AMC Recall Answers: Which Australian Guideline to Check

Check an AMC recall answer by opening the Australian source that governs its question type. Drug questions go to Therapeutic Guidelines (eTG); screening and prevention to the Red Book (RACGP) and the bowel, cervical and breast screening programs; vaccines to the Australian Immunisation Handbook; children to the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Clinical Practice Guidelines; ethics and law to Good Medical Practice and the relevant state rules. If the source supports the remembered answer, keep it. If it does not, the source wins, because the AMC exam is marked to current Australian practice.

Why recall answers need checking

Candidates leave the AMC exam remembering what each question was about. They do not remember which option was correct, only which option they chose. The topic of a recall is reliable; the answer attached to it is not. Australian guidance also departs from other systems on antibiotics, screening ages, vaccine schedules, referral thresholds and legal duties, so a remembered answer carries the training of whoever remembered it.

The look-up table

If the recall asks Open Access

about

schedules, contacts

Common paediatric RCH Clinical Practice Guidelines Free

presentations

heart failure

If the recall asks Open Access

about

contact management

The AMC Part 1 high-yield topics guide groups the topics behind these rows by AMC blueprint group.

The three-minute check

1Name the question type (30 seconds). Diagnosis, drug, screening, procedure or law. The type picks the row in the table.

2Open the source and find the statement (90 seconds). Search the source for the condition, not the answer, and read the recommendation, not the background.

3Test the stem and all five options (60 seconds). The keyed answer must match the statement, and each distractor must fail against it for a stated reason.

Verification log: a free June 2026 recall

The recall, key findings underlined

A 5-year-old boy has had a week of puffy eyes and swollen ankles. His blood pressure and growth are normal, and there is no rash, joint pain or fever. Urinalysis shows 4+ protein and no blood. What is the most likely diagnosis?

A. Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis
B. IgA nephropathy
C. Membranous nephropathy
D. Minimal change disease
E. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Underlined in the Why it is underlined Confirmed by

stem

stem

Result: D, confirmed. The RCH guideline names minimal change disease as the most common histological diagnosis in children with nephrotic syndrome and states that most children respond to prednisolone. Every atypical feature it lists is absent here. Membranous nephropathy (C) is predominantly a disease of adults, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (E) is the cause to suspect when atypical features or steroid resistance appear.

Logged as: child aged 1 to 12, nephrotic, no atypical features: minimal change disease, steroid-responsive. RCH Clinical Practice Guidelines, nephrotic syndrome.

Currency: the bowel screening test case

A source's date matters as much as its name. A recall asking when an average-risk Australian starts bowel cancer screening is settled by the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program: since July 2024, people aged 45 to 74 are eligible for a free immunochemical faecal occult blood test every two years, with kits mailed automatically from 50 and available on request from 45. A recall from before July 2024 that answers 50 is out of date. The current program decides.

Tie-break rules when sources disagree

• Australian beats international. A UK or US guideline, or an international textbook, does not override an Australian source on the AMC exam.

• Specific beats general. A dedicated guideline, such as the Australasian Bronchiolitis Guideline, overrides a general summary of the same condition.

• Current beats remembered. Bowel screening from 45 (July 2024) and the adult pneumococcal schedule change (July 2026) both made older recall answers wrong.

• Principle beats state detail. Child protection reporting and mental health detention differ between states and territories; AMC MCQ questions test the principle, that the duty exists and when it applies.

• No Australian source, no revision note. A remembered answer that no Australian source supports stays out of revision.

Free AMC recall questions, checked before publication

AMC Recalls adds 100 free AMC recall questions after every sitting, and every explanation in them is checked against the sources in the look-up table before it is published. Each question carries a recall tip that states the teaching point. The free AMC recall questions for February to September 2026 are open now, including the June 2026 set used above. For the annotation method that answers each recall in the first place, see how to answer AMC recall questions; for how the exam itself is built, the AMC CAT MCQ format guide. AMC Academic keeps a structured reading list in best books and study material for AMC Part 1.