My PLAB 1 experience

Hello!

I shall give a brief overview of the exam followed by describing how I studied for PLAB 1 and then how I suggest you should. Lastly, I’ll add some tips which you can apply to any MCQ type exam:

1. PLAB 1 (PROFESSIONAL and LINGUISTIC ASSESSMENTS BOARD)

a. Eligibility criteria:

o Acceptable overseas qualification: Check here(https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-the-register/before-you-apply/acceptable-overseas-qualifications/our-criteria-for-acceptable-overseas-qualifications)

o Knowledge of English: IELTS or OET. A score of 7.0 in IELTS in each section as well as overall (Aim for 7.5 if you would like to apply to standalone FY2 posts later)

b. Type: Offline Paper-based MCQ exam (Can answer with a pencil or ballpoint pen)(they may make it online due to the pandemic, please verify when you book it)

c. Duration: 3 hr

d. Number of questions: 180

e. Subjects: Everything in the PLAB Blueprint (https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-the-register/PLAB/PLAB-test-blueprint)

Basically, all subjects covered in MBBS plus Ethical scenarios.

f. Dates: March and November in India. (other dates available abroad).

So you can give it anytime during or after your Internship (for MBBS students from India)

g. Venue: For me, it was Sunville hotel, Worli, Mumbai.

h. Time: Afternoon (post-lunch)

i. What they provide you: a place for depositing belongings with a tag, water and stationery(pen, pencil, sharpener and eraser)

j. Target score: You score should cross the pass mark which varies with each batch. However, it is usually around 60-70%. So aim higher than that.

k. Cost: £239 from 1 April 2020. (approx. 20k)

l. How to register for it: Make an account on GMC Online and then book your test through it.

Click here to know more about GMC Online accounts

Click here to create a new account

Click here to log in to your GMC Online account

m. Number of attempts allowed: Four ( after 4 attempts, if you provide evidence of additional learning over a period of 1 year, the GMC may allow you to give a final attempt)

n. Anything else? Yes,…. NO NEGATIVE MARKING!

2. HOW I STUDIED:

a. My background: This is just to give a better understanding of my starting point for PLAB preparation. I started studying for NEET in 3rd year of MBBS and this went on till Internship. I did pretty well academically. I started studying specifically for PLAB only during my internship.

b. Time: I started around September 2018. I took it quite lightly, one subject a week even for the small subjects. Then I took a break to study and attempt IELTS. I had periphery PSM postings from December to Feb end and I even suffered a nasal bone fracture in the meanwhile. A week before my exam I was sitting outside the PSM department to get my provisional ICC and get done with all the documentation. All of this slowed down my studies as compared to if I was only studying the whole day. So I did get stressed in March before the exam.

c. Materials/Sources:

1. Oxford handbooks, especially those of Clinical Medicine and Foundation Programme, were my main go-to. But there are subject-wise books as well if you’d like to refer them while solving subject wise MCQs.

2. If doubts and further referencing Websites like www.nhs.uk, WebMD, Medscape, Radiopedia and GPnotebook, etc.

3. For selective topics, my old notes/compilations for MBBS and NEET.

4. MCQ book: I went by the common advice to “do the 1800s and that should be enough. No need to attend any paid classes”. The 1800s are actually a compilation of 1800 question asked in PLAB over the years made by students to help other students. They are free and available online but the biggest problem is that students are not always able to recollect questions/options correctly and the answers are also not verified (Tell me about trust issues!)

Anyway, there are many variations and compilations like ‘Khaled’s’, ‘Sush university’, ‘PLABOne’, etc which you may find either through friends or Facebook groups. I was given 2 of them by my friends, one was ‘Khaled’s’ which has detailed answers but is not subjectwise, and the other by ‘PLABOne’, which is subject wise but with short and sometimes incorrect answers.

So, I went with the subject wise one and used the resources mentioned above to verify the answers and read further on the common topics.

d. My method:

I was genuinely frustrated that there was nobody to guide me on how to use all these materials effectively. How much is too much or too little? How to work with Khaled’s collection as it was not subject-wise. How to schedule and plan around a random collection? How to assess my subject wise strength and weaknesses? All this was bothering me so I shifted track and used the PLABOne collection instead. But this meant I had to do a lot of cross-referencing because the answers were really short.

So if it helps you, I’ll outline how I studied for this exam.

This is the method I used after trying out a few other ways.

I took the subject-wise book and wrote down the number of pages besides each.

