Sample Questions

It has long been shown that the Mediterranean diet is the preeminent nutritional blueprint for lasting health. Unlike the conventional high sugar-and-salt western diets consisting of predominantly processed meats and refined carbohydrates, the Mediterranean diet is founded upon the principles of daily fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, low red meat ingestion and consuming moderate amounts of alcohol whilst entirely avoiding dairy produce. Exercise is also taking more frequently and there is a greater average time spent outdoors and within natural sunlight. In 2014, a longitudinal study conducted at the University of Cambridge found that diet could be used as a key indicator into predicting the prevalence of certain diseases across specific populations. The hope is that dietary interventions can therefore be used as a preventative option to increase the baseline health of those populations. When all other external factors had been mitigated and modelled against, the researchers found that Mediterranean populations were 80% less likely to develop bowel cancer, 40% less likely to develop colon cancer and were 30% less likely to experience a stroke. Conversely, they also found Mediterranean populations had a higher incidence of breast cancer and skin cancer, the latter possibly an entailment of their relatively increased sun exposure. Parent-groups have since campaigned for a return to free and daily milk allowances to be made available in schools, as well as healthier school meals and the ready availability of subsidised organic fruit. UK Government health ministers have promised that compulsory changes to school nutrition will occur but that ministers are still currently in the preparatory and planning stage of this reform, and so no immediate nor imminent changes should be expected.

Sunlight exposure is a risk factor for developing skin cancer.

The 1914 Giro D’Italia is widely regarded in cycling communities as the toughest ‘grand tour’ ever held. Uniquely, race director, Armando Cougnet set out to specifically design a race in which ideally only one rider would finish. The points system of scoring – wherein the winner of each stage was awarded points which would then be tallied up to decide the overall winner at the end of the race – was abandoned in favour of overall time classification, a template which still exists in tour cycling to present day.

81 riders set out at midnight on the 24th May, riding the first 420 km stage from Milan to Cuneo. They were a mishmashed collection of professionals, sponsored club riders and amateurs, each chasing recognition, glory and the financial spoils of victory. Two weeks, 4 rest days and 8 individual stages later (of which the first stage was the 3rd longest in cycling history), only 8 returned. The winner was Alfonso Calzolari, who had ridden the 3162 km distance in a total time of 135 hours and 18 minutes. The youngest rider, Umberto Ripamonti, was a 19-year-old amateur who only entered as he was crushingly poor and hoped to be fed by the race organisers and sympathetic roadside cycling fans. He had to borrow a bike to participate, but also remarkably made it to the finish line. 

Whilst the race was entertaining for viewers and reporters, sponsors and riders were left unimpressed by the high retirement rate and consequential lack of individual exposure. As such, this was the last race to feature such few and lengthy stages. When the race resumed again in 1919, following the resolution of World War I, the route remained but was now staggered across 12 individual stages. Costante Giradengo won with a total time of 112 hours and 52 minutes.

Which statement does this passage best support?

The above Venn diagram shows the sporting preferences of a number of students in a school.

Which of the following is true?

All Keelps are Klops. Not all Klops that can fizz are Keelps. Some Klops can fizz. All Keelps can fizz. Not all things that fizz are Klops.

Which of the following represents this?

Which set does the below belong to?

Which set does the below shape belong to?

 In April there are five Mondays. Considering only Mondays, what is the approximate probability of it raining on just the first Monday of the month?

A football pitch is 200m by 75m. The goals are positioned on the shorter sides of the pitch and are ten meters wide. The lengthwise midpoint of the goals is the same as the midpoint of the side of the pitch. The only lines on the pitch are the ones that can be seen in the diagram above.

The centre circle is placed in the middle of the pitch and an equal distance from the top and the bottom of the pitch, as well as an equal distance from the sides of the pitch.

A football match is composed of two 45 minute halves and a fifteen minute break in between.

Two linesmen run the length of the pitch during the game, one on each side. During half time, they swap sides and run from the one corner of the pitch to the diagonally opposite corner. One linesman runs 20 lengths of the pitch in the first half, then 15 lengths in the second. The other runs 15 lengths in the first half and 16 lengths in the second.

What is the approximate average speed of both linesmen over the course of the entire match?

You are a junior doctor and enter your ward one morning to overhear a consultant shouting at one of his elderly patients in the side-room. His tone is very confrontational. The patient is confused and struggling to understand what the consultant is saying.

Please rate how appropriate is the following course of action:

‘Wait for a more senior colleague to arrive to mention what you have heard to them..’

You are a new FY1 doctor on a busy ward round and receive a bleep from the pathology lab about a strange blood biochemistry result. You have not seen such a result before and are unsure of how to manage the patient.

Please rate how appropriate the following response would be:

Prescribe the most obvious medication you think might work.