What Paper B tests in Learning Disability
Paper B is a written paper of about 150 questions (single-best-answer MCQs and extended matching items) sat over three hours, blueprinted against the RCPsych syllabus. Questions from this domain typically cover:
- Assessment & Challenging Behaviour
- Genetic Syndromes & Behavioural Phenotypes
- Classification of Intellectual Disability
- Epidemiology
- Environmental Causes
- Metabolic Causes
- Psychiatric Comorbidity
- Diagnostic Overshadowing
- Assessment & Communication
- Challenging Behaviour
- Autism in Learning Disability
- Epilepsy in Learning Disability
Worked example
This is a real question from the Learning Disability section, the kind you will see in Paper B:
"Diagnostic overshadowing" in intellectual disability refers to:
- Diagnosing in dim lighting
- Attributing symptoms of a treatable mental or physical illness to the intellectual disability itself
- Using too many diagnoses
- Overshadowing of the IQ result
- Refusing to make any diagnosis
How to revise this section for Paper B
Work in short, active blocks: attempt questions first, read the explanation whether right or wrong, and log the subtopics you miss. Our weakness tracker flags any subtopic where you score below 60% so you can target revision rather than re-reading everything. Anchor your reading to the recommended text (New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry) so your facts match the exam blueprint.
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See the full MRCPsych Paper A guide or browse all 14 revision sections.