Is Quesmed Harder Than Passmedicine? What the Score Gap Actually Means
No published difficulty comparison exists and neither bank's percentage is calibrated to the AKT — so a lower score on one doesn't mean you're less prepared. The three things that genuinely differ (starting with Quesmed's separate 3,000-question basic science bank), verified from both platforms' own pages, and why switching banks over a dropping percentage is the expensive mistake.
The short version: nobody has published a difficulty comparison, and neither bank's percentage is calibrated against the real AKT — so "harder" can't be settled objectively. But the perception is consistent and it has explainable causes, the biggest being that Quesmed's bank includes 3,000 basic science questions alongside its clinical ones. A lower percentage on one bank does not mean you are less prepared.
That last sentence is the one that costs people marks, because the usual response to a dropping percentage is to switch banks — which resets the number, changes nothing about your knowledge, and burns a fortnight.
What each bank actually contains
Verified from each platform's own pages on 18 August 2026. Both change their specifications without notice, so check before you buy.
| Passmedicine | Quesmed | |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical questions | "Over 11,000 SBA questions for medical finals and the UKMLA" | "11,000+ Clinical Questions" |
| Basic science questions | Not listed as a separate bank | "3,000 Basic Science Questions" |
| Flashcards | Not a headline feature | "15,000 Anki style Flashcards" |
| Full mocks | Timed tests from the bank | "Four MLA Mock Tests", plus seven PSA mocks and 50+ university-specific papers |
| Notes | High-yield textbook, notes under each question | Knowledge Library, "1,000+ notes" |
| OSCE / CPSA | OSCE and PSA resource included | "450+ OSCE Stations" (their page also says 500+ elsewhere), 35+ OSCE videos |
| Pricing | Not published on the landing page | Published annually, with separate AKT, CPSA and combined bundles |
Two honest notes on that table. Passmedicine doesn't publish subscription pricing on its public landing page, so we're not quoting a figure we can't verify. And Quesmed's own page quotes both "450+" and "500+" OSCE stations in different sections — a small inconsistency, but a reminder that marketing numbers are marketing numbers.
Three reasons Quesmed feels harder
1. Basic science. This is the big one. Quesmed publishes a separate 3,000-question basic science bank — anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics — sitting alongside the clinical questions. If you're a final-year student two months out, basic science questions are the ones you last studied three years ago. Meet a run of them mixed into a session and your percentage drops sharply, and it feels like the clinical questions got harder. They didn't. You changed subject.
2. Familiarity, mistaken for ease. Passmedicine has been the default UK finals resource for over a decade. Its questions circulate — in year-group shared documents, in teaching sessions, in the collective memory of the students who came before you. A question you have half-met before is easier, and it doesn't feel like recognition while it's happening. That's not a criticism of Passmedicine; it's an artefact of being the incumbent.
3. Different design philosophy. Passmedicine is content-first: effectively a large digital textbook with questions attached, notes sitting under each answer. Quesmed is built around an integrated Knowledge Library, flashcards and spaced repetition. Neither approach is harder, but they surface your gaps differently — one hands you the reading, the other pushes you back through retrieval. If retrieval is where you're weak, the platform that does more of it will feel worse and be doing you more good.
What you won't find anywhere — including here — is evidence that one bank's items are objectively more difficult. iatroX runs a dedicated Passmedicine-vs-Quesmed comparison page and doesn't address difficulty at all. No shared calibration exists, so anyone asserting a difficulty ranking is reporting a feeling.
Why the percentages aren't comparable
Two banks can only produce comparable percentages if their items are calibrated against a shared standard. These aren't. Nobody has mapped either bank's difficulty onto the AKT, and the GMC doesn't publish item-level data that would let anyone try.
So 68% on one and 59% on the other is not evidence about either bank, and it's not evidence about you. It's two numbers from two different rulers.
What it definitely isn't is a prediction. The AKT pass mark is standard-set for each sitting, and has recently landed around 62–68% of items correct — a figure that describes performance on that paper, not on anybody's bank.
The trap this question usually leads to
The sequence goes like this. Your percentage drops. You conclude the bank is "too hard" or that you've plateaued. You buy a second subscription. The new bank's questions are unfamiliar, so your first sessions are also poor — and now you have two banks, twice the cost, half the depth in each, and no more information than you started with.
If your percentage falls, work through these before spending anything:
- Did the question mix change? Basic science, a specialty you've avoided, or a switch from tutor mode to timed mode will all move the number several points on their own.
- Is it a first attempt or a repeat? Second passes through the same bank measure memory of that bank. If your headline number includes repeats, it's inflated, and the "drop" may be you finally seeing fresh questions.
- Are you timing it? Untimed accuracy is not the same measurement as timed accuracy, and only one of them resembles the exam.
- Is one specialty dragging it? A single weak, heavily-weighted specialty moves the total more than people expect. Check the per-specialty split before you conclude anything about the bank.
The only score that means something
A number is diagnostic when it comes from questions you've never seen, sat under time, in one go. That's the reading neither bank's running percentage can give you once you're deep into it, because by then familiarity is doing part of the work.
That's the whole reason we give a free 50-question mock away with no account: it's fresh questions, timed, with a per-specialty breakdown at the end — a second ruler you can hold against whatever your bank is telling you. If you want the fuller framework for reading it, the five-signal readiness check sets out what "on track" actually looks like.
So which should you use?
Being straightforward about our position: we sell a competing question bank, so treat this as informed rather than neutral.
- Already on Passmedicine and it's working? Stay. Volume and familiarity are real advantages, and "my percentage dipped" is not a reason to move.
- Want notes, flashcards and OSCE material in one subscription? Quesmed bundles more into a single purchase, and publishes its pricing.
- Finished your bank and now recognising questions? That is the one genuinely good reason to add a second source — and it's about freshness, not difficulty. The alternatives are compared here.
- On Quesmed and wondering whether to move? Match the move to your reason first — for most people the fix is a cheaper tier, not a new platform.
- Sitting PLAB 1 rather than UK finals? Different shortlist entirely — see the PLAB 1 comparison.
One more thing worth checking on any bank, ours included: which content map its questions were written against. Quesmed's page describes the map in terms of 311 conditions and 212 presentations — the figures for the map that applies to exams up to August 2026. The GMC published an updated map in October 2025 that applies to MLA and PLAB exams from September 2026, and it is explicitly non-exhaustive. If you're sitting after that date, ask any platform when its bank was last mapped. More on what changes.
Frequently asked questions
Is Quesmed harder than Passmedicine? There's no published comparison and no shared calibration, so it can't be answered objectively. The perception is common and mostly explained by Quesmed's separate 3,000-question basic science bank, Passmedicine's familiarity as the long-standing default, and the two platforms' different designs.
Why did my score drop when I switched banks? Almost always because the new questions are unseen. Your Passmedicine percentage was partly recognition; the new bank strips that out. The lower number is often the more honest one.
Which percentage should I trust? Neither, as a prediction. Trust an unseen, fully timed mock, taken more than once. Bank percentages are useful for tracking your own trend within one bank, not for comparing across banks or forecasting the AKT.
Do I need both? Most people don't. The one solid reason to add a second source is having genuinely worked through the first and started recognising questions.
Does basic science come up in the AKT? Applied science appears where it drives clinical decisions, not as standalone recall. A bank with a separate basic science section is testing something adjacent to, not identical to, what your paper will ask.