I divided them into big and small subjects. As we don’t know the subject-wise division of questions from a trusted source, I assumed that a larger number of questions over the years meant a bigger likelihood of being asked in the exam. So I planned and covered the bigger subjects first followed by the smaller ones.

Initially, as I was covering one subject a week I would anyway end up revisiting the topics throughout the week. Besides, I would revise every weekly and tried to do monthly as well.

Each page has about 4-5 questions on the left-hand side and answers on the right. I would solve all the questions on a page and then check the answers. I would mark the wrong/difficult questions and doubtful answers. So on for the rest of the subject. Intermittently, I used to refer to the oxford handbooks if I got something wrong/had a doubt/ or for a recurring topic. Then I would write the correct explanation or page no of OHCM/OHFP in the answer section. Once I figured out the common topics, I would read them completely from OHCM and make notes in another dedicated “notes” book with subject wise sections. I would add any references from websites to that book. There were few questions to which I could not find the answers to and some were incorrect for sure. So I was unable to figure out certain things/topics till the exam. But I was able to go through my notes a couple of times before the final date. The last week before the exam was mainly for revisions.

On the day of the exam, I woke up after a good night’s sleep (never did an all-nighter in my life). Made sure I had packed a print out of the confirmation email and my passport besides the other things. Tried to revise a bit to keep my mind from wandering. After a light lunch, I walked over to the centre which was luckily close by.

THE EXAM: On reaching the centre, we had to check our seating arrangement for which it’s best to keep the printout handy. They told us they won’t allow anything inside except the passport, confirmation email and a fruit/snack, so I was able to carry elaichi bananas. But the paper was so lengthy that I barely even looked at them. The questions weren’t short like those in the 1800s. It was usually an entire clinical scenario right from the presenting complaints to the drug history and investigation reports (with normal values in brackets beside them) followed by the question and 5 options. There were quite a few questions based on Ethics and pharmacology for which I felt a bit underprepared. I was surprised that they had included a smaller booklet for images such as ECG/clinical photograph as well. I hadn’t exactly prepared for image-based questions. Had I stayed limited to the 1800 book which had no images this would have been a nightmare. But luckily the images in OHCM and the various websites made it easy to crack these similar-looking images. Plus they had given enough additional information to guide towards the right answers.

Simply reading and understanding the scenario was taking too much time. When I checked my progress 30 min into the test I was severely lagging behind. At this rate, I would not be able to complete the test let alone get back to the difficult ones. So I had to change my strategy, instead of marking the answers one by one I started writing answers on the question paper itself. I set a calculated target of solving at least 30 questions in 30 min before I take a break to mark those on the OMR sheet. Speed was improving since I didn’t have to shuffle between the sheets. Another thing that helped was a tip given by one of the Sirs at my NEET classes “when the question is lengthy, quickly read the last line of the question first and see if you can eliminate anything at a glance before reading the question in a targeted manner”. This really helped to gain up. However, there was never a moment I thought I could relax and take a break. Was it just me? Because I saw a lot of people had time for washroom breaks etc. And here I was trying to save every second. Once I got to the end I had about 10 min to go back to the tough ones. I made sure I hadn’t left any question unmarked because there’s no negative marking. Finally, the ordeal was over.

Someone who gave the exam with me had made the error of marking all answers on the question paper and wasn’t able to transfer them to the answer sheet. Even after much pleading, the invigilator wasn’t able to give extra time to him. People also dared to try cheating here as well. They got caught and their phones were confiscated. As we got out, I overheard friends talking amongst themselves and nobody was totally confident about it. They were mentioning some new sources and classes I hadn’t even heard of so far. I felt so ignorant and embarrassed at the moment. I thought I hadn’t worked hard enough like these guys and it was obvious why I didn’t feel great after the test. For those who think people always say they’ll fail but end up as the topper, I am not one of those. I have a fairly accurate idea about my performance (No drama) I wasn’t used to feeling so odd after a test. Anyway, what could be done now? So I collected my belongings and headed home to get ready for the batch party that night. MBBS had come to an end and our interns batch had our last (and first) party at the clubs in Bandra side. That was sufficient distraction from the exam after-thoughts. Work hard party harder ;-)

3. MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW YOU SHOULD STUDY:

So there are a few additional materials/sources, I think I could have made use of retrospectively.

o PLABABLE question bank and test: The most commonly used one these days. Quite reliable as per reviews from friends. (I am not sponsored by anyone) You can use any question bank and test series. I am just mentioning the one I’ve heard of.

