plab question bank Archives

May 6, 2024December 30, 2024

PLAB Guide 2025

Are you a medical student or doctor seeking opportunities in the UK? The Professional and Linguistics Assessment Board, PLAB, is your ticket to making that dream come true. By taking the PLAB exams, you prove that you have the medical and communication skills required for a doctor hoping to practice medicine in the UK.

PLAB consists of two parts: PLAB 1, a written exam, and PLAB 2, a more practical assessment of your medical knowledge. Just like every medical exam, PLAB can appear daunting, and it doesn’t help that there is so much to know about the exam and so much to prepare for. However, in this article, we’ll be offering a comprehensive guide that will provide you with all the information you need.

Is PLAB Being Replaced With MLA?

For years now, aspiring doctors within and outside the UK have been required to take PLAB before obtaining a medical license. However, the General Medical Council, GMC, introduced a new assessment program, the Medical Licensing Assessment, MLA or UKMLA. With this new assessment in place, all medical students graduating from UK universities are required to take MLA as part of their degree before they can join the medical register. The case is slightly different for international doctors or medical students who hope to practice in the UK.

For foreigners, instead of changing the entire assessment program from PLAB to MLA, the GMC proposed that the PLAB syllabus and requirements become compliant with MLA. So, international applicants will not take MLA but will continue with PLAB, with just a few modifications. This way, both international and UK-trained doctors are assessed based on the same topics and requirements.

So, starting in 2024, the PLAB blueprint will be replaced by the MLA content map. All PLAB 1 tests sat for on and after August 8th, 2024, will be based on the MLA content map, as will all the PLAB 2 tests taken on and after May 17th, 2024.

Click here to find out more about the MLA content map.

What is the PLAB Exam Pattern?

As mentioned above, the PLAB exam is divided into two categories. PLAB 1 is a written multiple-choice exam that consists of 180 questions. The time allotted to this section is 3 hours, and for each question, a short scenario will be painted, followed by a question and five possible options, of which you’ll be required to pick the best answer.

The questions are centered around a wide range of medical topics related to current best practices in the UK. This part of the exam is designed to assess your ability to apply your knowledge to the care of patients. You can see a more detailed breakdown of the questions in our PLAB 1 question bank.

Overall, you’d find that these questions test you under the following domains:

Knowledge, skills, and performance
Safety and Quality
Communication, partnership, and teamwork
Maintenance of trust with the patient

PLAB 1 also tests your medical knowledge under the following categories:

Basic Sciences – i.e., human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, and pathology.
Clinical Sciences – i.e., communication skills, medical ethics, and medical law.
Applied Clinical Sciences – i.e., general practice, specialized medicine, etc. This section assesses your theoretical ability to diagnose, manage, and treat patients in various clinical settings.

PLAB 2 is slightly different. It is a practical objective structured clinical examination, OSCE, which is meant to assess your ability to offer quality medical care in a real-life scenario. You will be presented with 16 scenarios, each lasting eight minutes. These scenarios may be presented in an acute ward or mock consultation. Check out our PLAB 2 question bank to get familiar with past questions.

Both exams are taken separately on different dates, but you need to pass both before being eligible to join the UK medical register.

What are the Requirements for PLAB?

To register for the PLAB exams, you must meet a few essential requirements:

Proof of Medical Degree: You must provide evidence of your medical degree from a recognized medical school. If you’re still studying, you need to submit proof of your current status as a medical student at a recognized institution.
English Proficiency: For non-native English speakers, evidence of your English proficiency is required. This can be demonstrated through exams like IELTS or OET.

For more details about the specific eligibility criteria and documents you need to submit, refer to the official GMC website.

What Are the Dates for the PLAB Exam in 2025?

There are scheduled dates for both PLAB 1 and PLAB 2 throughout the year, and the GMC holds these exams in several locations across the UK and at some overseas locations.

Here are the scheduled dates for PLAB 1 in 2025:

13th February 2025
22nd May 2025
7th August 2025
6th November 2025

Find more about the exam locations here.

PLAB 2 exams are held throughout the year, so you can schedule a date once you’ve gotten your PLAB 1 results. You are advised to schedule a date as early as possible because the demand for PLAB 2 is higher, and the exam is held in only 2 locations, both in Manchester. Click here to find out more about the location of the two clinical assessment centers.

How Much Do Both PLAB Exams Cost?

PLAB exams are a significant financial commitment, so it’s essential to be aware of the fees:

PLAB 1: From April 1, 2025, the fee will be £268.
PLAB 2: From April 1, 2025, the fee will be £981.

Cancellation Fees:

PLAB 1:
- Cancellation more than 42 days before the exam: £26.80 (10% of the fee)
- Cancellation less than 42 days before the exam: 100% of the fee (£268)
PLAB 2:
- Cancellation more than 42 days before the exam: £98.10 (10% of the fee)
- Cancellation between 42 and 28 days before the exam: £490.50 (50% of the fee)
- Cancellation less than 28 days before the exam: 100% of the fee (£981)

Conclusion

While the PLAB exam can feel overwhelming, it is completely achievable with the right preparation. At CanadaQBank, we offer a range of resources to help you pass the PLAB exam on your first try. Whether you’re preparing for PLAB 1 or PLAB 2, our study materials are designed to help you succeed.

