A 10-week FOP plan alongside a full-time job

If you work full time, ten weeks at five to seven hours a week is a realistic plan for the 17 February 2027 FOP. Apply first, then start the week of 7 December. Take the 26 syllabus areas in order of how rarely GPs see them, ease off over Christmas and finish with two timed papers. Here is the plan week by week. Checked against rcpch.ac.uk on 16 October 2026.

Step 0: apply in the window

Applications for the February paper open at 09:30 UK time on Monday 30 November 2026. They close at 16:00 on Friday 4 December for online invigilation or Monday 7 December for test centres. You need an RCPCH exam account at least 10 days before the window opens, so by Friday 20 November. Seats go on a first come, first served basis. Numbers are limited, so apply on the first morning.

Most candidates sit at a test centre. Online invigilation is only for those who meet the RCPCH’s criteria: no test centre in your country, living more than 200 miles from one or an approved reasonable adjustment. You must send evidence when you book. The UK fee is £365, the same at a centre or online. Withdraw during the window and you get a full refund. After it closes you normally get nothing back, so be sure of your ten weeks before you commit. The RCPCH theory dates page has every window.

What you are training for

The FOP is 100 single-best-answer questions in two hours, each with five options. Every question is worth one mark and there is no negative marking, so never leave one blank. That is 72 seconds a question, or 25 questions every half hour. In the UK the paper runs from 09:30 to 11:30.

The pass mark is set by the modified Angoff method. You are judged against an absolute standard, not against other candidates. The RCPCH’s blueprint puts three areas in its top band for share of questions: gastroenterology and hepatology; infection, immunology and allergy; respiratory medicine with ENT. GPs see those every week, so the plan comes back to them later.

The ten weeks at a glance

How to run a normal week

Five to seven hours is roughly an hour on three or four weekday evenings, plus a longer session at the weekend. Put the sessions in the Core Calendar before week 1, so you are never deciding what to do on a tired evening.

Learn, then test. For an unfamiliar area, read up first. Then work through the question bank module by module for that week’s areas. Read every explanation, including the ones you got right.

Keep the Core 10 going. Doing ten questions on the evenings you cannot manage a full session stops the earlier weeks fading.

Do not skimp on the familiar areas. Weeks 7 and 8 carry the three big areas. Give them full sessions even though they feel easy.

The last fortnight: two timed papers

From week 9 the work turns from learning to rehearsal. Sit the first timed mock at the weekend: 100 questions in two hours, in one sitting, without notes. Start at 09:30 if you can, to match the real paper. Check your pace every half hour: 25 questions each time. If a question stalls you, make your best choice and move on.

Spend week 10 on what the mock shows. Take your weakest two or three areas back to the question bank. Then sit a second full timed paper of 100 questions you have not seen, by Saturday 13 February. Check your admission document for your centre and start time.

When the plan slips

It will at some point. If you lose a week, do not try to cram it back. Drop the most familiar area from that week and keep going. Keep both timed papers: in our view they matter more than finishing every area.

Results come about six or seven weeks after the exam, so around the end of March or early April. They show your percentage in each category against the average of UK trainees who passed. If you need another go, that tells you where to aim. The June paper is on Wednesday 23 June, with applications from Monday 5 April.

How this fits the platform

The DCH hub has everything in this plan: the question bank of 661 best-of-five questions across all 26 syllabus areas, a timed mock of 100 questions in two hours (the FOP shape), the Core 10 and the Core Calendar. The twelve-chapter revision guide and the Core Tools cover the reading. Access is £49.99 for 12 months as a one-off payment, which also covers the June paper if you need it. You can try ten questions free first.

Quick answers

Core Revision is independent and not affiliated with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.