when a single resource catalogue contains material for several stages.
Build a curriculum-to-output sheet
A useful planning row contains a curriculum objective, a selected teaching session, an output and a follow-up task. Avoid rows that contain only a title and a tick box.
| Planning field | Example of useful wording |
|---|---|
| Objective | Explain a mechanism behind an investigation pattern |
| Existing difficulty | I can recognise the pattern but cannot justify it |
| Teaching selection | The session addressing that mechanism |
| Closed-note output | A short causal explanation and its assumptions |
| Application | An unfamiliar written question |
| Review decision | Move on, revisit one section or seek clarification |
These are proposed worksheet fields, not a description of an automated RACP dashboard. The sheet can remain short because its purpose is to direct the next action, not duplicate the curriculum.
A fictional trainee's week
A trainee, Amira, has a list of lectures to watch and a set of questions she repeatedly postpones until she feels ready. She finishes several recordings but cannot explain which knowledge gaps have changed.
For the next topic she reverses the order. She first attempts a suitable question and writes the point at which her explanation becomes uncertain. She then selects the relevant section of teaching rather than replaying a whole course. Afterward, she writes a short answer without the recording and attempts a new question.
The second question is still incorrect. However, the mechanism is now clear; the remaining problem is that she answered the diagnosis when the task asked for the next investigation. Rewatching the physiology lecture would not address that error. She records a task-interpretation exercise instead.
This is a fictional illustration of planning, not a measured improvement attributable to the College Learning Series or iatroX. Its value is the distinction between different reasons for a wrong answer.
Use completion information without letting it run the plan
Completion tracking is useful for finding material you have not opened. It is less useful for deciding whether you can use the knowledge. Add a small amount of performance evidence: an explanation, a new question or a discussion with a teacher.
Do not turn every lecture into a large set of notes. Preserve the point you were missing and a source location for returning to it. If the explanation is already clear, the next useful task may be application rather than transcription.
A topic can also be temporarily deferred. Record why: outside the current objective, dependent on an earlier concept or already demonstrated through appropriate practice. Deferred should not mean forgotten. Give it a review point in the wider curriculum check.
Put access dates beside examination dates
Create a simple subscription calendar alongside the learning plan. Record the expected examination window, any booked courses, the end of current resource access and the date a renewal decision is needed. Confirm the actual exam date through the College rather than extrapolating from a previous year's calendar.
Do not start several paid products on the same day unless they have distinct jobs in the plan. A teaching resource purchased for later use may lose useful access while you are still working through something else. Conversely, delaying all practice until the final period can leave little opportunity to resolve a conceptual gap.
The calendar should support those decisions, not predict readiness. A planned review date is a prompt to inspect evidence, not a promise that a topic will be mastered by then.
Where independent practice belongs
According to iatroX's September 2026 catalogue, there are separate RACP Adult Medicine and Paediatrics written pathways. Its study planner uses the exam date, available study time and quiz performance; the Tutor can explore uncertainty after an attempted question. These are published design features, not proof of a particular examination outcome.
Keep the College Learning Series for curriculum-linked teaching. Use additional questions when you need further application and choose the correct discipline. Seek teaching or supervision when an explanation remains uncertain. Use the relevant DCE preparation route for clinical performance rather than assuming that a written score settles it.
At the end of a week, the useful summary is not the number of recordings played. It is the concept you can now explain, the decision you can now justify and the remaining question you have assigned to an appropriate learning activity.
Frequently asked questions
Is the College Learning Series mapped to the RACP curriculum?
The RACP's public learning platform describes it as curriculum-mapped learning for Basic Trainees. Check the discipline and current material available through your own account.
Should I complete all the lectures before attempting questions?
Not as an automatic rule. A suitable question can identify the learning need that helps you choose the relevant teaching.
Does written-exam preparation cover the RACP clinical examination?
It supplies underpinning knowledge but does not establish clinical performance. Bedside skills, presentations and observed case work need their own preparation.