Help

Subscriptions

How do I subscribe to PasTest online?

You can subscribe to PasTest Online either online or by telephone. You can choose from 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months or 4 months. We accept debit and credit card payments from MasterCard, Visa, Switch, Solo, Visa and Electron.

1. To subscribe online click here.

2. To subscribe by phone please call us on +44 (0) 1565 752000 (Monday to Friday 9-5pm, GMT).

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Logging in

I am having problems logging in. What can I do?

Please check that there are no typos in the username and password. Make sure that you are typing Username and Password in the relevant box. Make sure you are using lowercase since Username and Password are case sensitive.

If you are still able to login then use the Log In Help link in the top right hand corner of your monitor screen. If logging in problem still persists then please contact the support team at enquiries@pastestonline.co.uk or give us a call on +44 (0) 1565 752000 (Monday to Friday 9-5pm, GMT).

I have forgotten my password. Can you send it to me?

If you have forgotten your password we can automatically resend it to the email address in your profile. To request your password:

• Click Login help, found in the top right-hand corner of your monitor screen.
• Type your email address into the box labelled Your email address.
• Click the button Send password.

Your password will then be sent to this email account very shortly. Look for an email from accounts@pastestonline.co.uk.

Can I change my password?

To change the password you need to login to the website and click on the Edit my profile link that appears on the login box in the top right-hand corner of the screen. On the my profile page, click the Change password link that appears under the navigation bar.

To change your password, enter the following information:

• Username
  This is usually your email address.
• Current password
  This is the password you have just used to login.
• New password
  The new password that you want to use.
• Confirm
  Confirm the new password that you want to use.

Then click Save new password. If the change has been successful you will see the new message: Your password has been changed.

How do I edit my personal details?

To change your personal details, login to the website and click on the Edit my profile link that appears in the login box in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

From here you can change the following information:

My details
This area stores your contact details. Keep this up-to-date please so we can contact you if necessary.

Learning goals
You can set yourself up to 3 learning goals, each with a target date for completion. These will appear on your personal homepage when you login.

Exam countdown
You can enter the date of your next exam here, and we will display your remaining revision time on your homepage.

Preferences
Please tick this box to stop the system giving you those questions which you have answered correctly. If you do not tick this the system will repeat questions even if you have answered them correctly. Please note that the system will repeat the questions if they have not been answered correctly.

After making your amendments to any of these 4 sections, click the button Save all changes to make the changes permanent.

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Attempting Questions/Exams

I'd like to try random questions. Where do I start?

With random questions you can test your knowledge in a quick and simple way. There is no time limit on how long you can take to answer a question, and no pre-set list of questions to work through! You can choose to answer questions for a particular specialty, or simply have them presented to you at random from across all of the specialties.

To choose random questions:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section "Random questions", select a specialty from the drop-down list entitled "Specialty: Choose one..."
4. Alternatively to attempt questions from across the syllabus, select the first option from the drop-down list, “All specialties”
5. Click the button Start questions.

The system will now generate a random selection of questions for you based on the specialty option you have selected. This allows you to attempt a question and then get the answer and explanation.

Using the question bank, where do I start?

The question bank will present you with all the questions in the system, these can appear either at random, or you can choose a specialty to work on. You can even build your knowledge incrementally by working through the questions by difficulty level or by question type.

To work through questions at random:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. From the section “Question bank”, select All specialties from the drop-down list entitled “Specialty: All specialties”
4. Click the button Start questions.

The system will now return you the whole question bank at random.

To work through a specific question type, question difficulty level, or specialty:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. From the section “Question bank”, select your preferred question type, random, best of five, case history or n from many from the drop-down list.
4. Select your chosen difficulty level, either random, easy, average, difficult or very difficult.
5. Select your chosen specialty, either all specialties or the specific specialty you want to work on.
6. Click the button Start questions

The system will now return the questions to you based on your selection. You will see from the display summary which questions have been selected, and how many questions appear for your selection.

How do I stop questions from repeating?

Click on Edit my profile in the top right corner of the screen. Look for the ‘set the questions preference’ section on the right of the screen and tick the Filter questions I have answered correctly box. This will filter out questions which you have already answered correctly.

Please note that the system will repeat a questions until you have answered it correctly. Once you have answered a question correctly it will not then show up in any of the functions, question bank, timed test, mock exam or fixed exam.

How do I start a timed test?

To start a new timed test:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section "Timed test", select a time period from the drop-down list entitled "Time: Choose one..."
4. Click the button Start new test.

This will then generate a mini-exam for you appropriate to the time period you selected.

How do I take a mock exam?

To start a new mock exam:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section "Mock exam", click the button Start new exam

The mock exam will then be created, you will have 3 hours to complete the exam; you can pause at any time and return to it at a later date.

To continue with previously unfinished mock exam:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section "Mock exam", click the button Continue mock exam

The system will have remembered where you were up to in the exam, and how much time remains for the paper.

How do I take a fixed exam?

Whereas the mock exam feature allows you to attempt numerous exam papers generated by the system to offer a paper with a similar spread of questions per specialty to the real exam the fixed exam facility allows you to see which question themes actually appeared for a given exam sitting.

To start a new fixed exam:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section “Fixed exam” select an exam to take from the drop-down list entitled “Select an exam: Choose one…”
4. Click the button Start new exam, the system will then return all the questions from the database based on themes from that exam

If you don’t have the time to complete a fixed exam at one sitting then you can pause at any time and return to the same paper at a later date.

