OpenExamsFREE PRACTICE — ANY EXAM

Free MRCPsych Paper B Practice Questions

100 free questions · Answer explanations · No signup required

View examination details, outline and sources

Loading selected examination banks…

Sample Practice Questions

Try these 10 sample questions from the MRCPsych Paper B practice bank. Each includes the answer and explanation. Continue with the interactive practice above to review the full question set.

  1. 1An adult entering a rehabilitation service for complex psychosis needs an initial needs assessment. Which approach is recommended?

    1. A.A psychiatrist assesses diagnosis and sets the rehabilitation plan without other professions.
    2. B.A multidisciplinary team integrates biological, psychological and social needs.Correct answer: B
    3. C.A nursing team assesses ward routines while leaving psychological needs for later.
    4. D.A social care team assesses accommodation while leaving clinical needs for later.

    Explanation: NICE recommends a "comprehensive biopsychosocial needs assessment by a multidisciplinary team". The assessment integrates complementary professional perspectives across all three domains; the other approaches fragment the assessment or restrict it to one profession.

    Reference: NICE NG181: Rehabilitation for adults with complex psychosis — Recommendation1.7.1

  2. 2Approximately what proportion of adults aged 20 years and over worldwide have schizophrenia, according to the WHO fact sheet?

    1. A.0.05%
    2. B.0.49%Correct answer: B
    3. C.4.9%
    4. D.14.9%

    Explanation: WHO describes the estimate as "rising to 1 in 206 people (0.49%) among adults aged 20 and over". The adult prevalence is therefore approximately 0.49%; the lower all-age estimate should not be substituted for this age-specific estimate.

    Reference: WHO: Schizophrenia — Magnitude and impact

  3. 3An older adult with dementia needs an NHS Continuing Healthcare Decision Support Tool assessment in England. Which pair, by itself, meets the minimum professional composition specified for the MDT?

    1. A.Two registered nurses
    2. B.One nurse and one occupational therapistCorrect answer: B
    3. C.Two occupational therapists
    4. D.One social worker and one family carer

    Explanation: The guidance specifies "2 professionals who are from different healthcare professions". Nursing and occupational therapy are different professions. Two members of the same profession do not meet this particular minimum definition, and a family carer does not supply the missing healthcare professional.

    Reference: Department of Health and Social Care: NHS Continuing Healthcare Decision Support Tool guidance — Who can complete the DST

  4. 4A therapist explores how early relationships and defensive processes contribute to recurring difficulties in current relationships. Which concept is central to this psychodynamic account?

    1. A.Operant conditioning through reinforcement schedules
    2. B.Unconscious conflict expressed through relationship patternsCorrect answer: B
    3. C.Extinction through repeated unreinforced exposure
    4. D.Belief testing through planned behavioural experiments

    Explanation: The NHS procedure describes "unconscious conflict, defences, hidden feelings and unhelpful repeated patterns in relationships". These are core psychodynamic concepts; reinforcement, exposure-based extinction and behavioural experiments belong to other explanatory or treatment approaches.

    Reference: Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust: Governed Psychological Therapies Procedure — Section 7.31, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, page 77

  5. 5When assessing the developmental context of an infant whose parent has a mental illness, which possible pathway of impact should be considered?

    1. A.The parental diagnosis determines an identical diagnosis in the infant.
    2. B.The illness may affect sensitive, responsive caregiving and attachment.Correct answer: B
    3. C.The child's development is unaffected until the child reaches school age.
    4. D.The parent's symptoms establish that the infant has an attachment disorder.

    Explanation: The College states that parental mental health conditions "may impact on the parent’s ability to provide sensitive, responsive parenting". This can influence the parent–infant relationship and attachment, but it does not make a particular child diagnosis inevitable or establish one without assessment.

    Reference: Royal College of Psychiatrists: Infant and early childhood mental health — Page 19, attachment and parental mental health

  6. 6Why does combining methadone with alcohol or benzodiazepines increase the danger of fatal overdose?

    1. A.The combination accelerates opioid clearance and precipitates withdrawal.
    2. B.Sedatives potentiate opioid-induced respiratory depression.Correct answer: B
    3. C.Sedatives block opioid receptors and eliminate opioid tolerance.
    4. D.The combination prevents sedation while increasing physical dependence.