One of my friends used it. As per what she told me, Anatomy might need extra reading and one should aim to give about 10-15 mocks with a minimum target of 70-80%.

Medrevisions and Plabverse also seem to be frequently used these days.

o Online Mock tests: Can’t stress this one enough! Please try to give mock tests! I do so because I fell short of time in the end and I had trust issues with the free ones as well. However, there are some really good ones that you could use.

o Check out the Sample questions on GMC’s PLAB site, they are a better representation of the actual questions in the exam than the 1800s because the PLAB is changing towards UKMLA pattern. UKMLA will be implemented from 2023 as per my knowledge. (https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-the-register/PLAB/PLAB-1-guide/sample-questions)

o SOCIAL MEDIA GROUPS: Lots of PLAB 1 preparation groups on Facebook and telegram. I had joined a few on Facebook but I mostly ignored them unless they gave answers with a reference to their source. I generally ignore social media sites during exams preparation but if you are comfortable with them you could give them a try. Quite a few people I met later told me they knew each other through the PLAB 1 Warriors(preparation) group on telegram. I haven’t used it but they said it was quite helpful. See if that helps you, but be wary of advertising gimmicks on these sites. What I mean is there are agents who pose as students and try to propagate false ideas about classes for PLAB 2 to build their consumer base.

Please note: I haven’t used them personally, so I can neither give a detailed review for each nor recommend them, other than the GMC’s sample questions. If you've used any of the above and would like to review it in the comments below, that'd be much appreciated and helpful to fellow doctors.

4. EXTRA TIPS:

· Time Management: You’ll barely get a min for each question. Hence, time your question-solving sessions and mock tests accordingly. Make sure to leave extra time towards the end for rechecking if all answers are marked and revisiting the difficult questions. Practice with a timer.

· Get used to concentrating for 3 hours: If your exam is scheduled in the afternoon, the post-lunch drowsiness can take a toll. Hence, get used to giving mock tests for continuous 3 hours in the afternoon. Although you can take a snack or washroom break in the actual exam, it’s better to prepare like you won’t get one.

· Marking the OMR sheet: Probably it’s the most important thing you’ll do that day. Even if you know all the answers, if you mark the OMR sheet in a haste, chances are you’ll lose marks because you marked the wrong option. Since we are so used to working with the laptop and even give our mocks online, we may make errors in marking on OMR sheet especially when we are skipping a question. When we mark a question as difficult or to be dealt with later we must duly skip it on the answer sheet as well otherwise we may serially mark wrong answers on the sheet only to realise it much later in the test.

· Revisions: Very often we are in a hurry to complete the sections of our syllabus and often leave the revisions to the end. But, I say anything that isn’t revised is as good as forgotten. Try to revise a small portion daily, if not then at least every 3 days or weekly.

· Stick to one or two resources and add any new information to it for quick revisions.

· Keep your spirits high: Take breaks during studying, watch a movie or go for a stroll. Don’t burnout before the exam. I believe success doesn’t bring happiness, it’s the happy people who succeed.

· Don’t compare yourself with others as everyone has a different way of preparing and the majority pass the exam. There are more than one ways to crack this exam.

· Believe in yourself: After my exam, most candidates were disappointed with their performance. I actually thought I would fail as I found out about PLABbable etc later on and thought hadn’t studied enough. But when the results were out, I passed with a good score (not that it matters eventually). Just do your best and leave it to God.

5. WHAT SHOULD I DO UNTIL THE RESULTS ARE DECLARED?

o Just relax for a while. Take a break and do whatever it takes to rejuvenate yourself. I took a trip to Bogmalo beach, Goa.

o After you feel refreshed start thinking about your PLAB 2 date and classes if you haven’t already planned it out. Sometimes, classes don’t declare their schedule in advance and you may be unsure about the PLAB 2 date and which class to join. Please note that it is not at all mandatory to join classes for this. However, they give an orientation and it’s easier to form a study group with people who come together for exams near the same date. If you choose to attend a class, plan in a way that you have about 4 to 6 weeks between the end of your classes to your exam. (More about this in my post on PLAB 2).

o If you don’t have a Visa or are yet to apply, this is a good time to collect and arrange your documents so that you can book that Visa application slot once your PLAB 2 date is confirmed. (Will be posting about the Visa soon).

Hope you find it useful! All the best for your exams! :)