6 Month FRCEM SBA Study Plan Template (26-Week Schedule)

TL;DR. A 6-month FRCEM SBA study plan works in three phases. Months 1–2 (weeks 1–8): Foundations — read the RCEM 2021 curriculum and the FRCEM Regulations & Information Pack, build a syllabus tracker, baseline-test on RCEMLearning SBAs to find your weak SLOs. Months 3–4 (weeks 9–17): Content — work through the syllabus weighted to the blueprint (SLO3 22%, SLO1 19%, SLO4 19%, SLO5 17% first), one or two SLO blocks per week, RCEMLearning sessions paired with NICE, RCEM Best Practice Guidelines, and a question bank. Months 5–6 (weeks 18–26): Polish — switch to question-bank-driven revision, two full 180-question timed mocks, targeted re-revision of weak topics, and a final 2-week consolidation. Aim for 60–90 minutes per weekday and a 3–4 hour block at weekends; protect 2 days fully off per week.

flowchart LR
    P1[Weeks 1 to 8
Curriculum sweep
Tintinalli + SBAs by topic] --> P2[Weeks 9 to 16
Question bank
Mixed-topic blocks]
    P2 --> P3[Weeks 17 to 22
Weak spots
Spaced repetition]
    P3 --> P4[Weeks 23 to 26
Mocks + polish
Full-length papers]
    P4 --> Day([Exam day])

You have six months until your FRCEM SBA. That is enough time to pass first sitting if the plan is weighted to the blueprint and you front-load foundations before you touch question banks. Trainees who fail rarely fail because they did not work hard — they fail because they hammered MCQs in months 1–2 instead of building the curriculum framework first, or because they treated all SLOs as equal weight (they are not). This template is a 26-week, week-by-week structure built around the published RCEM blueprint and the patterns described by recent passers in r/doctorsUK, RCEMLearning, and the St Emlyn’s revision guide.

Is a 6-month FRCEM SBA study plan realistic if I’m working full-time in ED?

Yes, with caveats. The Luka Randic medal winner in 2022 documented his own timeline on RCEMLearning: he booked the SBA six months out, started serious structured work at the four-month mark, finished RCEMLearning sessions and SBAs by month five, and used the final month for guidelines and high-yield review. He passed first sitting. The pattern is reproducible — but only if you ring-fence the time.

For most ED registrars working a standard rota, six months gives you roughly 250–350 study hours at 60–90 minutes on weekdays and 3–4 hours at one weekend session. That is enough to:

• Work the full RCEM 2021 curriculum once at the SLO-block level
• Complete the RCEMLearning SBA bank end-to-end
• Sit two full timed 180-question mocks
• Re-revise your bottom three SLOs from mock data

It is not enough time to be a passive learner. If you are reading textbooks chapter-to-chapter at month three with no questions completed, you will not finish. If you are full-time clinical without protected SPA time, build a realistic plan — see How to Revise While Working Full Time in ED for shift-pattern templates. LTFT trainees should use the LTFT-specific revision plan instead.

How should the 6 months be split into phases?

Three phases, with clear handover criteria so you know when to move on.

Why this order matters: the RCEMLearning Luka Randic account, the St Emlyn’s guide, and the 2025 r/doctorsUK FRCEM SBA threads all converge on the same advice — “Go through every line of the syllabus, read the relevant section in the textbook, and do any related e-learning. Once you have finished (this will take several months) hammer question banks.” Question banks done before the curriculum sweep teach you exam style but not exam content. You will plateau around 50–55% and not know why.

What does the RCEM blueprint tell me to prioritise?

This is the single most important table in your plan. The FRCEM SBA is 180 single-best-answer questions across two 90-question, two-hour papers (with a one-hour break). RCEM publishes the question split per Specialty Learning Outcome in the FRCEM Regulations & Information Pack, applicable from 1 August 2021 and reconfirmed under the FRCEM Exam Regulations 2025:

Source: RCEM, Regulations and Information Pack: FRCEM Final Examinations, applicable from 1 August 2021 (latest published blueprint). See the full breakdown and what each SLO covers in our FRCEM SBA blueprint guide.

The top four SLOs (SLO3, SLO1, SLO4, SLO5) account for 140 of 180 questions — 78% of the paper. If you spend equal time on all SLOs you will under-revise the high-yield 78% and over-revise the 22% that follows. Weight your Phase 2 week allocation accordingly (right-hand column above).

