Introducing the new Pastest PACES experience

The new PACES resource will be live to users during the week of 17 August 2026.

What's changed?
How the new PACES product works
Notes alongside your revision
Quiz questions within Cases
New Insights section
Why we've rebuilt PACES
What happens to my progress from the old PACES product?
Accessing the old PACES product
Which version should I use?

We’ve rebuilt our PACES product to give you a clearer, more flexible and more measurable way to prepare for the clinical exam.

The new experience brings your PACES learning materials together in one place, with improved navigation, better progress tracking, integrated note-taking and more opportunities to test your knowledge as you work through cases.

Whether you’re revising clinical signs, working through patient cases, reviewing teaching content or using flashcards for quick recall, the new PACES product is designed to make your revision feel more connected and easier to manage.

What’s changed?

The new PACES product has been designed around how candidates actually prepare for the exam: moving between clinical knowledge, patient scenarios, visual recognition, note-taking and self-testing.

The main changes are:

• Teaching cases, patient cases, spot diagnosis and flashcards are now available from a single side panel.
• You can move between different PACES resources while continuing to make notes in the main screen.
• Most cases now include quiz questions to help test and reinforce your knowledge.
• A new Insights section lets you monitor your progress and performance station by station.
• Performance and progress tracking has been improved, giving you a clearer sense of how your revision is going.
• The product has been rebuilt as a brand new PACES experience, rather than being a continuation of the old version.

How the new PACES product works

When you open the new PACES product, your core learning resources are organised into a side panel. This makes it easier to move between different types of PACES revision without losing your place or constantly navigating away from your main workspace.

From the side panel, you can access:

Teaching cases

Teaching cases are designed to help you understand the clinical knowledge, examination approach and reasoning needed for PACES-style scenarios.

They help you review important conditions, recognise relevant findings, consider differentials and prepare for the types of discussion points that may come up in the exam.

Patient cases

Patient cases allow you to apply your knowledge in a more exam-focused way.

These cases are designed to support clinical reasoning and help you practise thinking through presentations in a structured way, similar to how you may need to approach cases in PACES.

The usual Case Extras such as images, sounds and examiner documents have been retained, as well as the topic summaries and top tips. We've also added a short quiz section where you can guess the diagnosis and test your related knowledge, along with 3D images where applicable.

Spot diagnosis

Spot diagnosis helps you practise recognising important clinical signs, conditions and visual presentations.

This is useful for building confidence with pattern recognition and improving your ability to identify key findings quickly.

Flashcards

Flashcards provide short-form recall practice, helping you revise important facts, differentials, investigations, management points and other exam-relevant knowledge.

They are useful for quick revision sessions and for reinforcing topics you have already studied in more depth.

Notes alongside your revision

One of the biggest improvements in the new PACES product is the ability to keep your notes available in the main screen body while using the learning resources in the side panel.

This means you can review a case, check related teaching content, practise with flashcards or move into spot diagnosis while continuing to build your own revision notes in one place.

This should make it easier to keep track of what you’ve learned, capture useful reminders and create a more personalised revision record as you work through the product.

Quiz questions within cases

Most cases now include quiz questions to help you test your understanding as you revise.

This means you are not only reading through content passively. Instead, you can regularly check your knowledge, reinforce key learning points and identify areas where you may need to spend more time.

These questions also help make your progress and performance data more useful, because your activity reflects how well you are engaging with and understanding the material.

New Insights section

We’ve also introduced a new Insights section to give you a clearer view of your PACES preparation.

Insights allows you to monitor your progress and performance across the product, including how you are doing station by station. Clinical exams aren't like written exams, with scores compared to pass marks, so the scoring here is just to give an indication of progress and where you are doing well/may need to improve.

The section is designed to help you answer questions such as:

• How many Cases have I completed?
• Which PACES stations have I focused on most?
• Where am I performing well?
• Which areas may need more attention?

By combining case activity, quiz performance and station-by-station progress, Insights gives you a more meaningful picture of your exam readiness.

This should help you revise more strategically, rather than simply working through content without a clear view of your strengths and weaker areas.

Why we’ve rebuilt PACES

PACES preparation is different from written exam revision. It requires clinical knowledge, examination technique, communication skills, pattern recognition and structured thinking.

We’ve rebuilt the PACES product to better support this style of preparation.

The new experience is designed to make it easier to:

• Move between different types of PACES revision.
• Keep notes while studying.
• Test your knowledge as you work through cases.
• Track your progress more meaningfully.
• Understand your performance across each PACES station.

Our aim is to give you a more joined-up revision experience, helping you prepare with greater focus and confidence.

What happens to my progress from the old PACES product?

Because this is a brand new PACES product, progress from the old PACES product will not be carried over.

We understand that some users may have been using the previous version for some time, and that it may be important to keep access for a short period, particularly if you are close to an exam or preparing for a resit.

If you need to remain on the old PACES product temporarily, you can reactivate your access from the Manage Exams page in your account.

Accessing the old PACES product

To reactivate access to the old PACES product:

1. Go to Manage Exams in your Pastest account.
2. Find your old PACES product.
3. Select the option to Reactivate your access.
4. Following the purchase you can continue using the old product for the available transition period.

This option is intended to support users who need short-term continuity during the transition to the new PACES experience.

Please note that the old PACES product will be phased out by the end of 2026.

Which version should I use?

We recommend using the new PACES product for your ongoing revision.

The new version gives you access to the rebuilt learning experience, including the side panel, improved notes experience, quiz questions within most cases, better progress tracking and the new Insights section.

The old product will remain available only for a limited transition period and will be fully phased out by the end of 2026.

Summary

The new Pastest PACES product gives you a more connected, flexible and measurable way to prepare for the clinical exam.

You can now access teaching cases, patient cases, spot diagnosis and flashcards from a single side panel, while continuing to make notes in the main screen. Most cases include quiz questions to help test your knowledge, and the new Insights section allows you to monitor your progress and performance station by station.

As this is a brand new product, previous progress from the old PACES product will not be transferred. However, if you need temporary access to the old version, you can reactivate it from the Manage Exams page for a short period of time.

The old PACES product will be phased out by the end of 2026, so we recommend moving to the new PACES experience for your ongoing revision.