Best MRCEM Primary Question Bank 2026

Facts last verified 30 May 2026. Subscription prices and question counts change quickly — always confirm on the provider’s site before paying.

TL;DR. For most pre-Primary candidates in 2026, MRCEM Success is the safest single subscription — the SBAs are pitched closest to the real paper and the basic-sciences coverage is the deepest you can buy. ReviseMRCEM is the runner-up and the best value if you want a native mobile app, exam recalls and built-in spaced repetition for less money. If money is tight, FRCEM Tutor gives you the most questions per pound.

EM Final Exams earns no commission on the products reviewed below. The only product we sell is EMF Premium, disclosed wherever it appears in the comparison.

Quick decision matrix

Pick the wrong question bank for MRCEM Primary and you do not just waste £80. You waste six to twelve weeks of evenings learning the wrong kind of question, calibrating yourself against a bank that is either too soft or too out-of-format, and walking into the College’s exam centre under-prepared on the things they actually test — anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology and pathology, in single best answer form.

This guide is the round-up I wish I had before I started. Five UK-relevant qbanks, what each one actually contains in 2026, where each one is weakest, and a straight recommendation at the end. No affiliate fluff.

What does the MRCEM Primary actually test?

Before comparing banks, fix what you are revising for. The MRCEM Primary is a three-hour, 180-question single best answer paper on basic sciences applied to emergency medicine. The RCEM blueprint weighs it roughly as:

• Anatomy — around 60 questions. Upper limb, lower limb, thorax, abdomen, head and neck, CNS. This is the single biggest topic and the one most candidates underestimate.
• Physiology — around 60 questions. Cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, endocrine, CNS, GI.
• Pharmacology — around 27 questions. General principles plus EM-relevant drug classes.
• Microbiology — around 17 questions.
• Pathology — around 9 questions.
• Evidence-based medicine — around 7 questions.

Anatomy and physiology between them are two-thirds of the paper. Any qbank you commit to has to be heavy on those two. “Cardiology questions” or “trauma scenarios” are largely the Intermediate exam — keep those resources for later.

Which MRCEM Primary qbanks are worth comparing in 2026?

I limited this review to platforms that meet four criteria: (1) currently active and being updated in 2026, (2) explicit MRCEM Primary content (not just generic FRCEM), (3) reachable from the UK without licence faff, and (4) a meaningful question count — anything under 500 SBAs is a supplement, not a primary bank.

That gives us five:

1. MRCEM Success — established 2015, UK doctor authors, ~3,100+ Primary SBAs.
2. Pastest MRCEM Primary — 1,500 SBAs plus integrated textbook, 3D anatomy and an AI tutor.
3. ReviseMRCEM — newer (2024) UK-authored platform, ~2,500+ Primary recalls, native mobile apps, spaced repetition.
4. FRCEM Tutor — 3,500+ Primary SBAs plus a separate “Knowledge Tutor” spaced-repetition layer.
5. BMJ OnExamination — 590+ SBAs, mobile app, daily-question habit features.

Side-by-side comparison: MRCEM Primary question banks in 2026

All prices in GBP, taken from each provider’s public pricing page on 30 May 2026. FX-equivalent prices apply outside the UK. We have no commercial relationship with any of these platforms. See also our guide to Pastest vs FRCEM Tutor vs MRCEM Success.

Which MRCEM Primary qbank is best for most candidates?

Honest answer: MRCEM Success, for three reasons.

First, the bank is the largest one that is genuinely calibrated to the Primary syllabus. 3,100+ SBAs is enough to do every question once, flag the awkward ones, and still have unseen stems for two or three full mocks in the last fortnight. Pastest’s 1,500 and BMJ’s 590 cannot offer that.

Second, the explanations are written by UK doctors who have sat the exam. Recall-based qbanks live or die on whether the explanation tells you why the wrong options are wrong, not just which letter is correct. MRCEM Success does this well — most stems end with a short comparison table or mechanism diagram. ReviseMRCEM is the only other bank that does this consistently.

Third — and this is the bit you have to be honest about — MRCEM Success is the bank candidates name most often when they say “this was the closest to the real paper.” That comes up repeatedly in r/doctorsUK threads, Facebook MRCEM groups and Instagram exam-day debriefs. It is the consensus, and a consensus is a useful signal when you only get one go before re-sitting costs you another £330.

What is the honest case against MRCEM Success?

Three real criticisms come up repeatedly, and you should know them before you pay:

• It can feel “too easy” if you are scoring above 75%. Several candidates on r/doctorsUK have flagged that they did well on the bank and then found the real paper harder. The fix is not to abandon the bank — it is to stop revising in tutor mode once you are 60% through and switch to timed mode with a 65% target. The bank is not lying to you; you are revising it like flashcards instead of like an exam.
• There is no native mobile app. The site is mobile-responsive and works on a phone, but if you do 80% of your revision on commutes, the lack of offline mode is a real friction. ReviseMRCEM and BMJ OnExamination beat it here.
• The interface looks dated. It is functional, fast, and has the features it needs — but next to Pastest’s polish it looks 2018. If you find that grating, factor it in.