    Explanation: The UK guidelines state: "Opioids induce respiratory depression and hypoventilation, and sedative drugs (including alcohol) potentiate this effect." The interaction increases respiratory toxicity rather than providing receptor blockade or protection from sedation.

    Reference: UK departments of health: Drug misuse and dependence, clinical guidelines — Section 4.4.2.1, Risks of methadone overdose

  7. 7Which conclusion about autism and offending is supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists' adult autism report?

    1. A.Autism establishes that an individual is at high risk of serious offending.
    2. B.Autism protects every individual from involvement in offending.
    3. C.Autism alone should not be assumed to confer increased likelihood of offending.Correct answer: C
    4. D.Selected secure-hospital samples establish the offending rate of all autistic people.

    Explanation: The College states that "there is no real evidence to suggest that they are more likely to offend than others". It discusses selection bias and individual contextual factors. Neither universal dangerousness nor universal protection can be inferred from an autism diagnosis, and selected institutional samples are not population estimates.

    Reference: Royal College of Psychiatrists: The psychiatric management of autism in adults — Section 2.3, Prevalence of offending

  8. 8A person with an intellectual disability cannot access a community activity because information is inaccessible and staff will not adapt their communication. What change most closely reflects the social model of disability?

    1. A.Exclude the person until their impairment has been removed.
    2. B.Treat the access problem solely as an individual diagnostic deficit.
    3. C.Require the person to adapt without changing the service.
    4. D.Remove the service's communication and participation barriers.Correct answer: D

    Explanation: Government guidance states that the social model emphasises "people are disabled by the barriers society creates, rather than their impairment or difference". Accessible information and adapted communication address those barriers and support inclusion instead of making access contingent on changing the person.

    Reference: UK Government: Portraying disability — Social model of disability

  9. 9In a case-control study of psychosis and childhood adversity, cases search their memories more intensively than controls because they believe adversity caused their illness. Which bias is the main concern?

    1. A.Lead-time bias
    2. B.Recall biasCorrect answer: B
    3. C.Publication bias
    4. D.Immortal-time bias

    Explanation: WHO describes recall bias as "differential recall of information by cases and controls". Knowledge of illness can affect recollection of earlier exposure, changing the exposure comparison without changing the true history. The other biases concern screening time, study publication or incorrectly classified survival time.

    Reference: WHO: Basic epidemiology, second edition — Chapter 3, Measurement bias: recall bias

  10. 10A person in remission from depression chooses not to continue antidepressants for relapse prevention. When should they be advised to seek help?

    1. A.Only after recurrent symptoms have persisted continuously for two weeks.
    2. B.At the next routine review, even if depressive symptoms recur sooner.
    3. C.Promptly if depressive symptoms return or residual symptoms worsen.Correct answer: C
    4. D.Only once returning symptoms cause severe impairment in daily self-care.

    Explanation: NICE advises people who stop continuation medication "to seek help as soon as possible if the symptoms of depression return or residual symptoms worsen." Relapse advice therefore should not require a two-week diagnostic threshold, the next routine appointment or severe functional deterioration.

    Reference: NICE NG222: Depression in adults—treatment and management — Recommendation1.8.4

Exam Review

About MRCPsych Paper B

MRCPsych Paper B · GB

Key exam facts

Provider
Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), examination owner and developer; Pearson VUE is the digital delivery partner.
Format
Digitally delivered at Pearson VUE test centres or, on request, remotely using OnVUE. Single-best-answer multiple-choice questions with five options and extended matching items. From January 2027, the syllabus specifies 100 MCQs and 50 EMIs.
Exam questions
Total questions: 150.
Time limit
Three hours of examination time; individual reasonable adjustments may alter a candidate's timing.
Passing score
Modified Angoff standard setting plus 2 × the Standard Error of Measurement, approved by the Examinations Sub-Committee. There is no universal fixed percentage; incorrect answers do not attract negative marks.
Exam fee
Published 2027 Paper B fees in GBP: £513 for PMPT trainees and College affiliates; £570 for other candidates.

Topics covered

The authority publishes percentage ranges for each content area. The practice percentages below use the midpoint of each range, normalized to 100%; they are not exact percentages published by the authority. Practice question counts may differ slightly because of rounding.

