How to Revise for MRCPCH While Working Full Time: 5 Mistakes to Avoid

Most revision plans assume hours you do not have. With nights, on-calls, teaching and a family, a three-hour block on Tuesday is not realistic. A better plan is one small enough to survive a bad week. Here are the five planning mistakes that most often break a plan, and a minimum routine designed to avoid them.

Why naming the mistake matters

A revision plan only works if it survives your worst week. Most plans fail not because the candidate lacks discipline, but because they were designed for a schedule that does not exist. Seeing where a plan usually breaks tends to make the fix obvious.

Mistake 1: Planning sessions you cannot protect

A plan for two hours every evening fails by Wednesday, and the failure makes the next plan feel pointless.

Fix: Plan the minimum you can always do, which is 20 minutes. Anything more is a bonus, not a debt.

Mistake 2: Doing long timed blocks when you are tired

A long timed block at the end of a shift mostly measures how tired you are.

Fix: After work, do ten questions untimed. Save timed blocks for days off, when you can read carefully.

Mistake 3: Copying out every explanation

Copying feels productive, but it takes ten minutes and tells you little about why you chose the wrong answer.

Fix: Review only two kinds of question: the ones you got wrong, and the ones you got right by guessing. For each, write one line: which clue would have got me there?

Mistake 4: Only practising the topics you enjoy

It is natural to go back to the systems you like, because that is where questions feel good. The exam will not follow your preferences.

Fix: Use mixed question sets, or rotate systems by day so that nothing is left for the last month.

Mistake 5: Never reviewing your reviews

Without a look at the pattern, you repeat the same errors for weeks.

Fix: Once a week, spend 20 minutes counting your mistakes by type: knowledge gap, missed clue or misread task. Pick one fix for the coming week. Our guide to keeping an error log that actually helps shows a simple way to do this.

A practical example

Consider a candidate on a busy rota who plans two hours every evening, manages it twice, and stops. Ten untimed questions on a few evenings plus a weekly review looks less ambitious on paper, but it is far more likely to still be happening in week six.

What to do this week

Choose a minimum you can do on your worst day, such as ten untimed questions in about 20 minutes, and do it on three evenings.
After each session, review only the wrong answers and the lucky guesses, with one line each.
For a full weekly structure that includes a rest day, see a weekly study rhythm that survives a busy rota. If you are preparing for a resit, see a resit strategy that actually works.

If you have just finished a night shift, sleep first. Revising while exhausted is poor value, and this routine is not a guarantee of a pass. Whether it is enough depends on your starting point and your exam date.

Closing thought

Small sessions that are reviewed properly usually beat occasional heroic ones. The aim is a routine you can still be doing in the final weeks.

Want questions to start with? Try the free 3-Minute MRCPCH and fit your first ten into tonight.

Original material only, never recalled exam content. For postgraduate medical education and exam preparation. Always follow current guidance.