To continue with previously unfinished fixed exam:

1. Login to www.pastestonline.co.uk
2. Click the Start Studying tab
3. In the section "Fixed exam", click the button Continue fixed exam

MRCP 2 - Your results, how the questions are marked.

The marking scheme for 'n' from many questions is slightly different to that for the best of five questions, the following notes explain how and why;

The system indicates your response to an option as being either correct/incorrect as appropriate.

If an option is true and you have indicated this with the tick box your response will be marked as correct. Conversely if this option was not true but you selected it with the tick box your response will be marked as incorrect.

(If the option was false and you left the tick box blank you will be marked as correct, or if you indicated a false option as true your response will be marked as incorrect).

This is why even though a question will have asked you to give the two/three/four most likely options etc. that the system may show you as having given more correct RESPONSES.

The reason for this is to allow the question filter to work. The question filter will let you stop complete questions that you have answered correctly from re-appearing. You will then be able to make better use of your revision time and spend it answering questions on topics and specialties that you are not already confident on.

Consider the following example:

Click for larger image

For this question the 3 correct responses that the candidate would have to give in order to get the question right are, Leprosy Amyloidosis Coeliac disease Based on the screenshot illustrated this candidate has got the first two right, but has also indicated Hyperparathryoidism incorrectly (or you could say that Coeliac disease was missed out incorrectly). The feedback shown is for all the responses that the candidate has offered, so they have been marked correctly for choosing Leprosy and Amyloidosis, and also correctly for not choosing Diabetes insipidus, Endocarditis, Extrinsic Allergic Alveolitis, Phaeochromocytoma, Weber's syndrome and Goodpasture's syndrome. In summary you are given the outcome for each of your RESPONSES, so each can be correct or incorrect depending on what you have indicated. A re-cap of the true answers for 'n' from many questions can be found at the beginning of the explanation.

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Other features

How does My Performance work?

The Pastest Online system tracks your performance in all the exams you take so you can measure your progress, identify your strengths and weaknesses and compare your performance against other users.

When you are logged in, click on the My Performance tab to access your exam history. The page has a number of sections:

Performance over time
This chart shows your average performance in all the questions you've taken over the course of your subscription. If there are months where you didn't take any questions, these are shown with a faded out background.

Timed test, Mock exam, Question bank and Fixed exam performance
Your performance for questions attempted using the question bank, timed test, mock exam and fixed exam facilities over the course of your subscription will be listed here, with the date you took the exam together with your score.
Clicking on the date link for each result will let you go back to those questions and review each question if you wish. Note that if your subscription has run out, you will still be able to see the summary page for each block of questions/exam, but you will not be able to review individual questions.

Performance across specialties
This chart shows your performance across different specialties compared with the average for all users in those specialties.

How do I give feedback about PasTest Online?

Online Feedback form can be found at the bottom of the 'My homepage' screen. Please use this form to provide your feedback. You can also click on the 'Feedback' button next to individual questions to give feedback about a question. Your comments whether good or bad, are very important to us. To send the feedback anonymously simply tick the 'Send anonymous feedback' button. Please be aware that this means that you will not receive a reply from PasTest.

What is the response time for feedback?

All feedback/queries given during working days (Monday-Friday) should normally receive a reply from PasTest within 24 hours. Feedback received on Friday after 4:00pm or on public holidays will be processed on the following working day.

What can I do if I find an error with a question?

Please click on the Feedback button to the right of the question. Feel free to let us know what you think about the question material. We aim to respond to your feedback within 24 hours Monday to Friday.

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Miscellaneous

What browser do I need to access PasTest online?

PasTest Online can be accessed using a range of web browsers, including all Internet Explorer browsers from Version 4 onwards, Netscape 6, Safari 1.0 and above.

To use PasTest Online please make sure that your PC is able to use cookies, and that JavaScript is also enabled.

Where can I read a copy of your terms and conditions?

To see our full terms and conditions please click here.

How can I contact you?

To contact PasTest Online:

By email: enquiries@pastest.co.uk By telephone: +44 (0)1565 752000 (Mon - Fri, 9:00am - 5:00pm, GMT)

By post:

PasTest Online
Egerton Court, Parkgate Estate
Knutsford
Cheshire
WA16 8DX

Who writes the questions for PasTest Online?

PasTest is the leading provider of medical revision courses and books. We employ an experienced and distinguished group of authors to write high quality questions. All questions are reviewed via the PasTest editorial process, which includes a medical editorial board as well as copy editing and proof reading.

Our questions conform to the requirements of the current examination format and reflect the balance of topics covered in the exam syllabus.

Where can I turn if my question isn't answered in these FAQs?

Please email enquiries@pastest.co.uk and we will endeavour to get back to you within 24 hours (Monday to Friday). Similarly if there are other questions which you think could be added to this list please let us know on this email address.

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Additional services from PasTest

What else do PasTest have to offer?

Over 30 years of experience helping doctors to pass their medical exams has given PasTest an unrivalled reputation as the UK's leading provider of high quality postgraduate medical education.

To supplement your subscription to PasTest Online we can offer books and courses for the MRCP Part 1 exam. We provide books and courses for other medical exams including MRCP 2, MRCPCH 1 and 2, as well as SpR interview preparation courses and SpR Management courses. For further information visit www.pastest.co.uk.