The MRCP exam is a three-part UK postgraduate assessment, and you can sit every part of it from outside the UK. It runs as Part 1 written, Part 2 written and PACES, the clinical component. You need at least 12 months of postgraduate medical employment before Part 1, you get six attempts at each part, and from the September 2026 sitting Part 1 is delivered inside a test centre rather than remotely. This guide walks you through dates, fees, pass rates and the order to tackle it in.
Written by the travel4med Editorial Team, who help medical and nursing students plan supervised clinical placements in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bali and Zanzibar.
The MRCP exam is the Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom diploma, run by the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK. It tests knowledge, reasoning and bedside skill at the level expected of a doctor entering UK specialty training in general medicine. It is aimed at doctors, not students.
That last point matters if you're still in medical school. You can't sit any part of the MRCP exam while you're an undergraduate. What you can do now is build the clinical hours and the ward confidence that PACES later assumes you already have. If you're still weighing up formats, our comparison of an observership and a clinical elective explains what each one actually gives you.
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The Federation states plainly that Part 1 is "the entry-level exam accessible to doctors with a minimum of 12 months' postgraduate experience in medical employment". That is the gate. It is not phrased as a UK-only requirement, so internship or house-officer time in your own country counts towards it. Confirm your own situation with the Federation before you pay, because your primary medical qualification also has to be verified.
There's no requirement to hold GMC registration first, and no requirement to be working in the NHS. Plenty of candidates sit Part 1 in Colombo, Kathmandu, Cairo or Kuala Lumpur while still working at home.
Each part sits on top of the one before it, and you take them in order.
Part 1 is computer-based, administered by Surpass at a test centre. Two papers, three hours each, 100 best-of-five multiple choice questions per paper, so 200 questions in total. One mark per correct answer and no negative marking, so never leave a blank. The published blueprint weights clinical sciences most heavily at around 25 questions, with cardiology, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, endocrinology, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, neurology, renal medicine, respiratory medicine and rheumatology all sitting at 14 or 15.
Part 2 uses the same machinery: computer-based via Surpass, two three-hour papers, 100 best-of-five questions each, no negative marking. The blueprint shifts towards applied clinical medicine, with cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology and infectious diseases each at 19 questions.
PACES is the clinical exam and it looks nothing like the written parts. You rotate through five stations, moving on every 20 minutes with a five-minute gap between them, for a total of 125 minutes. Two independent examiners mark you at each station, so ten examiners see you across the carousel. There are eight patient or surrogate encounters in total, covering communication, respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous system and abdominal examination plus two 20-minute consultations. Seven skills are graded Satisfactory, Borderline or Unsatisfactory. If you've prepared for a structured clinical exam before, our OSCE preparation guide covers the same station-hopping instincts.
Fees rose on 1 July 2026. The Federation announced the change on 5 March 2026 and set the increase at 3.6%, matching the UK Consumer Price Index rate for December 2025. The new fees apply from the 2026/03 examinations diet onwards, in the UK and internationally.
| MRCP(UK) examination | Fee before | Fee from the 2026/03 diet |
|---|---|---|
| UK written (Part 1 and Part 2) | 502 pounds | 520 pounds |
| International written (Part 1 and Part 2) | 672 pounds | 696 pounds |
| UK PACES | 716 pounds | 742 pounds |
| International PACES | 1,311 pounds | 1,358 pounds |
International candidates pay a noticeably higher rate, and PACES is where the gap really shows.
Budget for more than the fee itself. Travel to a test centre, a hotel the night before, and a question bank subscription all stack up. Our guide to budgeting a clinical placement abroad uses the same cost-stacking method if you want a template.
