Passmedicine Alternatives for the UKMLA AKT (2026): An Honest Comparison

The best Passmedicine alternatives for the UKMLA AKT in 2026 are Quesmed (the closest all-in-one, with published annual pricing and a CPSA library), Geeky Medics (strong free layer, 3,000+ SBAs), Pastest (cheapest published short plans), UWorld (best explanations, highest price, smallest bank), MedRevisions (built for IMGs, mock-heavy) and MLA Prep (one-off purchase, unlimited full mocks — ours). Which one is right depends entirely on why you're looking.

That last point is the whole post. "Passmedicine alternative" is one search with about six different problems behind it, and the right answer changes completely depending on which one is yours. Someone who has run out of fresh questions needs the opposite of what someone priced out needs.

So we'll start by identifying your actual reason, then match it. We make MLA Prep — discount our own section accordingly. Everything about the other platforms was checked on their own pages in July 2026, and where a provider doesn't publish something, or blocked us from checking, we say so instead of filling the gap with a guess.

Table of contents

1. First: is Passmedicine actually the problem?
2. The six reasons people look for an alternative
3. What you'd be giving up
4. Quesmed — the closest all-in-one
5. Geeky Medics — the strongest free layer
6. Pastest — the cheapest published plans
7. UWorld — best explanations, hardest to justify
8. MedRevisions — built around IMGs
9. MLA Prep — ours, honestly
10. Comparison table
11. The content-map question that outranks all of this
12. Match the alternative to your reason
13. FAQ

1. First: is Passmedicine actually the problem?

Worth ruling out before you spend money twice.

Passmedicine has been the default UK finals resource for over a decade for real reasons. Checked in July 2026, their medical student finals / UKMLA resource lists over 11,000 SBA questions, with revision notes under each question, timed tests, question review, personal annotations, and a performance histogram showing your score against other candidates. It also includes OSCE and Prescribing Safety Assessment material. Their separate PLAB Part 1 module lists over 5,000 questions, and they run banks for MRCP, MRCGP AKT, MSRA, DRCOG, UCAT and USMLE Step 1.

That histogram deserves specific credit. Peer comparison is only meaningful with a large cohort, and Passmedicine's cohort is effectively everyone — no newer platform can replicate it. If knowing where you sit against the field motivates you, that's a genuine reason to stay.

Switching won't fix these problems:

• "I keep getting questions wrong." That's a review-loop problem. A different bank gives you fresh questions and the same habits. Fix the loop first — see active recall and spaced repetition.
• "I'm running out of time." Switching costs you a week of re-learning an interface and rebuilding analytics. In the last six weeks before a sitting, that's a bad trade.
• "My accuracy has plateaued." Usually means you're doing questions and not reviewing them, or you're revisiting seen questions and mistaking recall for reasoning.

Switching genuinely helps when: you've lost access, the price no longer works, you've exhausted the fresh questions, you need CPSA coverage it doesn't provide, or you specifically need explanations anchored to UK guidance because that's where you're losing marks.

Diagnose before you buy. Sit ten free AKT-style questions — no account, no card. If you're getting them wrong for reasons you can explain, your bank isn't the problem.

2. The six reasons people look for an alternative

Reason 1 — You graduated and your access died. The most common one, and the most invisible. Many UK medical schools buy institutional Passmedicine access for their students; it ends when you stop being a student. Suddenly a resource that felt free has a price. If you're an F1 revising for something else, or a graduate resitting, this is you — and it's worth knowing that your reference point for "expensive" was never the real price.

Reason 2 — Price, especially as an IMG. Passmedicine doesn't display prices on the pages we could load, which makes it hard to compare before committing. Meanwhile Quesmed and Pastest publish theirs openly. If you're paying in a weaker currency on top of GMC fees, English-test fees and possibly travel, an unlisted price is a genuine barrier rather than a minor annoyance.

Reason 3 — You've finished the bank. 11,000+ questions is a lot, but candidates on long runs do exhaust the specialties they care about. Once you're recognising questions, your accuracy stops measuring knowledge and starts measuring memory of that bank. That's the clearest legitimate reason to add a second source.

Reason 4 — You need CPSA, and it isn't the focus. Passmedicine includes OSCE and PSA material with the finals resource, but it isn't a station library. If CPSA is your weak half, look at Quesmed.

Reason 5 — The interface feels its age. Subjective, but it matters more than people admit. If you're doing fifty questions a day on a phone for four months, friction compounds. Trial the alternatives on your actual phone before deciding.

