UKMLA AKT Revision Plan: 16-Week Guide | MedRevisions

Why finals revision and AKT prep aren't the same thing

• Both draw from the MLA Content Map, so 70-80% of your prep overlaps. The remaining 20-30% is AKT-specific: two-paper pacing, decision-order stems, and ethics-integrated questions that finals OSCEs handle differently.
• Finals tests recall, applied reasoning, and OSCE-style communication. The AKT tests SBA-style decision-making under time pressure across two 2-hour papers in a single window.
• Treat AKT prep as a 30% top-up on top of solid finals revision, not a separate 100% effort. The biggest waste is duplicating coverage you've already done for finals.

Weeks 16-13 — coverage audit and content baseline

• Open the MLA Content Map dashboard view. Mark which specialties your school's curriculum has formally covered to date.
• Sit a 50-SBA diagnostic block across mixed specialties. Score is irrelevant; what matters is which topics you flagged or guessed.
• Pick the 4-6 specialties with the lowest coverage and start a daily 30-question block on rotation, finishing a specialty before moving on.
• Lock down NICE / BNF / CKS for the management questions you got wrong — guideline familiarity is the single highest-yield AKT skill at this stage.

Weeks 12-9 — building question stamina alongside placements

• On placement weeks, drop to 30-40 questions per day with a 'one expert note per day' habit — protects the routine without burning you out.
• On non-placement weeks, push to 80-100 questions per day across 2-3 specialties. Always review wrong answers before sitting the next block.
• Sit one Paper 1 simulation (100 SBAs / 2 hours) at the end of week 10. Use the exam debrief to find your decision-error pattern, not just your topic gaps.
• Add a weekly 30-minute mind map session for the specialty you're weakest in — visual chunking is the cheapest stamina win.

Weeks 8-5 — Paper 1 + Paper 2 differentiation

• Sit your first chained Paper 1 + Paper 2 mock at the start of week 8. Don't take them on different days — the AKT is sat in a single window, and you need to feel that fatigue.
• Paper 1 emphasis: acute medicine, surgery, clinical reasoning under uncertainty. Bias your weekday practice here.
• Paper 2 emphasis: chronic disease management, ethics, communication, professional standards. Bias your weekend practice here.
• By week 5, you should have completed at least 2 chained Paper 1+2 mocks. Your accuracy gap between the two papers tells you where the bigger top-up effort needs to go.

Weeks 4-2 — guideline lockdown and weakness mocks

• Triggered weakness mocks every 3-4 days. They auto-pull your lowest 4-6 specialties — let the algorithm pick the topics, not your gut.
• Refresh NICE / BNF management algorithms for the top 8 specialties. The platform's guideline updates feed gives you only the changes since your last revision pass.
• Cap new content learning by week 3. The final 2 weeks are pure consolidation, not new material — diminishing returns on cramming undertested topics.
• Sleep, exercise, and structured downtime move from 'nice to have' to non-negotiable. Stamina determines AKT outcome more than the last 200 questions you cram.

Final week — exam-day rehearsal

• Sit one final chained Paper 1 + Paper 2 mock 5-7 days out. Use the exam debrief to confirm pacing is below 1m 12s/question and your timing distribution is even, not back-loaded.
• Two days before: light practice only — 30 SBAs, mixed specialties, no weakness focus. The goal is to confirm you can perform on tired days, not to cram.
• Day before: zero practice. Read your own personalised revision notes from the past 12 weeks; that's the highest-density review you can do.
• Exam morning: arrive early, eat normally, hydrate. Trust the preparation. The AKT rewards prepared decision-making, not last-minute factoids.