Application windows are short, usually about a week, and they close at 08:00 UK local time. Miss one and you wait a full diet. Here are the published windows for the next MRCP exam sittings.
| Part | Application window | Exam date | Results by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | 14 to 21 July 2026 (closed) | 23 September 2026 | 6 November 2026 |
| Part 2 | 15 to 22 September 2026 | 25 November 2026 | 8 January 2027 |
| Part 1 | 27 October to 3 November 2026 | 20 January 2027 | 5 March 2027 |
| Part 2 | 8 to 15 December 2026 | 24 February 2027 | 9 April 2027 |
| Part 1 | 9 to 16 March 2027 | 26 May 2027 | 9 July 2027 |
If you're reading this in September 2026, the practical takeaway is simple. The 23 September Part 1 is already closed to new applicants. Your next realistic shot at Part 1 is 20 January 2027, and the window to apply for it opens on 27 October 2026. Put that date in your calendar now.
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This is the change most international candidates need to know about. The Federation's Part 1 pages carry the notice: "From the 2026/03 exam in September, the Part 1 will be delivered in-centre." Remote online proctoring, which let candidates sit the paper from home, has ended for Part 1. The only exception the Federation lists is Myanmar and Sudan based exams, which continue via remote online proctoring.
Practically, that means you now need to reach a physical centre. Check the Federation's centre list early, because in some countries the nearest centre is in another city. Build the travel into your plan the way you would for any other trip.
Hard enough that roughly half the room fails. The Federation publishes pass rates per diet. In the 2026/01 diet, 48.7% of all Part 1 candidates passed, 56.7% passed Part 2 and 49.3% passed PACES. Those "all candidates" figures include repeat attempts and every candidate group worldwide.
The gap between "all candidates" and UK graduates at first attempt is real and worth naming: 48.7% against 67.2% in Part 1. The Federation does not publish a separate international-graduate figure, so treat the gap as a signal about preparation and exposure to UK guidelines, not as a verdict on anyone.
Six. The Federation says the GMC requires every medical royal college and faculty to cap attempts, and has specified six as the maximum for each part of the exam. Candidates who reach six attempts at any part can apply for one exceptional additional attempt, and only one. Withdrawals, as the Federation defines them, do not count as attempts.
Six sounds generous until you multiply it by the fee. Six international written attempts at 696 pounds is 4,176 pounds before you've booked a single flight. Prepare properly for the first one.
It can. The GMC lists MRCP(UK) among the acceptable UK postgraduate qualifications it will take as evidence that you have the knowledge, skills and experience for full registration with a licence to practise. The GMC adds an important condition: the qualification should have been awarded within three years of the date it approves your application, and if it is older you'll need extra evidence of recent medical experience.
So the MRCP exam and the PLAB test are two doors into the same room, with different shapes. PLAB is a licensing assessment; MRCP is a specialty membership diploma that the GMC also accepts. Our PLAB exam guide covers that route in detail, and if you're aiming at UK specialty recruitment afterwards, the MSRA exam guide explains the ranking exam that sits on top. English language evidence is a separate requirement again, and the OET exam guide covers the medical-specific option.
Work backwards from the diet you want, not forwards from today.
PACES rewards doctors who have examined a lot of patients under time pressure and can explain their findings out loud. That habit is built years earlier, on wards, not in a question bank. A supervised placement is one honest way to get those hours: travel4med organises nursing internships, clinical clerkships, final-year and practical-year placements and physician observerships at four destinations, and both Sri Lanka and Nepal also happen to host MRCP PACES centres in Colombo and Kathmandu.
Two things to keep straight, though. A placement abroad is not a substitute for the 12 months of postgraduate medical employment Part 1 requires, and it is not assessed by the Federation. It builds skill, not eligibility. If you want the broader picture first, start with our complete guide to medical electives abroad, or see how supervised time abroad is judged in the US clinical experience explainer.
Planning your clinical hours before the MRCP exam? travel4med arranges supervised placements in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bali and Zanzibar, including the final-year and practical-year placement. Book a free consultation and we'll map it around your exam dates.
Reviewed by MUDr. Amandeep Grewal, who checks the clinical and regulatory statements in this MRCP exam guide against the current Federation and GMC guidance.
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