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PSA revision: notes for the Prescribing Safety Assessment

Short, source-based revision notes for the UK PSA, written to be read quickly or looked up in the middle of a study session. Each page opens with a direct answer and ends with a self-check.

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15revision notes
60exam items
120minutes
8sections

The Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) is a 120-minute, 60-item online exam taken by UK final-year medical students and foundation doctors, with the BNF open throughout. Revising for it is mostly about prescribing safely and finding information fast, not memorising lists. These notes cover the exam format, a revision method and study plan, and the topics that recur: high-risk medicines, monitoring, renal impairment, interactions, calculations, antibiotics and emergency prescribing.

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How the exam works and how to prepare for it.

How to revise for the PSABNF-first practice, retrieval, an error log and timed sets: a method built for an open-book exam.Read →PSA study plan for 2, 4 and 8 weeksWeek-by-week plans for 2, 4 and 8 weeks of revision, plus the last 48 hours.Read →PSA format and marking60 items, 8 sections, 200 marks, 120 minutes: how the PSA is built, timed and marked.Read →PSA revision FAQShort answers to the questions candidates ask most about revising for the PSA.Read →

Prescribing skills

The habits and calculations that decide marks.

How to write a safe prescriptionElements of a safe prescription: drug, dose, route, frequency, limits, duration and patient checks.Read →Common PSA mistakes that cost marksThe prescribing and technique errors that lose marks, and how to avoid each one.Read →PSA calculation skills: doses, rates and unitsUnit ladder, strengths, mg/kg, infusion rates and creatinine clearance, with examples.Read →PSA communicating information: counselling pointsChoose the most important counselling point, with high-yield advice by drug.Read →

Clinical topics

The medicines and situations the PSA keeps returning to.

High-risk medicines for the PSAAnticoagulants, insulin, opioids, methotrexate, potassium and more: the hazard and the safety rule.Read →Drug monitoring for the PSAWhat to monitor for each high-yield drug, and when to take the level.Read →Renal dosing for the PSAeGFR or creatinine clearance, drugs to avoid or reduce, sick-day rules and the BNF renal sections.Read →Drug interactions for the PSAMechanisms, high-yield pairs and what to do: CYP450, QT, serotonin, hyperkalaemia and more.Read →Adverse drug reactions for the PSAType A and B, classic drug-reaction pairs, finding the culprit and Yellow Card reporting.Read →Antibiotic prescribing for the PSAStart Smart then Focus, allergy, interactions, monitoring and C. difficile risk.Read →Emergency prescribing for the PSAOnce-only emergency drugs, oxygen targets, sepsis first hour and fluids at principle level.Read →

More from PassthePSA

Plain-text versions of every page are available for screen readers, offline reading and AI assistants: llms.txt (index) and llms-full.txt (all notes in one file).

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