  • Organisation and Delivery of Psychiatric Services — Official range: 4–8% (Practice allocation: 5.83%)

    • Nature and process of providing care in mental health services
    • Application of multidisciplinary team approaches
    • Psychiatrist's role in treatment and coordination of the various treatment processes involved
    • Medical, psychological and social interventions and their relevance to the management of psychiatric disorders
    • Preventative strategies in psychiatric disorders and where these exist
    • Provision of specific treatments
    • Indications, benefits, risks and outcomes of ECT
    • Indications, benefits, risks and outcomes of DBS, rTMS and psychosurgery
    • Practical aspects of ECT, DBS, rTMS and psychosurgery
    • Assessment of need for psychiatric services within a community and population health concepts
    • Essential components of a rehabilitation service, the specific patient needs and disabilities that can be assisted by psychiatric rehabilitation
    • Human rights and mental health
    • General principles of capacity and consent to treatment
    • Ethical issues including seclusion, confidentiality and the implications of 'duty to warn'
    • Human rights legislation as it effects patients, psychiatric practice, restrictions on liberty and aspects of human rights legislation
    • Medicolegal issues in psychiatry including abuse of vulnerable adults, management of finance and property, driving with mental disorders and the assessment of capacity to make health, social care and civil decisions
    • Cultural competence and accessibility in psychiatric care, including the influence of cultural, spiritual, religious and migration status factors on help seeking, engagement, assessment and care pathways

  • General Adult Psychiatry — Official range: 18–22% (Practice allocation: 19.42%)

    • Prevalence, incidence, aetiology, presentation, treatment and outcome of psychiatric disorder in adulthood
    • Schizophrenia and other primary psychotic disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Mood Disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Anxiety and fear related disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Obsessive compulsive and related disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Disorders specifically associated with stress
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Dissociative disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Eating disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Disorders of bodily distress and bodily experience
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Personality disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Other psychiatric disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Assessment and management of disorders related to pregnancy, childbirth and the reproductive menstrual cycle
    • Assessment of common psychiatric disorders which present in the perinatal period, understanding changes in prevalence and increased risk of new presentation or relapse of psychosis, depression, anxiety and OCD in the postnatal period
    • Ability to adapt risk assessment to consider the perinatal context, including risks of neglect and harm to baby as well as risks to self
    • Management of psychiatric emergencies in the perinatal period
    • Prescribing in pregnancy and breastfeeding, safety profile of common psychiatric medications in the perinatal period, alterations in pharmacokinetics and dynamics during the perinatal period
    • Assessment and management of the impact of perinatal mental illness on bonding and attachment
    • Assessment and management of psychiatric symptoms and patterns of presentation related to the menstrual cycle and menopause. Includes relevant investigations and pharmacological, psychological and social management strategies
    • Liaison psychiatry
    • Psychiatric assessment and management of patients with physical illness
    • Advice to specialist medical services
    • Psychiatric consequences and aspects of brain disease, damage, stroke and dysfunction
    • Medically unexplained symptoms
    • End of life care and bereavement support
    • Emergency psychiatry
    • Self-harm, suicide, crisis presentations, and the assessment and management of acute and chronic risk
    • Theory and practice of crisis intervention and home treatment
    • Differential diagnosis in acute psychiatric emergencies
    • Treatment methods in emergency situations including the use of appropriate legislation
    • Psychosexual health
    • Non-organic sexual dysfunction, including lack or loss of sexual desire, lack of sexual enjoyment and failure of genital response
    • Gender incongruence

  • Old Age Psychiatry — Official range: 8–12% (Practice allocation: 9.71%)

    • Demographic population changes in the UK and worldwide
    • Principles of service provision
    • Multidisciplinary team working as it relates to an older population
    • Relationships with and provision by social services and voluntary care sector
    • Liaison with medical specialists
    • Roles and responsibilities of carers
    • Frailty and physical co-morbidity in older people
    • Specialist aspects of assessment of mental health in older people
    • Psychiatric aspects of physical disease
    • Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease
    • Cerebrovascular disease and sensory impairment
    • Emotional reactions to illness and chronic ill-health
    • Secondary and reversible causes of cognitive impairment
    • Prevalence, incidence, clinical features, differential diagnosis, aetiology, management and prognosis of the following disorders occurring in older people
    • Alzheimer's disease
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Vascular dementia
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinsons disease dementia
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Frontotemporal dementia
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Mild neurocognitive disorders, amnestic disorder and delirium
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Late life psychosis
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Mood disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Anxiety and fear related disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Substance use disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Other mental disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Suicide and attempted suicide in older people
    • Personality dysfunction in older people
    • Psychotherapy with older people, adaptations, differences in therapy, transference and countertransference issues
    • Bereavement and adjustment disorders
    • Sleep disorders in older people
    • Psychosexual health in older people

