How it works
Questions, a plan and mocks for the AMC CAT MCQ.
Start with the free diagnostic. Your study plan is built from the result.
Take the free diagnostic
Questions from every subject, in about 14 minutes. Your result shows where you are losing marks, and your study plan starts there.
Your result
Getting there
- Adult health: medicine70%Secure
- Adult health: surgery62%Developing
- Child health47%Developing
- Mental health65%Developing
- Population health and ethics43%Weak
Study a little every day
Choose 10, 30 or 60 minutes. Each session mixes flashcards, a short reading and questions on your weakest topics.
Practise with every answer explained
Each explanation names the Australian guideline it relies on and says why every other option is wrong.
A 66-year-old Aboriginal man sees his general practitioner at an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in a regional town. Yesterday, vision in his left eye went dark 'like a curtain' for 10 minutes, then fully recovered. He has no headache, jaw pain or scalp tenderness. He smokes and has hypertension. His pulse is 76/min and regular and his blood pressure 148/86 mmHg. Eye and neurological examinations are normal. The regional hospital nearby has an ED with CT and carotid ultrasound. Which one of the following is the most appropriate next step in management?
Correct. You answered D, the best answer.
Yes. Transient painless monocular visual loss is a retinal TIA; he needs urgent clinical assessment with brain imaging and early carotid imaging to guide secondary prevention and possible endarterectomy.
Sudden painless monocular visual loss 'like a curtain' that clears within minutes is amaurosis fugax, a TIA of the retinal circulation, usually from carotid or cardiac emboli. Any suspected TIA needs urgent clinical assessment, brain imaging and, for anterior circulation symptoms, carotid imaging within 2 days, because stroke risk is highest in the first days.
Sources (3)
- Transient ischaemic attack (TIA): signs, treatment, reducing your risk of stroke (consumer brochure), What is a transient ischaemic attack?; Signs (PDF dated April 2023 (no edition number shown)) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation, carotid imaging) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
Why C is tempting
Treating transient monocular visual loss as an eye problem, or letting a low ABCD2 score justify delay.
Remember
Amaurosis fugax is a retinal TIA and follows the urgent TIA pathway, including early carotid imaging.
All options explained
Option A: Routine ophthalmology referral
Brief painless monocular 'curtain' loss with a normal eye examination suggests retinal ischaemia, a TIA; a routine eye appointment delays the urgent stroke assessment and carotid imaging he needs.
Sources (3)
- Sudden loss of vision: investigation and management (Goold L, Durkin S, Crompton J), Transient embolic phenomenon (Vol. 38, No. 10, October 2009) · The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (Australian Family Physician)
- Sudden loss of vision: investigation and management (Goold L, Durkin S, Crompton J), Giant cell arteritis (Vol. 38, No. 10, October 2009) · The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (Australian Family Physician)
- Transient ischaemic attack (TIA): signs, treatment, reducing your risk of stroke (consumer brochure), What is a transient ischaemic attack?; Signs (PDF dated April 2023 (no edition number shown)) · Stroke Foundation
Option B: Outpatient carotid Doppler in 6 weeks
Carotid imaging after an anterior circulation TIA belongs in the initial assessment and should not be delayed beyond 2 days; waiting 6 weeks misses the period of highest stroke risk.
Source
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation, carotid imaging) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
Option C: Reassurance, as his ABCD2 score is low
The ABCD2 score should not set urgency on its own; when TIA is the most likely diagnosis, urgent investigation is needed even if the score suggests low risk.
Sources (2)
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (weak recommendation against) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management, Chapter 2 of 8: Early assessment and diagnosis, Transient ischaemic attack: Practical Info (Living guideline, chapter PDF (MAGICapp) retrieved 2026-09-23) · Stroke Foundation
Option D: Urgent TIA assessment with carotid imagingyour answer, correct
Transient painless monocular visual loss is a retinal TIA; he needs urgent clinical assessment with brain imaging and early carotid imaging to guide secondary prevention and possible endarterectomy.
Sources (3)
- Transient ischaemic attack (TIA): signs, treatment, reducing your risk of stroke (consumer brochure), What is a transient ischaemic attack?; Signs (PDF dated April 2023 (no edition number shown)) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation, carotid imaging) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
Option E: Aspirin and review in 2 weeks
Starting aspirin early is reasonable, but review in 2 weeks leaves him without the urgent assessment, brain imaging and carotid imaging within 2 days that a suspected TIA needs.
Sources (2)
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management, Chapter 2 of 8: Early assessment and diagnosis, Transient ischaemic attack: Practical Info (p 16 of 64) (Living guideline, chapter 2 PDF (MAGICapp), © Stroke Foundation 2023) · Stroke Foundation
- Australian and New Zealand Living Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management: summary of recommendations, Chapter 2 Early assessment and diagnosis: Transient ischaemic attack (strong recommendation, carotid imaging) (Summary of recommendations, last updated June 2025 (living guideline)) · Stroke Foundation
When the answer would change
Sit full timed mocks
150 questions in three and a half hours, one at a time with no going back, as in the real CAT MCQ.
Every subject in the exam
Each bar is its share of the exam.
- Adult health: medicine30%
- Adult health: surgery20%
- Child health13%
- Mental health13%
- Population health and ethics12%
- Women's health: obstetrics and gynaecology12%
Mock exams
Every format, from a 10-question mini mock to the full exam.
- 10questionsFree
Mini mock: mixed domains
14 min
- 20questions
Domain tests
28 min, 2 papers
- 30questions
Full-paper practice: CAT MCQ
42 min
- 150questions
CAT MCQ full mock
3 h 30 min, 4 papers
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