Candidates rarely fail the DM or DNB cardiology examination for lack of effort. They fail because the effort was allocated badly: too long on the subjects they enjoy, question practice started too late, and no rehearsal of speaking the answer aloud. This is a six-month allocation that fixes those three things.
On this page
Four principles that decide the outcome
Plan against a calendar, not a book list. A syllabus mapped onto dates exposes the arithmetic early, while there is still time to act on it.
Separate reading from testing. Questions attempted immediately after reading measure short-term recall and flatter you. Return after several days, then at widening intervals.
Record the distractor you chose, not only whether you were right. An attractive wrong option marks a gap that a lucky correct answer conceals.
Say it out loud from the start. The viva assesses how you argue, and fluency is a separate skill from knowledge. Candidates who only ever read silently discover this in the examination hall.
Months 1 and 2 — foundations
Cardiac anatomy and physiology at the level clinical questions actually draw on. ECG to complete fluency, since it underlies a large share of marks across the whole paper. Basic and applied echocardiography, including the measurements that must be reproduced from memory. Coronary artery disease from pathophysiology to management. Aim to finish these two months able to read any ECG systematically without pausing, and to state the normal echocardiographic ranges without looking them up.
Months 3 and 4 — the harder half
Heart failure, including the four pillars of guideline-directed therapy and the realistic sequence of introduction. Arrhythmia and electrophysiology, with device indications. Valvular heart disease, severity thresholds and timing of intervention. Adult congenital heart disease, which is where many candidates are weakest and where examiners know it. Hypertension, lipids and preventive cardiology. Begin timed question blocks in this period — not at the end.
Month 5 — trials, guidelines and imaging
The landmark trials, by name, with the population, the comparison and the actual result: SYNTAX, EXCEL, ISCHEMIA, COURAGE, PARTNER, COAPT, DAPA-HF, EMPEROR, PARADIGM-HF, AUGUSTUS, TWILIGHT. Examiners ask for the trial that supports a position, and a candidate who can name it and state its limitation is immediately distinguishable. Alongside this, the current ACC, AHA and ESC positions with the changes since the previous iteration, since recent changes are disproportionately examined. Add cardiac CT and MRI indications, and nuclear imaging.
Month 6 — consolidation and viva
Full-length timed papers under examination conditions, including the time of day you will actually sit. Rework every question you got wrong across the whole six months — this single exercise moves scores more than new reading. Rehearse the viva aloud with a colleague, on cases rather than topics. Prepare a structured answer template you can apply to any management question: define, classify, investigate, treat, follow up. And stop new material a week out; the last week is for retrieval, not acquisition.
The common failures
- Starting question practice in the final month, when there is no time left to act on what it reveals.
- Re-reading strong subjects because it feels productive.
- Memorising guideline recommendations without the reasoning, which collapses under a single follow-up question.
- Never speaking an answer aloud before the viva.
- Neglecting adult congenital heart disease and cardiac imaging, both reliably examined.
- Treating a mock score as an endpoint rather than as a diagnostic.
Question banks and study systems are in the examination preparation reading list and the examination collections. Free practice is on the question bank page and the quiz of the month. Candidates who want the schedule supervised rather than self-managed should read about the mentorship track, and the Saturday trainee presentation session is the closest available rehearsal for a viva.