  • Psychotherapy — Official range: 4–8% (Practice allocation: 5.83%)

    • Psychodynamic psychotherapy
    • Psychoanalytic theory, psychodynamic theory and contemporary practice
    • Impact of childhood, lifetime and intergenerational experiences of nurture, adversity, trauma and socio-cultural influences on shaping personality, attachment style, mental health and resilience
    • Development of collaborative therapeutic alliance, therapeutic relationship, therapeutic frame, containment, object relations, defences, transference-countertransference, supportive and exploratory techniques, interpretation, mourning and ending processes, working through and processes of psychic change and their application within psychotherapy and psychiatric practice
    • Role of exploratory psychodynamic approaches within a stepped care approach to psychological therapies, including for recovery from complex trauma
    • Principles of and indications for brief and long-term psychodynamic therapy or more intensive psychoanalytic approaches
    • Principles of adapted and integrative short and long-term therapeutic approaches, including dynamic interpersonal therapy (DIT), psychodynamic interpersonal therapy (PIT), mentalisation based therapy (MBT), transference focused therapy (TFP), cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), therapeutic communities (TCs), neuropsychoanalysis
    • Application of neuroscience including affective neuroscience, predictive processes and active inference to psychotherapeutic practice
    • Cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT)
    • Core CBT techniques
    • Collaborative working
    • Socratic dialogue
    • Psychoeducation, homework, agenda and goal setting
    • Measures of change
    • Shared formulation
    • Development of schema
    • Working assumptions or rules
    • Five factor model including situation, thoughts, behaviour, emotions and physical symptoms
    • CBT treatment models for different conditions
    • CBT for depression, including withdrawal and avoidance, behavioural activation, negative thoughts and techniques supporting change
    • CBT for anxiety, including anxiety as a response to threat, role of avoidance and safety behaviours in maintaining anxiety and treatment techniques, including psychoeducation, cognitive techniques, graded exposure, exposure and response prevention (ERP), behavioural experiments and acceptance
    • Third wave developments, including mindfulness, compassion focused therapy (CFT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
    • Trauma focused work, including eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) for PTSD, models for complex PTSD, staged approaches addressing stabilisation, trauma processing and recovery
    • Principles of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
    • Family and systemic therapy
    • General systems theory and models of family therapy including dynamic, structural, strategic, psychoeducation and behavioural
    • Core techniques, including communication training, reframing, genograms, role-playing, behavioural interventions and psychoeducation
    • Attachment perspectives on family therapy
    • Multi-systemic family therapy
    • Family work for psychosis
    • Service delivery and evaluation in psychotherapy
    • Specific and non-specific effects in psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic psychiatry
    • Sequencing, frequency and duration of interventions
    • Outcome research, types and time course of outcome studies
    • Use of guidelines and research evidence
    • Patient involvement
    • Approaches to increasing patient access and choice
    • Group therapies
    • Small and large group dynamics, matrix, basic assumption and working groups, therapeutic factors, mirroring, resonance, scapegoating, anti-group
    • Role of groups in different treatment approaches
    • Supportive and peer support
    • Skills based
    • Exploratory and psychodynamic
    • Principles of therapeutic communities and enabling environments
    • The unconscious in work dynamics within teams and organisationally, organisational defences, approaches to containment of anxiety in organisations, impact on patients and staff of structural factors, including service organisation, uses of language and organisational resilience
    • Application of therapeutic principles to service design and development
    • Other therapeutic and skills-based approaches
    • Narrative and dialogical approaches, including narrative therapy, open dialogue, psychoeducation, solution focused therapy, transference focused psychotherapy (TFP), structured clinical management (SCM), general psychiatric management (GPM), arts therapies, interpersonal therapy (IPT), sensorimotor therapy, ecotherapy and psychedelic assisted psychotherapy
    • Online, digital and technology-enabled therapies and the impact of technology and remote working on therapeutic alliance
    • Psychotherapeutic psychiatry
    • Psychiatric presentations in different inpatient and community settings, across the life course, related to social and cultural difference, and the role of cognitive, behavioural, systemic, contextual, psychodynamic and relational factors
    • Therapeutic relationships, building a clinical relationship, continuity of care, transitions and endings
    • Theories of personality development, change and levels of personality organisation, in relation to diagnosis, service delivery including psychotherapeutic approaches in the treatment of personality disorder
    • Relationships between psychological processes and mental health symptoms, including processes of loss and mourning, adaptation and resilience
    • Psychological distress on bodily health including in eating disorders, bodily distress and medically unexplained symptoms
    • Psychological approaches to self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide and violence, the impact of these events upon staff and family members and suitable approaches for support and reflective practice
    • Key psychological factors, including relational factors in building a biopsychosocial formulation as an intervention and basis for management planning and for engaging with uncertainty and complexity
    • Principles and applications of relational prescribing, working with polypharmacy and treatment resistance, the pharmacotherapeutic alliance, psychological and relational factors affecting whether and how to prescribe and deprescribe
    • Approaches to clinician self-care and development, reflective practice, Balint groups, consultation with teams, working with teams and organisations
    • Public health implications of psychotherapeutic practice
    • Impact of issues of power, socio-cultural factors, diversity, ethical and legal considerations

