Part of the MedRevisions family · Trusted by 30,000+ doctors since 2019

Exam debrief

Finish a mock. Know exactly what broke.

Sitting a mock and staring at the final score is a waste of a test. The debrief breaks every paper down by specialty accuracy, decision-error patterns, and a specific recommended next session — then hands you a personalised revision note for every wrong answer, anchored to NICE, BNF, and Resus Council UK guidelines.

Metrics surfaced

Accuracy + timing + specialty + patterns

Error-pattern categories

Diagnosis / management

Revision note

Bundled with every debrief

Updated 6 min read
Exam debrief

UKMLA AKT mock · Paper 1

108 min · 74/100 correct

Pass

Time per question

1m 5s

7s ahead of target pace

Accuracy

74%

Above passing threshold

Decision errors

8

Management-ladder stems

Pattern detected

You hesitated on stems asking for “what is the most appropriate next step?” — 6 of those went wrong, all on management-order ladders.

Recommended next session

24-question block on management-ladder reasoning across your 3 weakest specialties.

Key benefits

01

Specialty-level breakdown so you know where to focus tomorrow

02

Time-per-question pacing — median, slow outliers, and how you compare to the paper's target

03

Decision-error pattern detection (e.g. management-ladder errors)

04

A specific, actionable next-session recommendation

05

A personalised revision note for every wrong answer — guideline-anchored post-mortems, plus the canonical twists examiners use against you next time

06

Re-openable anytime from your exam history at no extra cost

Why a score-only review fails you

A score is an outcome. It doesn't tell you how to improve. Two candidates can both score 70% — one because they lost marks uniformly across cardiology, the other because a single specialty dragged the paper. Those candidates need completely different follow-up sessions.

The debrief turns the score into a diagnosis. Every metric points to a specific follow-up action, so you leave the debrief knowing exactly what to practise next.

What the debrief measures

  • Overall accuracy and pass/fail against the paper's threshold
  • Time-per-question pacing — median pace, slow outliers, and how you compare to the paper's target on mocks captured with timing instrumentation
  • Specialty-by-specialty accuracy, sorted weakest first
  • Decision-error category — diagnosis errors vs. management-order errors
  • A recommended follow-up session tailored to your worst category

Error-pattern detection

Candidates tend to miss questions in a small number of recognisable patterns. The debrief flags these explicitly so you can name and fix them:

  1. 1The 'next-step' pattern — getting stems wrong that ask 'what is the most appropriate next step?', typically from over-reaching to advanced management too early.
  2. 2The 'most-likely-diagnosis' pattern — getting stems wrong that ask for a differential, typically from pattern-matching to the common rather than the presenting.
  3. 3The specialty-cluster pattern — one or two specialties dragging the overall score down disproportionately.

Pattern, not prescription

The debrief names the pattern and suggests a follow-up session. It doesn't pretend to replace an exam coach. The decision to change strategy is yours.

Your personalised revision note — bundled free

Every mock debrief now comes with a personalised revision note. For every question you got wrong — and every one you got right but took twice as long as you should have — the note gives you a guideline-anchored post-mortem written in the voice of a senior registrar debriefing a junior.

  • The canonical teaching point, cited against NICE, BNF, Resus Council UK, or GMC Good Medical Practice
  • The cognitive trap that tempted you — pattern-match, anchoring, dose confusion, stem-skimming — named explicitly, not vaguely
  • When the distractor is actually right — the honest edge case where you'd have been correct
  • The twist examiners use — one to three 'if the patient also had X, the answer flips to Y' variants so you recognise the curveball next time
  • Per-topic exam pearls, common mistakes, a quick-reference card, and adjacent concepts the mock did not test but that you should cover
  • A 7-day action plan with specific day-by-day tasks anchored to your weakest topics

No extra generation — bundled into the mock debrief

The revision note is generated from the same mock-debrief unit as the analytics. One mock submitted = one debrief unit spent = analytics + revision note delivered together. Your personalised subject-notes pool is untouched.

Frequently asked questions

Is the debrief automatic or do I have to request it?+

Automatic. The moment you submit your mock, the debrief starts generating in the background. By the time you close the results dialog, it's already ready to view — no extra click, no waiting after you've left the screen.

What's included in the personalised revision note?+

A guideline-anchored post-mortem for every question you got wrong plus every question you got right but took twice as long as the pacing target. Each post-mortem names the teaching point, the cognitive trap, the edge case where the distractor would be correct, and the twists examiners use on the same concept. The note is grouped by specialty and ends with a 7-day action plan. Every clinical claim is cited against NICE, BNF, Resus Council UK, or GMC — nothing is fabricated.

Does the revision note cost a separate generation?+

No. Every mock debrief generation now includes the revision note for free. One debrief unit spent = analytics + revision note delivered together, atomically. If the note generation ever fails, you get a free retry — you are never charged twice.

I generated a debrief before the revision note launched. Can I get the note for that mock?+

Yes. Open the debrief and click 'Upgrade this debrief with a revision note'. It costs one mock-debrief unit (the same as a fresh debrief) and re-runs both the analytics and the note atomically. The button only appears on debriefs generated before the revision-note rollout.

Can I re-open a debrief from a past mock?+

Yes. All past mock debriefs live in your exam history and can be re-opened any time at no extra cost.

What is 'Practise recommended block'?+

When your debrief finds a strong decision-error pattern — say you lost most of your marks on management-order questions — we assemble up to 40 of those questions into a single block and let you drill them with one click. It doesn't cost an extra generation; it's just practice.

Does the debrief work on custom short mocks?+

Yes, though the pattern detection is most accurate on full-length papers (100+ questions). Very short mocks give a smaller signal.

Are time-per-question analytics included?+

Yes — every mock started after the timing-capture rollout shows median pace, slow-question outliers, and how your time-per-question compares to the paper's target. Mocks in your history that pre-date the rollout still show the specialty and pattern analysis, just without the timing breakdown.

Is there a limit on how many debriefs I can generate?+

Your subscription includes 5 mock debriefs per billing period. If you need more, you can top up from your dashboard with a 30-generation pack for $35 or a 60-generation power pack for $60 — both cover personalised subject notes and mock debriefs together. Debriefs you've already generated stay in your exam history and can be re-opened at any time at no extra cost.

About this feature article

Published on . Last reviewed on by

.

Maintained against current NICE, BNF, CKS, SIGN, and GMC guidance. See our editorial standards for the full content review policy.

Ready to see it in action?

Start a free trial and try every feature we just walked through — no credit card required.