If you're sitting the RACP Divisional Written Exam (DWE) in February, there are about 16 weeks from mid-October to exam day. That's enough time to cover the whole blueprint once, fix your weakest specialties, and sit several full timed papers. The plan below splits it into five stages: find your baseline, cover the big specialties, cover the basic sciences, test under exam conditions, and taper.
Key dates for the February 2027 sitting
| Date | |
|---|---|
| Applications open | 10am AEDT, Monday 23 November 2026 |
| Applications close | 5pm AEDT, Tuesday 8 December 2026 |
| Exam day | Tuesday 9 February 2027 |
| Reserve date | Tuesday 9 March 2027 |
Put the application window in your calendar now: it's easy to miss in the middle of a busy term. Always confirm the dates on the RACP's DWE pages.
How the exam is weighted
The adult medicine DWE has two papers:
- Medical Sciences: 70 questions;
- Clinical Applications: 100 questions.
Questions are single best answer, with a few extended matching items, and there's no negative marking: never leave a question blank.
The RACP's blueprint gives the approximate number of questions per specialty:
- General Medicine: 10 to 14;
- Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Haematology, Infectious Diseases, Medical Oncology, Nephrology, Neurology, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, and Rheumatology: 8 to 12 each;
- Geriatric Medicine: 5 to 9.
For what the questions look like, with a worked example, see FRACP written exam questions: what to expect.
That's the most useful fact for planning. Your time should follow the marks, weighted towards whichever of those specialties you're weakest in.
Week 1: find your baseline
Before you plan anything, find out where you stand. Sit a timed set of questions across every specialty, and note:
- your score in each paper;
- your three weakest specialties;
- how your pace felt against the clock.
The free FRACP DWE Diagnostic does exactly this: 40 questions in 71 minutes, weighted to the blueprint and timed at the real exam's pace. It gives results by specialty, weakest first, with where to start. It's free, with no sign-up.
Weeks 2 to 7: the big clinical specialties
Work through the eleven specialties with the most questions, weakest first. For each:
- Revise the core: the conditions that come up again and again, and their Australian management.
- Do a block of questions on it, untimed, and read every explanation, including the ones you got right.
- Keep a short "mistakes" list: one line per question you got wrong, in your own words.
Re-test each specialty a week or two later, with a short mixed block. A topic isn't done until you'd get its questions right a second time.
Australian guidance matters here. Management questions assume Australian practice:
- eTG for antimicrobials and prescribing;
- the PBS and TGA for what's available and how it's scheduled;
- the relevant Australian society for each specialty.
Check what's changed recently. Physify's monthly "What's changed in Australian guidelines" round-up is free.
Weeks 8 to 10: the Medical Sciences paper
The Medical Sciences paper is 70 questions on the mechanisms behind clinical decisions: physiology, pharmacology, genetics, immunology, and statistics and clinical epidemiology. Many candidates leave it too late.
- Pharmacology: pharmacokinetics, interactions, drugs in renal and hepatic impairment.
- Physiology: cardiac, respiratory, renal and acid-base, and endocrine feedback loops.
- Statistics and epidemiology: sensitivity and specificity, likelihood ratios, predictive values, number needed to treat, and study design and bias. Practise the calculations until they're quick.
Weeks 11 to 14: test under exam conditions
Now sit full papers, timed, as close to exam conditions as your roster allows: phone away, one sitting.
- Sit your first full mock at the start of week 11.
- Spend the next few days on what it shows: your weakest specialties and the questions you ran out of time on.
- Sit another full mock each week or so, and track your score by specialty, not just the total.
If your pace is the problem, practise timed blocks of mixed questions. If accuracy is, go back to the explanations and your mistakes list.
Weeks 15 and 16: taper
- Week 15: a last full mock early in the week, then short daily mixed blocks and your mistakes list.
- Week 16: light review only. Sleep, plan the journey to the venue, check what you're allowed to bring, and stop learning new material.
Fitting it around a full roster
- Little and often beats occasional marathons. A short set of questions every day, including on nights and long days, keeps everything moving.
- Use your phone. Questions between jobs add up.
- Plan your hard weeks. Look at your roster now and move heavy study away from nights and on-call weeks.
- Study with your cohort. Explaining a question to someone else is one of the best ways to learn it.
How Physify follows this plan
Physify works back from your exam date. Set it, and your dashboard gives you a daily target that gets you through everything in time. Behind it:
- 9,300+ exam-style MCQs across 17 specialties, each with a worked explanation;
- 14 full timed mock exams with a breakdown by specialty;
- 314 courses of notes, written to Australian guidance.
Start free:
- the FRACP DWE Diagnostic for your baseline;
- 10 free questions in each specialty.
There's also a 7-day free VIP trial of everything. A card is required, and it continues as VIP Monthly unless you cancel before it ends.
Common questions
Is 16 weeks enough for the DWE?
For many candidates it's enough to cover the blueprint once and test under exam conditions, especially if you've been learning on the wards through basic training. If you're starting from further back, start as early as you can.
When should I sit my first full mock?
Early enough to act on it. Around a month before the exam gives you time to fix what it shows and sit more.
Should I study topic by topic or with mixed questions?
Both. Topic blocks to learn, mixed questions to practise switching between specialties as the exam does.
What if I'm working nights during the run-up?
Plan for it. Shift your heaviest study to the weeks you're on days, and keep to short daily sets on nights. Consistency matters more than the hours in any one week.