You do not need to hold the whole six-month plan in working memory. Choose the current week, choose today’s capacity, and finish one defined unit.
The exam is broad, split across two different kinds of reasoning, and contains enough basic science that a purely clinical question-bank strategy leaves a predictable hole. Every week therefore contains Clinical Applications, Medical Sciences, visual interpretation and old-system maintenance.
Train diagnosis, investigation, therapeutics, competing comorbidity and the next best step. From Week 1, about three of every five bank questions should be clinical-application work.
Train mechanisms, physiology, pharmacology, pathology, epidemiology and test interpretation. Label these questions separately in the error log.
Cardiology, respiratory, neurology, gastroenterology and endocrinology are not removed from the plan. They account for 59 of the 169 assigned items: almost 35%. The remaining named specialties account for 110. The job is therefore to maintain the completed five while first coverage is distributed in proportion to the actual counts.
| Questions | Specialties in the supplied breakdown | Plan consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Gastroenterology | Covered: maintained from Week 1. |
| 12 each | Cardiology; General Medicine; Haematology; Infectious Diseases; Neurology; Pharmacology/Toxicology/Addiction; Respiratory; Rheumatology | Covered systems rotate; each uncovered field receives either two weeks or one anchor week plus longitudinal work. |
| 11 each | Geriatrics; Medical Oncology | Both receive two dedicated weeks. Geriatrics is no longer bundled into one week. |
| 10 | Endocrinology | Covered: maintained from Week 1. |
| 9 / 8 / 7 | Nephrology / Genetic and Metabolic Medicine / Immunology and Allergy | One concentrated week each, followed by scheduled question returns. |
| 2 each | Dermatology; Medical Obstetrics | Bundled, but tested again in later mixed sets. |
| 1 unresolved | Not present in the supplied list; palliative medicine is also absent. | Retain a palliative micro-block pending confirmation of the missing allocation. |
Its 12 items put it in the top-weight tier, and it is not simply another organ-system week. Tag undifferentiated presentations, multimorbidity, perioperative care, sepsis/shock, VTE, prescribing, psychiatry, epidemiology and cognitive error wherever they appear.
For each specialty, cover key presentations and conditions first, then investigations and foundational sciences. Less common or complex conditions are targeted when a lecture, official sample item or question-bank miss exposes the gap.
| Week | Primary curriculum work | CLS lectures to prioritise | Questions + exam practice | Spaced return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase A · calibrate and build the largest uncovered fields | ||||
| 1 | Baseline + General Medicine I Undifferentiated illness, deterioration, sepsis/shock, perioperative risk. | Perioperative Medicine; ICU 1; ICU 2. Start Introduction to Biostatistics. | 85-question baseline: 30 official RACP sample items for format calibration plus 55 fresh commercial-bank items; keep CA and MS scores separate. Check for overlap before later official simulations. | Maintenance A: cardiology + gastroenterology. |
| 2 | Nephrology Physiology, fluid/electrolytes and acid–base; AKI; glomerular disease; CKD complications, dialysis and transplantation. | Renal Physiology 1 + 2; Acute Kidney Injury; Glomerular Disease 1. Use focused segments from CKD/Dialysis/Transplantation rather than watching every lecture end to end. | 90–110 total; 60:40 CA:MS; urine, ABG/electrolyte and dialysis interpretation. Nine expected items does not justify two catalogue weeks before larger fields. | Maintenance B: respiratory + endocrinology. Retest Week 1 errors; renal returns in Weeks 3 and 5. |
| 3 | Haematology I Anaemia, haemolysis, transfusion, haemostasis and thrombosis. | Anaemia; Haemolysis and Transfusion Medicine; Coagulation Disorders; Anticoagulation Reversal. | 90–110; blood film and coagulation data set. | Maintenance C: neurology + lowest-scoring covered system. Renal at D7. |
