The AKT is a challenging exam – in this article, Dr April Lyon shares her experience of preparing for the exam, the challenges she faced, resources she used, and tips for AKT preparation.

When I opened my AKT result this week and saw that I had passed with a score of 132/160, with the pass mark being 107, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

Like many GP trainees, I was delighted to have passed. However, for me, the result represented something much bigger than an exam. It represented rebuilding confidence after one of the most challenging periods of my life and proving to myself that I was still capable of succeeding after two years away from training.

I returned to GP training at 80% LTFT after spending two years caring for my daughter, who was born at just 24 weeks’ gestation. She weighed 606g at birth and has gone on to face complex medical challenges, including visual impairment and ongoing healthcare needs. As many parents of premature children will understand, those years were consumed by hospital appointments, admissions, therapies, uncertainty and survival.

Medicine, exams and career progression became secondary.

When I eventually returned to training, I quickly realised that the academic challenge was only one part of the journey. Emotionally, I was returning as a very different person. During my time away I had developed PTSD related to our neonatal experience and was undergoing trauma therapy. Watching colleagues from my training cohort complete their training and achieve CCT while I remained behind had a significant impact on my confidence and self-esteem.

When I first enrolled on the Emedica AKT Pass Guarantee Programme, my primary goal was not actually to pass the AKT. I simply wanted to rebuild my knowledge base and regain confidence before returning to clinical practice. Passing the AKT felt like a distant aspiration rather than an expectation.

I had previously used Emedica while preparing for the MSRA and found the resources and teaching style incredibly helpful, so choosing the AKT programme felt like a natural decision. I also read an article written by another doctor who used it to prepare whilst looking after a young child. Looking back, one of the biggest leaps of faith was trusting the process completely. At a time when my confidence in my own abilities was low, I needed to place my trust in a structured programme and commit to following it consistently. That structure became invaluable.

One of the greatest challenges of returning after a prolonged absence is deciding where to start. The AKT syllabus is enormous and can feel overwhelming, particularly when you are balancing work and family responsibilities. The 150-day programme broke what felt like an impossible task into manageable sections. Rather than spending time deciding what to revise each day, I simply followed the plan – that alone removed a huge amount of anxiety.

Throughout the revision period I was balancing clinical work, parenting and ongoing healthcare appointments. During the winter before the exam, my daughter required a week-long hospital admission as well as several trips to A&E. Revision often took place after exhausting days, interrupted nights and periods of significant stress.

I do not have a glamorous revision story involving dedicated study leave and uninterrupted library sessions. Many of my revision sessions happened sitting in supermarket car parks while my daughter slept in the back of the car. Others took place in darkened rooms while I waited for her to fall asleep, with my phone brightness turned down so I would not wake her. Some happened late at night after long days in clinic.

Because of this, I needed a course that was efficient, focused and flexible. One of the things I appreciated most about Emedica was that the teaching was consistently pitched at the level of the AKT. Rather than simply presenting large volumes of information, the course focused on understanding how the exam works and how questions are written. This was particularly valuable for the more nuanced “best answer” questions where clinical reasoning is often more important than recalling an isolated fact.

The high-yield summaries and repeated reinforcement of key topics were especially helpful. Areas such as women’s health, paediatrics, prescribing, chronic disease management, statistics, DVLA guidance and national guidelines appeared repeatedly in ways that mirrored the real examination closely.

Interestingly, I did not make a single revision note throughout the entire course. As somebody who had always been a prolific note-maker, this felt very uncomfortable initially. However, it forced me to engage actively with the material rather than spending hours creating notes that I would never revisit. In hindsight, it was one of the most effective changes I made to my study habits.

The question bank and mock examinations were another major strength. At the time, it often felt as though I was simply working through endless questions. However, during the actual AKT I realised how much I had absorbed. I recognised not only factual content but also patterns of reasoning and common exam traps. The course taught me when to trust my clinical judgement and, importantly, when not to overcomplicate questions.

I actually completed the exam with approximately fourteen minutes remaining, something I never imagined would happen. During my mock examinations I had noticed that my lowest scores often occurred when I changed answers after initially selecting the correct option. Because of this, I made a conscious decision during the real exam not to revisit answers unnecessarily. I trusted my preparation, trusted my first instinct and moved on. Looking back, that decision probably helped me as much as any individual piece of knowledge.

One thing I would emphasise to future candidates is that completing the Emedica programme requires genuine commitment. It is not something that can be dipped in and out of casually. There were occasions when I revised on birthdays, after difficult shifts, during family holidays and even on Christmas Day. It required consistency, repetition and perseverance.

However, I believe that level of immersion is exactly what made the AKT programme so effective.

A few personal tips I would give future AKT candidates using the course:

• Trust the structure and avoid jumping constantly between resources. I found consistency more helpful than trying to read everything available online.
• Focus on regular repetition of common GP topics rather than obsessing over obscure conditions.
• Do questions actively and review why answers are correct and incorrect — this is where a huge amount of learning happens.
• Practice timing early. The AKT is as much about calm decision-making and pattern recognition as pure knowledge.
• Don’t change answers unnecessarily if you have time left at the end. I found my first instinct was usually right, and during mocks I tended to do worse when I went back and altered responses. You are fatigued at the end! 
• Don’t let post-exam anxiety convince you that you have failed. The exam is designed to feel uncertain, even when you are performing well. I convinced myself I had failed! 
• If you are balancing revision with children, work or other responsibilities, imperfect revision is still valuable. Consistency matters more than having huge uninterrupted study days.

I also appreciated the motivational side of the programme. During periods where I felt overwhelmed or doubted whether I was capable of passing, having the course structure and regular reinforcement helped me continue moving forward.

Overall, I found Emedica to be realistic, clinically relevant, and genuinely aligned to the AKT. I would absolutely recommend it to other trainees, especially those returning from leave, working LTFT, or trying to revise alongside family life and caring responsibilities.