AMC MCQ practice questions

How the questions are built

Every question follows the format the AMC publishes for the CAT MCQ: a clinical scenario, a lead-in and five options, of which one is the correct response. The AMC says other options may be partly correct, which is why the rationale for each wrong option matters as much as the explanation of the right one.

1. The scenario. A patient with an age, a setting, a presenting complaint, examination findings and often results. Some questions include an X-ray, ECG, scan or clinical photograph. The setting is usually load-bearing: a rural hospital, a general practice and a tertiary emergency department imply different options.
2. The lead-in. One specific question, such as the most likely diagnosis, the most appropriate next investigation or the most appropriate management. The lead-in decides which plausible option is right.
3. Five options. The four wrong options are typically correct but premature, correct for a different presentation, standard in another health system but not in Australia or plainly wrong.

A worked example

A 58-year-old man at a small rural hospital has 40 minutes of central chest pain and ST elevation across the anterior leads, with no contraindication to fibrinolysis. The nearest catheter laboratory is three hours away by road and no aircraft is available for at least two hours. The lead-in asks for the most appropriate next step.

The options might include transfer alone, fibrinolysis followed by transfer, waiting for a troponin result, oxygen and nitrates with reassessment, and intravenous beta blockade with overnight observation. Primary angioplasty is preferred when it can be delivered promptly; here it cannot, so reperfusion is achieved with fibrinolysis and transfer follows. Waiting for troponin fails because ST elevation already calls for reperfusion, and oxygen and nitrates do not reperfuse the artery.

The knowledge required is not obscure. The work is in noticing which single detail, here the travel time, decides between two otherwise reasonable answers.

Reviewing a question properly

• Read the rationale for all five options, not only the one you chose. The wrong options are where the examinable distinctions live.
• Say why your answer failed. A knowledge gap, a misread detail, the right principle applied too early or practice from another health system each needs a different remedy.
• Record the principle rather than the question. "Fibrinolysis when angioplasty cannot be delivered in time" transfers to new questions; the answer to one question does not.
• Return to your mistakes. In the platform, a question answered wrongly comes back in later sessions until it is answered correctly.

Practising by patient group

The AMC blueprint gives adult medicine 30% of the exam, adult surgery 20%, and women's health, child health, mental health and population health 12.5% each. While you are learning a group, practise it on its own: adult medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and population health and ethics. As the exam approaches, switch to mixed sets under time, because the AMC randomises questions across the blueprint.

Recall compilations are a poor substitute for any of this. The AMC has found many of the stems and answers in circulated papers to be incorrect, and its rules on exam content carry a conduct risk. The page on AMC recalls sets out what the AMC says.

The AMC's own material

The AMC's preparation app, built with eMedici, has 210 questions written by AMC contributors and is free for 12 months with the CAT MCQ authorisation. Its free book Australian Medicine in Context covers 105 common conditions and 56 professional practice topics. The AMC does not support or endorse external preparation resources, including this one. The free mock test adds the exam's pace and its no-going-back rule to practice like this.