| 4 | Haematology II Myeloma, acute/chronic leukaemias, MDS/MPN, lymphoid malignancy and emergencies. | Multiple Myeloma; AML and MDS; CLL; pair CML with MPN. Use Febrile Neutropenia during cases. | 100–120; first EMQ set; marrow/report interpretation and first timed 25-question block. | Maintenance A. Haem I at D7; renal at ~D21. |
| 5 | Infectious Diseases I Microbiology, antimicrobial choice, stewardship, common/serious infection and sepsis. | Microbiology; Serious Infections; Common Infectious Diseases; Sepsis. | 100–120; culture/CSF interpretation; 60:40 CA:MS maintained. | Maintenance B. Haem II at D7; older renal/haem mixed set. |
| 6 | Infectious Diseases II HIV, tuberculosis, immunocompromised host, travel, viral disease, STI and public health. | HIV 1 + 2; TB diagnosis/management; Returning Traveller. Use question misses to select Viral Infection or Common STIs segments. | 110–130; one timed 35-question MS half-block. | Maintenance C. ID I at D7; Haem I at ~D21. |
| 7 | Pharmacology I PK/PD, organ failure, interactions, therapeutic drug monitoring, adverse reactions and practical prescribing. | Pharmacokinetics and Dosing; Practical Prescribing; Safe/Effective Use; QUM/Governance. | 110–130; mechanism-heavy MS set plus renal/hepatic dose-adjustment cases. | Maintenance A. ID II at D7; older haem/renal mixed set. |
| 8 | Pharmacology II + first audit Toxidromes, major overdoses, toxic alcohols, envenomation, withdrawal, addiction and harm reduction. | Toxicology and Medication Safety; targeted overdose/toxidrome material. Fill addiction gaps from the curriculum and questions. | 110–130; 50 CA / 90 min; ECG/toxicology data set. Substitute a small unseen official set if available; it replaces bank volume. | Maintenance B. Pharm I at D7; full Weeks 1–4 audit. |
| Phase B · finish first coverage while mixed practice grows | ||||
| 9 | Oncology I Oncogenesis, staging, screening, treatment classes and toxicities. | New Cancer Drugs and Pathways; Breast Cancer; Lung Cancer; Colorectal Cancer. | 110–140; treatment-toxicity pairs; image/staging set. | Maintenance C. Pharm/tox II at D7; weakest of renal/haematology at six weeks. |
| 10 | Oncology II Common cancers, metastatic complications and oncological emergencies. | Upper GI; Urological; Gynaecological; Immunotherapy Toxicities. Learn emergencies through cases. | 120–140; 35 MS / 60 min; one EMQ set. | Maintenance A. Oncology I at D7; Weeks 5–6 mixed return. |
| 11 | Rheumatology I RA, crystal arthritis, spondyloarthritis, septic arthritis and common MSK disease. | Rheumatoid Arthritis; Gout and Crystal Arthropathies; Axial Spondyloarthritis; Psoriatic Arthritis. | 120–140; synovial-fluid and imaging set; 50 CA / 90 min. | Maintenance B. Oncology II at D7; Weeks 7–8 mixed return. |
| 12 | Rheumatology II SLE, systemic sclerosis, inflammatory myopathy, GCA/PMR, vasculitis. | SLE; Systemic Sclerosis; Inflammatory Myopathies; Giant Cell Arteritis. Move Vasculitis to Week 13 if needed. | 120–150; antibody/organ-pattern set; 35 MS / 60 min. | Maintenance C. Rheum I at D7; older oncology mixed set. |
| 13 | Geriatrics I Frailty, delirium, dementia, falls, function, capacity and common geriatric syndromes. | Dementia; Delirium; Falls; selected frailty/function content. | 120–150; 50 CA / 90 min; cognition, falls and capacity cases. | Maintenance A. Rheum II at D7; Weeks 9–10 mixed return. |
| 14 | Geriatrics II Polypharmacy, continence, nutrition, immobility, care transitions, goals of care and symptom control. | Polypharmacy; Pain Management; ACD/End-of-Life Care. Palliative content is a short retained block, not evidence that the missing item belongs there. | 130–150; 35 MS / 60 min; prescribing/deprescribing and symptom-control cases. | Maintenance B. Geri I at D7; Weeks 11–12 mixed return. |
| 15 | Genetic and Metabolic Medicine Inheritance, pedigrees, test selection/interpretation, penetrance/VUS, cancer and cardiac genetics. | Fundamentals; Clinical Genetics; Testing Overview; Requesting/Interpreting Tests. Add Cancer or Cardiac Genetics according to misses. | 130–150; pedigree/test-result set; 35 MS / 60 min. | Maintenance C. Geri II at D7; older pharm/tox mixed return. |
| 16 | Immunology and Allergy Immune mechanisms, immunodeficiency, anaphylaxis/drug allergy, complement and immunosuppression. | Basic Immunology; Immunodeficiencies; Drug Allergy and Anaphylaxis; Immunosuppression in Rheumatology. | 130–150; mechanism-heavy MS block plus acute anaphylaxis cases. | Maintenance A. Genetics at D7; Weeks 9–12 mixed return. |
