This is for the respiratory trainee choosing or already working through StudyPRN for the SCE who wants to know what its questions genuinely cover and where they stop. It addresses the written best-of-five paper only. The principal limitation is that a large, blueprint-mapped bank builds recognition of its own stems as you complete it, so a near-finished pool can read as readiness when it is really familiarity.
What StudyPRN offers for SCE Respiratory Medicine right now
StudyPRN is one of the few vendors that genuinely specialise in the Specialty Certificate Examinations, and its Respiratory bank reflects that focus in its blueprint mapping and volume. The figures below are vendor-reported and last checked on 20 July 2026; confirm the live numbers on the product page.
| Attribute | Vendor-reported detail (checked 20 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Question volume | 678 single-best-answer questions |
| Mock exam | One timed mock of 100 questions |
| Question format | Single best answer, aligned to the best-of-five paper |
| Blueprint mapping | Mirrors the full MRCP SCE Respiratory Medicine blueprint |
| Access periods | 3 to 12 months |
| Price (GBP) | Around £199 for a 12-month subscription |
| Explanations | Instant answers and feedback with explanations and references for further reading |
| Extras | Peer comparison, revision notes, unlimited resits, 24/7 access, CPD certificate |
| Adaptive/AI | No adaptive or AI engine advertised; no analytics dashboard described |
At roughly 678 items, StudyPRN offers materially more volume than the focused BMJ OnExamination Respiratory module, which is its main structural advantage. It does not market an analytics dashboard, so measurement discipline is yours to impose.
The exam you are actually sitting
The SCE in Respiratory Medicine is two papers of 100 best-of-five questions, 200 total, three hours each, one day, computer-based via Surpass, one mark per correct answer, no negative marking. Only the blueprint varies by specialty. Distinguish official from third-party claims: a bank can mirror the blueprint, but the Federation owns and publishes it, and that published version below is your reference standard.
| Domain | Questions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD) | 25 | 12.5% |
| COPD | 20 | 10% |
| Imaging | 20 | 10% |
| Physiology | 20 | 10% |
| Pulmonary infections | 20 | 10% |
| Thoracic oncology | 20 | 10% |
| Disorders of pleura, mediastinum and pneumothorax | 15 | 7.5% |
| Pulmonary vascular disease | 15 | 7.5% |
| Occupational and environmental disease | 10 | 5% |
| Tuberculosis and opportunistic mycobacterial disease | 10 | 5% |
| Other (ethics, pharmacology, statistics) | 10 | 5% |
| Asthma | 5 | 2.5% |
| Cystic fibrosis | 5 | 2.5% |
| Sleep-related breathing disorders and hypoventilation | 5 | 2.5% |
The headline count, broken down by blueprint domain
The number that matters is not 678; it is how those items distribute across the table. A blueprint-faithful pool should give roughly 80-plus DPLD items, 65 or so each in COPD, imaging, physiology, infections and oncology, and thinner but real coverage of occupational disease, TB, sleep and the statistics-and-ethics bucket. Filter the bank by domain before you rely on it, and confirm that the low-weight areas are genuinely populated rather than represented by a handful of repeated concepts. StudyPRN advertises mapping to the full blueprint, which is encouraging, but "full blueprint covered" and "every domain covered to exam depth" are different claims; only the domain filter distinguishes them, and imaging and physiology are the domains most often thin in general banks.
Sample question style: what transfers
On a stratified read, the transferable features match the paper. Cognitive level: good items test application (interpret the transfer factor, choose the next investigation in suspected pulmonary embolism, select the correct biologic in severe asthma) rather than bare recall. Stem length: SCE respiratory stems are compact vignettes with one or two data points, and banks that write to that length transfer better. Option plausibility: four credible distractors make a best-of-five discriminating; implausible options train elimination, not judgement. Image and data interpretation: StudyPRN's Respiratory items include imaging and lung-function data, which is essential because the real paper is data-heavy. Management sequencing: respiratory management often turns on "what next," and ordered-decision items transfer well. Where any bank drifts toward single-fact recall or leans on described rather than displayed data, it under-trains the exact interpretation skill the paper rewards.
Jurisdiction and recency
The SCE is a UK exam, so answers must follow current UK practice. On a stratified sample, check asthma against the current BTS, SIGN and NICE joint approach, COPD against NICE, pulmonary embolism and anticoagulation against NICE, lung cancer pathways against NICE, and tuberculosis against NICE and UK Health Security Agency guidance. For medicines, including inhaled therapies and biologics, use the SmPC and eMC as the reference source rather than any formulary shorthand. Respiratory guidance has moved substantially in recent cycles, particularly asthma diagnosis and monitoring and COPD inhaled-therapy escalation, so record your sampling date and re-check high-churn topics against primary guidance rather than trusting explanation text alone.
The format gap
State it clearly: a standard best-of-five bank can rehearse the knowledge behind spirometry, imaging, sleep studies and blood-gas interpretation, but it cannot fully reproduce the skill of reading raw, unlabelled data. In a bank, a flow-volume loop or a high-resolution CT usually arrives curated and captioned toward the intended answer; in the exam and in clinic, the abnormality has to be found first. This is acceptable for a written knowledge paper, which is what the SCE is, provided you supplement bank items with genuine practice on unlabelled traces, radiographs and CTs. Do not assume that answering data questions correctly in a bank equals fluent raw-data interpretation; they are related but distinct skills.
