We asked customers who sat the May MRCP 1 exam for 1 piece of advice for future exam takers - this is what they said. 

1. Learn the theory behind questions as well as doing questions - video tutorials on Pastest were a big help. 

2. Attempt lots of questions and read around the answers. There are favourite topics that come up time and again.

3. Do lots of practice questions but make sure you read around topics you don't understand e.g. I would Google/Wikipedia content that came up that I didn't know much about.

4. Do as many questions as you can but consistently. 50-100 questions a night and more on weekends/days off.

5. Don't spend too long on one specialty. Spread time evenly. The Pastest questions are very very similar to the exam questions - trust Pastest!

6. Practice, practice, practice - do lots of past papers as time flies in the exam.

7. Concentrate on the bigger subjects - gastro, cardio, resp. Focus more on these and less on the smaller topics.

8. Don't just try and do thousands of questions. Use the questions to guide revision.

9. Get hold of the subject matters that feature in the exam and allocate time to cover the major topics. Use the online lectures as they are very helpful and try a couple of past papers before the actual exam.

10. Do background reading as well as questions. Don't just focus on hard stuff you need to know the basics inside out too.

11. Try to study by subjects e.g. Nephrology, Rheumatology etc. watch the videos then do as many questions as necessary to have a feel for the area. Also make your own personal notes based on the videos as well as the questions asked.

12. Make sure you revise as well as doing questions; questions alone will not help you pass, but they're a good indicator of the level of detail required and point out your weaknesses.

13. Some of the Pastest questions came out exactly the same in the real exam. Just do the past years over and over again.

14. Do not just learn the stems by heart, understand the concept. Do not expect the same exact questions as you learned, but if the concept is clear, you can easily get the answers.

15. Take time to learn the theory/medicine of glomerulonephritis as there are lots of questions around this which you can't answer without a good knowledge of the histology/aetiology/physiology.

16. Do as many questions as you can to get used to the pattern of questions. Familiarity is the key in part one.

17. I would seriously recommend Pastest as it gives us a fair idea on the exam and what the examiner expects from the clinical questions. Pastest helped me a lot in tuning my mind to the way they want us to think.

18. Hard work, persistency, belief in oneself and timely revision of MCQs would steer you through your exam.

19. Don't underestimate the depth of knowledge the college expects - particularly with regards to clinical science.

20. Don't neglect the clinical sciences component or clinical pharmacology/toxicology.