The multiple choice questions (MCQs) in both parts of the MRCPsych examination used to incite violence in hundreds of candidates who were unlucky enough to have to make sense of them. They seemed to be either excruciatingly obscure or so vaguely worded with ‘clues’, such as ‘commonly’, ‘frequently’, or ‘not entirely unusual on the third Monday of an unusual month….’, so as to be only understandable by James Joyce. And no one understands James Joyce!

Maju Mathews has tailored his book to the new MRCPsych Part I examination format. The book consists of four separate papers. A paper comprises 200 statements, each of which is answered as true or false.

Developing MCQ examination papers is a real headache. Getting the balance between the questions that a buffoon could answer and those that an expert would struggle with is no mean feat. My marks on the four papers ranged from 77% to 82%. I am 4 years away from the MRCPsych Part II hurdle so, in my opinion, the papers seemed too easy, even though the pass mark will be raised because of the demise of negative marking. I asked some of my senior house officer colleagues to peruse the questions. They felt that the difficulty matched those seen at the recent MCQ paper in Autumn 2001.

The questions are unambiguous and seem fair but I do have a suspicion that they are too candidate-friendly. And £14.95 is not an inconsiderable sum for four MCQ papers. That said, there do not seem to be many such MCQ books around and you will probably get an ego boost from your score.