PLAB exams are a key part of becoming a licensed UK doctor for most IMGs. Dr Aman Arora from Arora Medical Education has some top tips to help you succeed with PLAB 1.

What is PLAB?

PLAB is the Professional Linguistic Assessment Board exam, which is made up of two parts: PLAB 1 and PLAB 2. The PLAB exam is necessary for any doctor who has not graduated from Switzerland or an EEA medical school. After passing PLAB, you are  eligible to apply for a GMC licence, which is mandatory for any doctor who wishes to practise clinical medicine in the UK.

What is the PLAB 1 exam?

PLAB 1 is a written assessment, made up of 180 multiple choice questions assessing your clinical knowledge. You have three hours to complete the assessment, which means you have approximately one minute to answer each question. PLAB 1 can be taken in multiple countries at approved assessment centres. More information about your nearest assessment centre and eligibility criteria can be found on the GMC website. It is important to note that you cannot book PLAB 2 until you have passed PLAB 1.

Tip 1: Break down your revision into manageable chunks

PLAB 1 assesses your clinical knowledge to ensure you have the same knowledge as a Foundation Year 2 doctor (SHO) on their first day in the NHS. The clinical areas you need to learn can be found in the GMC PLAB blueprint, which covers a vast number of clinical topics. It is therefore worth breaking down your revision into manageable chunks to ensure you cover all these topics before the exam. Good resources to review whilst revising these clinical areas are the NICE CKS guidelines website, the BNF, and the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. These will provide you with up-to-date medical guidelines and management for UK medicine.

Tip 2: Put time aside to work on your exam technique

Many PLAB 1 candidates use question banks to prepare for the exam, rather than learning the clinical guidelines. The advantage of this approach is that you can practise timing your speed in answering questions, as well as using the explanations to learn a clinical topic. The disadvantage is that by using one question bank your mind becomes trained to answer a certain question bank style, ie you may remember the answers to certain questions – so you are not really refining your exam technique. PLAB 1 is very much a written assessment, so it is vital you put time aside to work on your exam technique. The best way to tackle this is to maybe do different question banks or mock exams, which ensure you cover a range of clinical topics in similar time constraints to the exam. This way your mind becomes trained to answer different question styles and ensures you become confident answering 180 questions in 180 minutes.

Tip 3: Form a study group

We all live busy lives as doctors, so it becomes difficult to find time for revision. By forming study groups, you can present clinical topics to one another and practise questions together. This ensures you are committed to a fixed revision time on a regular basis, as well as having the added benefit of helping you retain information better. We often learn better when we have to teach a topic or discuss it with colleagues.

Tip 4: Work on your weak areas first

It's natural to start revising the topics or trying questions in areas we are most comfortable doing so, as it gives us a confidence boost, as well as making us feel productive. However, by focusing on our weak areas, which may be something such as medical ethics, we are more likely to score better in the exam. This is because we have taken time to revise these topics and are more confident answering these questions as well as those that we are naturally more confident in answering.

Tip 5: Use all the free resources

The whole PLAB process can be an expensive journey, so you may have limited resources. Many candidates choose to buy revision bundles and packages as the hard work is done for them and they can revise everything in one place, but if finance is an issue, it does not necessarily mean you are at a disadvantage. There are plenty of free resources to help you with revision on social media and run by various companies, eg webinars, YouTube videos on clinical topics, free sample questions on websites, and on Facebook groups etc. Take time out to look at these to further aid your revision.

Overall PLAB 1 is not a hard exam, but with the wrong mindset and poor preparation the whole process can become complicated. Take your time to plan revision, use the resources available, and remember to focus on knowledge and exam technique to pass the exam comfortably. I wish you all the best for your exam.

Videos that may help

3 things to focus on to pass PLAB 1

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