This post will cover two main points:
- Sources i studied from for PLAB 1 (NOV 2019)
- my view about the sources after the exam.
First and foremost, i would not say that November’s exam was neither so difficult nor very easy. It was an exam about medical topics instead of being a test about specific information that you keep memorising from the recalls. It wasn’t just a test of knowledge, way of thinking instead. You should think while you study and don’t depend on memorising the questions. One word, memorising won’t help you that much, it is important but nevertheless you should not solely depend on this.
I have studied for more that two months about ten week; however, i took it really serious for almost 6 weeks. Honestly, i dont see that this period was enough, i think giving yourself enough space and time will help you read more, check more recalls and get yourself exposed to different types of questions.
My sources for the first read included the following:
- PLABABLE notes and questions.
- Oxford handbook of clinical medicine. I referred to it for every single question on plabable and it helped me a lot and made me really confident.
- Davidson textbook for internal medicine. I rarely referred to it but nevertheless was helpful certain points that were not clear in the aforementioned two sources.
- Kaplan first aid book, short, eloquent and to the point book; however, the guidelines between the UK and the USA system is quite different. So i wouldn’t recommend it as a main source. Nonetheless, it is a good source to enrich your information.
My studying hours per day were almost 10 hours or around. However, i took many days off because of the ups and downs.
My second read for 15 days:
- PLABABLE questions and notes all over again.
- Passmedicine
As i think Passmedicine is a good source, i will write a whole paragraph in detail about it. There is a misconception about it that it is for MRCP and for higher level and too much for PLAB. One word, no it is not too much for PLAB. It is exactly what you should know to get through PLAB. It a very rich source of information and has a beautifully organized search engine that will help you easily get the information you need. Moreover, it makes personalized way of testing you depending on the mistakes you have made. For example, today you have done 50 questions and got 10 wrong, the next day they will test you again on related questions to make sure you totally absorbed the topic. On top of that, you can find full topics with really clear lines like first line investigation, first line treatment, best initial, most appropriate and definitive…etc. To sum up, Passmedicine is an interesting source that you should go through as it will help you avoid distracting yourself between different sources. If i am to redo the test, i will depend only on Passmedicine and OHCM.
-After this i had around 15 days left, i started doing MOCKs. Only from plabable, that was in the determined time frame with giving it two extra hours after i finish to check my mistakes and do my best to correct them. In the end, I bought the big MOCK by plabable and i also did the same; the three-hour exam followed by two hours checking my mistakes and looking for the correct explanations in the sources i have.
Afterall, please wish me luck with my results. No matter how it ends, the whole journey is worth the effort and time we are paying. Failure is possible but success is inevitable as long as you are willing to be patient and make more effort.