Clinical problem solving with investigations, aimed at the registrar who has to make the decision rather than list the possibilities.
IrelandRoyal College of Physicians of Ireland written
| Questions or stations | 150 verified 2026-08-10 Source says: “two papers, each containing 75 Single Best Answer questions” check it yourself |
|---|---|
| Time | 150 minutes verified 2026-08-10 Source says: “each paper is 2.5 hours long” check it yourself |
| Format | Two best-of-five papers with clinical data and investigations |
| Adaptive delivery | No |
| Pass mark | Set by RCPI per sitting. verified 2026-08-10 check it yourself |
| Blueprint | RCPI examination regulations and training curricula, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland |
Two papers of 75 questions (150 in total), each 2.5 hours, with a break between them. No basic science, unlike Part 1.
Every question in this bank is tagged to one of the sections below, and the tag traces to RCPI examination regulations and training curricula. That is what makes a coverage claim checkable instead of a marketing line. The table shows exactly how many items exist in each section today, including the sections where the answer is none.
| Curriculum section | Share of the blueprint | Items in this bank |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiology | 10% | 1 |
| Respiratory medicine | 9% | 1 |
| Gastroenterology and hepatology | 9% | 1 |
| Neurology | 8% | 1 |
| Endocrinology and metabolic medicine | 8% | 1 |
| Nephrology | 7% | 1 |
| Rheumatology | 6% | 1 |
| Haematology | 6% | 1 |
| Infectious diseases and tropical medicine | 6% | 1 |
| Oncology and palliative care | 5% | 1 |
| Dermatology | 4% | none yet |
| Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics | 8% | 1 |
| Clinical sciences and statistics | 8% | none yet |
| Acute and critical care medicine | 6% | 1 |
Coverage today: 12 of 14 sections. We publish the gap rather than hiding it.
Full explanations for every option, including the ones you didn't pick. The option you nearly chose is usually the one you needed explained. Read these before paying for anything.
A 38-year-old man returns from two weeks in rural Nigeria with a 3-day history of fever, rigors and headache. He took no chemoprophylaxis. Blood film shows ring forms with a parasitaemia of 6%. He is confused and his lactate is 4.2 mmol/L. What is the most appropriate treatment?
The point: Severe falciparum malaria: parasitaemia above 2%, impaired consciousness, acidosis, renal impairment, hypoglycaemia, ARDS. Intravenous artesunate, critical care, repeat films. Fever in a returning traveller is malaria until three films say otherwise.
Source: UK malaria treatment guidelines; HPSC Ireland malaria guidance Health Protection Surveillance Centre (Ireland) · tier 1, national regulator or guidance
A 74-year-old woman presents with exertional syncope and breathlessness. Echocardiography shows severe aortic stenosis with a mean gradient of 52 mmHg and a valve area of 0.7 cm². Ejection fraction is 55%. She is frail with a Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted mortality of 9%, and has severe COPD and previous mediastinal radiotherapy. What is the most appropriate management?
The point: Aortic stenosis becomes an intervention decision the moment it becomes symptomatic: angina, syncope, or heart failure. Severe is a mean gradient above 40 mmHg, peak velocity above 4 m/s, or area below 1 cm². Avoid vasodilators. The heart team decides surgery versus TAVI on risk and anatomy.
Source: ESC/EACTS guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease European Society of Cardiology · tier 2, specialty society or college
Ireland physician training (MRCPI) runs MRCPI Part 1 → MRCPI Part 2. One DocPasser account covers all of them, so moving to the next stage does not mean a new subscription and a progress history you can no longer see.
Candidates who have recently passed Part 1 typically report a shorter run-in than those returning after a gap, because the basic science recall decays fastest. Plan around your weakest tagged sections rather than around a fixed number of weeks.
MRCPI Part 2 is a flat £20 for 12 months of access — one price, one purchase, no tiers. The first 10 questions are free, with the full explanation for every option, so you can judge the quality of the explanations before paying for anything.