| 17 | Small fields + buffer Medical obstetrics, dermatology, the retained palliative micro-block, psychiatry/disability medicine and one red gap. | Medical Disorders in Pregnancy; CKD in Pregnancy; Dermatological Manifestations of Systemic Disease. Use targeted reading for palliative, psychiatric and disability domains rather than a new lecture catalogue. | 130–160; 35 MS / 60 min; include at least two obstetric and two dermatology items, then complete the full blueprint audit. | Maintenance B. Immunology at D7; Weeks 13–14 mixed return. |
| Phase C · integration and blueprint repair | ||||
| 18 | Full blueprint audit No routine lecture sequence. Rank every specialty by fresh accuracy and curriculum gaps. | At most two targeted rescues from the audit. | Full simulation 1: exact 100 CA + lunch + 70 MS. Spend a separate session on review. | Maintenance C. Genetics at ~D21; older renal/ID mixed return. |
| 19 | Repair pair 1 Two weakest 8–14-item fields, one CA-dominant and one MS-dominant if possible. | Only the segment that fixes a named error cluster. | 150–190 fresh/mixed; 50 CA / 90 min; one visual set and two EMQ sets. | Re-test errors from Simulation 1 at 7–10 days. |
| 20 | Repair pair 2 Next two weakest weighted fields; include General Medicine presentations. | Maximum two targeted lectures or guideline sections. | 150–190; 35 MS / 60 min; unseen items kept separate from repeats. | Small-field sweep plus covered-system three-week rotation. |
| 21 | Execution audit Pacing, confidence calibration, answer-changing and recurrent stem errors. | No planned lectures. | Full simulation 2. Compare paper-specific performance and error types, not just total percentage. | Re-test Week 19 repairs; build the final four-week repair list. |
| Phase D · exact-paper conditioning, then taper | ||||
| 22 | Controlled repair Three highest-yield recurring gaps only. | Short source checks; no catalogue completion. | 160–200 mixed; one half-paper; images/EMQs; review every lucky guess. | Simulation 2 errors at 7–10 days. |
| 23 | Full simulation 3 Rehearse food, breaks, timing and sitting tolerance. | None unless a single repeated gap demands it. | Exact two-paper day, then detailed review. Answer every item; there is no negative marking. | Keep due cards and one short old-system set only. |
| 24 | Final curriculum sweep Look for blank domains, not interesting rabbit holes. | No new lecture unless it closes a blueprint blank. | 150–180 mixed, lighter late in week; one EMQ and one visual set. | Simulation 3 errors; high-risk facts and repeated reasoning failures. |
| 25 | Dress rehearsal Last full test early enough to recover and correct it. | None. | Full simulation 4 early in the week. Later work is short, targeted and confidence-calibrated. | One final check of recurrent errors; stop adding cards. |
| 26 | Taper Sleep, routine, logistics, brief recall of your own high-yield list. | None. | 60–80 familiar or targeted items early in the week; no late full mock. | Light due reviews only. Arrive rested rather than newly informed. |
Spacing is built into the timetable rather than left to good intentions. The intervals below are practical defaults; shorten them when recall is poor and lengthen them when performance is stable.
Week A cardiology + gastroenterology Week B respiratory + endocrinology Week C neurology + the lowest-scoring of the other four.
Repeat the cycle. The counts are close enough that the extra slot is driven by fresh accuracy, not a one-question weighting difference. Each focus block is 15–25 questions or one concentrated image/management set.
Protect, in order: due retrieval, the timed block, review of wrong/lucky answers, then new lectures. Move one lecture forward; do not create a six-lecture catch-up weekend.
Minimum viable week: 60 well-reviewed questions, two recall sessions, one visual set and due cards. Resume the sequence next week.
Three to four lecture-equivalents, 100–140 questions during coverage, daily short retrieval and one protected long question/review block.
Add questions and review, not extra note-making. Complete a half-paper or simulation when scheduled.
Use the minimum viable week. Keep spacing intact, accept slower new coverage and use Week 8 or 17 to recover one core gap.
