Hello everyone!! hope you are doing great.
Gosh i cant believe i am writing this post finally Alhumdulilah.
Good news is i passed my PLAB 2 exam this week yayy.
It was my second attempt .i jumped from 8 to 15 stations alhmdulilah.i have so many friends and people to thank who helped me with the journey but this post is to help many of the doctors preping for PLAB 2 and are anxious with alot of confusions,so ill keep it focussed for them.
Trust me it wasnt an easy journey but being doctors we know no exam is easy,as one of my friends said it really made me think about it that “unless u give the desired amount of effort each exam deserves,u cant expect it to pass no matter how easy the exam is”.Im here to reassure that its very doable if u are willing to put your hardwork into it.
i hope its not a very long post,i have so much to share ,i might split into different posts going into details.I will discuss what your approach should be towards your exam because thats your concern irrespective of what course you attend,thats just icing to the cake.I would like to correct some misconceptions and answer queries that we all preping for plab2 have.
what you should do before,during and after the course (as 90percent of people join the course) and none shares about what to do after u join the course.
okey i will share my own experiance and it varies from person to person,everyone has their own circumstances,experiance and mental capacity.But you cannot use any of those as an excuse to stop u from performing well.you can post questions and i ll like to reply to queries as much as possible.
okey :
1,Is Plab2 very easy…? NO!! period.you have to put in your efforts and take it seriously.
2,will i pass plab 2…? yes,Do not let anyone tell you that you are not enough.But do listen to your mock examiner(ll discuss in detail in during the course post)
Confidence is the first and foremost thing,if u dont have it,fake it till u make it…honestly that helps alot.(the other thing is to practice stations more).
3,what course should i take?..it was a hugeee deal for me,people make it a life and death thing and then when in academy they have no idea what to do n then start whining n blaming friends whose advice they followed.lol.i am glad i took a leap of faith and chose comfortable study environment cz i cant function under pressure and v long hours.but for some its very important they need to know things insided out,study too much etc.that totally depends upon your personal choice.
Approach ofcourse matters,and plab2 is not about knowledge
DONT FORGET:
your aim is passing EXAM not just joining academy.
The bottom line is whichever academy you go please dont think they ll spoonfeed you.you have to listen to them and then be yourself .you have to be natural…if things dont come naturally to u ,they can be learnt.( ll discuss it during the course)
4,How much time after the course?..Its a v important question…It depends on how quickyly u grasp the idea of plab 2.from my experiance,working in a different country ,i think it takes time to sink things in n make them come naturally to u .u need to take sometime. 6 wks is the time that one should take if u think u ll take time to process things.i have seen people do it in 2 wks after course even one week but thats where your planning before the course comes in.
BEFORE the course.Go through the scripts twice , take online course ,watch videos and then come for the course . then u can practice in academy and give exam…
The more time u have after exam,the better it is,but make sure u utilize it well,or else even if u have 2 months u can waste ur time.
5,what i did differently this time?..okey now that i have passed it i guess i can accept where i went wrong and my mistakes and what i should have done differently. i did not check my result details for a long time and i wasnt exactly knowing what went wrong.but once i put in some work and research i grasp the idea of what the exam exactly is.
and now i want to share so that others can benefit…
First mistake,i was too busy with visa,academy ,ticket etc that i dint go through the scripts even once ,thinking oo i ll go to academy,they ll do magic and i ll know everything.
secondly, i wasnt confident to practice during class sessions because again i hadnt gone through patients story beforehand.
thirdly ,one should have same basic structure for all stations and follow that.i did that but i wasnt putting in interpersonals much.i was just asking questions.(ll discuss later indetail hopefully)
fourthly, v important one…Do not think in 3 parts data gathering,interpersonal and management ,noo …its two parts data gathering and management,interpersonal goes with them it starts right at the moment u say hi.
fifthly, Do not focus too much on hello im DR.abc ,one of the junior Drs XYZ…hand shaking not shaking .Do what comes naturally to u. or if nothing comes naturally decide on one thing and do it in practice and u ll have a reflex.
sixthly, plan how ll u start your case.(ll discuss in interpersonal hopefully)
Its already quite a long post,im sorry but hope it helps and calms u down a bit…
Its no rocket science,its just being a normal caring doctor inshort…but for the starter know your patients story first and rest things ll come along… will continue the post for during the course stuff. please for now ask questiins before the course if u have any ,i ll be more than happy to answer.