PLAB 1 Preparation and Resources

Overview of the exam:

PLAB 1 is a written exam made up of 180 multiple choice questions which you must answer within three hours, so 1 min for every question. Each starts with a short scenario followed by a question. You need to choose the right answer out of the five possible answers given. The PLAB blueprint sets out the scope and content of the test.

The resources:

As a general rule, your main resources for the PLAB 1 exam are the questions bank. The notes and references books are supplementary.

We divided the resources into three categories: Question banks, Notes and References.

The two essential preparation tests are the 1700 questions and Plabable. These provide questions and explanations that are essential to build the stamina and knowledge needed for the exam:

1. PLABABLE is one of the best materials for the preparation of the PLAB 1 exam, user friendly, organized and accurate.

2. Another resource is the 1700 Questions. This is a QBank from the past PLAB 1 tests. This pool of questions has been studied a lot by Plabbers and some of them has organized the questions according to their own need, with their own explanations. The first one is titled THE Latest UNCATEGORIZED 1700s explained by Dr. Khalid Saifullah (August 2018 edition). You can also find a categorized version which has the same questions and explanations as above, just divided into pertinent sections, titled THE CATEGORIZED 1700s PLABZILLAS.

3. Mocks are practice tests you can do to judge your preparation before the exam. Try to assess yourself at the end of your preparation. Take as many mock tests as you can, putting yourself in an exam hall scenario, timing yourself and all. These test can be found for free in the file section of some the PLAB based Facebook pages such as PLAB, PLAB Forum, Dr. Khalid's PLAB 1 discussion forum, PLAB Part 1 Preparation forum, PLAB for Bangladeshi Doctors.

The general information tested in the PLAB 1 exam are summaries into notebook for reviewing the important topics. The best summaries are: Samsons notes for PLABS, Plab1keys, Notes For PLAB 1. Try to stick to one notebook so not to be overwhelmed.

For a final rapid review, you can use CLINCHERS. These are condensed information for rapid review.

Sometimes the explanations or notebooks won't satisfy your curiosity or clarify the question. That's where the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine and Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties come in. It's not necessary to know everything from these books. But if you can grow the habit of looking up the question related topics, then by the end of your prep, you will see you've read a lot of this book. These should be only the ultimate reference book when you are stuck with a question. Use free materials like Patient Info or NICE guidelines if you still have doubts.

Preparation:

As I have mentioned earlier, targeted studying based on qbank solving should be the way to prepare. Ideally it shouldn't take more than one and a half months for anyone to finish preparing thoroughly the first time. If the first time it took you 1.5 months, you can basically repeat it for the second time in <1 month. And a third time, even less as you should make the habit of reviewing the marked questions. After the qbanks are done, you should do mock exams which will enable you to judge how you perform. But remember, the mocks are NOT the predictor of the real exam. The questions in the mocks are smaller in size than the real exam, it's just for the practice of sitting at one place and solving questions in a row.

Different people have different paces of studying, so it varies from person to person with the general preparation time between 1.5 and 2 months.

Here is a summary of how to prepare:

1. Download the 1700 Qbank and other related materials

2. Set a target of questions per day: It proportionally depends on how many days you are taking for the preparation.

3. Mark the questions you think need reviewing.

4. Look up the references.

5. Attempt as many mock tests.

6. Keep reviewing your marked questions.

So basically, practice, practice, practice.