FACRRM fellowship written exam — how are you managing the MCQ load alongside clinical shifts?
I'm in my second year of the training program and the fellowship exams are starting to feel very real. The MCQ component covers an enormous breadth — obstetrics, emergency medicine, mental health, Indigenous health, procedural skills. I've been trying to study 1.5 to 2 hours most evenings but between on-call shifts it's hard to maintain any consistency.
From what others in my cohort have said, the written exam pass rate sits around 65–70% on first attempt, which isn't terrible but it's enough to take seriously. The extended matching questions seem to be where a lot of candidates drop points — they test clinical reasoning under time pressure in a way that pure knowledge recall doesn't prepare you for.
I've been using the ACRRM learning platform and supplementing with AMC-style practice questions. The rural and remote context means some clinical priorities shift compared to urban-focused resources — wound management, retrieval coordination, limited-resource decision-making. Anyone else finding that FOAM resources like Life in the Fast Lane help more than the formal prep materials for the emergency sections?
Doing 40 MCQs a day for 8 weeks was what got me through. Doesn't matter if they're perfect questions as long as you're reviewing every wrong answer and understanding the reasoning. Spaced repetition with Anki on top of that kept the early material from fading.
The mental health section caught me off guard — a lot more pharmacology depth than I expected, especially around drug interactions in patients with comorbid physical conditions. I scored 58% on that domain in my practice run and had to do a serious catch-up in the last 4 weeks.
The obstetrics and paediatrics sections are weighted pretty heavily relative to how much time most of us spend on them in placements. I'd set aside at least 3 dedicated study weeks for those two domains alone if you're weaker on them.
FOAM resources are genuinely useful for the acute care sections. I used LITFL almost daily in the 3 months before my written exam and I'm convinced it helped with the reasoning-heavy EMQs. The key is pairing it with cases that have a remote context so you're not just thinking hospital-centric.