This schedule is for psychiatry trainees preparing for MRCPsych Paper B around a full clinical rota who already own, or are weighing up, SPMM and want a repeatable way to convert its notes, subject banks and mock papers into durable recall. It addresses both halves of Paper B — the critical-review component and the clinical-topics component — and its principal limitation is stated plainly: SPMM is a content-and-question resource, not an adaptive engine, so transfer to unseen items is a job you have to build in yourself.
What SPMM offers for MRCPsych Paper B right now
The box below is what we could verify on the vendor's own pages. Treat every figure as vendor-reported and re-check it on spmmcourse.com before you buy, because packages and prices change between diets.
| Item | What we found (vendor-reported, SPMM, last checked 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Paper B products | Starter "HiYield" B (SmartRevise study notes plus subject-based question banks with worked, evidence-based explanations); Booster "Mock" B (six reconstructed mock papers); Paper B e-Crashclass (~19 hours of video — roughly 10.5 hours clinical and 8.5 hours critical appraisal — plus a printable Q-Bank PDF) |
| Question volume | SPMM advertises a combined bank of "8,000+" questions across the MRCPsych examinations; a Paper-B-only count is not separately published — verify on the product page |
| Access period | Starter B and Booster B: six months from purchase; Paper B e-Crashclass: three months. The Booster mock package is sold only in the ~10 weeks before a College diet |
| Indicative price | Starter B ~£299; Booster B ~£249; e-Crashclass ~£199 (GBP; confirm current pricing) |
| Adaptive / AI | None described. SPMM is a notes-plus-question-plus-mock resource, not an adaptive-difficulty or AI-tutor engine |
| CASC note | SPMM runs a separate CASC practice system; that is a different product, and iatroX is not a CASC simulator either |
The two features to hold in mind are that the mock papers are "reconstructed from recent exams", which gives useful realism but a finite, memorisable pool, and that the e-Crashclass is video — genuinely helpful for the critical-appraisal material, but passive unless you force retrieval afterwards.
The exam you are actually preparing for
MRCPsych Paper B is a written, computer-based paper delivered at Pearson VUE. It combines multiple-choice questions with extended matching items in roughly a two-thirds MCQ to one-third EMI split, and sits at approximately 150 questions over three hours — confirm the current count and duration against the Royal College of Psychiatrists pages, as the College is the only authority for the blueprint. Content divides into a substantial critical-review strand (research methods, statistics and critical appraisal of the literature) and clinical topics across general adult and the subspecialties. The clinical CASC (the OSCE-style examination) is separate; nothing in this schedule, and no question bank, reproduces it.
Keep the distinction between official requirements and third-party claims sharp. The syllabus, sample questions and pass standard are the College's; SPMM's mapping to that syllabus is a helpful third-party interpretation, not the specification itself.
Start every module with a diagnostic, not a video
Before you open an SPMM note or lecture, answer a short diagnostic set of six to ten questions on that topic. The point is not the score; it is to expose what you already know and to create a reason to watch. A trainee who discovers they cannot separate number-needed-to-treat from relative risk reduction will watch the statistics segment very differently from one who opens it cold. This is the cheapest way to stop passive consumption before it starts.
Watch in bounded segments, then close the screen and recall
Watch or read in bounded segments of fifteen to twenty-five minutes, then close the resource and produce a written recall before you check anything. Three or four sentences, from memory, on what the segment claimed and why. The moment of effortful retrieval — not the moment of watching — is where the encoding happens. If you cannot reconstruct the segment without scrolling back, that is your signal to rewatch a specific part, not the whole lecture.
Turn each objective into three questions
For every learning objective, write three prompts. One discrimination question that forces a choice between the target answer and its nearest rival (for example, lithium versus valproate for a specific presentation). One management rule stated as a single defensible sentence. And one "why not the alternative?" prompt that makes you articulate why the plausible wrong answer is wrong. Paper B rewards candidates who can separate near-neighbours under time pressure; this three-part habit builds exactly that discrimination and is far more durable than highlighting.
Test at 24–48 hours, then retest after a gap
Test the material with fresh questions within 24 to 48 hours, and again after a longer interval of one to two weeks. Do not replay the SPMM lecture as your revision — rewatching feels productive and predicts almost nothing, because you are recognising familiar material rather than retrieving it. Use unseen items for the retest so that you are measuring transfer, not memory of a specific stem. Your Q-bank percentage is not your exam score; a first-attempt score on unseen questions is the number worth tracking.
