The Prescribing Safety Assessment

What the PSA involves,and how to prepare

A national online assessment run by the BPS and the MSC.1 It tests safety-critical judgement across eight kinds of question, against the clock, on an interface with its own drug search and prescription form. It's open book: you can use the BNF during the assessment.2

Start practisingTry each domain

The format

60
questions
200
marks
2 hours
in total
8
domains

Eight domains of six or eight questions each, 200 marks in all, and two hours to complete them.3 Every question starts from a clinical scenario. The pass mark is under Marking, below.

Marks and time by domain
DomainQuestionsMarksEachTotal
Prescribing (PWS)8806 min48 min
Prescription Review (REV)8322.4 min19 min
Planning Management (MAN)8161.2 min10 min
Providing Information (COM)6121.2 min7 min
Calculation Skills (CAL)8161.2 min10 min
Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)8161.2 min10 min
Drug Monitoring (MON)8161.2 min10 min
Data Interpretation (DI)6121.2 min7 min
Total602000.6 min a mark120 min

Questions and marks are from the Blueprint.3 Times are Formulary's calculation at 0.6 minutes a mark, not official.

The eight domains

Open one for what it asks, what catches people out and what to do, with an example question you can try. The advice is Formulary's, built from the Blueprint and the BNF.3

1Prescribing (PWS)8 questions, 80 marks. Write one prescription on the form you’re given.

Each question is 10 marks: 5 for the drug, 5 for dose, route and frequency. The prescription must be unambiguous and complete, with the approved name, the right form, dose and route. The duration of treatment is on every general practice form.3

What catches people out

  • Wrong units: write micrograms in full, and write less than 1 g in milligrams.
  • A general practice form left without a duration.

What to do

  • Read the allergy history and renal function before you pick the drug.
  • Pick the drug first, then use the BNF for the dose.

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2Prescription Review (REV)8 questions, 32 marks. Spot what’s unsafe on a list of 6 to 10 medicines.

You review a current medicine list against a clinical problem, such as impaired renal function, loss of anticoagulation control or new adverse effects, looking for interactions, dangerous doses and suboptimal prescribing.3

What catches people out

  • An interaction between two drugs in the list, such as verapamil with a beta-blocker, or a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor.
  • Timing: a loop diuretic prescribed to be given at night.

What to do

  • Read the clinical problem first, then go down the list once.
  • Open the BNF for anything beyond core knowledge. The assessment expects you to have time for it.

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3Planning Management (MAN)8 questions, 16 marks. Choose the most appropriate treatment of five.

Some options are beneficial, some neutral and some harmful. You choose the most important treatment in the initial management, and sometimes the right answer is a non-drug therapy or no treatment.3

What catches people out

  • The decision-support alert in the question: a warning about an allergy, interaction, caution, contraindication or duplication.
  • Treating when treatment isn’t appropriate.

What to do

  • Remove the harmful options first.
  • Match the option to the symptoms, signs and investigations given, not to the likeliest diagnosis alone.

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4Providing Information (COM)6 questions, 12 marks. Pick the most important thing to tell.

A patient is starting a new treatment or needs more advice. Four of the five options are distractors, and you choose the piece of information that matters more than the others. Insulins, anticoagulants, inhalers and methotrexate are typical.3

What catches people out

  • A true statement that isn’t the most important one.
  • Advice that belongs to a different drug.

What to do

  • Ask what this patient must know to use the medicine safely.

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5Calculation Skills (CAL)8 questions, 16 marks. Work out a dose, tablets or an infusion rate.

Dose by weight or body surface area, the number of tablets for a dose, diluting a drug for an infusion pump, and converting between expressions of dose and concentration.3

What catches people out

  • Mixing micrograms and milligrams, or grams and milligrams.
  • A dose per kilogram applied to the wrong weight.

What to do

  • Write the unit beside every number.
  • Say the answer in the unit asked for before you enter it.

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6Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)8 questions, 16 marks. Four question types, A to D.

Type A: the likely adverse effect of a drug. Type B: which drug most likely caused a presentation, such as new renal impairment, hepatic dysfunction, hypokalaemia or urinary retention. Type C: the interaction that matters. Type D: what to do about an adverse event, such as anaphylaxis, excessive anticoagulation or drug-induced hypoglycaemia.3

What catches people out

  • An interaction such as a macrolide with a statin, or an NSAID with an ACE inhibitor.
  • Treating the effect when the drug should be stopped.

What to do

  • Check the severity shown in the BNF interactions list.
  • Match the onset of the problem to when each drug started.

