AMC Part 1 High-Yield Topics

Every high-yield topic for AMC Part 1, sorted into the six patient groups the AMC blueprint actually uses.

Treat this as an audit tool, not a reading list. Come back to it after a few weeks of question practice and mark anything you couldn't handle confidently in an exam scenario. What you've marked is your real study list.

We've checked the names against current terminology. Where a topic usually turns up under an outdated or plain wrong name, we've used the current one and flagged the old one in the naming corrections table at the end.

Blueprint weightings

There are 150 questions and only 120 of them count. The other 30 are unscored pilot items, and you can't tell which is which while you're sitting there.

Medicine and surgery together are half the paper. Watch out for one trap though. Topic count is not mark count. The medicine list below runs much longer than the mental health list, but mental health still carries the same 12.5% as everything else in the bottom four rows.

A. Medicine (30%)

Cardiology

• Heart failure, including anaemia in heart failure

• Acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infarction

• Acute chest pain and cardiac biomarkers

• Tachyarrhythmias

• Bradyarrhythmias

• First, second and third degree atrioventricular block

• Atrial fibrillation

• Supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular tachycardia

• ECG pattern recognition

• Pericarditis and ECG findings

• Stroke prevention and the CHA₂DS₂-VASc score

• Cardiovascular disease risk assessment

• Hyperlipidaemia management

• Familial hypercholesterolaemia

• Statin side effects and statin-associated muscle symptoms

• Blood pressure management and antihypertensive therapy

• Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy

• Pulmonary hypertension in pregnancy

• Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in the medical inpatient

Respiratory Medicine

• Pulmonary embolism: risk scoring, imaging choice and initial anticoagulation

• Pulmonary function testing

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

• Asthma in adults: severity assessment and stepwise management

• Spontaneous pneumothorax: chest X-ray recognition and management by size

• Allergic rhinitis

• Cystic fibrosis

• Bronchiectasis

• Interstitial lung disease and treatment

Gastroenterology

• Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease

• Eosinophilic oesophagitis

• Barrett's oesophagus and screening

• Achalasia

• Distal oesophageal spasm

• Drug-induced oesophageal injury

• Functional dysphagia

• Globus sensation

• Peptic ulcer disease

• Bleeding peptic ulcer and management

• Drug-induced ulceration

• Helicobacter pylori infection and testing considerations

• Inflammatory bowel disease with extraintestinal manifestations

• Ulcerative colitis with ocular manifestations such as uveitis and scleritis

• Coeliac disease: serology, and staying on gluten before testing

• Diverticular disease: uncomplicated diverticulitis and outpatient management

• Small bowel and mesenteric ischaemia

• Colorectal carcinoma

• Pancreatitis: causes, severity scoring and complications

• Iron deficiency anaemia as a red flag for gastrointestinal malignancy

Nephrology and Urology

• Acute kidney injury

• Chronic kidney disease

• Glomerulonephritis

• Nephrotic syndrome

• IgA vasculitis, formerly Henoch-Schönlein purpura

• Polycystic kidney disease

• Renal artery stenosis

• Haematuria

• Renal and ureteric stones

• Renal cell carcinoma

• Prostatitis

• Benign prostatic hyperplasia

• Prostate carcinoma

• Scrotal swelling and pain

• Testicular carcinoma

Haematology

• Anaemia, general approach

• Iron deficiency anaemia: causes and investigation

• Thalassaemia

• Sickle cell disease

• Haemolytic anaemia

• G6PD deficiency

• Hereditary spherocytosis

• Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria

• Fanconi anaemia, which is not Fanconi syndrome. The latter is renal.

• Bleeding disorders

• Immune thrombocytopenia

• Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

• Haemolytic uraemic syndrome

• Disseminated intravascular coagulation

• Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia: timing, the 4Ts score, and which anticoagulant to switch to

• Venous thromboembolism: choice and duration of anticoagulation

• Warfarin and INR

• Warfarin around surgery

• Multiple myeloma

• Leukaemias

• Lymphomas

Endocrinology

• Diabetes mellitus

• Thyroid disorders

• Parathyroid disorders

• Adrenal disorders

• Pituitary disorders

• Disorders of water balance, meaning diabetes insipidus and SIADH

• Osteoporosis

• Gynaecomastia

Neurology

• Stroke

• Transient ischaemic attack

• Carotid artery stenosis

• Intracranial lesions and their localisation

• Intracranial haemorrhage

• Epilepsy

• Acute seizure management

• Headache types

• Migraine management

• Multiple sclerosis, with optic neuritis and fundoscopic correlation

• Guillain-Barré syndrome

• Bell's palsy

• Myasthenia gravis

• Motor neurone disease

• Vertigo

• Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

• Ménière's disease

• Tinnitus

Rheumatology

• Rheumatoid arthritis, seropositive and seronegative

• Disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy

• Seronegative spondyloarthropathies: ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic, reactive, enteropathic