  • Child and Adolescent Psychiatry — Official range: 8–12% (Practice allocation: 9.71%)

    • Effects of parental mental disorder on children
    • Effect of parental mental disorder at different child developmental stages
    • Household dysfunction and impact on child development and functioning
    • Cultural variations in aetiology and management
    • Short and long-term effects of ACE on development and functioning, including parental loss, child abuse, chronic or life-threatening illness
    • Principles of service provision
    • Multidisciplinary team working as it relates to children and young people
    • Relationships with and provision by social services and voluntary care sector
    • Liaison with medical specialists
    • Child protection
    • Needs of developing children and how these evolve over time
    • Types of child abuse
    • Psychiatrist's role in safeguarding children
    • Physical health and psychiatric disorder
    • Psychiatric presentation of physical illness
    • Interaction between psychiatric disorder and physical illness
    • Aetiological influences in child and adolescent psychiatry, including individual, familial, social, environmental and their interactions
    • Prevalence and incidence, aetiology, presentation, treatments and outcome of disorders occurring in childhood and adolescence including how disorders relate to behaviours including self-harm, school avoidance and contexts
    • Neurodevelopmental disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Tic disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Psychotic disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Mood disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Anxiety and fear related disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Obsessive compulsive and related disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Attachment disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Eating disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Substance use disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Conduct disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Other childhood mental disorders
    • Prevalence
    • Aetiology
    • Presentation
    • Treatment
    • Outcome
    • Continuities and transitions of child mental health conditions into adult life
    • Indications and contra-indications for different treatment options
    • Indications and contra-indications for in-patient care
    • Self-harm, suicide, crisis presentations, and the assessment and management of acute and chronic risk

  • Addictions Psychiatry — Official range: 4–8% (Practice allocation: 5.83%)

    • Basic pharmacology, neurobiology, classification and epidemiology of alcohol, cannabinoids, opioids, sedatives, stimulants, caffeine, hallucinogens, nicotine, volatile inhalants, empathogens, dissociative drugs, prescribed and over-the-counter medicines, image- and performance-enhancing drugs, and novel psychoactive substances
    • Biopsychosocial and trauma-informed explanations for initiation, continuation, dependence, recovery and relapse in alcohol and drug use
    • Recognition, assessment and management of harmful and dependent alcohol use, including withdrawal, detoxification, relapse prevention, and management of physical health complications
    • Recognition, assessment and management of drug use disorders, including patterns of use, intoxication, dependence, and withdrawal
    • Interaction between alcohol and drug use and psychiatric illness, including dual diagnosis and multimorbidity
    • Prescribing in addictions psychiatry, including legal restrictions on controlled medicines, medication-assisted treatment, overdose prevention, and monitoring
    • Recovery-oriented interventions, including motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, harm reduction, carer involvement, and peer support, across a wide range of environments including community, residential and inpatient settings
    • Culturally appropriate, trauma-informed and non-stigmatising strategies for prevention, early intervention, harm reduction and health promotion
    • Assessment and management of non-substance addictive behaviours and related syndromes, including gambling and gaming disorders