Reason 6 — It's a finals bank extended to a new exam, not built for it. The subtlest reason and the most defensible. On the pages we checked, Passmedicine describes a "medical student finals / UKMLA resource" and makes no explicit claim of alignment to the GMC MLA content map. That's not evidence of misalignment — a good finals bank overlaps heavily with the AKT. But the AKT is not finals: it's built to a published map, at the standard of a doctor completing F1, weighted the way that map weights things. If you're losing marks on UK-specific management pathways, a bank organised around that map is a real change rather than a lateral move.

3. What you'd be giving up

Honest accounting, because most "alternatives" posts skip it:

• Scale of the peer histogram. Nobody else can match that comparison cohort.
• Depth of the notes library. Passmedicine's per-question notes are among the most thorough in UK exam prep.
• Familiarity. When your study group says "Passmedicine says X", you'll be outside that shorthand.
• Breadth across your career. MRCP, MRCGP AKT, MSRA — you'll likely be back on the platform later anyway.
• Reliability. A mature, stable platform with a long operational record.

If those matter more than your reason for leaving, stay and add a second resource for the specific gap instead of replacing wholesale.

4. Quesmed — the closest all-in-one

Verified from their MLA question bank page, July 2026: 11,000+ clinical questions plus 3,000 basic science questions. 15,000 Anki-style flashcards. 12 UKMLA mocks, 5 PSA mocks, and over 50 university-specific mock tests. 450+ OSCE stations with mark schemes. An integrated Knowledge Library of clinical notes. iOS and Android apps with offline support. Annual pricing published openly, with separate AKT, CPSA, and combined bundles. They state their questions and knowledge library are "fully aligned to the MLA content map".

Strengths. This is the most complete like-for-like replacement. It matches Passmedicine on volume, beats it on integration, and comprehensively beats it on CPSA — 450+ stations with mark schemes is a different category from "includes OSCE material". The annual bundles are genuinely cheap on a per-month basis compared with most short-plan alternatives, and unlike Passmedicine you can see the price before you commit. The mobile apps are among the best in the market. If you want one subscription to cover AKT and CPSA, this is it.

Weaknesses. One specific thing to check: at the time of writing, their MLA page describes coverage of "all 311 conditions and 212 presentations". 311 is the previous map's condition count. The map applying from September 2026 onwards is considerably larger. That may well be un-updated marketing copy on a bank that has since been rebuilt — but if you're sitting from September 2026, ask them directly before paying. Beyond that: some explanations are shorter than Passmedicine's, the flashcard bank is smaller than dedicated Anki decks, and it's a subscription, so it keeps running if your exam date moves.

Choose it if: you want the full replacement, you need CPSA, or you want published pricing.

5. Geeky Medics — the strongest free layer

What they publish: an MLA AKT question bank of 3,000+ SBAs with two full mock exams, three flashcard decks (high-yield clinical signs, key investigations, essential drugs), a notebook of 350+ concise topic summaries, and webinar recordings. They describe the bank as reviewed by practising doctors and aligned with the GMC's MLA content map. They also publish a free set of ten AKT practice questions with explanations, alongside their large free library of clinical-skills guides and OSCE videos. Their pages block automated checks, so verify the specifications and current price directly on their site — we're reporting what they publish, not what we could load.

Strengths. Nobody in UK medical education has a better free layer. The OSCE guides and clinical-skills videos are used by essentially every UK medical student and cost nothing, which makes Geeky Medics the natural free CPSA companion to any AKT bank. Their paid Q-bank explicitly claims MLA content-map alignment — which, notably, Passmedicine does not. The 350+ topic summaries are a real reference asset.

Weaknesses. 3,000+ SBAs is well under a third of Passmedicine's finals bank, so as a straight volume replacement it doesn't compete. Two mock papers is thin if you want to rehearse timing repeatedly. No peer histogram.

Choose it if: you want to spend little or nothing, you need CPSA support, or you're adding a map-aligned second bank rather than replacing your primary.

6. Pastest — the cheapest published plans

Verified July 2026 (from their PLAB 1 pages, which is where they publish most openly): over 3,500 questions, a learning textbook with 3D imagery, two curated past papers, analytics, an AI "tutor mode", and a limited free tier giving six months of access to 100 questions plus the full textbook. Paid plans are published openly — monthly rolling, three-month and six-month, with longer plans cheaper per month.

Strengths. The most transparent pricing in this comparison, and the cheapest way to get a short window of access. The free tier is unusually generous in duration: six months of textbook access for nothing is a legitimately useful free reference. The brand carries weight with senior doctors from decades of postgraduate exams.

Weaknesses. The smallest bank here, and only two past papers. No MLA content-map alignment claim on the pages we checked. Their centre of gravity is postgraduate exams, so UKMLA is not the flagship product. Ancillaries tend to be separate purchases.