What does a week-by-week 26-week FRCEM SBA plan look like?

Below is the full template. Adjust dates to your sitting; this version assumes 30 May 2026 start with a late-November 2026 sitting (26 weeks). Weekly time = 5 weekdays × 75 min + 1 weekend session × 3.5 h = ~9.5 h/week (~245 h total).

How many hours per week do I actually need?

The honest answer from recent passers is 8–12 hours per week sustained, with surge weeks of 15+ hours either side of the two mocks. Below that floor you will not cover the curriculum; above 15 hours sustained over six months you will burn out and your retention drops. The Luka Randic 2022 account describes the same pattern: 30-minute RCEMLearning sessions on commutes, 60–90 minutes after the child went to bed on weekdays, longer blocks on a protected day off.

Practical scheduling rules from r/doctorsUK study-plan threads:

• Protect two full days off per week from revision. Total rest, no guilt. Burnout failures are common.
• Use commutes for audio. The Resus Room, EM Cases, St Emlyn’s, Sajjad Pathan’s YouTube channel for stats-style SBAs.
• Post-night-shift = rest, not revision. Sleep recovery first; treat as a day off.
• Annual leave should be banked for weeks 17, 23, and the final 5 days before the exam — the highest-value blocks of the plan.

If you are LTFT, use protected SPA-equivalent days for the weekend block, not the weekday work — see the LTFT plan.

What resources should I use across the 6 months?

Quality matters more than quantity. The strongest signal across RCEMLearning, St Emlyn’s, and r/doctorsUK is to pick one primary question bank and one primary content source, and revise them deeply. The Luka Randic 2022 passer’s advice was unambiguous: “Resources wise, we think RCEMLearning is enough.”

The r/doctorsUK warning bears repeating: third-party question banks vary widely in quality and exam realism. Several threads flag that some banks contain wrong answers or non-representative questions. Trial a free demo before paying.

How do I integrate mocks without wasting them?

Two full 180-question timed mocks is the right dose for a six-month plan — one at week 17 (end of Phase 2), one at week 23. More than two is diminishing return; fewer than two and you have not rehearsed the cognitive endurance of two 90-question papers back-to-back.

Treat each mock as a three-step exercise:

1. Sit it under exam conditions. Two papers of 90 questions, two hours each, one hour break. No phone, no notes. RCEMLearning timed mode or your bank’s mock mode.
2. Score it by SLO block, not just overall. Your bank dashboard should give you this. If it does not, use a paper spreadsheet — question by question — mapped against the blueprint.
3. Spend the next 4–6 hours on the wrong-answer review. Every wrong answer must trace back to a RCEM guideline, NICE document, or RCEMLearning session. This is where mocks actually translate into score improvement.

The pace target is roughly 42 seconds per question (90 questions in 2 hours = 80 seconds, but read-and-decide time means active answering is ~42 sec). If your bank averages over 70 seconds per question by week 23, your Phase 3 plan needs to shift from content to technique drill — see FRCEM time management strategy.

Which mistakes derail 6-month plans most often?

From RCEMLearning testimonies, r/doctorsUK resit threads, and our own analysis of common candidate patterns:

• Starting with question banks before the curriculum sweep. You learn the question style but not the content. Plateau at 50–55%.
• Equal-time SLO allocation. Spending the same week on SLO8/SLO12 (4% of the paper) as on SLO3 (22%) wastes a sixth of your plan.
• Skipping critical appraisal. It is only ~6% of the paper but it is the most reliably scorable section — students who skip it lose easy marks. See most common critical appraisal SBA questions.
• Reading without writing. Passive reading produces lower recall than active question-generation or note re-organisation. The St Emlyn’s guide and RCEMLearning both recommend writing questions yourself or maintaining a tracker.
• Postponing the first mock past week 20. You need diagnostic data with enough runway to act on it. Week 17 is the latest the first mock should be.
• Not flagging-and-returning in mocks. Spending five minutes on one question costs you the chance to reach a later question you would have known. See the 5 biggest FRCEM SBA mistakes.
• No rest days. The r/doctorsUK FRCEM threads are full of resit candidates who studied seven days a week for months and burned out in month four.

How do I adapt the plan if I’m an IMG, repeat candidate, or LTFT?