  • Forensic Psychiatry — Official range: 4–8% (Practice allocation: 5.83%)

    • Relationship between crime and mental disorder
    • Crimes and offences committed by mentally disordered offenders and their psychiatric relevance, particularly homicide, infanticide, assault, criminal damage, sexual offences, arson, stalking and other crimes of violence
    • Relationships between specific disorders and offending behaviour
    • Neurodevelopmental disorders
    • Schizophrenia and other primary psychotic disorders
    • Mood disorders
    • Substance use disorders
    • Personality disorders
    • Epilepsy
    • Paraphilic disorders
    • Mental disorders, diversity and individual differences in offending
    • Age
    • Sex and gender
    • Communication disabilities
    • Physical disabilities
    • Neurodevelopmental disorders
    • Effect of victimisation and vulnerability, including anxiety states, post-traumatic stress disorder, suggestibility, anger and aggressive behaviour
    • Equality legislation and reasonable adjustments
    • Psychiatry and the criminal justice system
    • Psychiatrist's role in the assessment of mentally disordered offenders, during arrest, prior to conviction, prior to sentencing and post sentencing
    • Psychiatrist's role in assessing criminal responsibility and fitness to plead
    • Medicolegal defences including diminished responsibility, insanity and automatism
    • Options for diversion from custody at different stages of proceedings
    • Principles in providing evidence to the court both in written reports and oral evidence
    • Practicing psychiatry in a secure setting
    • Principles and therapeutic application of environmental, structural, procedural and relational security
    • Essential components of a forensic service, the specific patient needs and disabilities that can be assisted by such a service provision
    • Prevalence of psychiatric disorder in prison populations, suicide in prisoners and psychiatric treatment in prison settings
    • Risk assessment and management in forensic psychiatric, and the use of validated and recognised risk assessment tools including HCR-20, PCL-R
    • Managing mentally disordered offenders discharged into the community

  • Intellectual Disability — Official range: 4–8% (Practice allocation: 5.83%)

    • Service Provision
    • Normalisation, related social theories and their influence on service development
    • Transition from institutional to an individualised, needs-led approach
    • Epidemiology
    • Prevalence and incidence of intellectual disability in the general population
    • Prevalence and incidence of superadded behavioural, psychiatric and other impairments
    • Factors which may account for observed high rates of psychiatric or behavioural disorders
    • Aetiology
    • Biological causes, including genetic and environmental factors
    • Clinical characteristics of the more common genetic disorders causing intellectual disability
    • Influence of psychosocial factors on intellectual and emotional development, including concept of secondary handicap
    • Clinical
    • Assessment and communication with people with intellectual disabilities
    • Presentation and diagnosis of psychiatric illness and behavioural disorder in people with intellectual disability, including the concept of diagnostic overshadowing
    • Psychological aspects
    • Psychological methods of assessment
    • Psychological theories as to the cause of problem behaviours
    • Behavioural modification techniques
    • Psychiatric treatments
    • Pharmacological treatments
    • Psychological therapies
    • Other interventions
    • Application of a multidisciplinary team approach to the management of mental health problems in people with intellectual disability
    • Specific syndromes, genetic disorders and their association with psychiatric or behavioural disorders and behavioural phenotypes
    • Impact of intellectual disability on the family and the psychological consequences of having a child with an intellectual disability

  • Research Methods, Statistics, Critical Review and Evidence-Based Practice — Official range: 30–36% (Practice allocation: 32.04%)