Choose it if: budget is the binding constraint, or you want a cheap textbook reference alongside a different primary bank.

7. UWorld — best explanations, hardest to justify

Verified from their UKMLA AKT pages, July 2026: 2,100+ AKT practice questions, described as aligned to the MLA Blueprint. Digital flashcards with spaced repetition, a dynamic study planner, a notebook feature, mobile app access, and performance reporting by topic. Plans run from 30 days to 730 days, priced in US dollars, with the 360-day plan marked most popular. A seven-day free trial gives access to 25 sample questions.

Strengths. UWorld's explanations are widely considered the best in medical exam prep, full stop — the distractor design and teaching quality are exceptional, and they now have a genuinely UKMLA-specific product rather than only US banks. The study planner and flashcard integration are polished.

Weaknesses. The arithmetic is difficult. This is by a wide margin the most expensive option here and the smallest paid bank — roughly a fifth of Passmedicine's finals question count for several times the price. The wider UWorld catalogue is built for US exams where first-line management frequently differs from NICE, so if you drift into their other banks you'll absorb answers that are wrong for your paper. No CPSA coverage.

Choose it if: explanation quality is what makes things stick for you and cost genuinely isn't a factor. Otherwise it's a strong supplement, not a replacement.

8. MedRevisions — built around IMGs

Verified from their site, July 2026: 5,400+ questions described as aligned to the MLA content map, with new questions after each exam cycle. 30+ mocks with unlimited resets. Flashcards. A "Study Essentials" mode of roughly 1,800 high-yield questions. Analytics by Areas of Clinical Practice. A readiness score. An AI study assistant. Subscription tiers priced in US dollars, from around eleven dollars a month. Free account available with progress carried over on upgrade.

Strengths. Explicit map alignment plus 30+ resettable mocks is a strong combination — those are the two highest-value criteria and few platforms do both. Dollar pricing and a reduced "essentials" mode show real attention to candidates on short runways and non-UK budgets.

Weaknesses. No CPSA. A readiness score is a model, not a prediction — no platform can forecast an exam whose pass mark is set per paper. Smaller bank than Passmedicine or Quesmed. Subscription keeps running if your sitting slips.

Choose it if: you're an IMG, mock volume matters, and you want map alignment stated up front. More detail in the PLAB 1 question bank comparison.

9. MLA Prep — ours, honestly

What we offer: 7,000+ SBAs and 11,118 spaced-repetition flashcards across all 694 topics, written against the GMC MLA content map. Every answer explanation cites the UK source — NICE, NICE CKS or the BNF. Unlimited full-length 200-question timed mocks. Per-specialty analytics on first attempts only. Fully offline on iOS. A one-off purchase, so nothing renews after your exam. Free tier: two complete topics plus a full 50-question mock, no card. Current pricing.

Where we genuinely differ from Passmedicine. Two things. First, unlimited full-length mocks — you can sit a 200-question timed paper every week without rationing, which matters because timing failure is preventable and under-rehearsed. Second, a UK source citation on every answer, which is aimed squarely at the mark-losing pattern where the medicine is right but the NHS pathway isn't. And the pricing model differs in kind: one payment, no renewal, no lapse if your date moves.

Weaknesses — plainly.

• No peer histogram, and no community. We can't replicate Passmedicine's cohort and won't pretend to.
• A third of the question volume. 7,000+ against their 11,000+. If raw volume is your reason for leaving, we're the wrong answer and Quesmed is the right one.
• Lighter notes library. Our depth is in per-question explanations, not a separate textbook. Passmedicine and Quesmed are better references.
• iOS and web only — no Android app. The web app works well on Android but isn't native offline.
• CPSA is not our strength. Quesmed's 450+ stations beat us comfortably; pair us with Geeky Medics' free OSCE library instead.
• Newer, so less third-party review coverage. Weight that accordingly.

Choose us if: you want map-native questions with UK-source citations, unlimited timed mocks, and a cost that stops when you've paid it. Test it rather than trusting it — sit the free 50-question mock and judge the explanations against Passmedicine's yourself.

10. Comparison table

Read off each provider's own pages in July 2026. "Not stated" means the provider doesn't publish it — not that the answer is no. Verify anything decision-critical yourself; specifications and prices in this market move constantly.

The row that should decide most of this is the second one — and it's the row nearly every comparison post omits.

11. The content-map question that outranks all of this

Here is the thing worth more than any feature table.

The GMC published an updated MLA content map that applies to all MLA exams and assessments — the AKT and PLAB 1 — from September 2026 onwards. Papers sat up to and including August 2026 use the previous version. The update expanded the condition list substantially, removed the old cross-reference mapping grid, and reframed the list as indicative and non-exhaustive.