Build one weekly mixed block
Once a week, sit a mixed block that ignores topic order. Studying in SPMM's module sequence quietly teaches your brain that "this week's topic" is a cue for the answer; a randomised, timed block removes that scaffold and rehearses the exam-day experience of not knowing what is coming next. This is the single most useful defence against the fluency illusion that topic-locked practice creates.
Exit on performance, not on percentage
Leave a topic when your objective, exam-format performance on unseen items improves and holds — not when you have watched every lecture or turned the bank green. Completion percentage measures consumption; first-attempt accuracy on fresh, timed, mixed questions measures readiness. If the two disagree, trust the second. This is the same logic set out in the framework on why completion is not coverage.
A seven-day schedule for a trainee on a full rota
The plan below assumes limited, protected time around clinical work. It uses SPMM for one defined job — structured content and worked explanations — and iatroX for unseen transfer practice. No proprietary-algorithm claims are made for either tool; this is spaced retrieval you are running by hand.
| Day | Job | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Diagnostic set + one SPMM critical-appraisal segment; write the three-prompt set | 40 min |
| Tue | 20 SPMM clinical-topic questions in the weak area; error notes only | 30 min |
| Wed | Fresh, unseen iatroX block (mixed) to test Monday's material | 30 min |
| Thu | One SPMM clinical segment + recall; convert to three prompts | 35 min |
| Fri | Retest Tuesday's misses with new items; short SmPC/eMC or guideline read on any drug error | 30 min |
| Sat | Weekly mixed timed block (SPMM Booster mock if within the window; otherwise iatroX unseen) | 90 min |
| Sun | Review the week's error codes; schedule next week's diagnostics | 30 min |
Continue, supplement, switch or stop
Base the decision on measurable gaps, not novelty or sunk cost.
- Continue SPMM if your first-attempt accuracy on unseen items is rising and the worked explanations are closing real gaps.
- Supplement with a second, unseen bank if your SPMM percentage looks healthy but fresh-question performance has stalled — a classic sign the pool has become familiar. The two-Q-bank rule explains how to do this without duplicating practice.
- Switch emphasis toward mixed mocks when your topic-locked accuracy is high but timed, random performance is not.
- Stop buying more content when the constraint is retrieval and pacing rather than exposure. More lectures will not fix a retrieval problem.
Frequently asked questions
Is SPMM enough for MRCPsych Paper B on its own? For many candidates its notes, subject banks and reconstructed mocks are a strong core, particularly for the critical-appraisal strand where its video teaching is a genuine strength. "Enough" depends on your baseline: if you can reach stable first-attempt performance on unseen, timed, mixed questions using SPMM alone, you do not need more. If your bank percentage rises but unseen scores plateau, add an unseen measurement layer rather than more of the same content.
Which MRCPsych Paper B component does SPMM not reproduce well? SPMM does not, by design, give you a large volume of never-before-seen items once you have worked through its bank, so the true unseen, exam-day condition is the thing hardest to rehearse from SPMM alone. Its mock papers are reconstructed from recent exams, which aids realism but means replaying them tests recognition, not transfer. It is also not a CASC product — the clinical OSCE is a separate examination.
How many SPMM questions should I complete per day for MRCPsych Paper B? There is no vendor-fixed daily quota, and volume is the wrong target. A sustainable figure around clinical work is roughly 20 to 40 questions a day, always reviewed with an error code and a single corrective action, plus one longer timed block weekly. Thirty well-reviewed questions beat a hundred skimmed ones; the review is where the learning sits.
When should I stop using SPMM and move to mixed mocks? Move to predominantly mixed, timed mocks once your topic-filtered accuracy is comfortably above your target and holding, but your random, timed performance still lags — usually in the final three to four weeks. At that point additional topic-locked drilling gives diminishing returns, and the remaining gain is in pacing and interleaving.
How should I combine SPMM with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign each tool one job. Use SPMM for structured content, worked explanations and its reconstructed mocks; use iatroX for unseen, timed, mixed questions that measure transfer. Never re-answer an item you have already seen in either tool as if it were fresh — that inflates your percentage without testing recall. Keep a small protected pool of unseen iatroX items for weekly measurement only.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Product figures above are vendor-reported and were taken from the vendor's own pages on that date; SPMM package contents, access periods and prices change between diets, so confirm current details on spmmcourse.com before purchase. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing UK question bank, and its role here is confined to the unseen-measurement job SPMM does not claim — not to replace SPMM's notes, mocks or the separate CASC preparation. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com. References: Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych Paper B syllabus, sample questions and regulations); SPMM course pages (product and pricing claims); the iatroX MRCPsych Paper B bank; and "Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score". UK medicines facts should be checked against the SmPC/eMC, with NICE and CKS for management.