None of these is a deal-breaker. They are the trade-offs you accept for the largest, most exam-aligned Primary bank on the UK market.

When is ReviseMRCEM the better pick?

Three situations:

• You revise primarily on a phone. ReviseMRCEM is the only provider in this list with a properly built native iOS and Android app — offline study, push reminders, the lot. If your hours are 20-minute windows on a bus, that matters more than absolute bank size.
• You want spaced repetition built in. Their SM-2 algorithm and AI-flagged weak areas mean you do not have to manually track what to revisit. Cheaper than building an Anki deck from scratch.
• You also plan to sit Intermediate within the same year. The Primary plan rolls into Intermediate access on the same platform — useful if you do not want to relearn a second UI six months later.

The trade-off: it is the newest of the five (launched 2024), so the bank is still maturing. The clinical image bank and recall library are genuinely strong, but a few topic areas have fewer SBAs than MRCEM Success. Read sample explanations before you commit. See also our guide to building an Anki deck for MRCEM Primary.

What about Pastest for MRCEM Primary?

Pastest is the brand most UK trainees recognise from MRCP and PLAB days, and the MRCEM Primary product is a genuinely well-built platform: integrated textbook, 3D anatomy imagery, and an AI Tutor that will explain a stem on demand. The interface is the cleanest on this list.

The honest problem is the question count. 1,500 SBAs is enough to supplement a larger bank, but if it is your only resource you will exhaust it three to four weeks before the exam with no fresh material to test yourself on. Most candidates who use Pastest end up adding a second bank anyway.

Pastest makes sense if: (a) you already trust the brand and value the textbook integration; (b) you want the AI Tutor on every question — a feature no one else has matched yet; or (c) you are running short on time and need a polished, fast-track resource for six weeks rather than three months. Otherwise the per-question cost is high.

Is FRCEM Tutor still worth using in 2026?

Yes, if your budget is the deciding factor. £35 for six months of access to 3,500+ SBAs plus the Knowledge Tutor spaced-repetition layer is the lowest cost-per-question on this list — comfortably less than 1p per SBA over a six-month sitting cycle.

The catch is the user experience. The site feels older, the design has not been refreshed in a couple of years, and some of the questions show their age — a handful of stems still reference guidelines that have since been superseded. Useful as a second bank to drill volume, weaker as your only one.

The peer-benchmarking histogram is genuinely useful, though — seeing where you sit against other current candidates in real time helps you decide when you are ready to book.

Should I bother with BMJ OnExamination for MRCEM Primary?

Probably not as your main bank. 590+ questions is too small to carry a four-month revision plan on its own, and the per-month pricing is the highest of the five (£39.99/month on rolling, £149.99 for a year).

Where it does earn its place: the daily question feature and group leaderboard are good motivation tools if you are revising solo and struggle to start a session. Pair it with a free trial of MRCEM Success or ReviseMRCEM and you have a low-friction “do today’s 10 questions” habit that gets you into the bigger bank. See also our guide to the best free MRCEM revision resources.

How many questions should I actually do before the exam?

The realistic working number for a first-time candidate is 2,500 to 3,500 unique SBAs done at least once, with the bottom 20% redone a second time. That is enough to:

• Cover every topic in the blueprint at least twice.
• Identify your three or four weakest sub-topics (mine were brachial plexus, renal physiology, beta-blocker pharmacology and EBM stats — yours will be different).
• Sit at least three full 180-question timed mocks in the final fortnight.

Volume past 4,000 SBAs has diminishing returns. Three thousand questions reviewed properly will beat five thousand rushed through in tutor mode. This is the single most common mistake — accumulating banks rather than finishing one.

How long should I revise before the MRCEM Primary?

Most candidates who pass first time spend twelve to sixteen weeks of focused revision, averaging around 8–10 hours per week. That is roughly:

• Weeks 1–4: read through one anatomy textbook (Last’s Anatomy or Snell’s), starting on the high-yield regions. Do tutor-mode questions in parallel to anchor the reading.
• Weeks 5–10: work through the bulk of your chosen qbank by topic. Build a list of weak areas as you go.
• Weeks 11–14: targeted revision of weak areas, mixed-topic timed sessions of 60–90 questions.
• Final fortnight: three to four full 180-question timed mocks, plus light revisiting of high-yield notes. Stop accumulating new content.

If you have less than eight weeks, you can still pass — but you need to be ruthless: skip the integrated textbook, do questions only, and lean on the explanations as your sole source of reading.

What do other candidates actually say about these qbanks?

A few representative threads worth knowing about before you decide:

• On r/doctorsUK, several MRCEM Primary threads in 2024 and 2025 flagged that MRCEM Success was the bank most candidates used, but a meaningful minority felt it scored too easy and recommended combining it with a textbook or a second bank to harden up against the real paper.
• One detailed 2021/22 experience post on r/JuniorDoctorsUK said outright that the MRCEMsuccess qbank “on its own” was not enough and recommended pairing it with a book or a supplementary bank — that view has been echoed in MRCEM Facebook groups since.
• Instagram exam-day debriefs from 2025 sittings repeatedly mention that 25–30 of the 180 questions felt like direct recalls from the bank — a useful piece of evidence that you are studying the right material.
• The minority view: a handful of users on the MRCEM-focused Facebook groups have found MRCEM Expert better value than MRCEM Success on price, but worse on explanations. Not enough volume of feedback to put it in the main comparison, but worth knowing it exists if you are budget-constrained.

