Building a 6-Week FRCR Part 2A Revision Timetable

So you have six weeks until the FRCR Part 2A, and a slightly sinking feeling. Six modules, thousands of facts, and a nagging sense that you keep revising the same things you already know while ignoring the ones you dread. Sound familiar?

The good news is that six weeks is genuinely enough time if you use it well. The exam rewards broad, steady coverage rather than deep obsession with one topic. What you need is a plan that touches everything, tests you constantly, and leaves room for real life. Here is a timetable you can adapt to your own week.

First, a few ground rules

Before we get into the weeks, three principles that make everything else work.

• Questions first, reading second. You will learn faster by answering single best answer questions and reading the explanation than by rereading a textbook. Use reading to plug the gaps that questions expose.
• Cover all modules early. Do not save cardiac or paediatrics for the final week. Rotate through everything so nothing gets abandoned.
• Track your weak spots. Write down the topics you keep getting wrong. That list becomes your revision plan for the final stretch.

The six modules, as a reminder, are: cardiothoracic and vascular; musculoskeletal and trauma; gastrointestinal; genitourinary, adrenal, obstetrics and gynaecology, and breast; paediatrics; and central nervous system and head and neck. Physics threads through the whole thing.

Weeks 1 and 2: broad first pass

The aim here is exposure. You are not trying to master anything yet, just to remind yourself what each module actually contains and where your biggest holes are.

Split your available study days across all six modules. If you can study five days a week, do roughly one module every two to three days. Do a block of practice questions, read the explanations properly, and jot down anything that surprises you.

Do not panic when your scores look grim. Everyone scores badly on the first pass. That is the point. You are building a map of what you do not know.

A per-module performance tracker is worth its weight in gold here. SmashRad breaks your results down by module so you can see, in black and white, that your GI is fine but your genitourinary is a disaster. That takes the guesswork out of what to prioritise.

Weeks 3 and 4: targeted depth

Now you attack. Take your weak module list and spend more time there. If paediatrics and CNS are dragging you down, give them the lion's share of these two weeks, while keeping your stronger modules ticking over with shorter question sessions so they do not go stale.

This is where reading earns its place. When a question exposes a gap, go and read around that specific topic, then come back and do more questions on it. Read with a purpose, not just from page one of a chapter.

A sensible daily shape looks like this:

• 30 to 40 questions on your priority module, with full review of every answer.
• A shorter set of 15 to 20 questions on a maintenance module.
• Targeted reading on two or three topics you got wrong.

Keep physics in the mix throughout. A little every day beats a frantic weekend of dose limits and half value layers. Bite-size recall questions are perfect for this. SmashRad's separate Learning mode is built exactly for that kind of quick, repeated recall, and it stops physics feeling like a mountain.

Week 5: consolidation and mock exams

By now you have covered everything twice and hammered your weak spots. Week five is about pulling it together and getting used to exam conditions.

Start doing timed mock exams. Sitting a full timed paper does two jobs. It builds your pacing, so you are not left with forty questions and five minutes, and it shows you how you cope with mixed topics rather than one module at a time. The real exam jumps between everything, and you want that to feel normal before the day.

Review your mocks carefully. The score matters far less than the pattern of your mistakes. Are you misreading questions? Running out of time? Guessing on a particular subtopic? Fix the process, not just the fact.

Keep revisiting your weak topics list. It should be shrinking. Anything still on it after this week goes straight into your final revision notes.

Week 6: polish and calm

The last week is not for cramming new material. It is for reinforcing what you know and staying steady.

• Do a mix of questions across all modules to keep everything fresh.
• Review your notes on the topics that stubbornly refused to stick.
• Do one or two more timed papers, then ease off in the final couple of days.
• Sleep properly. A rested brain recalls facts far better than a fried one.

Resist the urge to open a brand new resource the night before. It only breeds panic. Trust the six weeks you have put in.

Making it fit your life

This is a template, not a prison. If you are working full shifts, scale the daily volume down and protect fewer, better sessions. Twenty focused questions with proper review beat a hundred rushed ones. Consistency wins.

If you fall behind, do not try to claw back every missed day. Just pick up the plan where the calendar is now and keep your broad coverage going.

A gentle nudge to start

The hardest part is the first session. Once you are into a rhythm of questions, explanations and tracking, the six weeks build their own momentum.

A free SmashRad account gives you 40 sample questions with no card needed, so you can try the single best answer format, the Learning mode and the explanations today. Set up your timetable, do your first block, and let the per-module tracking show you where to aim. Start practising free and give your revision a proper structure.