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7Drug Monitoring (MON)8 questions, 16 marks. Choose how to monitor.

How to monitor both the benefits and the harms of a medicine: which blood samples, taken at the right time, and which outcome measure. Digoxin, inhaled corticosteroids, oral contraception and levothyroxine are typical.3

What catches people out

  • The right test at the wrong time.
  • Monitoring benefit when the question is about harm.

What to do

  • Use the BNF monograph’s Monitoring requirements heading.

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8Data Interpretation (DI)6 questions, 12 marks. Decide what the results mean for the prescription.

Drug concentrations, haemoglobin, white cell count, liver or renal function, cholesterol or a nomogram. You withhold, reduce, continue, increase or start a medicine. Some items ask you to appraise trial data.3

What catches people out

  • Reading a creatinine in acute kidney injury as if it were a steady state: it lags behind the injury.
  • Acting on a single value without the medicines list beside it.

What to do

  • Decide the action first, then test it against the data.

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How marking works, domain by domain

The eight domains are marked differently, so it pays to know how each one is. Under “How marks are awarded” is only what the Blueprint and the official PSA guidance say, and where they say nothing, nothing is added. “In Formulary” describes our own marking. There are no negative marks, and the marks for each question are shown at the top of its screen.36

The pass mark

The pass mark isn't a fixed percentage. Each paper has its own, set in advance by a standard-setting group, and the exact figure isn't published before the sitting.30 Scores are reported on a scale of 0 to 200 with the pass mark at 100, so papers of different difficulty can be compared.4

Where it has sat

In the published results for national sittings from 2015 to 2022, the pass marks of individual papers ranged from 57.0% to 65.5% of the available marks, which is roughly 114 to 131 of the 200 marks. In most years they sat between about 60% and 65%.4 That's history, not a promise for your paper.

How it's calculated

  1. A standard-setting group is formed of representatives of UK medical schools, chosen for knowing the minimum standard expected of a Foundation Year 1 doctor.2430
  2. They agree what a “just passing” candidate looks like.24
  3. Each member judges every question separately: how well that just-passing candidate would do on it.24
  4. Members whose judgements are far from the rest explain them, the group discusses the question, and everyone may change their mind.24
  5. The average of the judgements across questions and members becomes the paper's pass mark. This is the modified Angoff method.2430
  6. The standard is fixed before the sitting, so it doesn't move to fit how a particular cohort performs.4

The practice papers on the official site carry an indicative pass mark.30 Formulary's mock assessments show an indicative pass mark too, as a guide only.

Prescribing (PWS)

8 questions, 10 marks each, 80 in all

What you do
Write one prescription, on one of several forms, for the patient described.
How marks are awarded
5 marks for the drug choice and 5 for the dose, route and frequency. The timing and signature fields are filled in for you and not marked. The marking is automatic and needs an exact match to the mark scheme, and answers it doesn’t recognise are reviewed after each sitting.
In Formulary
The drug and the prescription detail are marked as two parts, and the detail counts only once the drug earns marks. Dose, route and frequency each earn their share, with half marks for a near value. A line the author marked dangerous scores zero for the detail.

Prescription Review (REV)

8 items of 2 questions, 4 marks each, 32 in all

What you do
Read a list of 6 to 10 current medicines against a clinical problem and pick out what’s wrong.
How marks are awarded
Each item carries 4 marks and has two questions on the same list. How the marks are split within a question isn’t published.
In Formulary
Each question tells you how many rows to tick. Ticking all the right rows earns the full marks and some of them earn part marks.

Planning Management (MAN)

8 questions, 2 marks each, 16 in all

What you do
Choose the most appropriate treatment from five. Some options help, some do nothing and some harm.
How marks are awarded
One option is the best and earns the 2 marks.
In Formulary
One option earns all the marks. There are no part marks.

Providing Information (COM)

6 questions, 2 marks each, 12 in all

What you do
Choose the most important piece of information to give, from five that include four distractors.
How marks are awarded
One option is the most important and earns the 2 marks.
In Formulary
One option earns all the marks. There are no part marks.

Calculation Skills (CAL)

8 questions, 2 marks each, 16 in all

What you do
Work out a dose or a rate and record the answer accurately, with the unit. A calculator is built in.
How marks are awarded
The answer you record is the thing marked. Partial credit and the tolerance allowed aren’t published.
In Formulary
Your number is compared with the correct value to the set decimal places. A question can list other accepted answers, each with its own marks.

Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)

8 questions, 2 marks each, 16 in all

What you do
Choose the best answer from five, in one of four types: the likely effect of a drug, the drug behind a presentation, the interaction that matters, or what to do about an adverse event.
How marks are awarded
One option is the best and earns the 2 marks.
In Formulary
One option earns all the marks. There are no part marks.

Drug Monitoring (MON)

8 questions, 2 marks each, 16 in all

What you do
Choose the best way to monitor the benefit and the harm of a medicine, from five.
How marks are awarded
One option is the best and earns the 2 marks.
In Formulary
One option earns all the marks. There are no part marks.

Data Interpretation (DI)

6 questions, 2 marks each, 12 in all

What you do
Read the data and choose the change to the prescription it calls for, from five: withhold, reduce, no change, increase or start.
How marks are awarded
One option is the best and earns the 2 marks.
In Formulary
One option earns all the marks. There are no part marks.

The official sources don't publish partial-mark rules or accepted alternatives for any domain other than the split for Prescribing (PWS), so none are stated here. The way marks are commonly lost is covered under each domain above, as Formulary's own advice.2

Time

Time pressure is reported to be the biggest challenge for candidates.5 In a survey of 37,596 responses from 2020 to 2023, only about a quarter (24%) agreed that the time provided was sufficient, and 39% of 12,315 answers about how to improve the PSA asked for more time.4

The arithmetic

Two hours for 200 marks is 0.6 minutes a mark, or 36 seconds. That's about two minutes for an average question, 72 seconds for a 2-mark one and 6 minutes for a 10-mark Prescribing (PWS) one. BPS Assessment converts marks to time the same way, advises spending more time on the questions that score the most, and says not to plan to use every second.7

DomainMarksEven pace15 min spare
Prescribing (PWS)8048.0 min42.0 min
Prescription Review (REV)3219.2 min16.8 min
Planning Management (MAN)169.6 min8.4 min
Providing Information (COM)127.2 min6.3 min
Calculation Skills (CAL)169.6 min8.4 min
Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)169.6 min8.4 min
Drug Monitoring (MON)169.6 min8.4 min
Data Interpretation (DI)127.2 min6.3 min
Total200120 min105 min

Marks are from the Blueprint.3 The minutes are arithmetic, not official targets: “Even pace” is 36 seconds a mark, and “15 min spare” leaves 15 minutes in hand.

Checkpoints

The table shows the marks you should have completed at each time. Count marks, not question numbers, so the checkpoints work in whatever order you take the questions. The marks for each question are on its screen.6

ElapsedEven pace15 min spare
30 minutes5057
60 minutes100114
90 minutes150171
105 minutes175200

Arithmetic: elapsed minutes divided by 0.6, or by 0.525 to finish with 15 minutes in hand.

Rules that follow from it

  • Always enter an answer. There are no negative marks, so a blank scores no more than a wrong answer.6
  • Cap a BNF look-up. A 2-mark question has about 72 seconds, so a look-up past 30 seconds is spending half of it. Our suggestion, from the arithmetic: stop at about 30 seconds on a 2-mark question and about 2 minutes on a 10-mark one, choose your best answer and move on.
  • Use mark for review after you've answered. The assessment dashboard shows the items you've marked, lets you jump to any item and shows the time elapsed.6 Mark a question once it's got your best answer, and go back to the marked ones in the minutes you kept spare.
  • Spend time by marks. One Prescribing (PWS) question is worth five 2-mark questions, and a prescription that takes 9 minutes instead of 6 costs the time of two or three 2-mark questions. BPS Assessment advises spending more time on the questions that score the most.7
  • Change an answer only for a reason. In a study of medical students, those told that changing an answer when in doubt tends to help did change more answers and scored higher, but the gain wasn't statistically significant.8 That's as far as the evidence goes.
  • Practise against the clock. BPS Assessment advises timing yourself on a full-length paper and noting where the minutes go.5

What isn't known: no controlled study of pacing strategies for this assessment was found. The advice above is the official guidance, arithmetic from the Blueprint, and the one answer-changing study cited.

Getting quick in the BNF

You can use the BNF in the assessment, through the NICE site or MedicinesComplete.25 Searching every option is the slowest way to be unsure, so triage.

Step 1

Know it

You’re sure of the drug and the dose. Don’t look it up.

Step 2

Check one fact

One detail decides it, such as a renal dose or an interaction. Open the monograph and read only that heading.

Step 3

Look it up first

You don’t know the drug. Look it up before you choose.

