FRCR 2A Resources: Primers, Finishers and Hidden Gems

Before building a revision plan, read what the people setting the examination say about it. The RCR publishes the examination structure, candidate guidance, specimen questions and an explanation of the SBA format.

Its SBA guidance is worth reading in full: all five options may be plausible, and the task is to choose the answer that is most correct in the particular clinical context. The RCR also recommends radiology web resources and review articles as part of preparation. For the broader paper structure and six curriculum areas, see our exam format and curriculum guide.

Probably our strongest general-purpose primer. It is good at taking a broad subject and giving it structure: how to approach it, the major differentials, discriminating imaging features and the clinical context that matters.

Use it when you catch yourself memorising individual facts without understanding how they fit together.

Do not be put off by the old-school presentation. UW hosts breast teaching files, a liver atlas, neuroradiology teaching files, nuclear medicine lectures, muscle anatomy and its online MSK book.

The Online Musculoskeletal Radiology Book is particularly good for 2A. Recurring problems such as bone lesions, periosteal reaction and arthritis are explained as diagnostic approaches rather than arbitrary lists.

Look out for national teaching delivered by the RCR with the UK subspecialty societies. The 2025/26 National Subspecialty Lecture Series, for example, was run in collaboration with BSPR, BSHNI and BSIR and focused on core curriculum teaching.

Use this as a primer for a weaker subspecialty or as targeted specialist teaching later in revision.

SRT's Trainee Hub includes more than 20 hours of recorded FRCR 2A webinar content from its 2021–2024 series. It is useful when you want UK trainee-focused teaching on a specific area.

Use it selectively. Twenty hours of video is valuable if it fixes a defined weakness; it is less useful if watching becomes a substitute for retrieval and question review.

R-ITI is comprehensive and mapped to UK radiology training. That is also why it can feel overwhelming during 2A revision.

We would not make “complete R-ITI” a revision objective. Use it selectively when a defined weak area needs structured teaching. If you already understand the subject, a shorter finisher is usually more efficient.

Excellent for rapidly checking the characteristic features of a diagnosis, a differential, classification, association, imaging sign or distribution of disease. Cases are useful for connecting a written description to real imaging.

Think of Radiopaedia as a superb finisher and reference rather than a curriculum you need to read from start to finish.

An enormous free body-imaging resource from Johns Hopkins, particularly useful for abdominal, vascular and oncological CT. It includes lectures, imaging pearls, learning modules, quick guides and teaching cases.

Longer teaching can act as a primer; quick guides and pearls work well as finishers. Browse with a question in mind rather than trying to complete the site.

Sometimes a topic feels difficult because the anatomy underneath it is not secure. Cross-sectional anatomy is especially worth revisiting for the skull base, head and neck spaces, vascular anatomy and the pelvis.

Treat e-Anatomy as a targeted reference: open it when anatomy is stopping you understanding the radiology rather than creating another syllabus to complete.

Probably the most directly relevant podcast here. UK radiology SpRs made it for FRCR revision, with episodes on topics such as phakomatoses, leukodystrophies, suprasellar lesions, nephrocalcinosis, bowel surgery and paediatric bowel pathology.

Most episodes are older, so cross-check anything dependent on current staging, classifications or management. For evergreen pathology and associations, it remains excellent opportunistic revision.

The natural companion to RadioGraphics. It turns selected journal content into accessible audio and works best when an episode overlaps with something you are already revising.

Concise board-review teaching across a large range of radiology topics. It is American rather than FRCR-specific, so UK pathways, screening, management and guideline-dependent answers should be checked against a UK source.

This is not really a 2A revision programme. It is good radiologists talking about radiology, often with expert guests. Listen because it is interesting and improves broader radiology knowledge — not because every episode needs to count towards a revision target.