What the RCGP AKT Feedback Reports Tell You and Why They’re So Important
After every MRCGP AKT sitting, the RCGP publishes a short feedback report. Sadly most GP trainees never read one until someone mentions it to them. That is a shame, because these reports are one of the few places where the people who write and review the AKT tell you, in their own words, what is going well and what keeps catching candidates out.
This page exists to make that information easier to use. It is reviewed and updated after every AKT sitting, in January, April, July and October, so you can come back to it as your own exam approaches rather than treating it as a one-off read. Below you will find what the reports actually are, what the most recent sitting showed, the patterns that keep resurfacing across several sittings in a row, and how to turn that into something useful for your revision rather than something to worry about.
A note before we start. None of this is about predicting questions, and it should not be read that way. The RCGP is explicit that AKT content is reviewed and replaced on an ongoing basis, and that trying to use recalled or memorised questions is both against the rules and poor preparation, since the exam tests applied reasoning rather than recall. What follows is a summary of the themes RCGP itself has chosen to publish, written up so they are easier to act on.
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What the AKT feedback reports actually are
After each sitting, the AKT core group – those responsible for setting and reviewing the exam – publish a report covering that sitting’s statistics, the clinical and professional areas where candidates did well, and the areas where performance was weaker. The reports also look back across the previous four sittings to flag anything that keeps showing up as a recurring theme, rather than a one-off blip in a single diet.
The rationale is to support learning without compromising the security of future papers. So you will not find specific questions or answer options in these reports. What you will find is which broad clinical and professional areas are consistently under-prepared, essentially the exam’s own version of common AKT mistakes, which is genuinely useful if you know how to read it.
You can find every published report, going back several years, on the RCGP’s AKT support page.
The latest sitting: AKT 59, April 2026
The most recently published report covers AKT 59, sat by candidates in late April 2026. Performance was strong overall, continuing an upward trend in pass rates across the last three sittings. The pass mark for this diet was set slightly lower than in the previous two sittings, which reflects the standard setting process RCGP applies to every diet rather than necessarily meaning the exam itself got easier.
What went well
RCGP specifically called out improvement in recognising childhood cancers, in candidates’ understanding of chaperone policy, and in asthma management. None of these are small areas, so genuine improvement across a national cohort suggests trainees and trainers are responding to feedback from earlier sittings, which is exactly the point of these reports existing at all.
Where AKT 59 candidates struggled
Five themes stood out in this sitting. Monitoring requirements for commonly prescribed medications caused difficulty, as did spotting prescribing errors, both sitting within the prescribing safety domain RCGP returns to regularly. How recorded consultations should be handled from a data protection standpoint was a weaker area too, alongside confidentiality issues that arise specifically in safeguarding situations involving children. Finally, recognition and management of minor illness, the everyday, lower-acuity presentations that make up a large share of real GP work, was an area candidates found harder than expected.
None of these are obscure or theoretical topics. They are the kind of thing that is easy to under-revise precisely because it feels too basic to need dedicated study time, which is often exactly why it trips candidates up.
The bigger picture: what keeps resurfacing
Looking at a single sitting only tells you part of the story. What is more useful is what RCGP has flagged repeatedly across several sittings in a row, because that points to genuine, persistent gaps in how trainees are prepared, rather than something specific to one cohort or one paper.
Across the last four sittings, a small number of themes keep reappearing. Neurology, particularly recognising and reasoning through neurological symptoms, has been flagged in three of the last four reports. Looking back further, it had been flagged in every sitting for a full year before that, so its absence from the most recent report is a genuinely encouraging sign, though not yet a reason to drop it from your revision entirely. Interpreting evidence and practice level data, including the kind of charts and study design terminology that come up in the evidence based practice section, has featured in two of the last four reports. Prescribing safety, covering drug side effects, monitoring requirements and prescribing errors, has also come up in two of the last four. So has the administration and leadership domain, specifically data protection and confidentiality. And paediatric presentations, covering both acute illness and safeguarding, have featured in two of the last four sittings as well.
If you recognise any of those as areas you have not had much hands on exposure to in your current placement, that is worth noting early rather than assuming it will sort itself out. RCGP itself acknowledges that exposure varies a great deal depending on training background and placement mix, which is exactly why these themes keep showing up across different cohorts rather than being a sign that any individual candidate is behind.
A note on exam security and "recalled" questions
It is worth addressing this directly, because it comes up often in trainee groups. RCGP’s most recent feedback report makes the point firmly that candidates should not be seeking out, sharing or relying on other people’s recollections of exam questions. Setting the professionalism issue aside, it simply does not work as a revision strategy, since AKT content is regularly revised, swapped and retired, so a question someone sat in a previous diet tells you very little about what you will face. The far more reliable approach is building genuine applied clinical reasoning across the curriculum, using resources grounded in the published GP curriculum and current national guidance rather than informal recollections passed around between candidates.
How to actually use this report in your revision
Reading a feedback report is only useful if it changes what you do next. A few practical ways to put it to work:
– Map the recurring themes above against your own placement experience, and be honest about where your day to day exposure has been thin
– Treat areas like minor illness or chaperone policy as deliberate revision topics, not things you will absorb passively
– If neurology has come up repeatedly for you, RCGP’s own advice is to work through it in a tutorial or study group rather than just reading around it
– If data interpretation or practice-level charts are a weak spot, RCGP publishes its own short video tutorials and a dedicated guide on this as part of its general AKT advice, and a session with your practice manager on how local data is presented can help too
– Base your prescribing revision around the BNF, particularly monitoring schedules and common side effects, and consider a conversation with your practice pharmacist about local monitoring processes, which is exactly what RCGP suggests
– Revisit safeguarding and confidentiality guidance periodically rather than only before the exam, since both come up across multiple domains, and the GMC’s own guidance is a good starting point
Arora’s AKT preparation includes a dedicated statistics course alongside the wider video courses, question bank, flashcards and audio courses, mapped to the core areas of the GP curriculum.
Final thoughts
These reports are not a verdict on any individual candidate, and they should not be read as one. They are RCGP being transparent about where a large national cohort consistently finds the exam hard, which is a genuinely useful thing to have access to if you use it to guide where you spend your limited revision time. The themes change a little each sitting and some persist for a year or more, so it is worth checking back here after each new report rather than relying on what was true six months ago.
This page will be reviewed and updated again after the next AKT sitting.
Sources: RCGP AKT feedback reports hub
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Also:
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Author Bio — Dr Aman Arora
Hi! I’m Dr. Aman Arora, a Portfolio GP with over a decade of clinical and teaching experience, dedicated to helping doctors achieve their goals with confidence. Having had the privilege of supporting more than 50,000 doctors worldwide across exams such as MRCGP AKT, SCA, MSRA, PLAB 2 and PLAB 1, I understand the challenges you face and the strategies needed to overcome them. Through personalised face-to-face sessions, engaging online courses, mocks, audio and a vibrant social media community, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.
Whether you’re looking to pass crucial exams or take the next big step in your medical career, we’re here to help you succeed. Feel free to get in touch with any thoughts, questions, or ideas — I look forward to working with you and being part of your journey.
Author Bio — Dr Pooja Arora
Dr Pooja Arora is a GP with a background in Medical Politics, where she passionately focuses on improving the opportunities and working conditions for junior doctors. She is proud to hold FRCGP (Fellow of Royal College of General Practitioners).
You can find out more about Pooja’s previous roles and qualifications here.
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