Where things are

You needLook in
Dose and what it’s forThe drug monograph, Indications and dose.9
Renal impairmentThe monograph’s Renal impairment heading, and Medicines guidance, Prescribing in renal impairment, for how to estimate renal function.910
Hepatic impairmentThe monograph’s Hepatic impairment heading, and Medicines guidance, Prescribing in hepatic impairment.911
Pregnancy and breast-feedingThe monograph’s Pregnancy, Breast feeding and Conception and contraception headings, and Medicines guidance, Prescribing in pregnancy and Prescribing in breast-feeding.912
Interactions and their severityThe monograph’s Interactions heading, or Interactions A to Z, which shows severity and the evidence. A combination product has to be checked by each constituent.13
Side-effectsThe monograph’s Side-effects heading, and Medicines guidance, Adverse reactions to drugs.912
How to monitorThe monograph’s Monitoring requirements heading.9
How to write itMedicines guidance, Prescription writing.14
InfusionsMedicines guidance, Guidance on intravenous infusions.12

The BNFc has the same layout for children's doses.

Checks that are easy to miss

Run these before you commit to an answer. Each comes from the BNF or the Blueprint.

  • Renal function. If even mild renal impairment is likely, check it before prescribing a drug that needs dose changes.10 Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is usually fine, but the BNF recommends creatinine clearance (Cockcroft and Gault) for elderly patients, for a body mass index (BMI) below 18 or above 40 kg/m², and for direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs).10 In acute kidney injury, creatinine lags behind, so estimates mislead.10
  • Liver disease. Sedatives, opioids and diuretics that cause hypokalaemia can precipitate encephalopathy, reduced clotting increases sensitivity to warfarin, and NSAIDs and corticosteroids can worsen fluid retention.11
  • Allergies and alerts. A decision-support alert in the question is information you’re expected to act on.3
  • Interactions. Check each constituent of a combination product.13
  • Units. Write micrograms, nanograms and units in full. Write 1 g or more in grams and less than 1 g in milligrams. Write 0.5 mL, never .5 mL, and 3 mg, never 3.0 mg.14
  • Weight. For children state the current weight, and consider a dose per unit mass such as mg/kg.14 Use ideal body weight in the Cockcroft and Gault formula where fat is the main contributor to body mass.10
  • Route, frequency and maximum dose. State the dose and its frequency. For an as-required medicine give a minimum interval, and a maximum daily dose.14
  • Duration. Every general practice form has a duration, such as 7, 14 or 28 days.3

Pass requirement

It's a national requirement for all Foundation Year 1 (F1) doctors to demonstrate a pass by the end of the year, and they must pass before being signed off as having completed F1.15 There are three opportunities to sit it in each training year.15 Whether final-year medical students must pass is decided by each medical school.2

The 2026/27 sittings

These are the national sittings for the 2026/27 cycle, as listed on the official PSA website.16 If you're a medical student, your medical school registers you and decides which of them you sit. Wait to hear from your school, or contact it, to find out which exact sitting is yours.17

  1. Medical schools
  2. Open to all
  3. Open to all
  4. Medical schools

Every sitting is the same format: an online assessment of 60 questions in two hours.2 The official list also has a sitting on Thursday 24 September 2026 for foundation schools only. It has already passed, so it isn't shown.16 The official dates page doesn’t give start times, so your school confirms yours.

Getting ready for the day

Everything here comes from the official PSA guidance.2

Your school registers you

Schools submit their candidate list no later than four weeks before the test date. Your PSA Lead tells you when your account is ready to activate, and you activate it from the emailed link.

Ask about your allocation

Your school confirms which sitting applies to you. Ask your PSA Lead, or your medical school office, rather than a national source.

Calculators

The assessment has a basic calculator built in. A basic handheld calculator is allowed. A scientific one may be if your institution checks it first and it can’t communicate, store text or formulae, or search. A calculator on a phone or other device isn’t allowed.

The BNF

You use the BNF and BNFc online, through the NICE site or MedicinesComplete. Paper copies aren’t allowed and no notes can be made in the BNF. Other resources aren’t allowed, including NICE guidelines and Clinical Knowledge Summaries.

Reasonable adjustments

Ask through your PSA Lead or assessment office as early as you can.

If you can’t log in

Check with your PSA Lead first. If your account exists but you can’t get in, email a screenshot of the error to enquiries.psa@prescribe.ac.uk with the subject “Login Problems”.

