Key takeaways
- The AMC CAT MCQ is 150 single-best-answer questions in 3.5 hours, which is 84 seconds per question, with no skipping and no going back. Your study plan must train that pace.
- Split your time by the blueprint: Adult Medicine 30%, Adult Surgery 20%, and 12.5% each for Women's health, Child health, Mental health, and Population health and ethics.
- Most working doctors need roughly 200–300 focused hours. That is about 10–12 hours a week over 6 months, about 20 over 3 months, or 30+ over 6 weeks.
- Aim for 2,000–3,000 practice questions, each one reviewed. Review time matters as much as answering time.
- Sit full 150-question timed simulations at set points: a baseline early, then at least two more in the final third of your plan.
- Plan rest days and a lighter final week. A tired candidate loses marks to pacing and careless reading, not just knowledge gaps.
A good AMC MCQ study plan is not a reading list. It is a timetable that matches the exam blueprint, fits around your rosters, and turns 150 questions in 3.5 hours into something you have rehearsed many times before exam day. This guide gives you three complete plans (6 months, 3 months and 6 weeks) as tables, with weekly hours for working doctors, blueprint-weighted time per domain, question targets, a mock exam schedule and revision cycles that make knowledge stick.
Every number below is either taken from the AMC's own exam specifications or is a planning estimate we explain openly, so you can adjust it to your own starting point.
What your AMC MCQ study plan has to prepare you for
Before choosing a timeline, be clear about the task. The AMC Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) MCQ Examination has 150 questions, each with a stem and five options and one best answer. It runs in a single 3.5-hour session at a Pearson VUE test centre. You must answer each question before the next appears, you cannot go back, and you must finish all 150 items or risk a result of "insufficient data".
Three features of the exam shape how you should study:
- Pace. 3.5 hours divided by 150 questions is 84 seconds each. Reading speed, quick decisions and stamina need deliberate training.
- Breadth. Questions are spread across six patient groups and three clinician tasks: data gathering, data interpretation and synthesis, and management. You cannot skip a domain.
- Australian standard. The AMC sets the standard at that of a newly qualified Australian graduate starting internship, and most questions reflect common conditions in the Australian community. Your plan needs a dedicated layer of Australian guidelines, not just general medicine.
The exam is scored on a 0–500 scale with a pass mark of 250. That is not the same as getting 50% of questions right, because the test adapts to you. Our guide to the AMC MCQ pass mark and scoring explains how it works. For the full exam overview, start with the complete AMC MCQ exam guide.
How many hours does the AMC MCQ need?
The AMC does not publish a recommended number of study hours. What follows is a planning estimate based on the work involved: about 2,000–3,000 practice questions at roughly 4 minutes each (84 seconds to answer plus 2–3 minutes to review), plus focused reading on weak areas and Australian guidelines. That adds up to about 200–300 hours for most candidates.
Adjust the estimate to your starting point:
- Towards the lower end (about 200 hours): you graduated recently, work in a broad acute specialty, and already score well on timed practice questions.
- Middle (about 250 hours): you have been out of medical school for 3–10 years and have worked mainly in one specialty.
- Towards the upper end (300+ hours): you have been out of clinical work for a long time, have had a previous unsuccessful attempt, or are new to computer-based exams in English.
Weekly hours for working doctors
Most IMGs prepare while working. Be honest about what your roster allows, then choose the timeline that fits. Do not choose the timeline first and hope the hours appear.
| Your work pattern | Realistic study hours per week | Timeline that fits |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time with nights or on-call (50+ h/week) | 8–12 | 6 months |
| Full-time day roster (38–45 h/week) | 12–18 | 4–6 months |
| Part-time (about 20–25 h/week) | 18–25 | 3 months |
| Not currently working (study leave, between jobs) | 30–40 | 6–10 weeks |
A useful rule: on a working weekday, protect at least one 60–90 minute block (for example, 30 timed questions plus review). Use days off for longer blocks and full simulations.