    • Introductory concepts
    • Critically appraise different studies and know key issues and biases for different studies
    • Different sources and hierarchy of evidence
    • Difference between various electronic databases
    • Cataloguing of research for efficient retrieval
    • Formulating clinical questions using the patient exposure or intervention, comparison, outcome, time (PECO(t)) formula
    • Approaches for arguing a cause-and-effect relationship
    • Strategies for enabling the patient to make an informed decision
    • Epidemiological study
    • Basic epidemiology
    • Sources of bias and strategies to overcome them
    • Confounding and strategies to reduce risk of confounding
    • Interpreting basic epidemiology
    • Mortality statistics
    • Crude death rate
    • Death rate
    • Mortality rate
    • Age adjusted death rate
    • Standardised mortality ratio
    • Descriptive Epidemiology
    • Case reports
    • Case series
    • Cross sectional studies including survey
    • Incidence
    • Prevalence
    • Critically appraise cross-sectional studies including survey
    • Ecological and correlational studies
    • Critically appraise ecological and correlational studies
    • Analytical Epidemiology
    • Case control study
    • Sampling techniques methodology
    • Limitations and strengths
    • Biases
    • Confounding
    • Calculation of odds ratio
    • Nested case control study
    • Critically appraise case-control study
    • Cohort study
    • Types of cohort study
    • Sampling techniques methodology
    • Limitations and strengths
    • Biases
    • Calculation of relative risk
    • Critically appraise cohort study
    • Self-controlled case series (SCCS) study
    • Methodology of SCCS
    • Analysis of SCCS
    • Strengths of SCCS
    • Critically appraise SCCS
    • Causation in epidemiological studies
    • Bradford Hill criteria
    • Koch's postulates
    • Rothman's causal pies model
    • Susser's framework for causal inference
    • Other causation theories in epidemiological studies
    • Experimental studies
    • Controlled and uncontrolled trials
    • RCT study
    • Sampling techniques methodology
    • Limitations and strengths
    • Randomisation techniques such as simple, block, stratified, minimisation, cluster, adoptive
    • Blinding
    • Handling missing data
    • Last observation carried forward
    • Sensitivity analysis
    • Multiple imputation
    • Best case analysis
    • Worst case analysis
    • Other techniques
    • Calculation of absolute benefit increase
    • Relative risk
    • Number needed to treat and number needed to harm
    • Relative benefit increase
    • Absolute risk reduction
    • Relative risk reduction
    • Critically appraise controlled and uncontrolled trials
    • n of 1 trial
    • Critically appraise n of 1 trial
    • Pragmatic trial
    • Critically appraise pragmatic trial
    • Other experimental studies
    • Single-subject trials
    • Pilot trials
    • Adaptive trials
    • Factorial trials
    • Cluster randomised trials
    • Crossover trials
    • Critically appraise experimental studies
    • Internal and external validity of trials
    • Clinical trials and their stages
    • Systematic review
    • Difference between primary, secondary and meta-analysis
    • Extraction of studies from electronic databases
    • Heterogeneity, publication bias, funnel plot, quality assessment, meta-analysis, pooled odds ratio and sensitivity analysis
    • Role and limitations of meta-analysis to improve power and robustness of research
    • Difference between fixed and random effect models
    • Network meta-analysis
    • Critically appraise systematic review and meta-analysis
    • Diagnostic studies
    • Prevalence
    • Sensitivity
    • Specificity
    • Predictive values
    • Likelihood ratios and nomograms
    • Pre-test odds, post-test odds and probabilities
    • Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and AUC
    • Validity
    • Logical
    • Face
    • Content
    • Construct
    • Convergent
    • Divergent
    • Criterion
    • Concurrent
    • Predictive
    • Reliability
    • Test-retest
    • Inter-rater
    • Parallel form
    • Split half
    • Critically appraise diagnostic studies
    • Economic analysis
    • Cost minimisation analysis
    • Cost benefit analysis
    • Cost effectiveness analysis
    • Cost utility analysis
    • Cost consequence analysis
    • Incremental cost effectiveness ratio
    • Economic concepts
    • Indirect cost
    • Intangible cost
    • Opportunity cost
    • Discounting
    • Time trade-off
    • Standard gamble
    • Other concepts, including direct costs and discounting calculations
    • Critically appraise various types of economic evaluation studies
    • 'Sensitivity analysis' in the context of an economic evaluation
    • Qualitative research
    • Qualitative research methodologies including grounded theory, phenomenological, ethnographic and other methodologies
    • Sampling techniques, including convenience sampling, purposive sampling, quota sampling, snowball sampling, chain referral sampling, theoretical sampling, data saturation and other techniques
    • Data collection techniques, including semi structured interviews, in depth interviews, focus group, observation, diary methods, ethnographic interviews, role play and simulation, case study, voice recordings and other techniques
    • Data interpretation and analysis
    • Thematic analysis
    • Constant comparison
    • Reserve engineered hypothesis
    • Discourse analysis
    • Triangulation
    • Minimisation
    • Reflexivity
    • Bracketing
    • Member checking