Results

Each sitting is reviewed before results are released. The first sittings of the year can take up to four weeks, and later ones about two. Your PSA Lead confirms when they’re available.

Resits and certificates

Medical schools decide on resits and give support. A pass is valid for two years, and the certificate is best downloaded soon after results are released.

Doctors and other candidates

  • Foundation doctors have three sitting opportunities in each training year, one in each four-month placement. This year’s are 24 September 2026, 18 March 2027 and 15 April 2027, and all start at 1pm. Your foundation school registers you and confirms where you sit.15
  • A pass is valid for two years. If you passed more than two years before starting foundation training, you need to retake it before completing the first foundation year.152
  • Doctors from non-UK medical schools who haven’t passed sit through their foundation school, and Foundation Year 2 (F2) stand-alone doctors can choose to.218
  • Foundation doctors who don’t pass first time receive remediation and two further attempts.2
  • If you’re sitting outside a medical school cohort, your foundation school is the contact for registration.15

How to study: what the evidence says

  1. Test yourself before you read

    Answer first, then check.

    Start a practice session on a domain before you revise it. Commit to every answer, then read the feedback.

    Recalling an answer from memory gives better later recall than re-reading the same material, including in medical education. Practice testing was one of the two highest-rated techniques in a review of ten.192023

  2. Spread it over weeks

    Little and often beats one big push.

    Put short sessions across the weeks before your sitting, and come back to each of the eight domains more than once, rather than finishing one and never seeing it again.

    Spaced practice improves later recall in a large review of experiments, and in a randomised trial of medical students.2122

  3. Mix the domains once you know them

    Interleave.

    After a first pass through each domain, build practice sessions that cover several domains at once, as the real assessment does, so you’ve got to work out what each question wants.

    A meta-analysis of 59 studies found a moderate average advantage for mixing related topics, though the size depends on the material. No study of this on the PSA itself was found.25

  4. Rehearse the real conditions

    Sit timed full-length mocks.

    Do mock assessments against the clock, in one sitting, and note where the minutes went. Practise on the same kind of screen you’ll meet on the day.

    Memory works best when practice matches the test, and BPS Assessment advises timing yourself on a full-length paper.295

  5. Get fast in the BNF

    Look things up the way you’ll need to on the day.

    When an answer was wrong, open the BNF link in the feedback and find the exact heading yourself. Practise getting to the dose, renal and interaction sections quickly.

    You can use the BNF in the assessment, and BPS Assessment advises being familiar with it beforehand.25

  6. Keep a log of what you missed

    Write down the rule, not the answer.

    After each session open the results review and, for every miss, write one line on the rule or check you skipped. Look at the list before your next session.

    Learning from errors works best when the error is followed by feedback, and feedback helps most when it says what to do differently.2627

  7. Practise the calculations by hand

    Do a few every day.

    Use Calculation Skills (CAL) often, write every unit, and check the answer against the BNF dose. Use the on-screen calculator only to confirm what you worked out.

    In a 1995 survey of 150 hospital doctors, dilution and concentration questions caused many errors. Calculation is 16 marks of the 200.283