Do not backfill everything. Re-enter with a 15-minute restart block, identify the highest-weight unfinished item, move only that item to the next buffer, then continue with the current week. A missed optional lecture is parked rather than converted into debt.
Give each source one job. That reduces platform-switching and stops a familiar or reconstructed item from masquerading as an unseen test.
Use the sample papers, practice questions and released Adult Medicine MCQ database to calibrate wording, paper balance and standard. Spend them slowly and record overlap.
Supplies most weekly volume: targeted sets after teaching, covered-system maintenance and the main mixed block. Verify questionable management answers against current Australian sources.
Use for unseen mixed and adaptive drills. It is a second measurement surface, not a second syllabus; stop adding volume if correction quality falls.
Use privately only if permitted under the current RACP agreement. Reconstruct and verify the answer. Old management, dose and threshold questions are quarantined by default.
| Source | Allocation | Job |
|---|---|---|
| PassFRACP | 70 | Current specialty plus scheduled maintenance. |
| iatroX | 30 | Unseen mixed/adaptive transfer. |
| Permitted recalls | up to 20 | Verified topic prompts; do not include in the fresh bank score. |
| Official RACP | checkpoint | Replaces an equal number above in scheduled calibration weeks. |
Keep the total near 60% CA / 40% MS. On a 100-question or survival week, reduce each commercial allocation proportionally rather than dropping Medical Sciences.
Never reproduce confidential exam stems publicly. Check the current participant agreement and RACP academic-integrity requirements before using circulated material.
There are useful additions, but no need for a third routine question bank. Add a resource only when it fills a defined gap.
Released items from the College’s own DWE database. Use small unseen sets at audits and log any overlap with the downloadable sample papers.
Complete the RACP course once for standards, logistics and the study toolkit. It is orientation, not a recurring weekly task.
The 2021/22 book covers both Clinical Applications and Medical Sciences with MCQs and EMQs. Useful for weak foundations; verify time-sensitive management.
Use your hospital access to settle Australian drug choice, dosing, interactions and common management disputes. Read the relevant entry; do not browse either cover to cover.
A recent RPA, Dunedin or comparable Australian/NZ course paper can provide an unfamiliar mock. Do not buy another complete lecture course merely to obtain more notes.
Useful extra volume for physiology, mechanisms and generic clinical reasoning. UK management answers require checking against Australian guidance.
Use Anki to retain compact facts that otherwise decay: mechanisms, associations, thresholds, adverse effects and discriminating findings. It sits before the day’s main work. Questions still teach application, ambiguity and exam pacing.
If four choices create needless friction, Anki explicitly permits a two-button rule: Again for incorrect; Good for correct.
Close the source and reproduce 5–7 headings. Make at most 1–3 cards for facts you could not reconstruct or expect to confuse. A card is not a compressed lecture note.
Review the explanation and verify disputed management against a current source. Make one card only if the error reduces to a reusable rule. Retest clinical application with a fresh question.
Do not copy a confidential or poorly remembered stem. Turn a stable concept into an original prompt, verify it, and exclude the recall from fresh-performance scores.
One clear question with one examinable job: a threshold, comparison, mechanism, adverse effect, association or short discriminating set. The answer is usually one line or a few bullets. Add specialty tags and a source.
Split cards that ask several unrelated things. Reject copied slides, “tell me everything” prompts, paragraphs disguised as answers and management claims without a current source. Suspend obsolete and duplicate cards rather than rehearsing them.
| Phase | New-card ceiling | Main job | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1–17 · coverage | 20–25/week | Current specialty plus recurring question-bank errors. | Due reviews daily; no card because a slide merely looked important. |
| Weeks 18–21 · integration | 10–15/week | Repair repeated mixed-block and simulation failures. | Pause cards that have never helped answer a question. |
| Weeks 22–25 · conditioning | 0–5/week | Maintain mature facts while fresh mixed questions dominate. | No deck-building project. Only high-consequence misconceptions earn a new card. |
| Week 26 · exam week | 0 | Short, familiar reviews only. | No backlog rescue. Reduce or stop the day before if reviews increase fatigue. |
Introduce the cardiology and gastroenterology cards first because they are this week’s maintenance pair and their lectures are already covered. Add General Medicine cards only from baseline errors. Leave new renal, haematology and other scheduled-specialty cards until their teaching week; once learned, their due reviews return through the parent deck.
