Are Your GP Academy KFP/MSQ Questions Too Easy for the Real RACGP Exam

Real RACGP KFP exams are built to test clinical reasoning, prioritisation of care, key feature recognition, and your ability to make safe decisions within the constraints of general practice. The exam expects you to think like an independent GP, not like a student revising a textbook summary.

The exam focuses on 3 crucial elements:

• Key clinical features
• Every scenario contains clues about what matters most for this patient. This includes age, practice setting, comorbidities, social factors, and risk levels. Your answer must reflect these details clearly.
• Decision making and prioritisation
• The exam tests whether you understand the difference between immediate care, next steps, and ongoing management. You must decide the correct sequence of actions.
• Context specific responses
• The answer must match the specific situation described. Generic responses, even if clinically correct in another context, do not score well.

RACGP exam reports repeatedly note that many candidates lose marks for giving answers that do not align to the scenario. Common errors include:

• Non specific or overly broad answers
• Providing more answers than requested
• Not recognising the urgency level required
• Misreading or overlooking essential details

The difficulty of the exam is reflected in its data. The overall pass rate for the 2024.2 cycle was 67.83 percent from 945 candidates [1]. For additional context, the 2025.1 KFP reported 76.89 percent [1].

Repeat attempts show a clear downward trend. Candidates on their first attempt achieved 83.8 percent, second attempt 48.6 percent, third attempt 36 percent, and fourth attempt or later 19.3 percent [4]. These numbers demonstrate the importance of strong first attempt preparation.

If your RACGP KFP practice questions do not require this level of analysis, they may be too easy. For more strategies, see our guide on building exam realistic GP reasoning skills.

Many practice sets take older questions and convert them into the new Multiple Selection Question format. The difficulty is that these lightly reworked questions often lose the nuance and complexity of genuine exam items. From the 2025.2 exam cycle, the KFP moved to 70 MSQs in a four hour sitting and the short answer format was removed [5], with exam day information confirming four hours duration [6]. This new format still reflects the same assessment standard, but poorly updated question banks often fail to match it.

You can often identify these simplified questions by noticing issues such as:

• Limited scenario detail
• Lack of social or contextual factors
• Incorrect or outdated guideline references
• Weak distractors that do not genuinely test reasoning
• Reduced emphasis on sequencing decisions
• Generic cases that resemble lists more than clinical narratives

RACGP reports clearly warn that outdated or simplified questions do not prepare candidates adequately. When candidates practise repeatedly on low complexity material, they often struggle with the layered reasoning required in the real exam [4].

If your practice questions feel predictable, overly straightforward, or familiar from old resources, they may not align with the modern RACGP standard. For more insights on exam design changes, see our MSQ transition explainer.

Fellow Academy deliberately designs questions that feel challenging, detailed, and fully aligned with the modern RACGP exam. The goal is not to discourage you, but to push your reasoning so that the real exam feels achievable and manageable.

Our question design reflects 5 key principles:

• Detailed case scenarios
• Each question mirrors genuine GP consultation complexity, including practice setting, comorbidities, cultural and social factors, and ethical considerations.
• Guideline aligned reasoning
• All answers follow current Australian clinical guidelines including PBS, Therapeutic Guidelines and the Australian Immunisation Handbook.
• Challenging distractors
• Options are designed to feel clinically plausible, encouraging deeper thinking.
• Sequencing of care
• Questions emphasise what to do immediately, what to do next, and what to avoid.
• Exam realistic cognitive load
• Questions reflect the type of mental processing required in the real exam rather than simple recall.

The benefit of harder practice is shown in outcomes. The 2025.1 KFP reported a 76.89 percent pass rate 1, and the 2025.2 cycle reported 79.57 percent out of 1160 candidates [7]. This reinforces that using exam realistic questions, not simplified practice sets, makes a measurable difference. If you want to explore exam realistic practice, you can try our free KFP case pack for additional support.

High quality RACGP exam preparation involves more than answering questions. You need a structured learning pathway combining content, application, and repetition.

An effective preparation structure includes:

• Lectures for foundation knowledge
• Use lectures to build a solid base in key curriculum areas such as chronic disease management, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and rural general practice. Stick closely to Australian guidelines.
• Exam realistic question practice
• Begin practising with realistic questions early. Set a timer and aim for the exam standard pace of 3.4 minutes per question when working through MSQs, which aligns with 70 questions in 4 hours [5],[6]
• Notes and flashcards for knowledge consolidation
• Break guidelines into summary tables and short notes. Use flashcards to embed key management steps and differentiate similar conditions. Apply active recall frequently for long term retention.
• Mock exams for timing and technique
• Use official RACGP Self Assessment Progress Tests regularly. The 2025.1 KFP reported 76.89 percent which provides a useful benchmark for your preparation [1]. Mock exams allow you to test your technique, stamina and reasoning under time pressure.

This blended approach ensures you not only understand content but can apply it quickly and accurately in high pressure exam situations. For help developing an integrated study plan, explore our KFP study roadmap.

Use this section as a quick audit to compare your current preparation materials with real exam expectations. Keep your evaluation honest and specific to your setting and patient population.

Consider the following checks:

• Do your cases include clear patient context that changes management decisions
• Are distractors plausible enough to force you to reason rather than recall
• Are answers referenced to current Australian guidelines including PBS and Therapeutic Guidelines
• Do explanations teach sequencing of care such as immediate next and follow up
• Do cases simulate time pressure equal to the real exam pace of 3.4 minutes per question based on 70 questions in 4 hours [5],[6]

If several answers are no, lift question difficulty to match exam realistic standards. For related guidance, see our KFP study roadmap and our free KFP case pack pages for practical examples and structured pathways.

Benchmarking helps you detect gaps that easy question sets hide. Use the official RACGP Self Assessment Progress Tests to calibrate difficulty and track readiness over time.

Practical steps to apply now:

• Sit a timed SAPT to reveal weak domains early
• Review items by domain such as cardiovascular or paediatrics and log recurring errors
• Map errors to targeted notes and flashcards then repeat the SAPT after 2 weeks
• Compare your trend with cohort level insights described in RACGP exam reports such as 67.83 percent from 945 candidates in 2024.2 and 76.89 percent in 2025.1 [1]

Use these checkpoints to make your study plan responsive. For a worked example, see our internal guide on SAPT driven revision loops.

Support from supervisors and peers turns knowledge into performance. Use brief structured sessions that mirror exam constraints and keep feedback specific.

Try these formats:

• Ten minute rapid case with two minute justification of immediate and next steps
• One page summary notes per topic and a three question viva at the end
• Weekly mini mock focusing on Indigenous health, rural access or PBS constraints
• Debrief using a checklist covering context, key features, sequencing, and rationale

This structure builds speed, precision, and confidence. For a ready to use template, see our peer coaching checklist and mini mock schedule pages.