Oxford Medical School Pre-clinical Cheat Sheet

Every course of Oxford's three pre-clinical years (the years before clinical training): First BM Part I, Part II and the Final Honour School, with the SimpleMed articles that cover them. The First BM is the first Bachelor of Medicine examination. The Final Honour School is the BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Medical Sciences. Find your course, open the articles, revise.

  • 3 stages
  • 16 units
  • 356 SimpleMed articles

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All UK medical school cheat sheets

Hand-drawn illustration of the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre, University of Oxford

Year 1, Terms 1 to 3

First BM Part I

Organisation of the Body (OB)

108 articles

Anatomy, histology (tissues under the microscope) and embryology (development before birth): how cells form tissues and how the limbs, thorax, abdomen, pelvis and glands are built and developed.

Cells and tissues

Limbs, joints and spine

Thorax and circulation

Abdomen and gut

Urinary and reproductive tracts

Endocrine glands

Embryology

Blood

Peripheral nerves

Clinical examples

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Musculoskeletal System, Embryology, Cell Physiology and Biology, Haematology

Physiology and Pharmacology (P&P)

92 articles

How the body works, from membranes and nerves to the heart, lungs, gut, kidneys and hormones, with the basic principles of drug action. This is the function that goes with the structure in Organisation of the Body.

Membranes, nerves and muscle

Heart and circulation

Lungs and breathing

Gut and liver

Kidney, bladder and body fluids

Hormones

How drugs act

Clinical examples

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Cell Physiology and Biology, Cardiovascular System, Respiratory System, Urinary System, Pharmacology

Biochemistry and Medical Genetics (BMG)

35 articles

The molecular side of medicine: proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and enzymes, how fuel is burned and stored and how genes are inherited, mutated and tested. Diabetes and inborn errors of metabolism (inherited enzyme defects) show what happens when these processes go wrong.

Proteins, enzymes and DNA

Metabolism

Metabolic integration and disease

Medical genetics

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Metabolism, Genetics, Cell Physiology and Biology

Population Health 1: Medical Sociology (Sociology)

14 articles

Social science for medicine: how class, gender, ethnicity and age shape health, how people experience illness, and how care is organised. Assessed by a take-home assignment in 2025/26; the 2026/27 regulations list it as an examination.

Population and Social Science

Patient-Centred Care

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Population and Social Science, Patient-Centred Care

Year 2, Terms 4 and 5

First BM Part II

Applied Physiology and Pharmacology (APP)

58 articles

An integrated course that applies first-year physiology and pharmacology to clinical problems. Topics include blood pressure, heart failure, fluids and acid-base balance (keeping the blood at a healthy pH), exercise, asthma, anaesthesia, stress and reproduction.

Blood pressure, heart and shock

Fluids, electrolytes and acid-base

Exercise, altitude and temperature

Asthma and anaesthesia

Stress and metabolic homeostasis

Reproduction

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Cardiovascular System, Respiratory System, Urinary System, Endocrinology, Pharmacology, Reproductive System

The Nervous System (NS)

56 articles

Head and neck anatomy; the development, structure and function of the brain and spinal cord; the senses, movement, sleep and memory; and the pharmacology of epilepsy and psychiatric drugs.

Head and neck

Brain and spinal cord

Neurons and signalling

Disorders and drugs

Examination

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry, Head and Neck, Embryology

Principles of Pathology (PoP)

59 articles

General pathology, immunity and infection: cell injury, inflammation and repair, the immune system and its failures, bacteria, viruses and fungi, clotting, degeneration and cancer.

Cell injury, inflammation and repair

Immunity

Infection

Clotting and vascular disease

Cancer

Population health and prevention

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Pathology, Infection, Immunology, Haematology, Genetics

Psychology for Medicine (Psychology)

11 articles

The psychology that matters in practice: attention and memory, learning, mood, psychosis and ageing minds.

Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry, Patient-Centred Care

Years 2 and 3, Terms 6 to 9

Final Honour School

Systems Neuroscience

32 articles

An advanced option on the brain, its circuits and the disorders they cause.

Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry

Pharmacology

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Neuroanatomy and Psychiatry, Cell Physiology and Biology

Cardiovascular Science

26 articles

An advanced option on the heart and circulation, from cardiac electrophysiology (the electrical activity of the heart) to atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart failure.

Cardiovascular System

Pathology

Pharmacology

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Cardiovascular System, Haematology

Pharmacology and Signalling

32 articles

An advanced option on how receptors, signalling pathways and drugs interact, from the molecular detail of drug action to safe prescribing and drug discovery.

Pharmacology

Cell Physiology and Biology

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Pharmacology, Cell Physiology and Biology

Molecular Pathology and Cancer

46 articles

An advanced option on the molecular basis of disease: inflammation, immunity, infection, genetic change and how tumours grow, spread and are treated.

Pathology

Genetics

Immunology

Infection

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Pathology, Genetics, Immunology, Infection

Metabolism and Endocrinology

30 articles

An advanced option on how the body stores, burns and signals energy, and how hormones and metabolic disease interact, from diabetes and obesity to inborn errors.

Metabolism

Endocrinology

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Metabolism, Endocrinology

Critical Reading, Data Analysis and Experimental Design

8 articles

The skills behind Paper 3 of the Final Honour School and the research project: reading primary papers (original research articles), judging study design, handling data and testing hypotheses.

Population and Social Science

From other subjects

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: Population and Social Science, Pharmacology

Throughout Years 1 to 3

Medical Statistics Years 1 and 2

7 articles

A separate strand in both parts of the First BM, covering descriptive statistics, the normal distribution, inference and comparing groups. These articles give the reasoning behind the numbers.

Population and Social Science

From other subjects

Practice Population and Social Science questions on SimpleMed+

Learning with Patients Years 1 and 2

50 articles

Runs through both parts of the First BM. These guides cover the clinical examination and consultation skills you will meet. Learning with Patients 3 continues in Year 3.

Browse every examination guide on the SimpleMed OSCE hub

Start here

Heart, lungs and circulation

Abdomen and groin

Nervous system

Joints and spine

Endocrine

Eyes, ears, nose and neck

Skin, breast and lymph nodes

Surface anatomy

The wider consultation

Practice questions on SimpleMed+: OSCE, Patient-Centred Care

How Oxford assesses the pre-clinical stage

  • First BM Part I (Terms 1 to 3) has one examination each for Organisation of the Body, Physiology and Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, and Medical Sociology, plus Medical Statistics, practical work and Learning with Patients 1.
  • First BM Part II (Terms 4 and 5) has one examination each for Applied Physiology and Pharmacology, The Nervous System, Principles of Pathology and Psychology for Medicine, plus a synoptic paper (a paper whose questions draw on several subjects together).
  • The Organisation of the Body, Physiology and Pharmacology, and Biochemistry and Medical Genetics papers each have a multiple choice section and an essay section. In 2025/26 Medical Sociology was assessed by a take-home assignment (work completed outside an exam hall), but the 2026/27 regulations list it as an examination like the other units, so check its current format in your course handbook.
  • The Final Honour School in Medical Sciences (BA) has three papers, a research project and a submitted essay. It runs for four terms, Terms 6 to 9, so it starts in the last term of Year 2 and the rest falls in Year 3.
  • Oxford publishes the official dates and formats. Always check your own course materials.

Test yourself

Reading is half of revision. Each unit above links to matching single best answer questions (choose the one best option from a list) on SimpleMed+.

Browse the SimpleMed+ question bank

SimpleMed+ Encyclopaedia

Hard topics, made short and simple

A free bank of short and simple explanations of complex topics, with memory aids, in bitesize pages. Each one links to the SimpleMed+ questions that test it and to the core knowledge your exams expect.

  • Bitesize explanations
  • Memory aids
  • Linked to the question bank
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Getting ready for clinical

The clinical stage follows the pre-clinical years.

This is an independent revision guide written by SimpleMed. It is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, Oxford Medical School or the University of Oxford. Course names and assessment units follow the 2026/27 First BM examination regulations, and the Part I exam formats follow the 2025/26 syllabus. The Final Honour School options are examples named on Oxford's course pages and change yearly. The article groupings, the shorthand BMG, NS, PoP and Sociology, and the Critical Reading unit are our own. Last updated October 2026.