drarushirana

[drarushirana]

How to prepare for PLAB 1 during MBBS/Internship?

If you’re in your MBBS or internship year and have decided on taking up the PLAB pathway to continue your medical career in the UK then this blog can be of help to you!

Let me start by giving you a gist of my journey for PLAB 1. 

It started in 2018, I was in my final year of MBBS in India when I had made up my mind that I wanted to pursue my post graduation from UK or Australia. During my internship in 2019 I appeared for the IELTS(Academic) test and secured the required score, following this in 2020 I passed my PLAB 1 exam in the first attempt.

My main motive behind writing this blog is to help young budding doctors who are still doing MBBS/Internship to get a better idea about the time frame and preparation required for PLAB 1 so that they are able to ace this exam as soon as possible!

Ideally I would suggest that one should appear for their IELTS test within the first 3-4 months of their internship. 15-30 days of preparation is sufficient to get accustomed to the pattern of IELTS test.

As for PLAB1, 2 months (max 2.5 months) of dedicated study should do the trick. This is the time for you to decide whether you are ready to completely dedicate 2 months of yourself to PLAB 1 during your internship or not! 

All I used for PLAB 1 was the Plabable question bank subscription, solved it and made notes subject wise, referred to my MBBS books/notes if I found myself to be weak at a particular concept from Plabable. Do not even think of leaving any question from the question bank, understand each question, read and make notes from the explanation given and keep revising.

 A friend of mine once advised to me that revision is the key for any competitive exam and believe me it is! Try to complete the question bank within 25-30 days and use the next 15-20 days for revision, revision and revision from the notes that you made. After the first round of revision solve 2-3 mock tests from the question bank itself and assess yourself. Then go for the second round of revision followed by a few more mock tests. Completing all the 13-14 mocks are not important rather make sure that you feel confident with your notes and concepts through repeated revision.  

PLAB 1 is not a difficult exam, its very much doable if you have made good basic concepts during your MBBS and utilized your dedicated study period really well. 

This is what really worked for me so I thought of sharing my experience, many might have had a different journey with a different approach and that’s absolutely alright. 

Hope it helps and motivates at least a few.

Good luck to all the future candidates!

PS: I am not gaining from any kind of benefits from Plabable question bank. Its just something that worked for me :)