This is a monster of an exam and you will need help and that is exactly why I am here.
High Yield is just corporate speak for I don’t have the energy to write long comprehensive guides but I value brevity and I do have an interest in sharing some of my insights. I will also direct you towards comprehensive guides if that is what your heart truly desires.
Two components – Anatomy and Physics. Both exams can be taken together in one sitting or taken separately. I took them separately because I was working full time and wanted time for other interests as well but please don’t think it’s too difficult to pass both of them together. Plenty of people do that – you end up saving money on travel!
Timing: These exams happen three times a year – March, June and September. There are several important dates when bookings open and close. Take a look at this image from the RCR website. Plan well in advance so that life doesn’t get in the way.
Fees: Depends on the location and your membership status. Here’s an image from the RCR website.
How to start: Making a plan
First step: Are you ready?
Of course, if you are a ST1 trainee in UK (or similar system) then you are expected to attempt both the exams in the first year of your training.
A general thumb rule for other IMGS that can guide you towards an answer –
- Anatomy: If you have spent more than two years training in radiology and have worked with Radiographs, CT, MRI, Ultrasound then you are ready. Next step? Practice questions.
- Physics: You are never truly ready for this challenge and most people need a few weeks to months of dedicated preparation. Make sure your give yourself adequate time without rushing to a death from scintillation and Fourier analysis. Next step? Find the best resources.
Membership: If you have made a plan to take all the exams, do think about taking the RCR membership for two reasons.
- As you can see above, the booking dates open a few weeks before for members.
- The fees are lower for members – of course, you should balance it against the membership fees itself but usually, you end up saving on fees.
How much time does it take?
This is a deeply personal question because it depends on the baseline skill and knowledge of a candidate as well as how many hours they are devoting to studying each week. To keep things simple however, without going too deep into a philosophical discourse, in my opinion 4-6 weeks of prep time for anatomy and 8-10 weeks of prep time for physics should put you in a good position if you are devoting roughly 20 hours per week per subject. The two time frames do not have to be mutually exclusive, of course, in 8-10 weeks you can prepare for both.
Marking system and Passing scores
Part of making a strategy is to have adequate knowledge about the scoring system and the passing marks.
Both anatomy and Physics are semi-competitive exams. I don’t know if that is a real term but what I mean by that is the pass marks are dynamic and vary each session. They depend upon a complicated formula that calculates the marks taking into account the difficulty of the questions (according to exam setters) and the scores of the candidates.
Anatomy: 100 questions in 90 minutes. Each question comes with an image and a arrow pointing to a structure. You have to Type out the labelled structure taking care to get numbering, lateral/medial, left/right correct. Each question carries 2 marks which makes the full mark an even 200. There is no negative marking but you can get part marks – so in each question you can be scored 0/1/2.
Part marks lead to a lot of confusion and with good reason. You can get away with a part mark for anything – not writing a side, not mentioning which toe or finger, not specifying lateral or medial, proximal or distal and so on. You will NOT however get a part mark for a WRONG descriptor mind you – getting left/right, lateral/medial or the numbering wrong is forgiven neither in the exam nor in clinical practice.
Passing scores in anatomy vary. They are usually around 150 (70-75%) but can go lower around 120 (60%). The number of students who pass vary from 50% to 90% depending on the session and you can get this data directly from RCR’s pass reports.
Physics: This is a multi-option correct MCQ pattern. There are 40 questions (stems) each coupled with five answers (options) – all or none of the options can be correct/true/false – It’s a gnarly exam truly. But you have to get each of the five options correct to get the full marks. 40 question with 5 options each make a total of 200 full marks. No negative marking.
Passing scores vary less than Anatomy and are usually in the region of 150 (70-75%). The number of students who pass are a bit less (and also vary less) compared to anatomy and are usually 60% to 80% depending on the session and you can get this data directly from RCR’s pass reports.
It is always worthwhile to go through RCR’s own Guidance Notes.
Books to use: Less is more
Anatomy
I used one book and I honestly do not think you need more than that. Weir & Abrahams’ Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy
This book can be used as a primer before you dive into practice questions. You can even do it the other way around where you do practice questions and then use the book paying attention to your areas that need more work – vascular anatomy and 3D anatomy tend to be challenging areas.
Physics
Part of the reason why this exam is so crazy is because no book or resource guarantees that you’ll be comfortable with the exam questions. Having said that, I leaned heavily on two text books – FRCR Physics Notes and Farr’s Physics for Medical Imaging.
I recommend this step-wise plan for most people unless you have a special relationship with physics – I don’t want to shake things up!
- Speed reading the FRCR Physics notes first to get a fair idea of the enemy that you’re up against.
- Solving a few practice questions to understand where you currently stand.
- Read specific areas of Farr’s Physics to supplement your concepts.
- Solve more practice questions to see how far you’ve improved.
Where to do Practice questions from? The books which made me cry the most which I learned from the most are
- Physics Mcqs for the Part 1 Frcr: This “blue book” has the hardest questions. Explanations usually do a good job of well, explaining but sometimes I struggled but that may have been a me problem.
- MCQs for the First FRCR (Oxford): The orange book. This has slightly easier questions but still an excellent book.
- There are two other books that come recommended from some of my colleagues like Succeeding in the FRCR Part 1 Exam and Get Through First FRCR but I personally have not used them.
Social media
There are several resources on social media that can be useful. Some of them are useful to regular revision while others can be that proverbial poke that reminds you to get back to your revision when you are lazily scrolling through your Instagram feed.
- Instagram: I have to shameless plug my own account because I post regular anatomy content. There are similar accounts posting high quality content regularly like @Radiologyvibes, @theradiologistpage and @caferadiology.
- Youtube: Radiology tutorials has high quality physics videos. They may not be marketed specifically for the FRCR but they do a good job of covering physics well.
- Telegram: There is an excellent group run by Radiology Vibes called FRCR Part 1 Supergroup
Important websites
Anatomy
For anatomy practice, there is an important free resource: Cafe Radiology which has 1800 questions arranged into 18 exam papers. These are high quality images covering all the systems. However, this involves downloading a booklet and writing or typing your answers separately – it does not quite feel like the actual exam on the Speedwell software.
If you need more questions and a better platform there are two paid options:
Radiology Vibes: 30 modules with 3000 high quality questions.
Revise Radiology: 16 FRCR Anatomy packets with 1500+ Questions
Physics
- FRCRexamprep: Paid resource that I personally have never used.
- BMJ On examination: Same and possibly even lesser known than the former.
Full time work with kids: Minimum time version
Let’s be real, not everyone has the luxury of time. If you find yourself in this position with time to spare only for the absolute essentials, then I can make a plan for you. This will however be more expensive.
1. Take a paid subscription for anatomy – preferably one with maximum number of questions. Every mistake you make should be accompanied by reading of Weir & Abrahams’ Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy to ensure you don’t repeat that or similar mistakes.
2. Physics: Read FRCR Physics Notes and solve chapterwise questions from Physics Mcqs for the Part 1 Frcr with special attention to explanations. Once you finish the blue book, solve the MCQs for the First FRCR (Oxford) and review problem areas from Farr’s Physics for Medical Imaging. Before exam, remember to revise both the MCQ books.
Alright guys, thanks for reading. It takes a lot to reach the end of this longer-than-I-thought article in this generation with 10 second attention spans. But if you have even more attention, here you go with more detailed guides:
PS: None of them have paid me to put their links here. They are just decent people who have worked hard to curate content and have written exhaustive guides for FRCR.
Thank you sir, we are lucky to have your guidance!
That’s a really entertaining way to put things sir, wonderful blog.