The Specialty Certificate Examination in Acute Medicine is one of the most commonly sat SCEs — reflecting the size of the acute medicine training programme — and one of the most poorly served by dedicated preparation resources. If you're preparing for it, here's the practical approach.
The exam
200 best-of-five SBA questions across two papers, sat on the same day. Content maps to the Acute Internal Medicine curriculum: emergency presentations (sepsis, ACS, stroke, PE, DKA, status epilepticus, GI bleeding), acute medical assessment and triage, procedures (chest drain, lumbar puncture, central line — theoretical knowledge, not practical), critical care interface, patient safety, and the general internal medicine overlap.
Approximately 30% of content is generic GIM (the same content tested in MRCP). The remaining 70% is acute-medicine-specific — focused on the first 72 hours of hospital presentation, rapid assessment, and emergency management.
What resources exist
StudyPRN Acute Medicine SCE — the only dedicated SCE-specific qbank for acute medicine. Small but targeted. Worth using as your primary practice resource.
MRCP Part 1 and Part 2 question banks — PassMedicine, Pastest, and AMBOSS all cover the GIM foundation that constitutes ~30% of the SCE. Essential for the general medicine component but insufficient for the acute-specific content.
Oxford Handbook of Acute Medicine — the best single-volume reference for acute medicine preparation. Concise, practical, and pitched at the right level for the SCE.
NICE guidelines on acute presentations — sepsis (NG51), AKI (NG148), VTE (NG158), pneumonia (NG191), upper GI bleeding (CG141), acute heart failure (NG106). The SCE tests guideline-aligned management, not textbook theory. iatroX's guidelines section covers several of these conditions.
Acute Medical Emergencies (AME) course material — if you've done the AME course, the handbook is useful revision material for the emergency management component.
The preparation plan
Weeks 1–3: Work through the GIM foundation using an MRCP qbank — 50 questions/day focusing on cardiology, respiratory, GI, renal, and neurology. This covers the 30% GIM overlap and identifies your weak areas.
Weeks 4–6: Acute-medicine-specific preparation. Work through the Oxford Handbook of Acute Medicine systematically. For each emergency presentation, know: recognition criteria, immediate investigations, first-line management (drugs, doses, routes), escalation criteria, and common complications. Use StudyPRN if available.
Weeks 7–8: NICE guideline revision for the key acute presentations. Generate practice questions on emergency management using AI tools. Do timed question blocks to build exam stamina.
Throughout: Use iatroX's AI search for rapid guideline queries — "what is the NICE-recommended initial management of severe community-acquired pneumonia?" — to verify your knowledge and practise clinical reasoning.
The honest assessment
The Acute Medicine SCE has a relatively high pass rate compared to some other SCEs — partly because the clinical content is what you do every day on acute medical takes, and partly because the GIM overlap means your MRCP knowledge carries over. The candidates who fail tend to be those who over-rely on clinical experience without structured revision, or who neglect the GIM component assuming it's "already covered."
iatroX offers NICE-aligned guidelines summaries covering acute presentations and a UK qbank for general medicine. AI clinical search built by a practising NHS GP.