    • Content analysis
    • Conversion of qualitative data to quantitative data
    • Thurston scale
    • Likert scale
    • Visual analogue scale
    • Gutman scale
    • Mixed methods
    • Critically appraise various qualitative studies
    • Descriptive stats
    • Difference between sample and population
    • Type of data including binary, nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio
    • Difference between ratio odds rates
    • Measures of central tendency including mean, median and mode
    • Measures of dispersion and their calculations, including variance, standard deviation, standard error, range and outliers
    • Variance, standard deviation, standard error of the mean and median interquartile range and their calculations
    • Interpret and explain confidence interval for mean and proportions
    • Advantage of confidence intervals over p-values
    • Determining and displaying data distribution
    • Normal distribution, skewness, kurtosis
    • Displaying graphical data including pie chart, bar chart, histogram, scatter plot, box or whisker plot
    • Tabular data, including 2x2 table, frequency table, frequency distribution
    • Different approach to determine the distribution of data
    • Differential and analytic statistics
    • Hypothesis testing including null and alternative
    • Frequentist hypothesis testing
    • Bayesian hypothesis testing
    • Difference between Frequentist and Bayesian hypothesis testing
    • Establishing alpha level and p-values
    • Differences between parametric and non-parametric tests and examples
    • Tests of statistical significance, including parametric, non-parametric and binary tests, such as t-tests, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Wilcoxon matched pairs signed test, Mann Whitney U test, Friedman test, Kruksal-Wallis ANOVA, Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, post hoc significance tests, Fisher's exact test, chi-squared test, Mcnemar's test, Yates correction, one tailed test, two tailed test, tests for normality
    • Type I error, type II error, power calculation
    • Survival analysis
    • Cox proportional hazards regression
    • Log rank test
    • Kaplan-Meier regression
    • Interpret survival curves
    • Median survival
    • Multiple testing and multiplicity
    • Family wise error
    • False discovery rate
    • Correlation and regression
    • Linear correlation
    • Pearson's correlation coefficient
    • Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
    • Kendall's correlation coefficient
    • Phi correlation coefficient
    • Point-biserial correlation
    • Phi coefficient
    • Partial correlation
    • Canonical correlation
    • Linear regression
    • Logistic regression
    • Multiple regression
    • Multilevel regression
    • Polynomial regression
    • Multivariate multiple regression
    • Non-linear regression
    • Quantile regression
    • Poisson regression
    • Clinical governance
    • Audit
    • Different steps of audit cycle
    • Difference between audit and research
    • Quality improvement
    • Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle
    • Difference between quality improvement and research
    • Service evaluation
    • Implications of clinical governance
    • Guidelines and reporting
    • Guidelines
    • Consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT)
    • Quality of reporting of meta-analyses (QUORUM)
    • Standard for the reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies (STARD)
    • Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA)
    • Standards for reporting qualitative research (SRQR)
    • Process for developing national guidelines, such as National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines
    • Advantages and limitations of guidelines and protocols
    • Network analysis
    • Nodes (vertices)
    • Edges (links)
    • Network graph
    • Degree (connectivity)
    • Centrality measures
    • Clusters and communities
    • Paths
    • Network density
    • Network diameter
    • Network motifs
    • Network types
    • Subgraphs
    • Assortativity
    • Network visualisation
    • Connectivity and resilience
    • Research ethics
    • Good research practice
    • Research governance framework
    • Ethics approval for studies
    • Declarations of interest and funding
    • Research fraud
    • Artificial intelligence in research

How to prepare

Work through the topics, read the explanation after each answer, and revisit the areas where you miss questions. Use the official outline and reference materials below to guide your study.

These independent practice questions are not actual exam items and do not guarantee a passing result.

Frequently asked questions

What is the exam format?

Digitally delivered at Pearson VUE test centres or, on request, remotely using OnVUE. Single-best-answer multiple-choice questions with five options and extended matching items. From January 2027, the syllabus specifies 100 MCQs and 50 EMIs.

How many questions are on the exam?

Total questions: 150.

How long is the exam?

Three hours of examination time; individual reasonable adjustments may alter a candidate's timing.

What is the passing score?

Modified Angoff standard setting plus 2 × the Standard Error of Measurement, approved by the Examinations Sub-Committee. There is no universal fixed percentage; incorrect answers do not attract negative marks.

How much does the exam cost?

Published 2027 Paper B fees in GBP: £513 for PMPT trainees and College affiliates; £570 for other candidates.

Official sources and references

Confirm current exam arrangements with the exam provider.