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• General Research Methodology

  • Presentation of results and distributions

  • Sample selection

  • Statistical significance and confidence intervals

  • Power

  • Problems of statistical tests

  • Measurement, reliability and validity

• Lunch Break

• Treatment Studies

  • Types of treatment studies

  • Sample recruitment

  • Treatment allocation

  • Carrying out treatment

  • Measuring outcome

• Analysing data

  • Dealing with drop-outs (from treatment or analysis)

  • Statistics of comparing two (or more groups)

  • Number needed to treat

  • Survival analysis

• Economic analysis

The course will focus on, and cover all of, section 3 of RCPsych critical review syllabus: ‘Critical Appraisal of the Evidence’. This is the vast majority of this syllabus, and most exam questions are on this.

Also, our experience is that this is the part of the syllabus for which trainees have the least experience and most anxiety.

NO! This is poor educational practice and just leads to shallow learning – and the learning only applies if that question comes up.

I teach all the theory I think you need to understand any question that could come up on that topic, and give you the chance to ask questions, to ensure you all understand this. Then we go through some questions on that theory.

This will help reinforce your learning – and of course will help you if a similar question comes up in the exam.

Yes. I am very grateful to previous course attendees, who let me know after each exam what topics came up, and whether there were any questions the course would not help them answer.

Thankfully the answer to the second question if often ‘no’. But the exam has changed over time, which has led to me add extra topics and questions, and spend less time on syllabus topics which seem never to come up in the exam.

I teach the statistics you need to know to pass the exam, not the statistics you need to know to be a statistician. This consists of: how do you interpret p values and confidence intervals? What is the best statistical test for a specific set of data (eg comparing two groups with non-normally distributed continuous data)?

And the golden question…..

Yes, we try to prepare you as well as we can for the exam. I teach you how to answer these questions (with some neat tricks) as they always come up.

The best way to learn these is to practise them. Therefore after I teach you what to do, you will practise two extended questions on each of these topics, and we’ll discuss the answers.

I also provide some more questions in the handout for you to practise at leisure.

Yes. We go through several of those questions at the end of the course.

These are good questions which are relevant to what you’ll do as consultants, but they’re important techniques behind answering them. Importantly I also prove to you that these questions are not as stressful as you think!

Partly. There is a lot of theory to go through.

However, we keep the course relatively small to give you the chance to ask questions at any time. In particular, we have lots of discussion around the exam-style questions.

While I would love to say yes, I am a realist. I know that nobody goes to any course and remembers everything they learnt on it for ever. What I will do is try to cover everything that will come up on the exam, which you can then revise from the handouts.

At the end of the course, there will be a section advising on other things you can do to reinforce what you have learnt to prepare for the exam.

Yes, we provide handouts (sent electronically prior to the course start) all of the slides used in the course; the questions; and the answers (with detailed explanations so you don’t have to spend lot of time scribbling everything down).

We also provide a blank sheet and a completed sheet which candidates find useful to reinforce learning: all of the different combinations of data types that come up in the exams and the best statistical test(s).

Following feedback from past attendees, the default is to send you electronic versions of handouts – this keeps the course cheaper and is more sustainable.

However, we are happy to send you paper versions, but do need to charge you the cost price (not cheap, I am afraid, as the handouts are large).

No, we do not cover every question.

The course has changed over the years, as more topics come up in the exam, and there is a greater range of questions. Therefore we can no longer go through every single question. So I focus each section on what I think are the most useful questions, but leave the rest in your handout (and the answers/explanations) so you can go through them at home.

Balancing theory teaching and questions is a difficult balance to get right, so I ask for feedback at the end of each course – this suggests the balance is about right at around 50:50 theory:questions.

I and my team at Cambridge Clinical School are national leaders at the recognition and support of students with disabilities. I operate from the principle of universal design (ie making the course accessible for all makes it better for everybody). I am very happy to speak with disabled trainees / participants to discuss your needs and consider any reasonable adaptations.

Please contact us at least two weeks in advance, so we can discuss this and I can make necessary changes – to slides and/or handouts.

The course will run twice during 2026, once prior to the Spring, and once prior to the Autumn Exams.

The course will be held 2-6 weeks prior to the exam date. The website will be updated regularly.

We hope that everyone who comes to the course passes the exam. Several times in the past, people who did not pass asked if they can do the course again at a discounted rate. We are happy to do this, and offer a 33% discount for previous attendees, to thank you for your loyalty.

We are not able to offer other discounts. This includes discounts for part days as the expectation is that the course needs to be attended in its entirety.

We limit the course to 40 people, to make it easier for everyone to ask questions. Our January 2025 course was fully booked with an extensive waiting list by early December 2024.

We operate a first-come, first-served policy, so we advise fast booking.

This is not a problem at all. We have admin support working alongside us and they can be contact on cambridgepsychcriticalreview@gmail.com

They will be happy to help and support you.

We pride ourselves in being a live and interactive course were delegates are encouraged to play a part in the learning of others. We are therefore not able to provide recordings of any of the sessions / days. Participants are encouraged to attend the course in its entirety as each sessions builds on previous sessions.