Category: Radiology

What is EDiR (European Diploma in Radiology)?
The European Diploma in Radiology (EDiR) is a prestigious qualification of excellence, and it serves as a tool for the standardization and accreditation of radiologists across European borders. EDiR is awarded after passing a one day examination.

Where can you take the exam?
You can check out the locations and exam dates on the EDiR Website?

Who can take the exam?
Board certified radiologists and radiology residents in their fifth year of training. You have to provide a proof of this.

What are the other requirements?
Full membership of the ESR in the year of the examination.
Active membership of your national radiological society in the year of the examination (e.g. DRG in Germany).

How much does the exam cost? (as of 02.2025)
500 Euros for full ESR members and ESR members in training.
1100 Euros for corresponding ESR members.

How is the exam structured?
It is a one day exam consisting of three parts. Each part takes 90 minutes to complete.
78 MRQs (Multiple Response Questions)
24 SCs (Short Cases)
10 CORE (Clinically Oriented Reasoning Evaluation) Cases

Which resources to use?
Crack the Core Exam (CtC) Book
is a very good book for the written part (MRQs and SCs). You have to read this at least twice cover to cover. The weakness of the book is that it lacks comprehensive images of pathologies. The EDiR exam is extremely clinically oriented and image-based. For example you read about von Hippel Lindau syndrome and you know all the criteria by heart. In the exam you will get an image of an endolymphatic sac tumor, and you have to deduce that the patient has von Hippel Lindau syndrome. If you haven’t seen an image of this pathology you won’t recognize it just by reading about it in the Crack the Core book. The best approach is read the book once as a PDF on your tablet or PC. If any pathology is missing images, then find an image of it on Radiopaedia and add it to the PDF so that you have an image-heavy version of the book the second time you review it. You can also strike through any text in the book that is a joke or useless divergence from the author.

Auntminnie.com
You have to go through the board review images of this website. It contains the need to know pathologies of each subspecialty of radiology and you have excellent images and examples of those.

EDiR Website
There are a few free exam question examples on the EDiR website. There are a lot of paid options too. Do as much as you can afford. It helps you to familiarize yourself with the exam structure.

EDiR Essentials Book
There are two versions of this book published by Springer. Each contains mock exams divided by subspecialty with explanations. You can find the books for free by doing a google search or you can buy them.

EDiR Simulation and Mock Exams
If you register for the EDiR exam and there is a date for a EDiR Simulation before your exam you will get free access to this simulation and you can see how the exam really is under time pressure. You will get real exam scores and feedback. If you haven’t registered for the EDiR exam you can pay for a simulation exam which is about 120 Euros in order to learn your current level and knowledge gaps before the exam. Everybody registering for the EDiR exam will also get a mock exam 1-2 weeks before his exam date to review his knowledge and do last minute reading in the areas of his knowledge gaps and weaknesses.

NB: I did all the free and paid questions on the EDiR website. I read the first version of their book. I also did a simulation and a mock exam. In my opinion the real exam is more difficult than all of them. So don’t get fooled if you do well on theses. Read the CtC book 2-3 times so that you are well prepared.

Exam results
You will get the exam results exactly 27 calendar days after the examination date. Your certificate will be sent to you in the few days after that.

What is FRCR?

FRCR stands for Fellow of Royal College of Radiology. The FRCR Exam is a three-step examination conducted by the Royal College of Radiologists (UK) after which the candidate is inducted as a Fellow of the RCR.

What does the anatomy exam look like?

It is a 90 minute-long computer-based exam consisting of 100 questions. Each question consists of single image and an arrow pointing to a structure. More than 80-85% of the questions will be (what is the arrowed structure?). Some questions will be (what is the normal variant?) and some will test you on a specific anatomic detail (e.g. what structure attaches here?). There is no negative marking, so try to answer all of the questions. If uncertain then guess.

What imaging modality will be tested?

Almost all imaging modalities are included within. Cross-sectional (e.g. CT, MRI) and non cross-sectional (x-ray, ultrasound, DSA). Sometimes volume rendered images and even exotic diagnostic imaging modalities (e.g. dacryocystography) will be tested. But no nuclear medicine is tested.

Is is difficult to pass?

Not really. The level of detail that is required, is aimed at general radiologists. Structures that are clinically relevant will be tested the most. Basically the bread and butter of what you need in your daily reporting. It is not aimed at at anatomists.

What resources I used?

Radiology Café. They have 18 free mock exams. That is 1800 images. I did them all. Any image I got wrong, I copied it into a powerpoint presentation so that I can review it later. If you can master these images, you can pass the exam. These will also teach you what level of detail is required for the exam. Don’t forget to do the section on normal anatomical variants.

Virtual Preparatory Course for FRCR Part 1 Examination, University of Bolton. This is an online 2-day course on anatomy and physics. The physics part isn’t comprehensive enough. Because you can’t fit physics into one day. But the anatomy part was genius. It had very well prepared slides, tips and tricks. I would 100% recommend doing the anatomy part of this course.

Youtube. If you find the anatomy of a certain body part challenging (e.g. tendons of the ankle joint, skull base foramina..etc), just look at a couple of videos of it on youtube. It is invaluable.

Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy from Weir and Abraham’s. If you want to learn the anatomy of a certain body part and don’t have time to look at a 30 minute video. This book has everything you need. The level of detail is sometimes more than what is required to pass the exam. Now and then you might get the feeling that a structure pointed out in this book isn’t really clear and could be interpreted to mean a couple of different structures. That is fine. The exam will be very clear on which structure they point to. There will be no confusion about a structure. Even if a structure is a little vague in the exam (e.g. external iliac artery vs. common femoral artery) both answers will be accepted.

Radiological Anatomy for FRCR Part 1 by Philip Borg et al. This also has some great mock exams and anatomic variants. In addition it will give you great tips and mnemonics to remember important anatomic details. Do it if you have time.

Exam experience

I sat the exam in London. There are two venus in London. The RCR and Imparando. I did mine at Imparando. 50 exam candidates in total. I had to be present at the venue 1 hour before the start of the exam. The software interface is identical to the demo shown on the RCR-website. You can bring review materials with you and use them until 30 minutes or so before the exam. Then everything must be put away. No electronics. No paper, pencil or pen allowed.

I attempted all the questions as quickly as possible, marking the ones I wasn’t sure about. This took about 45 minutes. I reviewed all the questions, especially the marked ones in the remaining 45 minutes. We were not allowed the exit the exam hall until the time was up.

Results

The results were sent out per email exactly 3 weeks after the exam date. I passed on the first attempt. The pass mark for my group was 132. I got a score of 172.

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