Exam tip: Book your exam date first, then build the plan backwards from it. AMC authorisation is valid for 12 months and you can book only one event within it, so a fixed date stops the plan drifting.
Blueprint-weighted time: how to split your hours by domain
The fairest way to share your time is to follow the published blueprint. If 30% of the exam is Adult Medicine, about 30% of your questions and study hours should be too. The table converts the blueprint into hours, questions and days for a 250-hour plan and a 3,000-question bank.
| Domain | Blueprint weight | About how many exam questions (of 150) | Hours in a 250-hour plan | Questions out of 3,000 | Study days out of 40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult health – Medicine | 30% | 45 | 75 | 900 | 12 |
| Adult health – Surgery | 20% | 30 | 50 | 600 | 8 |
| Women's health (O&G) | 12.5% | about 19 | about 31 | 375 | 5 |
| Child health | 12.5% | about 19 | about 31 | 375 | 5 |
| Mental health | 12.5% | about 19 | about 31 | 375 | 5 |
| Population health and ethics | 12.5% | about 19 | about 31 | 375 | 5 |
Two adjustments make this split work better in practice:
- Weight by weakness, then rebalance. If your baseline shows you are weak in Child health, give it extra time early (for example, 8 days instead of 5). Return to the blueprint split in the final month so you do not neglect your strong domains.
- Never drop a 12.5% domain. Each of the four smaller domains is worth about 19 questions, more than one in eight. Population health and ethics is often under-studied by IMGs and is very learnable.
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The 6-month AMC MCQ study plan (10–12 hours a week)
This is the best plan for doctors working full-time with nights or on-call. It totals about 260–310 hours. The pace is slow enough to absorb Australian guidelines properly and leaves room for missed weeks.
| Month | Focus | Weekly targets | Milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline and foundations: read the AMC specifications and sample questions; sit a timed 150-question baseline in week 1; start Adult Medicine (cardiology, respiratory, endocrine) | 10 h; 100–120 questions in tutor mode | Baseline score by domain; error log set up |
| 2 | Finish Adult Medicine (renal, gastro, neurology, haematology, infectious diseases); begin Population health and ethics | 10–12 h; 120–150 questions | Medicine first pass done |
| 3 | Adult Surgery (acute abdomen, trauma, vascular, breast, urology, orthopaedics); Women's health | 10–12 h; 150 questions, half of them timed | Domain review of weakest 3 subtopics |
| 4 | Child health and Mental health; Australian guideline layer (screening, immunisation, Mental Health Acts) | 12 h; 150 questions, mostly timed | Second full timed simulation (end of month 4) |
| 5 | Second pass across all domains, guided by analytics; redo all incorrect questions | 12 h; 150–180 timed questions | Every domain attempted at least twice |
| 6 | Exam conditions: full mock, error-log revision, high-yield topics; taper in the final week | 12 h in weeks 1–3, 6–8 h in week 4 | Full mock 2–3 weeks before the exam |
Question total for this plan: about 3,000 questions, or the whole of a large bank, plus a redo of every question you got wrong.
The 3-month plan (about 20 hours a week)
This suits part-time workers and full-time doctors on a day roster who can protect weekends. It totals about 240–260 hours. It is intensive, so the plan front-loads the two big domains and moves into timed work early.
| Weeks | Focus | Questions per week | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Specifications, sample items, timed baseline (150 questions) | 150 (baseline) + 50 | Set domain priorities from the baseline |
| 2–4 | Adult Medicine | 200–220 | Tutor mode for week 2, timed from week 3 |
| 5–6 | Adult Surgery | 200 | Include trauma priorities and post-operative complications |
| 7 | Women's health | 200 | Antenatal care, screening, early pregnancy bleeding |
| 8 | Child health | 200 | Immunisation schedule, febrile child, development |
| 9 | Mental health; second timed simulation at the end of the week | 200 + 150 simulation | Compare with the baseline by domain |
| 10 | Population health and ethics | 200 | Biostatistics calculations, consent, confidentiality |
| 11 | Mixed timed blocks; redo incorrect; full mock | 250 + mock | Mock under strict 3.5-hour conditions |
| 12 | Error log, Australian guidelines, light mixed blocks | 100–150 | Taper; rest the day before |
Question total: about 2,400–2,700 questions. If you fall behind, cut tutor-mode reading, not timed practice.
