MRCPsychEd PaperA Crash course FAQ

Q1: What’s the most tested section in Paper A?

Q2: What are the top 5 recurring concepts?

Q3: What makes Paper A difficult?

Wrap-Up Table

Q1: When should I use a Chi-square test?

Q2: When is a T-test appropriate?

Q3: What about ANOVA?

Q4: How do I decide which test to use?

Q5: Any tips for remembering this in the exam?

Q1: What’s the difference between confidence interval and standard error?

Q2: Why is the 95% confidence interval such a big deal?

Q3: Why do they give both SE and CI in questions? What do I look for?

Q4: What’s a common trap here?

Q5: How do I remember this under pressure?

Q1: Why do I always mix up cohort, case-control, and RCT?

Q2: What about cross-sectional and ecological studies?

Q3: How do I remember bias types?

Q4: What about confounding? It always feels vague.

Q5: What do they really want me to know in the exam?

Q1: What’s the difference between NNT and ARR?

Q2: How does NNH fit in?

Q3: What is RRR? And why does it always sound better than it is?

Q4: What do they like to test?

Q5: Memory shortcut?

Q1: What’s a forest plot?

Q2: What is heterogeneity and what’s I²?

Q3: What’s a funnel plot and what does asymmetry mean?

Q4: What are fixed vs random effects models?

Q5: What traps show up in the exam?

Q1: What’s the difference between validity and reliability?

Q2: What are the different types of reliability?

Q3: What types of validity come up in the exam?

Q4: What do they usually try to trip me up on?

Q5: What’s the quick exam fix?

Q1: Do I need to memorise every single milestone?

Q2: What are the must-know motor milestones?

Q3: What about speech and language?

Q4: Which social milestones come up most?

Q5: What traps do they set?

Q1: Why do Piaget, Erikson, and Vygotsky feel so interchangeable?

Q2: What are Piaget’s four stages?

Q3: What are Erikson’s psychosocial stages that get tested most?

Q4: What does Vygotsky bring to the picture?

Q5: What tricks do the exams play with these?

Summary Table

Q1: Who said what — Bowlby or Ainsworth?

Q2: What are the attachment styles from Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation”?

Q3: What about the stages of attachment Bowlby described?

Q4: What’s the significance of attachment types in development?

Q5: What are the common traps?

Snapshot Summary

Q1: Why is adolescence such a common topic in the exam?

Q2: What does Erikson say about this stage?

Q3: What psychological and behavioural changes are “normal” in adolescence?

Q4: What else gets tested about adolescence?

Q5: What traps show up in exam questions?

Memory Prompt

Q1: Is adult development really on the exam?

Q2: What are the expected cognitive changes with ageing?

Q3: What does Erikson say about adult stages?

Q4: What social and emotional changes are relevant in later life?

Q5: What traps do questions lay in this section?

Summary: What to Memorise

Q1: What’s the actual difference between classical and operant conditioning?

Q2: Why do the reinforcement types always confuse me?

Q3: What exam tricks should I watch for?

Q4: How does this show up clinically?

Q5: Can you summarise it Spiral-style?

Q1: What is Social Learning Theory?

Q2: What was the Bobo Doll experiment?

Q3: How is this different from operant conditioning?

Q4: What terms do they love using in the exam?

Q5: Common exam traps?

Q1: What’s actually tested in sociocultural psychiatry?

Q2: What’s the difference between public, internalised, and structural stigma?

Q3: What’s the “cultural formulation” in psychiatry?

Q4: Do I need to know culture-bound syndromes?

Q5: What traps do they use in questions?

Summary

Q1: Do I need to memorise every neurotransmitter and function?

Q2: What are the big 6 neurotransmitters for the exam?

Q3: What kinds of questions do they ask?

Q4: What about receptor types — do I need to go that deep?

Q5: What traps do they set in MCQs?

Summary: Fast Associations

Q1: Do I really need to memorise all the wave frequencies?

Q2: How does this show up in MRCPsych exams?

Q3: What are the major EEG findings in pathology I should know?

Q4: What are common exam traps?

Q5: Any good memory hacks?

Q1: What are the core brain regions I need to know?

Q2: What are Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas again?

Q3: What’s the hippocampus for?

Q4: What else shows up in MCQs?

Q5: Spiral-style survival guide?

Q1: What’s the main difference between CT and MRI?

Q2: What about MRI sequences — do I need to know T1 vs T2?

Q3: What’s fMRI, and how is it different from regular MRI?

Q4: What are other scan types I should recognise?

Q5: What are common exam tricks?

Summary

Q1: What is half-life, and why is it important?

Q2: What is steady state, and how long does it take?

Q3: Which psychiatric drugs have notable half-lives?

Q4: What do they ask in the exam about these concepts?

Q5: What’s the easy way to remember all this?

Q1: What types of antidepressants do I actually need to know?

Q2: What side effects do they love to test?

Q3: What’s serotonin syndrome and why does it show up so often?

Q4: What do they test in MCQs?

Q5: What are the traps?

Summary Table

Q1: What’s the difference between typical and atypical antipsychotics?

Q2: What are the most high-yield side effects?

Q3: What are the EPS types and how do I tell them apart?

Q4: What about Clozapine — why is it so important?

Q5: What are the classic traps?

Summary Table

Q1: Which mood stabilisers do I actually need to know?

Q2: What’s essential about Lithium?

Q3: What about Sodium Valproate?

Q4: What about Carbamazepine?

Q5: Common exam scenarios?

Summary Table

Q1: Do I need to memorise all the CYP enzymes?

Q2: What are the big psychiatric drugs that interact via CYP450?

Q3: What interactions show up on the exam again and again?

Q4: What’s the deal with smoking and Clozapine?

Q5: What’s the Spiral approach to drug interactions?

Quick Table: CYP Patterns to Remember

Q1: What does heritability actually mean?

Q2: How do twin studies help us understand this?

Q3: What’s the difference between genetic risk and heritability?

Q4: What about adoption studies?

Q5: What are common traps?

Memory Snapshot

Q1: What is a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS)?

Q2: What’s a polygenic risk score (PRS)?

Q3: What makes psychiatric genetics so complicated?

Q4: What questions might show up?

Q5: Common traps?

Summary

Q1: What’s the difference between prevalence and incidence?

Q2: What types of study designs appear in the exam?

Q3: What’s the difference between prospective and retrospective studies?

Q4: What do MCQs usually test here?

Q5: What are the traps?

Summary Table

Q1: What is bias in an epidemiological study?

Q2: What is confounding?

Q3: What’s the difference between internal and external validity?

Q4: How do you deal with bias or confounding?

Q5: What are classic traps in MCQs?

Summary Table