Browse plans
Sources

References

  1. 1. Prescribing Safety Assessment, official website (British Pharmacological Society and Medical Schools Council Assessment). Assessment structure. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk
  2. 2. Prescribing Safety Assessment, official website (BPS and MSC Assessment). Frequently asked questions: registration, calculators, BNF resources, adjustments, results, resits and what failing means. Assessment structure and who sits the PSA. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk/
  3. 3. Prescribing Safety Assessment. Blueprint (17 August 2026): eight sections, 200 marks, two hours. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk/resources/PSA-Blueprint.pdf
  4. 4. Magavern EF, et al. UK Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA): the development, implementation and outcomes of a national online prescribing assessment. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2024;90(2). doi:10.1111/bcp.15919. doi.org/10.1111/bcp.15919
  5. 5. BPS Assessment. How to pass the PSA (guidance for candidates). portal.bpsassessment.com/how-to-pass-the-psa/
  6. 6. Prescribing Safety Assessment, official website. Introduction to the practice assessment: no negative marks, the number of marks for each item is shown at the top of the screen, and the assessment dashboard shows items answered, items marked for review and time elapsed. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk/
  7. 7. BPS Assessment. How long is the Prescribing Safety Assessment? Timing, question breakdown and what to expect: 120 minutes for 60 questions, spend more time on the questions that score the most, and keep a cushion of time. portal.bpsassessment.com/2025/09/
  8. 8. Bauer D, Kopp V, Fischer MR. Answer changing in multiple choice assessment: change that answer when in doubt, and spread the word! BMC Med Educ. 2007;7:28. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2020461
  9. 9. NICE. BNF drug monograph (warfarin sodium shown): Indications and dose, Contra-indications, Cautions, Interactions, Side-effects, Pregnancy, Breast feeding, Hepatic impairment, Renal impairment and Monitoring requirements. bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/warfarin-sodium/
  10. 10. NICE. BNF: Prescribing in renal impairment, including estimating renal function. bnf.nice.org.uk/medicines-guidance/prescribing-in-renal-impairment/
  11. 11. NICE. BNF: Prescribing in hepatic impairment. bnf.nice.org.uk/medicines-guidance/prescribing-in-hepatic-impairment/
  12. 12. NICE. BNF: Medicines guidance, including prescribing in pregnancy and breast-feeding, adverse reactions to drugs and guidance on intravenous infusions. bnf.nice.org.uk/medicines-guidance/
  13. 13. NICE. BNF: Interactions A to Z, which includes the severity of an interaction and the type of evidence. bnf.nice.org.uk/interactions/
  14. 14. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). British National Formulary (BNF): Prescription writing. bnf.nice.org.uk/medicines-guidance/prescription-writing/
  15. 15. UK Foundation Programme. PSA requirements and process. foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/curriculum/prescribing-safety-assessment-psa/psa-requirements-and-process/
  16. 16. Prescribing Safety Assessment, official website. Forthcoming events: PSA dates for 2026/2027. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk/assessment/redirecttopsadates
  17. 17. BPS Assessment. PSA dates for the 2026/2027 training year; medical schools confirm which dates apply to their candidates. Published 22 June 2026. portal.bpsassessment.com/?p=24805
  18. 18. UK Foundation Programme. Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA): requirement for F1 doctors and for F2 stand-alone doctors. foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/curriculum/prescribing-safety-assessment-psa/
  19. 19. Roediger HL, Karpicke JD. Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychol Sci. 2006;17(3):249-255. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
  20. 20. Larsen DP, Butler AC, Roediger HL. Test-enhanced learning in medical education. Med Educ. 2008;42(10):959-966. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03124.x
  21. 21. Cepeda NJ, Pashler H, Vul E, Wixted JT, Rohrer D. Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychol Bull. 2006;132:354-380. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16719566/
  22. 22. Kerfoot BP, DeWolf WC, Masser BA, Church PA, Federman DD. Spaced education improves the retention of clinical knowledge by medical students: a randomised controlled trial. Med Educ. 2007;41(1):23-31.
  23. 23. Dunlosky J, Rawson KA, Marsh EJ, Nathan MJ, Willingham DT. Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychol Sci Public Interest. 2013;14(1):4-58. doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
  24. 24. Maxwell SRJ, Coleman JJ, Bollington L, Taylor C, Webb DJ. Prescribing Safety Assessment 2016: delivery of a national prescribing assessment to 7343 UK final-year medical students. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2017;83(10):2249-2258. doi:10.1111/bcp.13319. Standard setting: a group of nine representatives of UK medical schools used a modified Angoff method. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5595977/
  25. 25. Brunmair M, Richter T. Similarity matters: a meta-analysis of interleaved learning and its moderators. Psychol Bull. 2019. doi:10.1037/bul0000209. 59 studies; a moderate average advantage for interleaving (Hedges g 0.42) that depends on the material. doi.org/10.1037/bul0000209
  26. 26. Metcalfe J. Learning from errors. Annu Rev Psychol. 2017;68:465-489. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044022. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044022
  27. 27. Hattie J, Timperley H. The power of feedback. Rev Educ Res. 2007;77(1):81-112. doi:10.3102/003465430298487. doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
  28. 28. Rolfe S, Harper NJN. Ability of hospital doctors to calculate drug doses. BMJ. 1995;310:1173. 150 hospital doctors answered five questions on drug dilution and concentration. www.bmj.com/content/310/6988/1173
  29. 29. Morris CD, Bransford JD, Franks JJ. Levels of processing versus transfer appropriate processing. J Verbal Learning Verbal Behav. 1977;16:519-533.
  30. 30. Prescribing Safety Assessment, official website, FAQ "What is the pass mark for the PSA?": the pass mark is set using the Modified Angoff method; the PSA Standard Setting Group determines the passing standard for each assessment; the exact pass mark cannot be published before the test; indicative pass marks are provided with the practice papers. prescribingsafetyassessment.ac.uk/