The 6-week plan (30+ hours a week)
Six weeks is enough only if you have a strong recent clinical base, are not working full-time, or are resitting after a near-pass. It totals about 180–220 hours and depends almost entirely on timed questions with careful review.
| Week | Focus | Questions | Daily structure (5–6 days a week) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline simulation; Adult Medicine | 150 + 250 | 2 timed blocks of 30 questions, then review and targeted reading |
| 2 | Adult Medicine and Adult Surgery | 300 | Morning block in your weakest domain, afternoon mixed block |
| 3 | Adult Surgery and Women's health | 300 | Same pattern; start the Australian guidelines notes |
| 4 | Child health and Mental health; simulation at the end of the week | 300 + 150 | Simulation on your day off |
| 5 | Population health and ethics; redo incorrect; full mock | 250 + mock | Mock 10–14 days before the exam |
| 6 | Error log, weak subtopics, rest | 100–150 | Half days; nothing new in the last 48 hours |
Question total: about 1,500–1,800 questions. If your timed scores are still well below target at the end of week 4, consider moving the exam date (if you are still before the event's closing date) rather than sitting under-prepared.
Exam tip: You can change or withdraw from your booking without penalty only before the event's closing date, and only if seats are available. After that you cannot change it. Put the closing date in your calendar the day you book.
A weekly template that survives a hospital roster
Plans fail at the level of the week, not the month. This template gives about 12 hours for a full-time doctor and can be scaled up.
| Day | Session | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 30 timed questions (current domain) + review | 1.5 h |
| Tuesday | Error-log revision + one Australian guideline topic | 1 h |
| Wednesday | 30 timed questions (current domain) + review | 1.5 h |
| Thursday | Rest or a 20-minute flashcard review only | 0–0.5 h |
| Friday | 30 mixed timed questions (all domains) + review | 1.5 h |
| Saturday | Long block: 60–90 timed questions, review, targeted reading on the 3 weakest subtopics | 4–5 h |
| Sunday | Redo incorrect questions from the week; plan next week | 1.5–2 h |
On night-shift weeks, swap the weekday sessions for two longer sessions on your days off. Do not study straight after a night shift: you will remember little and lose sleep you need.
Question targets: how to practise, not just how many
Doing 3,000 questions badly is worth less than doing 1,500 well. Use the bank in three modes, in this order:
- Tutor mode (first pass of a domain). See the explanation straight after each answer. Read why every distractor is wrong, because the AMC reuses distractor logic: wrong drug, right drug at the wrong step, right test in the wrong order.
- Timed blocks of 30 (most of your practice). Use 84 seconds per question, so a block of 30 takes 42 minutes. Review the whole block afterwards, including the ones you got right by guessing.
- Full 150-question simulations. These use the real conditions: 3.5 hours, forward-only, no breaks beyond what the exam allows. They build stamina and pacing.
The 1:2 rule for review
Spend about twice as long reviewing as answering. For a 42-minute block, that is roughly 80 minutes of review. In the review, record each miss in an error log with four fields:
- Topic: for example, "croup – severity grading".
- Why I got it wrong: a knowledge gap, a misread stem, a non-Australian guideline, or running out of time.
- The rule: one line you can revise, for example "moderate croup: oral dexamethasone 0.15 mg/kg".
- Revisit dates: see the revision cycle below.
Pay attention to the "why" column. If more than a third of your errors are misreads or timing, the fix is more timed practice, not more reading. Our guide on how to pass the AMC MCQ on your first attempt covers pacing and exam-day tactics in detail.
A worked example of reviewing a question
Here is the kind of question to put in your error log. Try it in 84 seconds.
