I'm sitting Part 2A in October and finding the physics component significantly harder than Part 1 physics, which I passed at 68% about 18 months ago. The modality-specific physics for MRI and nuclear medicine in particular feels like a different exam. I'm 12 weeks out and averaging about 2.5 hours of revision per day.
My mock scores are around 55–60% on the physics sections and 70–75% on the clinical radiology sections. I need 60% overall to pass, so mathematically I'm borderline right now. The problem is the physics questions in 2A test application rather than pure theory — they give you a patient scenario and ask why a specific artifact is appearing.
For those who've passed Part 2A recently: did you find dedicated physics mock papers worth the time, or is it better to focus on clinical cases and shore up physics with the curriculum documents? I'm worried about spending too long on physics and letting my clinical scores slip.
The application-style physics questions are where people lose marks because they're not drilling enough case-based physics. Pure theory gives you the foundation but you need to practice translating it to clinical scenarios. Find physics questions embedded in clinical radiology case banks, not just standalone physics papers.
55–60% in physics at 12 weeks out isn't a disaster but you can't coast. I'd allocate 60% of your study time to physics until you're consistently above 65% in mocks, then rebalance. The PassMedicine FRCR bank is the most representative for physics questions I've found.
I sat 2A in March and passed with a 64% overall — physics brought my score down from what I expected. What helped was going through the RCR curriculum document physics section and mapping every topic to at least 2–3 clinical scenarios in my head before the exam. The artifact and protocol optimization questions are where most people lose marks.
MRI physics is particularly heavy in recent sittings from what I've heard. K-space, parallel imaging artifacts, and sequence optimization questions all come up regularly. Don't neglect PET-CT physics either — it's a bigger chunk than you'd expect from the curriculum weighting.