None of that overturns the recommendation. It does mean you should not treat any one bank as a guarantee.

Do I need more than one MRCEM Primary question bank?

For most candidates, no. One bank used properly — every question answered, every wrong answer understood, weak areas redone — will beat two banks used superficially. The exception is the one above: if you are scoring above 75% on MRCEM Success in tutor mode with four weeks to go and feel under-stretched, top up with a free trial of Pastest or ReviseMRCEM for the harder stems.

If you do double up, do it sequentially, not in parallel. Finish one, switch to the second for the final month. Trying to keep two banks in progress at once usually means you finish neither.

What is the best free MRCEM Primary resource?

Three things that genuinely help and cost nothing:

• RCEM Learning SBA samples — the College itself publishes a small set of sample SBAs that show you exactly how the real questions are written. Always do these.
• Free trials — MRCEM Success, ReviseMRCEM and Pastest all offer enough free questions to judge whether you like the interface and explanation style. Use all three before you pay.
• YouTube anatomy channels — TeachMeAnatomy, Geeky Medics and Kenhub’s free videos cover most of the anatomy blueprint. Pair them with question-bank stems on the same region.

Free banks alone are not enough to pass — the volume is too low and the explanations too thin — but they will save you spending another £30 supplementing your paid one.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best MRCEM Primary question bank overall in 2026?

For most candidates: MRCEM Success. It is the largest Primary-specific SBA bank that is calibrated to the real exam, with explanations written by UK doctors who have sat it. ReviseMRCEM is the strongest runner-up, particularly if you need a native mobile app.

How much should I expect to spend on a MRCEM Primary qbank?

Realistic budget is £45 to £80 for the three-to-six month subscription you actually need. 1-month rolling plans are the worst value per month — pay for the longest plan that fits your exam date.

Is Pastest worth it for MRCEM Primary?

Yes if you value the integrated textbook, AI Tutor and polished interface, and either you have a second bank lined up to add volume or you are revising on a short timeline. Less compelling if you want the largest bank for the money.

Is MRCEM Success harder than the real exam?

No — the consensus is the opposite. The bank is generally pitched slightly easier than the real paper in tutor mode. Switch to timed mode and treat 65% as your minimum target, not 75%.

Does ReviseMRCEM cover anatomy well enough?

Yes for SBAs, with a clinical image bank that includes X-rays and CTs (useful in the run-up). For anatomy learning you still need a textbook — no qbank is designed to teach anatomy from scratch.

Can I pass MRCEM Primary with only a question bank?

Most candidates cannot. Anatomy and physiology in particular need at least one textbook pass before question practice will stick. The bank is the spaced repetition layer, not the syllabus itself.

Which qbank has the best mobile app?

ReviseMRCEM has the best native app experience, with offline mode on both iOS and Android. BMJ OnExamination’s app is also solid but the underlying bank is smaller. MRCEM Success and Pastest are mobile-responsive web only.

How many practice questions should I have done by exam day?

2,500–3,500 unique SBAs, with the lowest-scoring 20% redone a second time, plus three full 180-question timed mocks in the final two weeks.

Are there refunds if I do not like the qbank?

MRCEM Success offers a 48-hour no-questions-asked refund. ReviseMRCEM offers a 7-day money-back guarantee. Pastest and BMJ OnExamination do not advertise easy refunds — try the free questions first.

Should I buy now or wait for a discount?

Pastest runs roughly quarterly discount codes (a 10% MAYBANK10 code is live as of 30 May 2026). MRCEM Success has stated publicly that they do not run discounts. ReviseMRCEM is currently running a 20% first-50-subscribers FIRST50 code on their site. If the difference is more than two weeks of revision time, do not wait.

Is MRCEM Exam Prep any good?

Mixed reviews. The bank claims 4,000+ SBAs and is cheaper than MRCEM Success, but explanations are reported as thinner and the question style less consistent. Worth a free trial if budget is the deciding factor; not the first place to send most candidates.

What about Bangladesh- or India-based qbanks (mrcempractice.com, etc.)?

These are typically packaged PDFs or short-window courses rather than full interactive banks. Cheaper, but you lose the timed mock mode and performance analytics that are the most useful features of a real qbank. Use as supplements at most.

Next step

Once you have picked a qbank, the bottleneck stops being which platform and starts being how you study. We have free MRCEM Primary tutorials, sample mocks and topic walkthroughs at emfinalexams.com — pair them with whichever bank you choose and you have a complete, low-cost revision plan.

Last verified 30 May 2026. This article does not have a commercial relationship with any of the platforms reviewed; all prices were taken directly from each provider’s public pricing page on the date of publication. Inevitably prices and question counts will drift — verify before you pay.

Ready to build your plan? EMF Premium gives you all 40,000 questions and 20 mocks for £59 — one payment, six months' access.