A 2-year-old boy is brought to the emergency department at 2 am with a barking cough that started tonight. He is alert and well perfused. He has stridor at rest when calm, a respiratory rate of 38 breaths per minute, and mild subcostal recession. Oxygen saturation is 97% on room air. What is the most appropriate initial management?
- Nebulised salbutamol and review in 20 minutes
- Oral dexamethasone 0.15 mg/kg and observe
- Chest X-ray, then oral amoxicillin if abnormal
- Humidified air and discharge with review advice
- Supplemental oxygen by face mask and admit
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Stridor at rest with increased respiratory rate and recession, in an alert, well-perfused child, is moderate croup. Australian paediatric guidance (Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne) recommends oral dexamethasone 0.15 mg/kg (or prednisolone 1 mg/kg) for moderate croup, with nebulised adrenaline considered if symptoms persist or worsen. Salbutamol (A) treats lower airway bronchospasm, not upper airway oedema. Croup is a clinical diagnosis, so X-rays and antibiotics (C) are not routinely used. Humidified air (D) has not been shown to change severity, and a child with stridor at rest should not be discharged. Routine oxygen (E) is not needed with normal saturations; if oxygen is needed, treat it as severe obstruction.
Error-log entry: "Moderate croup = stridor at rest + increased work of breathing in a well child → oral dexamethasone 0.15 mg/kg. Never discharge with stridor at rest."
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Mock exam schedule: when to sit full simulations
A full simulation is the only way to test your pacing and stamina together. Plan for three or four in total, spaced like this:
| Simulation | 6-month plan | 3-month plan | 6-week plan | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Week 1 | Week 1 | Week 1 | Find weak domains; feel the 84-second pace |
| Midpoint | End of month 4 | End of week 9 | End of week 4 | Check that weak domains are improving |
| Full mock | 2–3 weeks before the exam | Week 11 | 10–14 days before the exam | Final rehearsal under strict conditions |
| Optional final | 7–10 days before | Not needed | Not needed | Confidence and pacing only |
Do not sit a full simulation in the last 3–4 days before the exam. You need the energy, and a bad score that close to the exam helps nobody.
How to read your mock results
- Look at the domain breakdown, not just the total. One domain far below the others is the cheapest place to gain marks.
- Check your pacing. Note your question number at 1 hour 10 minutes (target: about question 50) and at 2 hours 20 minutes (target: about question 100). If you were behind, practise faster decisions on long stems.
- Do not convert a practice percentage into an AMC score. Practice banks and the real CAT are scored differently, so no percentage equals 250. Use mocks to track trends and spot weaknesses.
Revision cycles that make knowledge stick
Most candidates forget a lot of what they read within weeks unless they revisit it. Build spaced revision into the plan instead of hoping to "go over everything" at the end.
- Day 1: answer and review the question; write the error-log rule.
- Day 3: re-read the rule and redo the question without looking at the answer.
- Day 7: redo it again inside a mixed block.
- Day 21: final check. If you get it right, retire it. If wrong, restart the cycle.
Use the redo-incorrect and bookmark features each Sunday to pull the week's misses into one block. In the final month, your error log becomes your main revision text. It is personal, short and drawn from your actual weaknesses.
The Australian guidelines layer
Many IMGs lose marks not because they lack knowledge but because they answer according to the guidelines of their home country. Set aside one session a week for Australian specifics: national screening programs and their ages and intervals, the National Immunisation Program schedule, Therapeutic Guidelines antibiotic choices, absolute cardiovascular risk assessment, Mental Health Act principles and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Our article on Australian guidelines for the AMC MCQ sets these out in tables. Pair it with the list of AMC MCQ high yield topics so you know which conditions to master first in each domain.
Avoiding burnout on a long study plan
A 3- or 6-month plan alongside clinical work is a marathon. Most candidates who burn out do so in the middle third, when the novelty has gone and the exam still feels far away. Plan for this.
- One full rest day a week, and one lighter week every 6–8 weeks (half the normal hours, no new topics).
