An AMC CAT MCQ study plan: three, six and twelve month timelines

The arithmetic behind a plan

A study plan starts as a calculation with four inputs, and the list of topics comes after it.

1. Weeks remaining to the window you are aiming at.
2. Hours a week you can commit in an ordinary week rather than a good one.
3. Ground to cover, established from a baseline across the six patient groups rather than assumed.
4. Weighting, so that patient groups carrying more of the blueprint receive more of the time. Adult medicine is 30% of the exam, adult surgery 20%, and women's health, child health, mental health, and population health and ethics 12.5% each.

Multiply weeks by hours, compare with the ground to cover, and the plan either works or it does not. If it does not, the honest choices are more hours a week or a later date. Nothing else changes the result.

The free diagnostic supplies a starting point for input three. It samples every patient group and gives a first read on every subject.

The three phases

Whatever the length of the timeline, it has the same three phases in the same order. Only the size of each changes.

• Coverage. Work through the patient groups, reading Australian guidance and reducing each topic to short recallable principles, with questions immediately afterwards. Untimed at this stage.
• Consolidation. Mixed timed sets across the groups, spaced review of everything already covered, and targeted work on what the results expose. This phase is where most of the gain happens.
• Rehearsal. Full-length timed mocks at the exam's pace of about 84 seconds a question, answering each question to move on with no going back, then a final fortnight of consolidation with no new material.

A common error is to spend almost all the time on coverage and reach the date with no rehearsal. Coverage feels productive because it is measurable. Consolidation and rehearsal are what convert coverage into marks.

A twelve month timeline

Suited to candidates returning to study after a long break, working full time, or with substantial ground to cover.

Take a fresh baseline at the end of month six. Twelve months is long enough that the plan written at the start will be wrong by then, and rewriting it against evidence is part of the method.

A CAT MCQ authorisation covers one exam event in the 12 months from payment, so on a long timeline there is no need to pay at the start. Pay when the window you are aiming for falls inside the following 12 months. The AMC CAT MCQ dates page shows which windows a payment date covers.

A six month timeline

Suited to candidates in current clinical practice with reasonable breadth already.

A three month timeline

Feasible only for candidates who are in current practice, already broad, and able to commit substantial weekly hours. It is tight and leaves no room for a bad month.

A workable week

The shape of a week matters more than the total. A plan built from short frequent sessions survives contact with clinical work; a plan built from two long weekend blocks does not.

• A daily minimum, even twenty minutes of retrieval. Frequency protects retention better than duration.
• Two or three substantial sessions for new material, placed where you concentrate best.
• One timed mixed set each week from the consolidation phase onwards.
• One review session, rereading your principles record and repeating questions you got wrong.
• A mock on a day off during the rehearsal phase. Three and a half hours after a night shift measures fatigue rather than knowledge.

Missed weeks

Every long plan meets a bad fortnight. The plan has to absorb it rather than accumulate arrears, because a backlog that cannot be cleared is abandoned entirely.

Recalculate the remaining weeks against the remaining ground and reset the targets. The platform's plan does this automatically when a week is missed, so the targets you see are always achievable in the time left.

Studying alongside clinical work

• Use the patients you see. A presentation managed today is a free prompt for that topic tonight.
• Carry retrieval rather than reading. Flashcards and recall prompts work in ten-minute gaps; textbook chapters do not.
• Protect the mocks. Everything else can move around a roster. The full-length papers cannot be done properly in fragments.

The final fortnight

Stop adding new material. Reread your own record of principles, repeat the questions you answered wrongly, and keep pace sharp with short timed mixed sets. Confirm the practical arrangements for the day, which the exam day guide covers, and treat sleep in the final week as part of the plan rather than as what is left over.