Hi Guys! So i gave my PLAB 1 exam on June 27th and I am so happy to share with all of you that I passed with a 142/180.
This group and the past experiences and study guidelines shared by some of you was crucial in helping me lay down a roadmap for myself, so here I am writing to you as to how I went about preparing as it may be of some help for the upcoming exam.
NO. OF MONTHS TO INVEST: 2-3months (I would recommend leaving 3months as it was very comfortable and i wasnt on a hectic time schedule. I gave myself enough time to cover everything I wanted to so it helped boost my confidence!)
STUDY HOURS PER DAY: 6-8hours, and take a day off in a week to refresh yourself
STUDY MATERIALS:
- PASSMEDICINE (30-40DAYS): I cannot emphasize enough the use of this question bank as I am someone who likes to strengthen my concepts in any subject before attempting questions and mocks. The explanations given in this are very detailed and it will really help, not just for the exam, but also in strengthening your theory as a clinician later on. I did the entire question bank once and prepared relevant notes from it, then revised it once again. Yes, the explanations are very detailed and perhaps time consuming, but I found that it gave me a great base to attempt any question bank after this.
- PLABABLE (15-20days) : The questions from PLABABLE were very similar to khalid’s and hence i chose to exclude khalid’s and just stick to PLABABLE as it gave better explanations. PLABABLE gives a lot of exam type questions and hence provides great practice to get a feel of how the mcqs in the exams are. However, the questions are slightly shorter and do not have many lab parameters given, unlike in the actual exam (here again, passmedicine helps you memorise lab parameters on the tips of your fingers and apply them to the clinical settings better). But I would still say you certainly must solve either PLABABLE/PLABZILLA as it is a must!
- MOCKS/REVISION (10-15DAYS) : This helps you apply and amalgamate everything you have learned till now and is crucial in helping you with TIME MANAGEMENT! Time yourself everytime and do not allow yourself to exceed more than 1minute per question MAXIMUM. Also, make a few last minute notes for yourself (esp in pharmac) to look through as it will help you strengthen your weak points.
EXAM DAY:
keep calm, do not get overwhelmed during the exam even if you are feeling unsure about any of the questions you are attempting!
The key is to make sure you keep going and ATTEMPT ALL 180 QUESTIONS! Remember that your chances of clearing will increase exponentially if you have finished answering the complete paper within 180mins.
So this is what I did, and it worked for me, so I thought of sharing it with all of you.
However, I would like to emphasize that there is no hard and fast rule about the time allotted for preparation.
I am a bit slower so i gave myself generous amounts of time so i dont get overwhelmed last minute, but if you are able to complete the questions banks faster and with lesser revisions, then go ahead!
BEST OF LUCK to the upcoming candidates, and you can ask me any more queries which you may have.