- Sleep comes before study. Do not cut sleep to fit in questions, especially around night shifts. Memory consolidation depends on it.
- Short daily wins. On bad days, 15 questions and a 10-minute error-log review still keep the habit alive.
- Study with others, carefully. A study group is useful for explaining concepts and staying accountable. Avoid groups built around "recalls": the AMC warns that many circulating reconstructed questions have incorrect stems and answers.
- Know the warning signs: dreading every session, scores falling despite more hours, poor sleep, irritability at work. If you notice these, take 3–4 days off completely, then restart at a lower weekly target.
If stress is affecting your health or work, speak to your GP or an employee assistance program. Doctors' health advisory services also operate in each state and territory.
Adjusting your AMC MCQ study plan when things go wrong
Every plan meets a bad week. Use these rules instead of starting again from scratch:
| Problem | What to change |
|---|---|
| Missed a week (illness, roster change) | Do not try to double up. Drop the lowest-priority reading, keep timed questions and push the next topic back a week. |
| One domain stays weak after two passes | Use weak-area drills: 20 questions a day in that domain for 10 days, plus a one-page summary of its top 10 topics. |
| Running out of time in timed blocks | Practise blocks of 10 questions in 14 minutes. Commit to an answer by 84 seconds, then move on. |
| Scores flat for 3+ weeks | Audit the error log. If most errors are "non-Australian answer", add the guidelines layer; if most are misreads, slow down on the final line of each stem. |
| Midpoint simulation well below target | Consider moving your exam date while you are still before the event's closing date. |
Putting your plan into action this week
- Download and read the free AMC CAT MCQ Examination Specifications, including the sample questions.
- Count your realistic weekly hours from your next two rosters, and choose a timeline from the tables above.
- Book your exam date and note the closing date for changes.
- Sit a timed baseline of 150 questions and record your domain results.
- Set up your error log and your weekly template, and protect the first three sessions in your calendar.
Your AMC MCQ authorisation includes free access to the AMC's MCQ Preparation App, built with eMedici, with 210 questions. Use it alongside a larger bank. Our guide to AMC MCQ preparation resources compares the options by budget.
Sit a timed AMC MCQ mock exam
Blueprint-weighted questions under exam timing, then a breakdown of your result by domain.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I study for the AMC MCQ?
Most candidates need about 200–300 focused hours. For a working doctor, that usually means 3–6 months at 10–20 hours a week. A 6-week plan is realistic only if you have a strong recent clinical base and can study 30 or more hours a week.
How many practice questions should I do before the AMC MCQ?
Aim for about 2,000–3,000 questions, each one properly reviewed, plus a redo of every question you got wrong. Quality of review matters more than the total: spend about twice as long reviewing as answering.
Can I prepare for the AMC MCQ while working full-time?
Yes, most IMGs do. Protect one 60–90 minute block on most working days and one longer block on a day off, for about 10–12 hours a week. A 6-month timeline usually fits a full-time roster with nights or on-call.
How should I divide my time between AMC MCQ domains?
Follow the blueprint: 30% Adult Medicine, 20% Adult Surgery, and 12.5% each for Women's health, Child health, Mental health, and Population health and ethics. Give extra time early to domains where your baseline is weak, then return to the blueprint split in the final month.
When should I sit a full AMC mock exam?
Sit a timed baseline in week 1, a midpoint simulation about two-thirds of the way through, and a full mock 10–21 days before the exam. Avoid full simulations in the last 3–4 days so you arrive rested.
Is a 6-week AMC MCQ study plan enough?
It can be for candidates who graduated recently, work in broad acute medicine, or narrowly missed a previous attempt, and who can study 30+ hours a week. If your midpoint simulation is well below target, consider moving your date while changes are still allowed.
Should I use AMC recall questions in my study plan?
No. The AMC states that many reconstructed papers circulating online contain incorrect stems and answers. Use the official AMC sample questions and preparation app, original question banks and current Australian guidelines instead.