• Osteoarthritis

• Gout

• Systemic lupus erythematosus

• Polymyalgia rheumatica

• Giant cell arteritis

• Back pain and red flags

Dermatology

• Skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, seborrhoeic keratosis

• Dermatitis: atopic, seborrhoeic, contact, discoid

• Psoriasis

• Acne vulgaris, mild through severe, and management

• Human papillomavirus warts

• Herpes simplex infection

• Tinea

• Scabies, including school exclusion criteria

• Pityriasis rosea and pityriasis versicolor

• Lichen planus

• Lichen sclerosus

• Cutaneous drug reactions, timing and type

• Angioedema and urticaria, including ACE inhibitor reactions

• Granuloma annulare

• Infantile haemangioma

• Napkin dermatitis

Infectious Diseases

• Vaccination in the immunocompromised and before travel

• HIV

• Hepatitis

• Cytomegalovirus

• Epstein-Barr virus

• Toxoplasmosis

• Measles, mumps, rubella

• Chickenpox

• TORCH infections

• COVID-19

• Cellulitis

• Urinary tract infection: organisms and empirical antibiotic choice

• Clostridioides difficile infection

• Rabies

• Cat scratch disease

• Hydatid disease

• Travel-related infections

• Traveller's diarrhoea

• Sexually transmitted infection testing and contact tracing

• Abnormal vaginal discharge

• Men who have sex with men health

Geriatrics

• Comprehensive geriatric assessment

• Polypharmacy

• Falls

B. Surgery (20%)

General Surgery

• Large bowel obstruction, usually malignant

• Small bowel obstruction, usually adhesional

• Complicated diverticulitis: abscess, perforation and Hinchey staging on CT

• Caecal volvulus

• Ogilvie syndrome, or acute colonic pseudo-obstruction

• Cholangitis

• Choledocholithiasis

• Acalculous cholecystitis

• Mirizzi syndrome

• Post-cholecystectomy syndrome

• Acute pancreatitis: gallstone aetiology and timing of cholecystectomy

• Pancreatic pseudocyst, image-based

• Hepatic abscess

• Abdominal aortic aneurysm

• Mesenteric artery aneurysm

• Rectus sheath haematoma

• Salivary gland stones

• Neck masses

• Oesophageal carcinoma

• Bladder carcinoma

• Bariatric surgery complications

• Conservative versus operative management

• Red flags for urgent surgery

Orthopaedic Surgery

• Upper limb fractures

• Lower limb fractures

• Open fractures

• Stress fractures

• Compartment syndrome

• Bone infection

• Overuse injuries

• Knee joint injuries

• Achilles tendon rupture

• Biceps tendon rupture

• Shoulder dislocation

• Ankle dislocation

• Frozen shoulder

• Tenosynovial giant cell tumour, formerly pigmented villonodular synovitis

Anorectal Surgery

• Haemorrhoids and grading

• Anal fissure

• Anorectal abscess and fistula-in-ano

• Pilonidal sinus

Urology

• Acute scrotum in adults: torsion, epididymo-orchitis and torted appendix testis

• Testicular torsion: time to theatre and operative fixation

• Hydrocele in adults

• Varicocele

• Epididymo-orchitis

• Inguinal and femoral hernia in adults

• Urinary tract infection in adults, including complicated and catheter-associated infection

