I passed the march 2019 PLAB1 with a score of 140/180. my experience would pertain to fresh graduates. after finishing my internship I started preparing with 42 days left to exam. I started from scratch.
strategy; 9am to 12am, with almost zero social hours, complete isolation, prepare your food for a week defrost it so that you dont have to waste time on meals, a russel peter kevin hart, gabriel iglesias, standup on netflix will help you when at times you dont feel like studying.
Resources:PLABABLE, 1700, RECALLS, OHCM, OHCS for reference.
I started with plabable and made a strong foundation, revising necessary concepts where appropriate, Honestly speaking I could not complete plabable completely because my pace was extremely slow, I switched to the 1700 mcqs, marking the important mcqs with ! mark for later revision which helped me save alot of time. I didnt use facebook group much, would google a confusing mcq, I also did 4 timed plabable mocks which I was able to complete in time and was comfortable that I would not have time constraints, I also did recalls upto 2016,found them very helpful, because I was able to guess the question types.
word of caution; people who are suggesting extra and difficult resources should not be relied upon, and you should not be scared, people say the exam has changed but if you focus on these resources, I dont see a reason that you would not pass.
summary,
for fresh graduates
resources: plabable, 1700, recalls, 4 plabable mocks, ohcm ohcs for reference
study time: 12-14 hours for 40 days
it is a reflex exam so dont try to go into details, you wont be able to recall on exam day
time management is important, dont skip many mcqs on exam day bcz when you return to them at the end of the exam it will be too late for you to think clearly,
when you get bored of a particular resource switch to another i.e. from plabable to 1700 and vice versa
clarify your concepts rather than carmming stuff.
good luck to future plabbers