Core Revision
Revision aid, not clinical advice. This page is educational material written for exam preparation. It is not a substitute for the current guideline or for clinical judgement, and must not be relied on for the care of any individual. Always check up-to-date national guidance and verify independently before acting on anything here.
The GP Admin Desk
Admin and the law are pure, reliable AKT marks — and the corner of the exam trainees most often leave to chance. This is your inbox: real tasks across fit notes, the DVLA, capacity and Gillick, safeguarding and controlled-drug law. First understand the principle, then reason each decision the way a GP does — and the desk remembers what you find hard and brings it back until it sticks. Revision aid, not clinical advice — always check the current guideline before treating real patients.
Understand mode: the principle behind each admin task — open a card to see the rule and the questions the exam hides inside it.
The one idea · find the duty-holder first
Most admin questions are really asking whose responsibility is this? The patient must tell the DVLA; the employer (not you) decides whether to accept a “may be fit for work” note; the prescriber must get the controlled-drug wording right; the safeguarding lead coordinates a concern. Name the duty-holder in your head and the distractors usually fall away.
Below are the five themes the desk runs on. Open a theme to see the rule that decides it, then the individual questions the exam turns on. When a principle makes sense, move to The inbox and work the decisions live.
Five reliable sources of AKT marks — fit notes, fitness to drive, capacity and Gillick, safeguarding, and controlled-drug law. Open one to learn the rule, then expand any question for the detail.
The inbox · work the desk
Pick an item from the queue. Each one walks the decisions a real GP makes — read the scenario, reason each decision, then reveal the rule and the trap. Switch on Test me to score your decisions. In either mode, what you get wrong becomes due again — work it from Ready today in the Reason tab.
Reason · a mixed case walk
A shuffled run of single decisions drawn from every task on the desk — a fit note here, a DVLA rule there, a capacity call next. Predict the best answer, then reveal the reasoning. This is where the separate rules start to feel like one skill: spot the duty, apply the rule, commit.
Exam Pattern · how they dress these up
Admin questions rarely announce themselves. They sit at the end of an ordinary vignette and turn on one rule. Watch for:
- A job quietly mentioned early — HGV driver, bus driver, pilot — that flips a DVLA answer from Group 1 to the much stricter Group 2.
- A patient asking for a sick note within the first week — the test is knowing they self-certify for seven days.
- An under-16 asking for contraception — the word they want is Fraser, not Gillick, and not the Mental Capacity Act.
- An age gap slipped into a sexual-health history — the mark is recognising a safeguarding concern, not preserving confidentiality at all costs.
- A controlled-drug prescription where the answer is “28 days” or “quantity in words and figures”.
- Who holds the duty — it is the patient’s job to notify the DVLA, not yours; your job is to advise, record, and act only if they won’t.
Find the duty-holder first
Most admin questions are really asking whose responsibility is this? The patient must tell the DVLA; the employer (not you) decides whether to accept a “may be fit for work” note; the prescriber must get the CD wording right; the safeguarding lead coordinates a concern. Name the duty-holder in your head before you reach for the answer, and the distractors usually fall away. And remember the kind framing for patients: these rules exist to keep people safe, not to catch anyone out.
Save your progress — and go further
Your work in this tool is saved on this device. Create a free account to save your progress across devices and unlock the full question banks — the tool stays free either way.
Take this further
This tool is free. If you are preparing for the MRCGP AKT, the full course puts the same reasoning into exam-style questions: a question bank with Core Lens and Deep Dive explanations, a Core Calendar revision plan built around your exam date, and Core Compass to show you which topics need you next.
Questions? Email admin@corerevision.com
A revision aid built around current UK guidance (GMC, DVLA, DWP, Home Office). Always check the live guidance for real decisions.
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Core Revision Ltd is an independent educational platform and is not affiliated with the RCGP.
Written by practising UK GPs for exam revision. Sources are cited on this page and corrections are logged. Education only — always confirm against current guidance. Core Revision is an independent revision resource.