So before paying anyone, ask:

"Which version of the GMC MLA content map is your UKMLA bank built against — the one applying up to August 2026, or the updated map applying from September 2026 onwards? How much of the bank has been rewritten for it?"

Judge the reply, not the marketing. A specific, dated answer is a good sign. "We're up to date with the latest GMC guidelines" is about NICE and BNF currency — a different thing. A pivot to question count is an answer in itself.

And note what "non-exhaustive" implies: the GMC has explicitly reserved the right to test outside the published list, so no bank can honestly promise complete coverage. Treat "covers every condition" as marketing and judge on whether explanations teach you UK practice. The map itself is a free PDF on the GMC's site — reading the version that applies to your date costs nothing. See our content map guide, what changed for September 2026, and the checklist version.

12. Match the alternative to your reason

What not to do: run three subscriptions at once (you'll use one), switch inside the final six weeks, or replace a bank when the actual problem is that you're not reviewing your mistakes. And don't buy on question count — 3,000 well-explained map-aligned questions you genuinely review beat 11,000 you skim. We work through that in how many questions you need.

13. FAQ

Is Passmedicine worth it for the UKMLA? For most UK finalists, yes — especially if your school provides access. It's the largest bank here, the notes are deep, and the peer histogram is unmatched. The honest caveats are that it doesn't claim MLA content-map alignment on its public pages, it doesn't publish prices where you can compare them, and it's a finals resource extended to the AKT rather than built for it. Whether those matter depends on whether you're losing marks on UK-specific pathways.

What is the cheapest Passmedicine alternative? Free first: Geeky Medics' free questions and clinical-skills library, Pastest's six-month free textbook tier, and our free 50-question mock. Cheapest paid: Pastest's short rolling plans, or Quesmed's annual bundle on a per-month basis. See the cheapest way to revise.

Quesmed or Passmedicine? Quesmed if you want CPSA, integration, published pricing and an explicit map-alignment claim. Passmedicine if you want maximum explanation depth and peer comparison. Neither is objectively better — but ask Quesmed about the 311-conditions wording if you sit from September 2026. Longer answer in our question bank comparison.

Can I just use free question banks? For a whole prep, it's a gamble. Free banks are usually thinner on the two things that change what you do next — analytics and full-length timed mocks. As a supplement, free resources are excellent, and Geeky Medics' free library in particular is genuinely first-rate. Full list in free UKMLA resources.

Does my Passmedicine access end when I graduate? If it came through your medical school, yes — institutional access is tied to being a student. Check the end date now rather than discovering it during resit revision.

Should I use two question banks? Only for a specific reason: you've exhausted fresh questions in a weak area, or you need something your primary doesn't do (mocks, CPSA, UK-sourced explanations). Two banks "for coverage" mostly buys you two dashboards and a worse review loop.

Is UWorld worth it for the UKMLA? The explanations are the best available; the price-to-volume ratio is the worst here. As a primary bank it's hard to justify against options with three to five times the questions for a fraction of the cost. As a supplement for reasoning practice, it's strong — just don't absorb US first-line management, which will be marked wrong on a UK paper.

I'm sitting the AKT in late 2026 — does any of this change? Yes, and it's the most important thing on this page. From September 2026 you're on the updated content map; up to August 2026 you're on the previous one. Establish which version any bank is built against before you pay.

Which alternative is closest to Passmedicine, feature for feature? Quesmed. Comparable question volume, deeper CPSA, integrated notes, better apps, published pricing. The trade is shorter explanations and no peer histogram.

---

Test the alternative before you switch. Sit MLA Prep's free 50-question mock — map-aligned, every answer referenced to NICE or the BNF, per-specialty breakdown, no card. Compare the explanations to what you're using now, then decide.

The summary: don't shop for "the best Passmedicine alternative" — shop for the fix to your actual reason. Lost access, priced out, bank exhausted, CPSA gap, UK-pathway marks, or mobile friction each point somewhere different, and two of them don't need a new bank at all.

Then ask every provider which content map version they're built against. In 2026 that single answer separates the resources preparing you for your paper from the ones preparing you for the last one.

---

Further reading

• UKMLA question bank comparison: the full feature-by-feature
• Best PLAB 1 question bank 2026 (the IMG view)
• The cheapest way to revise for the UKMLA
• Free UKMLA resources worth using in 2026
• What changed in the September 2026 content map

7,000+ map-aligned SBAs, 11,118 flashcards, unlimited 200-question mocks — one payment, nothing renews. See pricing →