Set new cards to zero. Clear the oldest or highest-priority due cards in 15–25 minute blocks, then resume normal reviews. Do not reset scheduling, cram the entire queue or compensate with a hundred new cards on Sunday.
CA Q30 ≈ 55 minCA Q65 ≈ 115 minfinish ≈ 165 min
MS Q30 ≈ 52 minMS Q60 ≈ 104 minfinish ≈ 112 min
These are buffer-building practice points, not College rules. Answer every item because incorrect answers are not penalised.
Create one tracker with: specialty, curriculum domain, coverage state (blank / learned / applied / stable), last retrieval date, fresh-question accuracy and next return. Import no giant premade deck. Choose the main bank and archive duplicate notes.
Do 50 mixed Clinical Applications questions and 35 mixed Medical Sciences questions on separate days, broadly stratified by the supplied specialty counts and timed without performance theatre. The result decides which “lowest-scoring” systems fill the maintenance slots.
Exam structure, dates and logistics. Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Divisional Written Examination, February 2027: application dates, exam and reserve dates, 2-paper format, item counts, MCQ/EMQ composition, timing, Adult Medicine blueprint, Victorian timetable, permitted items, scoring and preparation resources. Live page rechecked 7 September 2026.
Working specialty allocation. The supplied combined-paper breakdown was added on 7 September 2026: gastroenterology 13; eight named fields 12 each; geriatrics and medical oncology 11 each; endocrinology 10; nephrology 9; genetics 8; immunology 7; dermatology and medical obstetrics 2 each. These sum to 169. RACP states the examination has 170 scored questions, so the guide keeps one item explicitly unresolved rather than silently fabricating an allocation.
Official questions. The February 2027 RACP preparation page links member-only Adult Medicine practice questions, 100-question Clinical Applications and 70-question Medical Sciences sample papers, and a 30-question combined sample. RACP Online Learning search describes the Adult Medicine MCQ database as released DWE items for safe-practice learning and examination preparation.
Curriculum coverage. Eighteen supplied RACP Adult Internal Medicine Knowledge Guide exports, one for each blueprint specialty, read in full. RACP Knowledge Guides describes them as the baseline knowledge expected by the end of training. Key presentations/conditions were prioritised before less common/complex material.
Available teaching. Supplied College Learning Series – Current lectures 2025: Adult Medicine (updated 19 December 2025) and Acute Presentations for First Year Basic Physician Trainees – 2025. The sequence names available lectures rather than inventing a separate content course. Items marked “not live yet” were excluded from the core schedule.
Question-bank roles. PassFRACP and iatroX Australia product descriptions were used only to map their advertised features to distinct jobs. No independent head-to-head validation was found. RACP states that it does not endorse commercial preparation courses.
Optional book and mock. Gleadle J, Li J, Wu D, Kleinig P. How to Pass the FRACP Written Examination. Wiley, 2021/22. The RPA BPT Revision Course is an example of a current Australian course offering a 100-question, 3-hour trial; it is not required by this plan.
Spacing and Anki evidence. Maye & Hurley, Clinical Teacher 2026: systematic review/meta-analysis found improved objective-test performance with spaced repetition, while noting uncertainty about optimal delivery and long-term outcomes. Frappa et al., Medical Science Educator 2026: Anki evidence was mostly observational, more consistent for foundational examinations and limited for higher-order clinical examinations. Karpicke & Blunt, Science 2011: retrieval practice outperformed elaborative concept mapping in the studied experiments. The official Anki study manual and deck-options manual informed the answer-button and FSRS workload instructions.
Attention and accessibility. W3C cognitive-accessibility guidance supports short critical paths, removing unnecessary content and clear reorientation cues. NICE NG87 supports individually chosen environmental modifications; examples include reducing distraction, shorter focus periods with movement breaks and reinforcing verbal requests in writing. These principles informed the quiet view, defined task units and written next-action rule; they do not prove this exact interface will suit every person with ADHD.
Caveats. Weekly source allocations, question volumes, spacing intervals, card limits and checkpoint times are planning defaults, not College requirements. Commercial-bank answers and old book content require current Australian verification. Circulated recalls should be used only if permitted by the current participant agreement and RACP academic-integrity requirements; they are not reproduced here.