PLAB 1 experience:
Exam date: 27th June 2019
Thanks to God., My score: 129 (pass score was 117 and average score of examinees 119)
TIMELINE:
5 weeks (take into account variability between us, you might need more time…
–> how to judge if you will need more than 5 to 6 weeks:
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if you are still a student or recent fresh graduate, you might need more time as you lack experience… I will put a limit of 3 months as average and 6 weeks as minimum)
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If you have been away from practice for than 3 years, you might require 2 to 3 months or even more…
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if you are from the type who panic and is not used to exam stress… you need to practice more, so do not rush yourself in short time and give yourself 3 months to get confident
APPROACH:
I have done 1200 q from the 1700 question bank and then I heard of PLABABLE question bank around 2-3 weeks before my exam and I finished around 50-60% of the bank.
Plabable is a bank of 1500 questions (classified by subjects as categories eg: obs/gyne, medicine, pediatrics, ethics…) with explanations and links to the guidelines, plus comment section for members to write their thoughts and add their notes. It also has mocks, which resembles the exam conditions (timed session of 3 hours with 180 questions)
My advice will be:
– focus in Plabable and do it professionally as follows:
https://plabable.com/
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start to work in the questions by categories.
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when you answer the questions correctly: just read plabale explanation and move to the next question
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if you answer the question wrong: read plabable explanation, read the members’ comment section, open the guidelines and read them carefully… if you still did not understand: open youtube and search for an explanation of that concept.
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take some notes to yourself when you see repeated information (these will be your own clinchers)… clinchers are simply some keywords that help you remember a specific disease or compare between diseases or syndroms or mnemonics to make a guideline an easy one.
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- take some notes to yourself when you see repeated information (these will be your own clinchers)… clinchers are simply some keywords that help you remember a specific disease or compare between diseases or syndromes or mnemonics to make a guideline an easy one.
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After you finish the bank, start to solve mocks and slove them within exam conditions: free yourself totally from any distractions and work to finish the 180 qs within 3 hours (60 questions per hour= average 1 minute per question). Repeat this frequently until you become confident that you can finish the exam within 3 hours…
TIPS:
–people fail mainly because the exam is long and they cannot finish within 3 hours, therefore, time management is crucial.
–focus in plabable, I do not recommend 1700qs… If you have extra time, I prefer you open all the links to the guidelines and the explanations in plabable than spending your time solving the 1700 qs (however, many people use the 1700 bank and succeed, so it is up to you to choose… I am writing her my own perception and experience).
–there are some ready made clinchers, I personally did not use them… However, as I mentioned, I was making my own clinchers for questions that I believed that it is easy to forget (I advise to make your own clinchers, but still you can use others too)
–compared to USMLE, PLAB is more doable, so think positively and you can do it inshaa ALLAH.
Attached below are the notes that I was collecting (you can call them clinchers, if you want)… I printed these notes in the morning of the exam and it was crucial for me… I hope it might help you all.
Beltawfeik inshaa Allah, and please remember me in your prayers for the next steps…