This revision plan is designed to work for any of the 13 SCE specialties. The structure is the same regardless of whether you are sitting Cardiology, Respiratory, Neurology, or Palliative Medicine — what changes is the specific guideline reading and topic content within each phase. Adapt the topic list to your specialty curriculum.
Before you start — the baseline assessment
Before beginning structured revision, sit a 50-question untimed quiz from your question bank covering all topics in random order. Do not prepare for this — it is a diagnostic assessment, not a performance test. Record your score and your topic-level breakdown. This baseline tells you two things: your overall starting point and which specific topics need the most work.
If your baseline is above 65 per cent across all topics, you are starting from a strong position and can afford a slightly shorter revision period. If your baseline is below 50 per cent in multiple topics, consider starting four months out rather than three.
Weeks 1 to 4 — systematic coverage
The first month is about breadth. Work through every major curriculum domain in your specialty, spending two to three days on each. For each domain, follow this sequence: attempt 20 to 30 questions from that topic in untimed mode, review the explanations for every question (including those you answered correctly — the explanations contain guideline details you may not have consciously registered), then read the primary guideline for that topic.
The guideline reading should be directed by your question performance — focus on the areas where you made errors rather than reading the entire guideline from start to finish. Most SCE guidelines are substantial documents, and reading them cover-to-cover is neither efficient nor necessary. Your question bank performance tells you which sections to prioritise.
By the end of week 4, you should have covered every major curriculum domain at least once. Your performance data should now show a clear picture of your strong and weak areas.
Target: 25 to 30 questions per day, 5 days per week. Total approximately 500 to 600 questions in month one.
Weeks 5 to 8 — targeted strengthening
The second month is about depth. Use your performance data to identify your three to four weakest topics and allocate disproportionate time to them. If your baseline showed strong performance in heart failure and coronary disease but weak performance in arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy (for a Cardiology example), weeks 5 to 8 should weight your revision toward arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy without abandoning the other topics entirely.
Switch to timed mode for your question bank practice. Set a target of 1.5 to 1.8 minutes per question — slightly faster than the real exam pace of 1.8 minutes — to build time management skills. Timed practice forces you to commit to answers rather than deliberating, which is an essential exam skill.
Continue guideline reading, but now focus exclusively on the guidelines for your weak topics. Re-read the key sections, make brief notes on the specific management algorithms or classification criteria you keep getting wrong, and test yourself on these notes before your next question bank session.
If you are using iatroX, the adaptive algorithm is doing much of this targeting automatically — shifting question selection toward your weakest topics while maintaining exposure to all domains. Supplement this with deliberate guideline reading for the topics the algorithm identifies as weakest.
Target: 30 to 40 questions per day, 5 days per week. Total approximately 600 to 800 questions in month two.
Weeks 9 to 10 — mock exams and integration
Sit your first full mock exam at the start of week 9 — two papers of 100 questions, each timed at three hours, with a one-hour break between them. This is an endurance test as much as a knowledge test. Six hours of focused concentration is genuinely demanding, and experiencing it in practice is better than discovering on exam day that your concentration drops after four hours.
After the mock, analyse your performance by topic. Compare your mock performance to your baseline from week one — you should see improvement in the areas you targeted during weeks 5 to 8. If specific topics remain weak, dedicate weeks 9 and 10 to focused practice on those topics.
Sit a second mock exam at the end of week 10 or the start of week 11. This gives you data on your readiness with enough time to make final adjustments.
Target: mock exams plus 20 to 30 targeted questions per day.
Weeks 11 to 12 — consolidation
The final two weeks are for consolidation, not new learning. Do not start new topics. Do not read new guidelines. Focus on reviewing your notes from the previous ten weeks, practising questions from your previously weakest topics to verify they have improved, and doing light revision to maintain your strong areas.
Reduce your question volume in the final week — 10 to 15 questions per day is sufficient. The goal is to arrive at the exam feeling confident and rested, not exhausted from cramming.
Sleep and exercise matter more in the final week than additional revision hours. Cognitive performance deteriorates with sleep deprivation — an extra hour of sleep the night before the exam is worth more than an extra hour of revision.
Total question count
Following this plan, you will complete approximately 1,500 to 2,000 questions over the 12-week period — well above the 800-question threshold that research associates with improved pass rates. The adaptive algorithm ensures these questions are distributed across all curriculum domains with proportional emphasis on your weakest areas.
iatroX's SCE banks contain over 1,500 questions per specialty with full mock exams simulating the real format. The adaptive algorithm and performance dashboard support every phase of this plan — diagnostic baseline, topic identification, targeted revision, and mock exam analysis. All included at £29 per month or £99 per year.