Otolaryngology

• Rinne and Weber testing

• Otitis media

• Ear pain

• ENT lumps

• Sinusitis

Breast

• Mastitis

• Breast abscess

• Fibroadenoma, including popcorn calcification on imaging

Ophthalmology

• Acute red eye, painful and painless

• Sudden vision loss

• Acute visual disturbance

• Central retinal artery occlusion

• Central retinal vein occlusion

• Amaurosis fugax

• Optic neuritis

• Retinal detachment

• Age-related macular degeneration

• Hypertensive retinopathy

• Corneal ulcer and keratitis: viral, bacterial, dendritic

• Acute angle-closure glaucoma

• Chronic glaucoma

• Chalazion and stye

• Ocular trauma: blunt, penetrating, chemical

• Orbital floor fracture

Trauma and Emergency

• Road traffic trauma

• Head and neck trauma

• Splenic rupture

• Traumatic and tension pneumothorax, including needle decompression

• Haemothorax

• Cardiac tamponade

• Snake bite: tiger, brown, red-bellied black

• Spider bite: redback, funnel-web

• Marine stings: bluebottle, stonefish

• Poisoning and antidotes

• Paracetamol poisoning

• Opioid poisoning

• Alcohol withdrawal in the emergency setting: delirium tremens and Wernicke prophylaxis

• Button battery ingestion

• Canine bite

• Heat stroke

C. Women's Health (12.5%)

Obstetrics

• Preconception care

• Prenatal care

• Iodine and folic acid supplementation, dose and timing

• Genetic screening

• Chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis, with timing

• Trisomy 21, 18 and 13

• Gestational hypertension

• Preeclampsia and eclampsia

• Gestational diabetes mellitus

• Anaemia in pregnancy

• Thyroid disease in pregnancy: Graves versus gestational thyrotoxicosis

• Systemic lupus erythematosus in pregnancy

• Antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy

• ABO incompatibility and haemolytic disease of the newborn

• Rhesus isoimmunisation and clinical picture

• Indirect Coombs test

• Indications for anti-D immunoglobulin

• Placenta praevia

• Vasa praevia

• Placental abruption, including concealed

• Preterm labour and fetal fibronectin

• Contraindications to tocolysis

• Cervical insufficiency and cerclage

• Premature rupture of membranes

• Polyhydramnios

• Fetal macrosomia

• Multiple pregnancy, monozygotic and dizygotic

• Fetal lie and malpresentation: transverse, breech, face, brow

• Stages of labour and management

• Shoulder dystocia

• Umbilical cord prolapse

• Meconium-stained liquor

• Uterine rupture

• Uterine inversion

• Postpartum haemorrhage

• Retained products of conception

• Uterine atony management

• Fetal demise

• Urinary tract infection and asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy

• Group B streptococcus

• Parvovirus B19

• Hepatitis B and C in pregnancy

• Varicella in pregnancy

• Maternal sepsis

• Genital herpes, syphilis, trichomoniasis, bacterial vaginosis

• Venous thromboembolism in pregnancy: diagnosis, imaging and LMWH dosing

Gynaecology

• Contraception

• Primary dysmenorrhoea

• Amenorrhoea

• Abnormal uterine bleeding

• Polycystic ovary syndrome

• Endometriosis

• Adenomyosis

• Uterine fibroids

• Ectopic pregnancy

• Hydatidiform mole

• Menopausal hormone therapy

• Atrophic vaginitis

• Postmenopausal bleeding

• Bartholin gland cyst and abscess

• Vulvar masses

• Cervical carcinoma

D. Paediatrics (12.5%)

Neonatology and Development

• Neonatal jaundice: types and pathophysiology

• Growth and development

• Developmental milestones

• Immunisation: the childhood NIP schedule and catch-up

• Developmental dysplasia of the hip

Infection and Respiratory

• Fever without source: assessment and red flags

• Bronchiolitis

• Croup

• Asthma in children: acute severity and preventer decisions

• Allergic disease

• Paediatric rashes

Gastroenterology

• Pyloric stenosis

• Intussusception

• Hirschsprung's disease

• Meckel's diverticulum

• Necrotising enterocolitis

• Intestinal atresia

• Meconium plug syndrome

• Umbilical hernia

• Dehydration

• Gastroenteritis

• Gastro-oesophageal reflux in infants: physiological posseting versus disease

• Cow's milk protein allergy

• Lactose intolerance

• Coeliac disease in children: growth failure and screening in type 1 diabetes

Paediatric Urology

• Vesicoureteral reflux: grading, and imaging after a first febrile urinary tract infection

