AMC MCQ exam day: what candidates should know

The week before

• Confirm your appointment, venue address and start time in your Pearson VUE account, and plan the route at the same time of day.
• Check that the name on your identification exactly matches your booking. Read the identification requirements on the AMC MCQ events page.
• Do one last full paper no later than four or five days before, then switch to light review of your list of Australian specifics.
• Sleep on a normal schedule. A 3.5-hour adaptive exam rewards a rested brain more than a final night of questions.

Arriving and checking in

Arrive at least 30 minutes before your appointment. Check-in typically includes identity checks, a photograph and signature capture, and a review of the rules.

Family and friends must wait outside the centre. The whiteboard is collected at the end.

From the AMC MCQ examination page and Pearson VUE professional exam rules. If the centre allows an unscheduled break, the exam clock usually keeps running; confirm the current rules with Pearson VUE before your exam.

Pacing 150 questions with no going back

You have 210 minutes for 150 questions: 84 seconds per question. Because you cannot return to a question, time spent agonising is time taken from questions you have not seen yet.

• Read the last line of the stem first, so you know what you are being asked before you read the case.
• For long stems, note age, setting, vital signs and the one abnormal result on the whiteboard.
• If you are torn between two options after a full read, choose the safer or more Australian-guideline answer and move on.
• Never leave a question unanswered; there is no penalty for a wrong answer, and an incomplete exam may not produce a valid result.

Staying steady in an adaptive test

Most well-prepared candidates leave the exam thinking it went badly. That is the adaptive design at work: as you answer correctly, the questions get harder. Treat each question as a fresh start and do not try to guess your score from how difficult the last few felt.

• If a question rattles you, take two slow breaths before the next one.
• Do not reread earlier questions in your head. You cannot change them.
• Images and ECGs take longer; bank time on short recall questions to cover them.

Sitting the exam away from home

Many candidates travel to another city or country for the exam. Small logistics problems are the ones most likely to unsettle you on the day.

• Book accommodation close to the centre for the night before, and walk or drive the route once the day before.
• Allow for time-zone change if you are flying in; arrive at least a day early, and two if you are crossing several zones.
• Keep your identification, booking confirmation and a printed map in one place, separate from your phone.
• Eat a familiar breakfast. You cannot eat in the testing room, and 3.5 hours is a long time on an empty stomach.
• If you need reasonable adjustments for a disability, pregnancy or medical condition, these must be approved by the AMC before the day; they cannot be arranged at the centre.

If something goes wrong

• Raise your hand straight away for technical faults, noise or illness, and ask the administrator to record what happened.
• Power, computer or network failures are considered by the AMC as extenuating circumstances, and a new exam may be arranged at no extra fee if a valid result cannot be produced.
• Breaches of the rules can lead to withheld results or exclusion from future exams, so follow every instruction from centre staff.

After the exam

Results are released in your AMC account at 4.00pm on the Friday, three weeks after your exam. Use the wait to start preparing for the next stage rather than replaying questions. Our scoring guide explains how to read your result and feedback.

Common questions