The phase structure stays the same; the weighting shifts:

• IMG (International Medical Graduate). Add 2 weeks to Phase 2 if you are not yet familiar with NICE pathways and UK ED escalation patterns. Bromley’s online resources and RCEMLearning sessions are written to UK standards — prioritise these over textbooks from other systems.
• Repeat candidate after a near-miss. Skip the Phase 1 curriculum sweep; start at week 9. Use your previous result breakdown to weight Phase 2 around your weakest SLOs. Full guide: FRCEM revision plan for repeat candidates.
• LTFT. Use your non-working weekday as your “weekend block” (3–4 h); keep weekday work at 60 min on shift days. See the LTFT-specific plan.
• Less than 6 months. Compress to our 8/4/2-week intensive plans — see FRCEM revision plan: 8 / 4 / 2 weeks.

Frequently asked questions

Is 6 months long enough to pass the FRCEM SBA first time?

Yes for most full-time trainees with good ED experience, provided the curriculum is covered before question banks dominate revision. The recent RCEMLearning Luka Randic 2022 account describes exactly this six-month arc and first-sitting pass.

Should I start with question banks or with reading?

Reading and curriculum mapping first (Phase 1, weeks 1–8), then content paired with questions (Phase 2, weeks 9–17), then question-bank-dominated revision (Phase 3, weeks 18–26). The single most consistent failure pattern in r/doctorsUK threads is hammering MCQs in month one with no syllabus framework.

How many SBAs should I have done by exam day?

RCEMLearning’s full SBA bank end-to-end (typically 1,000+ questions across SBA Revise and SBA Practice modules), plus one additional paid bank’s worth if you can afford it. Quality over quantity — fully understanding 1,500 SBAs beats half-understanding 4,000.

How many full timed mocks should I do?

Two. One at week 17 (end of Phase 2) for diagnostic, one at week 23 for pacing rehearsal. Each followed by a full wrong-answer review session.

How do I score myself against the blueprint?

Tag every SBA in your tracker with its SLO block. After each mock, calculate the percentage right per SLO and compare to the blueprint weighting. If your SLO3 score is 50% and that’s 22% of the paper, that single block could cost you 10% of your overall mark.

What’s the minimum study time per day?

60 minutes on weekdays, one 3–4 hour block at the weekend is the floor. Below that, you will not cover the curriculum in six months. Above 90 minutes on weekdays sustained, retention drops and burnout rises — quality over duration.

Which RCEM guidelines must I read in full?

NICE NG51/NG143 (sepsis), NG232 (head injury), NG245 (asthma 2024), NG158 (VTE), plus RCEM Best Practice Guidelines on traumatic cardiac arrest, paediatric pain, agitated patient management, and mental capacity. See our top 10 RCEM guidelines.

Should I join a study group?

If you can find one with motivated peers, yes. The RCEMLearning guide and r/doctorsUK threads both recommend it for question-writing, accountability, and stress-sharing. Three to four people is the right size. Avoid groups that turn into venting sessions.

What’s the single highest-yield revision activity?

Reviewing every wrong answer back to its source guideline. Not reading textbooks, not watching videos — sitting questions, getting some wrong, then closing the loop. This is what converts hours into marks.

What if I fall behind the week-by-week plan?

Reset, don’t catch up. Catching up means cramming, and cramming reduces retention. Drop the lowest-weight SLOs (8/12 governance, 10/11 research/QI lite) from a week, not the high-weight ones. If you are two weeks behind by week 14, restructure rather than push.

How do I handle the gap between SBA and OSCE?

Most candidates take a 1–2 week genuine break after SBA before OSCE prep starts. The St Emlyn’s OSCE guide is the most-recommended single resource for that block.

What does this plan not cover?

OSCE prep, ARCP requirements, and the QIP. This template is SBA-only. For an overview of the full FRCEM journey including format, eligibility, and pass rates see how hard is the FRCEM exam and FRCEM pass rates explained.

Next step

Copy the 26-week table above into your own tracker, set the dates against your exam sitting, and book your first RCEMLearning baseline diagnostic for week 2. For the full curriculum-weighted SBA bank that aligns with this plan, head to emfinalexams.com.

Facts last verified 30 May 2026. RCEM exam regulations and blueprint weightings reflect the FRCEM Regulations & Information Pack applicable from 1 August 2021, reconfirmed under the FRCEM Exam Regulations 2025. Always check the current RCEM website for the most up-to-date exam dates, fees, and regulations before booking.

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