Three weeks before the AKT, use recent performance to identify what needs repair, then protect time for mixed practice and review. The aim is not to finish every available question. It is to make fewer repeated errors on unfamiliar material while maintaining coverage of clinical medicine, evidence interpretation and professional practice.
The RCGP lists the relevant AKT sitting for 26 October 2026, as checked on 3 October 2026. This plan uses 5-25 October as a three-week framework for candidates already booked. Confirm your appointment and instructions through the official examination timetable; a published sitting date does not mean registration remains open.
Update the format before planning a mock
The AKT changed to 160 items in 160 minutes from October 2025, according to the RCGP's timetable change notice, checked on 3 October 2026. Do not use an older 200-item description as the current examination specification. Your approved adjustments and candidate instructions determine the conditions applicable to you.
The current RCGP preparation page describes several item formats, mainly single best answers rather than exclusively that format. Familiarise yourself with the official examples and testing tutorial. A commercial mock can be useful without reproducing every feature of the official interface or assessment. See the RCGP AKT preparation resources.
Correcting the format is a practical task, not a reason to discard all useful existing questions. Distinguish the content you can still learn from the conditions you need to rehearse accurately.
Week one: audit errors and unfinished coverage
Review recent mixed questions before deciding which topics deserve most time. Separate wrong answers from uncertain correct answers, then identify the mechanism of the error. Did you lack the fact, misunderstand the decision, use an outdated rule or lose a qualifier in the stem?
Keep a separate view of coverage. A strong score in a repeatedly practised specialty does not show whether neglected areas are secure. Sample those areas with unfamiliar material before assuming they need either extensive revision or no attention.
The RCGP's preparation guidance, checked on 3 October 2026, describes the examination's distribution as 80% clinical medicine, 10% data interpretation and critical appraisal, and 10% primary care organisation and management. Use that to avoid abandoning a domain, not as an instruction to divide every study evening in precisely those proportions.
Choose a repair task rather than a reading topic
A task such as revise statistics can expand indefinitely. A more useful objective is to distinguish the denominator needed for two commonly confused measures and apply that distinction to an unfamiliar question. For professional practice, identify which current source resolves the particular uncertainty.
Consider Hannah, a fictional trainee who regularly chooses a clinically plausible next investigation without noticing that the question asks about the immediate management decision. She initially plans to reread the whole topic. Instead, she practises stating the requested decision before considering the options, then checks whether the clinical information supports it.
Hannah still reviews the medicine where it is uncertain. The point is not to replace knowledge with an examination trick, but to avoid spending the entire session repairing a problem she did not actually have.
Week two: put the repaired material back into mixed practice
After focused work, return to unfamiliar mixed questions. A topic heading supplies context that may not be available in the examination. Check whether you can recognise the relevant principle without that help.
Review whether a repeated mistake has the same cause. You may now understand the rule but fail to notice the exception, or calculate correctly after choosing the wrong measure. Write the next correction narrowly enough to distinguish these problems.
Retain some practice across the wider scope. A final-month plan can become increasingly narrow as every session is directed towards a weakness. That is useful only while you continue checking that other areas have not been neglected. Do not treat a dashboard's completion percentage as a complete curriculum audit.
Fit short and long sessions around work
Use a short session for a bounded task: one important explanation, one source check or a small set of related questions followed by review. Use a longer protected period for mixed timed practice and its debrief. Neither is inherently superior; they answer different preparation questions.
If a workday overruns, identify the next useful session rather than carrying forward the entire missed quota. A plan that repeatedly borrows from the following day can become an administrative burden. Prioritise the activities that change the next decision.
An example week could place deeper concept review on a non-clinical evening and pacing practice on a protected day, with brief return sessions between them. This is a suggested arrangement, not a tested schedule or a claim about the study time every candidate needs.
Use iatroX for a question-to-explanation cycle
According to iatroX's product information checked on 3 October 2026, its AKT preparation sits within a bank system with adaptive sequencing, spaced repetition and a Socratic Tutor linked to the attempted question. The Tutor asks targeted follow-ups to explore the misconception rather than merely presenting the answer. These are design features, not an independently established pass-rate advantage. See the exam catalogue and Tutor description.
A useful session begins with an independent answer and a brief account of the reasoning. Use the explanation or Tutor to identify the missing step, check important source-dependent claims, then revisit the concept through a different question. Do not count reading the answer as evidence that the misconception has been resolved.
Free question access is available without a trial expiry or verification gate, as described by iatroX on 3 October 2026. Ongoing bank, Tutor, planner, simulation and CPD access are bundled in the paid subscription. A new purchase should serve a specific remaining need rather than replace a working setup because the examination is approaching.
Week three: rehearse the process and narrow the review
Give a final-week mock a defined purpose. It may test pacing, unfamiliar mixed performance or the application of a recent correction. Review guessed correct answers as well as errors, and leave time to act on what you find.
Do not let one disappointing percentage trigger a complete resource change. Inspect the questions and the conditions before deciding what the result means. A commercial score is not an official pass prediction, especially when familiarity, topic selection and timing differ.
Finish with a concise review of recurring errors, the current candidate instructions and a practical examination-day plan. Your objective for 26 October is not to recognise every possible item in advance. It is to interpret the task carefully, apply relevant knowledge and use a rehearsed approach when uncertainty remains.
Frequently asked questions
Is the October 2026 AKT still a 200-question examination?
No: the RCGP states that the examination changed to 160 items in 160 minutes from October 2025. Check your own instructions and approved adjustments for the conditions that apply.
Should my revision time exactly match the examination percentages?
Not necessarily: the blueprint protects breadth, while your errors determine where additional work is needed. Do not abandon a domain simply because it represents a smaller proportion of the examination.
Should I finish my bank before reviewing mistakes?
No: review should influence what you practise next. Completing more items without correcting repeated errors can leave the central learning problem unchanged.