Duplication and contamination
In any single large bank, completion drifts into recognition. As you approach the end of 678 items, near-duplicate stems and repeated guideline points mean a rising score increasingly reflects memory of StudyPRN rather than transferable respiratory knowledge. Watch for the same DPLD or asthma-severity concept re-tested under different names, and for imaging items that reuse a small stock of classic appearances. This is not a defect; it is intrinsic to drilling a finite pool. The safeguard is to keep an unseen source for measurement, so your readiness signal is never taken from items you have already met.
Best-fit matrix
| Role | Fit for StudyPRN Respiratory |
|---|---|
| Foundation building | Moderate; explanations help, but it is a testing bank, not a reference text |
| First-pass primary bank | Strong; 678 items and full blueprint mapping suit a complete first pass |
| Second bank | Reasonable, as the unseen source after a smaller first bank |
| Retake preparation | Strong; volume and domain filtering target proven weak areas |
| Final simulation | Partial; the single 100-item mock is a thin final-simulation sample |
StudyPRN is strongest as a blueprint-faithful first-pass or retake spine and weakest as a lone source of final unseen mock volume, where one mock will not carry the whole simulation load.
A seven-day pattern for busy trainees
One job per tool, no proprietary-algorithm claims. StudyPRN is your Respiratory coverage-and-explanations spine; iatroX is your unseen measurement layer for the cross-cutting content.
- Days 1 to 5: work StudyPRN by domain, biased toward DPLD, imaging, physiology and the thin high-value areas from your count breakdown. Read the reference links and convert new facts into spaced-repetition cards.
- Day 6: sit a timed mixed block, alternating the StudyPRN mock one week with a fresh unseen iatroX block the next, so that at least fortnightly your measured score comes from items neither you nor StudyPRN has shown you.
- Day 7: review only. Spaced-queue the misses and open reasoning-gap items in the iatroX Socratic Tutor to be questioned rather than told.
The boundary is explicit: iatroX measures the transferable and cross-cutting layer (statistics, pharmacology, ethics, physiology principles, general-medicine comorbidity), not respiratory-specific imaging or lung-function depth, and it does not claim to. StudyPRN owns that depth.
Continue, supplement, switch or stop
Continue while un-attempted items remain in weak domains and first-attempt accuracy on new items is rising. Supplement with an unseen source past roughly 70 to 80% completion, where the score becomes recognition. Switch primary banks only if a domain filter reveals depth gaps the pool cannot fill for your diet, particularly in imaging or physiology. Stop drilling a domain when first-attempt accuracy on new items meets target and has stopped moving. Decide on the measured gap, not on how much of the bank is left.
Bottom line
StudyPRN is a strong, blueprint-faithful choice for SCE Respiratory Medicine, with genuine volume and a cognitive level that reflects the real paper. Its questions transfer well where they test UK-current management, ordered decisions and displayed data, and less well where any bank captions its data toward the answer or where completion becomes recognition. Use it as your coverage spine, pair raw-data practice alongside it, keep an unseen source for the readiness signal, and judge yourself on first-attempt performance rather than a near-complete pool percentage.
Frequently asked questions
Is StudyPRN enough for SCE Respiratory Medicine on its own? It can serve as the primary spine for many candidates, because 678 blueprint-mapped items (vendor-reported, 20 July 2026) support a full first pass with useful explanations. It is "enough" only if you protect an unseen measurement source and add raw-data interpretation practice, because a single bank becomes recognition as you finish it and captioned data under-trains real interpretation.
Which SCE Respiratory Medicine component does StudyPRN not reproduce well? It under-reproduces raw, unlabelled data interpretation: spirometry and flow-volume traces, high-resolution CT and chest radiographs, sleep studies and blood gases usually arrive curated toward the intended answer. It rehearses the knowledge those data require, which the written paper tests, but not the first step of finding the abnormality yourself in ambiguous material.
How many StudyPRN questions should I complete per day for SCE Respiratory Medicine? Aim for blueprint-weighted coverage, not a raw count: 30 to 50 well-reviewed items a day, biased toward DPLD, imaging and physiology, beats a larger number rushed. With no analytics dashboard, keep a simple log of first-attempt accuracy and attempted share by domain, and let review quality set the pace.
When should I stop using StudyPRN and move to mixed mocks? Shift to mixed, timed, unseen mocks once every blueprint domain is covered at roughly its exam weight and first-attempt accuracy has plateaued, typically around 70 to 80% completion. Beyond that, single-domain drilling mainly adds recognition, and only unseen mixed blocks confirm or move your real standing.
How should I combine StudyPRN with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign one job to each. StudyPRN owns respiratory coverage, explanations and its specialty mock; iatroX owns unseen measurement of the cross-cutting layer and spaced retrieval of misses, under the two-Q-bank rule so the second source never re-shows StudyPRN items. iatroX is a UK measurement and retrieval layer, not a respiratory bank, which is why pairing them keeps your unseen signal clean.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. All StudyPRN question counts, prices and features above are vendor-reported and were correct at the time of checking; verify the current figures on the product page, as they change between diets. Disclosure: iatroX operates a UK question bank that competes with parts of StudyPRN's offering; this article confines iatroX's role to jobs StudyPRN does not claim, namely unseen cross-specialty measurement and spaced retrieval, and iatroX is not a specialty SCE bank. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians SCE Respiratory Medicine specialty and blueprint pages (thefederation.uk); the StudyPRN Respiratory Medicine SCE product page (studyprn.com); iatroX, Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score; iatroX, the two-Q-bank rule; iatroX, building a blueprint-coverage matrix; the iatroX comparison hub.
Run a fresh, timed unseen block in iatroX and decide whether to learn, retest, simulate or stop →