• Urinary tract infection in children, and when to image

• Testicular torsion in adolescents, and why the window matters

• Undescended testis: timing of orchidopexy

• Hydrocele and inguinal hernia in infancy

• Bladder and bowel dysfunction

Paediatric Psychiatry

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

• Autism spectrum disorder

• Oppositional defiant disorder

• Conduct disorder

• Tic disorders and Tourette syndrome

E. Mental Health (12.5%)

• Major depressive disorder

• Bipolar disorder and mania

• Anxiety disorders

• Panic attacks and de-escalation

• Post-traumatic stress disorder

• Schizophrenia

• Postpartum psychosis

• Personality disorders

• Eating disorders

• Dementia and Alzheimer disease

• Delirium, and telling it apart from dementia

• Grief and bereavement

• Acute behavioural disturbance and the agitated patient

• Anticholinergic effects

• Antipsychotic side effects, including hyperprolactinaemia

• Antidepressant side effects

• Substance intoxication and withdrawal

• Alcohol use disorder: intoxication, withdrawal scoring and relapse prevention

• Carbamazepine toxicity

• Involuntary assessment and treatment under state Mental Health Acts

F. Population Health and Ethics (12.5%)

This is the section candidates skip, and it gives you the best return on study hours in the whole exam. Most of it is recall of specific Australian rules rather than clinical reasoning, which means you can actually finish it.

The three national screening programmes

Verified against Australian government sources in July 2026.

The bowel screening age is the most common outdated fact in AMC prep material by a wide margin. If a resource still says 50, you have just learned when it was last reviewed.

Other screening

• Cardiovascular risk screening

• Diabetes screening

• Hypertension screening

• Skin cancer screening

• Prostate cancer screening and its controversies

• Sexually transmitted infection screening: who to screen and how often

Immunisation

• National Immunisation Program schedule

• Adult pneumococcal vaccination. From 1 July 2026 the 21-valent conjugate vaccine (21vPCV, Capvaxive) replaced both Prevenar 13 and Pneumovax 23 on the adult NIP schedule. Eligibility widened at the same time: funded from age 65 rather than 70, and from age 25 rather than 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults. Children stay on 20vPCV.

• COVID-19 vaccines move onto the NIP from 1 October 2026, replacing the stand-alone National COVID-19 Vaccine Program. Funding narrows to groups at highest risk of severe disease rather than the whole population.

• Influenza: trivalent formulations for 2026

• Australian Immunisation Register reporting requirements

Ethics and Law

• Informed consent and capacity

• Consent in minors: Gillick competence, Marion's case, and the NSW and SA statutory positions

• Right to refuse treatment

• Not-for-resuscitation orders and advance care directives

• Substitute decision-making

• Organ donation

• Neonatal death and perinatal loss

• Confidentiality and its exceptions

• Mandatory reporting: child protection

• Mandatory notification to Ahpra about other practitioners

• Notifiable disease reporting

• Fitness to drive, where obligations differ by state and territory

• Child abuse

• Domestic and family violence

• Management of the aggressive patient

• Elder care and elder abuse

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, including MBS item 715

• Doctor-patient relationship

• Clinical referral

Epidemiology and Statistics

• Sensitivity and specificity, which are properties of the test

• Positive and negative predictive value, which depend on prevalence

• Study design hierarchy

• Types of bias

• Absolute versus relative risk reduction

• Number needed to treat

• Lead time and length time bias in screening

Public Health

• Adolescent health

• Nutrition

• Obesity

• Smoking cessation

• Genetic testing

• Infection prevention

• Needlestick and sharps injuries

• Foodborne illness

Naming corrections

Topics that keep turning up under outdated or plain wrong names in AMC prep material.

How to use this list

Don't read it start to finish. Audit yourself against it after a few weeks of question practice, and mark whatever you couldn't handle in a scenario.

Weight your effort by the blueprint rather than by list length. Medicine has the most entries because it carries 30%. But women's health has far more listed topics than mental health, and the two carry identical weightings, so list length will mislead you if you let it.

Prioritise the Australian-specific material. Screening ages, the immunisation schedule, envenomation, PBS and authority requirements, the state Mental Health Acts, fitness-to-drive obligations. None of that transfers from overseas training, and in these questions the distractors are very often the correct answer in another country.

Test yourself on this month's free quiz, or fit this into a timeline with the three to six month study plan How to Pass AMC Part 1

Next steps

• Audit yourself with this month's free quiz

• Build the timeline: How to Pass AMC Part 1 in 3 to 6 Months

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Last reviewed July 2026. Screening, immunisation and legal requirements change. Verify against amc.org.au, health.gov.au and ahpra.gov.au before relying on anything here. We aren't affiliated with any question bank or prep platform.