Good luck on your journey toward becoming a doctor in the UK!

August 15, 2021February 22, 2024

Get the Most out of your QBank Time when Studying for the PLAB Part 1

As a medical student studying for your PLAB Part 1 examination, you’ll know just how precious your study time is, especially if you’re holding down a part-time job as well. As such, you’ll want to ensure that you get the most out of your question bank study time. Below are some ways in which you can take full advantage of the time you have to spend working on the CanadaQbank platform.

Start by Using the Tutor Mode

Many other question banks aren’t customizable in any way. However, CanadaQBank offers students the option of using either timed or tutor modes while working on the platform.

The timed mode has been designed to represent an examination environment because it provides a predetermined amount of time in which to answer a specific set of questions. While this is a good choice for determining how much you already know, it is a more stressful way to study.

Tutor mode gives you more time to answer questions, which will allow you to give them more thought before making your final decision. You’ll be able to see right away whether you’ve answered correctly or not, and an explanation will be provided if you’ve chosen an incorrect answer. This mode also allows you to take down your own customizable notes while working.

Choose a Level of Difficulty

When using CanadaQBank, you have the ability to choose a level of difficulty that best suits your current needs during study sessions. For instance, if you’re a new student and you haven’t attended many lectures yet, you’ll want to select the ‘easy’ option initially.

As you expand your knowledge and become more confident with answering the questions in the ‘easy’ category, you can then select the ‘average’ category and work there until you’re ready to move to the ‘difficult’ question set. A setting is also available that can provide you with a combination of questions to answer from each of these levels.

Save Unanswered Questions to Work on Later

Any questions you didn’t know the answers to while working in tutor mode can be saved in a dedicated section of the CanadaQBank platform called, “My Questions.”

This section of the site can store as many questions as you need it to so that you can revise them again at a later stage. You can even choose to only study and work on the questions in this section until you’ve mastered them – and feel ready to move on to new study material.

When you’re studying for your PLAB Part 1 qualification, CanadaQBank’s extensive range of features will help ensure that you get as much as possible out of each topic, subject and section of content that you’ll be required to work with. If you’re a medical student and you’d like to find out more about the extensive range of features that can be accessed on the CanadaQBank website, get in touch with us by filling out our website contact form.

July 26, 2018February 22, 2024

What Is the Professional and Linguistics Assessment Board?

The Professional and Linguistics Assessment Board, also known as the PLAB, is an examination in the United Kingdom that is used to measure foreign medical students’ competency and knowledge before providing them with licensure to practice medicine in the UK. Learning more about the PLAB can help students feel more at ease before testing.

Sign up to our PLAB Part 1 Question Bank

Who Needs to Take the PLAB?

If you are a medical school graduate, but you graduated from a school that is outside of the UK, EEA (European Economic Area), or Switzerland, you will need to sit for the PLAB in order to prove that you have the right level of education and knowledge to practice medicine according to UK laws and standards. You will need to pass both parts of this examination before you can register with your license to practice medicine.

Scheduling Your PLAB

To schedule your PLAB examination, you will need to visit the General Medical Council’s licensing and registration section that is dedicated to this exam. Here, you can gain some vital information about how the exam is set up, create your online account through the GMC, and book your test in any number of countries. Beforehand, you should consider downloading the PLAB blueprint which is offered directly through the GMC to help you better understand the knowledge and skills you should possess in order to pass.

A Two-Part Test

The PLAB is administered in two separate parts.

PLAB Part 1 – This part of the exam consists of 180 multiple choice questions that you must answer within a total of three hours. In each question, you are given a scenario to analyze, and you must select the best possible answer to fit that scenario out of a total of five. You can take the first part of the PLAB in various countries worldwide, including the UK.
PLAB Part 2 – This part of the exam takes place in a clinical setting. You will be given 18 different mock scenarios to analyze, and you will have eight minutes per scenario to provide the required information. These scenarios are just like consultations or acute wards that doctors in the UK must perform each day, and these only take place at the Clinical Assessment Centre located in Manchester, England in the UK.

After Passing the PLAB

Once you have successfully passed both parts of the PLAB examination, you can apply for your license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom. It is important that you submit your application within a reasonable timeframe because you will only have two years after taking the PLAB Part 2 to obtain licensure approval. After your application is approved and you have been registered, you can rightfully and legally work as a doctor in the UK.

Simply put, the PLAB exam is much like an equivalency examination that ensures you have the expected level of knowledge and education to work as a physician in the UK while upholding that country’s medical standards. It is a requirement among students in Canada and the United States, among other countries, who wish to work as doctors in the United Kingdom.