SOME IMPORTANT TIPS FOR PLABBERS: IT WILL HELP!!
Sabina Dosani and Peter Cross give the lowdown on the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test which non-European Economic Area doctors have to pass to be allowed to work in the United Kingdom. The authors interview examiners and candidates for their tips on passing
PLAB, the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test, is conducted by the General Medical Council and supported by the British Council, which organises and administrates PLAB part 1 exams outside the United Kingdom. The test is designed to assess overseas doctors’ ability to work safely as senior house officers in a UK hospital and is a prerequisite for most overseas doctors’ GMC registration. Every year, about 12 000 doctors sit PLAB.
Part 1
Part 1 is a written paper, usually taken in the candidate’s home country. Examiners expect doctors to have the breadth of knowledge needed to qualify from medical school supplemented by a year’s experience as a preregistration house officer. Currently the paper consists of 200 extended matching questions.
Pass rate
The part 1 pass rate varies but is usually somewhere in excess of 60%. The pass rate for part 2 is around 70%.
Examiner’s advice for part 1
Professor Kenneth Cochran advises candidates to work from general textbooks used by UK medical schools. “There are no hidden traps. People who become specialised find the exam hard because it is at the very general level of a recent medical graduate.
We ran a pilot on UK graduates coming to the end of their preregistration house officer year. We asked them about timing and appropriateness of questions. Those are the questions we are using now.
It’s not obscure knowledge. It’s more like, `a mother brings a child who has a rash.”
Archana Mischra from north India is a paediatric senior house officer in Manchester. She passed PLAB part 2 and remembers, “Once you know the system you just fly through. But if you don’t know how to approach it, or what you are expected to do you’re sure to fail.”