UKMLA AKT Question Banks 2026: How to Choose | MedRevisions

Start by deciding what you actually need from a question bank

• Volume of questions vs. depth of explanation. More questions are not automatically better — what matters is whether the explanations teach you to reason on the next stem you've never seen.
• MLA Content Map alignment. The 2026 AKT is mapped to the GMC's MLA Content Map. Confirm any platform you're considering tags every question to a Content Map specialty and presentation, so you can audit your coverage rather than rely on hope.
• Guideline-grounding. Every management question on the AKT is grounded in NICE / BNF / CKS / SIGN. Whichever bank you choose, check that explanations cite the specific guideline they're following — both for accuracy and so you learn the source of truth, not just the answer.
• Mock realism and pacing analytics. The AKT is two 100-SBA papers across one window. A bank that lets you sit Paper 1 + Paper 2 chained, with timing analytics afterwards, prepares you for the actual exam day rather than hypothetical conditions.
• Personalisation after wrong answers. Re-reading a generic explanation is the lowest-yield form of revision. A bank that turns your wrong answers into structured post-mortems (with the cognitive trap, the edge case where the distractor is correct, the variant the examiners use on the same concept) compounds your study time meaningfully.

The major options UK candidates currently weigh

• Pastest — one of the longest-established UK medical-education question banks, with a strong reputation across UK med schools. Many students have used Pastest products through earlier years of med school, so the brand is familiar.
• Quesmed — popular among UK medical students for combining video lectures with question practice. Well-known for its content style and student community.
• Passmedicine — a long-running comprehensive question bank that many UK students have used for finals revision over the years.
• MedRevisions (and the UKMLARevisions / PLABRevisions sub-brands) — built and maintained by the medical team that has supported PLAB candidates since 2019. Every question, note, and explanation is mapped to the 2026 MLA Content Map; every management explanation cites the specific NICE / BNF / Resus Council UK / GMC guideline it follows; and every mock includes a personalised post-mortem revision note covering your wrong answers.
• All four are credible options. The right one depends on how you study, what you've already used, and which features map to your specific gaps. Verify each platform's current features and pricing on its own official site before deciding.

Concrete criteria to compare any platform on

• Open the platform's free-question sample. Pick a stem in a topic where you already know the correct answer — does the explanation teach the reasoning rule that lets you generalise to a different stem on the same concept?
• Find a management-decision question. Does the explanation cite the specific UK guideline (e.g. 'NICE NG51 sepsis recognition criteria, March 2026 update') or just state the answer?
• Confirm MLA Content Map mapping. Click any question — does the platform tell you which Content Map specialty and presentation it covers? If yes, you can audit your coverage. If no, you can't.
• Sit a free or trial mock if available. Was timing realistic (1m 12s/question for AKT pacing)? Did the post-mock debrief tell you anything about pacing distribution and decision-error patterns, or just give you a percentage?
• Check what happens to your wrong answers. Does the platform turn them into a structured post-mortem you can revisit, or does it just file them in a 'review later' bucket?

Honest, candidate-priority-led recommendations

• If you're already deep into Pastest from earlier years and your school's curriculum integrates with it, sticking with what you know is rational — you waste time switching mid-prep without a strong reason.
• If video-led learning is how you remember best and you want lectures alongside questions, Quesmed has built specifically for that workflow.
• If you've used Passmedicine through finals and your accuracy is already on track, you don't need another bank — you need timed mocks and a structured review of wrong answers.
• If you want every question and note tagged to the 2026 MLA Content Map, every management explanation cited to a current UK guideline, exam debrief with timing analytics, and a personalised post-mortem revision note after every mock — that's the workflow MedRevisions is built around. The free questions and a single mock will tell you in 30 minutes whether the style fits you.
• If you're in the final 8 weeks and you don't have a primary bank yet, pick the one whose explanation style you can read fastest without losing depth. Style fit > brand recognition.

What to do this week regardless of which bank you choose

• Open the 2026 MLA Content Map (the GMC publishes it free) and tick which specialties your school's curriculum has covered to date.
• Sit one free 50-SBA mixed block on whichever platform you're trialling. Score is irrelevant; what matters is whether you understood the explanations on the questions you got wrong.
• If two platforms feel close, sit the same 25 questions on each (use a free trial or sample) and compare the explanation depth side-by-side. That's the only honest test.
• Once you've chosen, commit. Switching banks twice during prep loses more time than any feature gap you'll save by switching.
• Verify everything on each platform's official site — features, pricing, included mocks, refund terms — before committing. Marketing pages on any vendor (including ours) describe the product, not the legal terms.