MRCPI Part 1 – the prep

Life as a doctor never gets easier. Our studies and exams never end even after we get married and have kids. I started studying for MRCPI Part 1 exam 10 days after giving birth to my second child.

As I was on maternity leave and had some family support so I wanted to take advantage of this. Needless to say, it was extremely hard to study with sleepless nights due to my newborn. Thankfully, my toddler and household chores were managed by family so all I had to worry about were the newborn and my exam. (thus the decision to take the exam during my maternity leave).

As I knew that I wouldn’t be able to give full time to studies due to my circumstances so I had started preparing well in advance of the exam.

The Prep breakdown

Total duration of exam prep: 3.5 months

• 1^st read: 2 months
• 2^nd read: 1 month
• Selective 3^rd read: 15 days

The Resources

As per my previous experiences with postgraduate exams, I stuck with a single qbank. Different people suggested different qbanks. I noticed that Irish doctors preferred Pastest whereas most Pakistani doctors opted for Passmedicine. Thus, I also chose Passmedicine. In the past, I have studied from books as well as online subscriptions. However, my present circumstances made it difficult to study from a book so I did my entire preparation from a phone! I barely used any ‘physical’ notes or papers or books because they would be difficult to handle with a baby especially a colicky, crying baby!

I bought the online subscription for £45 for 6 months.

As I have previously taken IMM – intermediate module (part of FCPS degree) and MRCP UK exams so I have my personal notes on various difficult topics therefore I revised all those notes and made some new notes as well on my phone ‘obviously.’ Using a pen and paper was totally impossible. Lol

I also took screenshots of explanations of some questions. They contained details that require memorisation. This resource proved to be very handy not only for MRCPI Part 1 but also for Part 2 that I took shortly after.

Time management:

I always study with goals as it keeps me motivated. So I used to set daily and weekly goals. Needless to say, there were good and bad days. Initially, I barely managed to squeeze 1 – 2 hrs of study or merely 20 – 30 questions in the entire day. However, gradually I built up tempo so that the daily study time and questions slowly increased upto 5 – 6 hours and 100 – 120 questions/day.

A rough average for my first read was as follows:

• 1^st three weeks: 30-50 ques/d
• Week 4: 60 ques/d
• Week 5: 85/d
• Week 6: 100/d
• Week 7: 120/d
• Week 8: 80/d (guests at home)
• Week 9: 140/d – 1^st read finished

Slow and steady. There were hardly any days when I didn’t study anything. In the 3.5 months study time, I just took 2 or 3 days off per month. And those days were only taken off due to unavoidable family engagements. As I’d just had a newborn so naturally, we had guests coming over and I didn’t study then. Thus, the first principle of my preparation was consistency and perseverance. Not giving up even after having bad days.

Then about 2 weeks before the exam date, I began my selective 3^rd read. Out of the total approx. 4600 questions, I attempted about 2000 questions in this read which consisted of incorrect and flagged questions from the 2^nd read. I was doing 150 – 200 ques/d alongwith all my notes. Again, study time was 3 -5 hrs and some good days of 6 hrs in a day. Six hours was the maximum study time I achieved during all my prep time. When I look back to my MBBS student days, 6 hours seems like a joke. Come professional exams, I was going crazy studying from dawn till midnight. Anyhow, this is how life changes. And thankfully, too.

Exam day:

My MRCPI part 1 exam took place on Thursday, 24^th August 2023. It was an online exam. I had received pre test instructions via emails. They are just simple steps to be followed.

On exam day, I had my photo ID ready and was in front of my laptop 30 mins before start time. No pen and paper are allowed. I had previous experience with an online exam (MRCP UK part 2 taken in March 2021) so was aware of the general process. You can read details here: https://magicwithmedicine.com/2021/05/29/mrcp-uk-part-2-online-exam/

Webcam was switched on throughout the exam. Examiner was available via chatbox. There were 100 questions to be done in 3 hrs. Calculator and notepad were available online. I used them for some biostats questions. Difficulty level of the paper was medium. I’m comparing with MRCP UK part 1 exam which I felt was much more difficult. Questions were mostly regarding diagnoses not so much about risk factors or causes as was the case with UK exam. I remember, I’d even learnt chromosome numbers for different autosomal recessive and dominant diseases but this was definitely not needed for the Irish exam. Moreover, pass medicine was a sufficient enough qbank and there was no need for another resource besides the notes that I used.

I attempted almost 40 questions per hour so was finished with the exam half hour before. Then I re-visited the ‘flagged’ questions again. Still, there was some time left so I asked my examiner via chat box whether I could ‘submit’ the exam. He allowed me to do so. And Phew, I was done!

The result:

I received the result about 2 weeks later and viola, I’d passed the exam with 72% marks, Alhamdulilah. The passing marks were 50%.