The Pre PACES Podcast aims to help you pass the devilishly difficult MRCP PACEs exam. We’ll provide the best expertise from both seasoned consultants who have examined on PACEs for years, as well as tips and tricks from junior doctors who are fresh out of sitting the exam. Most of all, we want you to enjoy listening and ultimately succeed in passing the exam. Best of luck!

Respiratory, acute medicine and infectious-diseases learners get a practical review of chronic productive cough, coarse crackles and recurrent exacerbations. HRCT, sputum microbiology, investigation of the underlying cause, airway-clearance techniques and targeted antibiotics form the core assessment and management pathway.

Neurology, geriatric medicine and examination-focused learners get a structured assessment of bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor and gait change. The episode distinguishes parkinsonism from idiopathic Parkinson’s disease and reviews Parkinson-plus syndromes, vascular and drug-induced causes, targeted investigations and early multidisciplinary support.

Medical education and human-factors readers get a PACES communication-skills update. The episode focuses on open questions, patient-centred agenda setting, clear signposting, plain-language explanation, empathy, structured closure and concise examiner presentations without over-rehearsed or insincere stock phrases.

A clinical-reasoning item for exertional breathlessness when respiratory treatment has not helped. It uses angina, heart failure, valvular disease, arrhythmia, mechanical-valve complications and congenital shunts to guide focused cardiovascular history, examination and selected investigations.

Progressive exertional breathlessness needs timing, threshold and reproducibility defined before assuming airways disease or interstitial lung disease. This is strong revision for drug exposure, past jobs, home mould, birds, hobbies and persistent symptoms after pulmonary embolism.

A metallic valve sound with a sternotomy scar should trigger early localisation and complication screening. Breathlessness after valve replacement needs valve function, ventricular function, rhythm, inflammation and anticoagulation reviewed rather than a purely descriptive examination summary.

Work-related stress, over-preparation and silence in a new role can reflect more than poor confidence. This longer human-factors listen helps distinguish rational uncertainty from imposter phenomenon, and gives mentors concrete behaviours: stage-matched feedback, safe questions, visible uncertainty and specific praise.

When non-shockable arrest keeps running, leadership can matter as much as the next intervention. This is worth opening for named roles, closed-loop communication, when frailty and absent reversibility support stopping, and why a hot debrief still matters after return of spontaneous circulation or death.

Chest pain, atrial fibrillation, and borderline ECGs are the recurring problems in this short cardiology education listen. Structured case reconstruction after a referral or take decision can sharpen interpretation, escalation, and referral quality on the next shift.

The best first listen today. It keeps ward cardiac arrest practical: take the lead, get pads on early, identify the rhythm, and use the minutes before collapse to make the 4 Hs and 4 Ts clinically useful rather than a memory test.