NPMCN Primary study guide
NPMCN Primary · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The NPMCN Primary Examination is the entry gate to postgraduate specialist training under the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. It is sat by medical graduates who already hold a recognised MBBS (or equivalent) and who intend to pursue fellowship training in a clinical or laboratory specialty. The NPMCN Primary study guide has 10 sections and about 2,938 words.
01Anatomy: applied relations, embryology and lesion localisation
Anatomy at NPMCN Primary level is applied rather than purely descriptive: you must name structures, their relations, their embryological origin and the clinical deficit produced when they fail. Recurring areas are the brachial and lumbosacral plexuses, the femoral and inguinal regions, the mediastinum, the pharyngeal arches and the cranial nerves.
364 words, about 2 min02Physiology: mechanisms, transport and integrated control
Physiology is examined as mechanism, not vocabulary: how the membrane potential is generated, how cardiac output is regulated, how the kidney handles sodium and water, how gas exchange and acid–base control work, and how endocrine feedback loops behave. Uptake of a substance equals blood flow multiplied by the arteriovenous concentration difference.
312 words, about 2 min03Biochemistry: kinetics, cofactors and metabolic logic
Biochemistry questions cluster around enzyme kinetics, the pathways that generate and store energy, cofactor–vitamin relationships, nitrogen disposal, nucleotide and lipid metabolism, and the molecular biology of replication, transcription and translation. At [S] = Km the velocity is half Vmax; a low Km means high affinity.
295 words, about 1 min04Pathology: injury, inflammation, neoplasia and body fluids
General pathology covers cell injury and death, inflammation and repair, haemodynamics, neoplasia and immunopathology; systemic pathology applies these to organ systems. The exam favours mechanism and clinicopathological correlation over lists.
278 words, about 1 min05Pharmacology: pharmacokinetics, dosing and receptor logic
Pharmacology is examined through pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination), pharmacodynamics (receptors, dose–response, agonism and antagonism), autonomic pharmacology, antimicrobials and major adverse effects. Volume of distribution is Vd = dose/concentration; it describes distribution, not a real anatomical space.
282 words, about 1 min06Microbiology and Immunology: organisms, mechanisms and hypersensitivity
Expect bacterial structure and staining, culture and sterilisation, mechanisms of antibiotics, viral replication, mycology, parasitology, and the innate and adaptive immune responses including hypersensitivity and vaccines. Gram stain separates organisms with a thick peptidoglycan layer (Gram positive, purple) from those with a thin layer and an outer membrane (Gram negative, pink).
300 words, about 2 min07Community Medicine and Epidemiology: measuring risk in populations
This domain tests epidemiology (measures of disease frequency and association, study designs, bias, outbreak investigation), screening, health services and primary health care, environmental and occupational health, and maternal and child health programmes. Incidence measures new cases per population at risk per unit time; prevalence measures all existing cases.
273 words, about 1 min08Behavioural Sciences and Medical Ethics: capacity, consent and confidentiality
The paper tests human development and behaviour, learning and memory, personality, stress and coping, the doctor–patient relationship, and the ethical and legal framework of Nigerian practice. Four principles: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice.
252 words, about 1 min09Clinical Methods: systematic assessment and bedside interpretation
This paper tests systematic history taking, physical examination, interpretation of common bedside investigations (ECG, chest radiograph, arterial blood gas, urinalysis) and clinical reasoning. Sequence: history, then general examination, then systemic examination, then investigations - each step should be hypothesis-driven.
277 words, about 1 min10Medical Statistics: inference, error and critical appraisal
Medical statistics tests data types, descriptive measures, sampling and distributions, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, choice of statistical test, study design and critical appraisal. Data type determines the test: categorical data use chi-square or Fisher's exact test; continuous normally distributed data use t-tests or ANOVA; non-normal data use Mann–Whitney or Kruskal–Wallis.
305 words, about 2 min