MY PLAB JOURNEY- HOW TO PASS PLAB Part 1

It all started in March 2020 after I passed my IELTS. I immediately booked for PLAB part 1 in Lagos, Nigeria and was due to take the exam on September 2020. Certainly, no one could have predicted that a worldwide pandemic would happen, causing a global shutdown. Immediately after booking the exam, I joined some PLAB Facebook groups where I heard about PLAB 1 keys and PLABABLE for the first time. I saw a lot of posts from people saying that these two resources are all that was needed to pass PLAB part 1, so I decided to subscribe for both.

I started with PLAB 1 keys, studying one chapter after the next. Since there was a lock down, and 6 months before the exam date, I had a lot of time to study hence I took my time with each chapter on PLAB 1 keys. After 2 weeks of not moving fast enough, I decided to give myself a daily target of half a chapter hence, I would make sure to finish a discipline e.g., neurology in 2 days. Once I was done with PLAB 1 keys which took about 1 month, I went for PLABABLE, only doing the mocks as I observed that the mocks were simply a random re-arrangement of all the questions that had been arranged by discipline. I had about 60% on my first mock and towards the end, I started to score an average 78-85% on the mocks. I read up thoroughly on any missed questions and my confidence grew a lot during this time. I was done with PLAB 1 Keys and PLABABLE by June with 3 months left to spare till the exam date.

 I started to panic as I continued to go through the Facebook groups where I saw posts about other ‘must have’ PLAB 1 resources including PASSMEDICINE, MedRevisions and UK MED. I decided to subscribe for PASSMEDICINE and found the questions to be relatively harder which gave me some relief as I was still able to answer about 60% of the questions correctly considering that PASSMEDICINE was primarily a resource for MRCP and not PLAB1. UK Med was relatively easier, and I was averaging 80% on the mocks. During this time, the lockdown was finally easing over, and I had resumed my medical internship by August. During my ‘free time’ at work, I would revise questions on UKMed since the questions on it were relatively simpler and that was all I could really wrap my head around due to the stress from work.

On the 2nd of September, 2 weeks away from the exam while on my way back from work after a 72-hour shift, I received a notification that my PLAB part 1 exam had been cancelled. I was devastated on seeing this and immediately went to the GMC website to check for new dates but there was nothing available. I realized that I would have to wait till 2021 to be able to write the exam. A month later, on October 2020 at about 10am in the morning, the first seats were released for 2021. I logged in at 10:03am and observed that all the seats were gone. Perhaps there was something wrong with the website, I wondered or desperately hoped. I later saw a spot open up in another Nigerian city called Enugu. I quickly tried to book this spot but was unable to as the spot had been taken. I continued for another 2 hours, attempting to book spots as they opened up randomly but was unable to book the exam. The website eventually crashed due to high traffic, and I almost went into depression at this point as it was evident to me that I had lost February and May seats for 2021. I decided to wait till January to try to book the September or November 2021 seats. This proved futile as the same thing happened. I couldn’t book a seat in Nigeria for PLAB part 1. I then decided to try Dubai which also didn’t work out as the seats were disappearing at the speed of light, probably due to the backlog from cancelled exams during the COVID lockdown. The only places left on the GMC website were November 2021 spots for Manchester, London and Cardiff. I wondered if I could apply for a visiting visa to write PLAB 1 in the UK and ultimately decided to book the Cardiff spot since I was quite desperate for a spot at this point and I happen to have family in Wales. I had a lot of uncertainty since I wasn’t sure if I would be given the visa or not, but I went about my daily business as usual since it was January, and the exam wasn’t until November.

I only re-started preparation in August 2021. I started to read PLAB 1 Keys again as I had forgotten almost everything I had read the previous year. I finished it in about 4 weeks reading every chapter thoroughly. I then decided to subscribe for MedRevisions as I had been hearing about it a lot on the Facebook groups. The questions seemed to be slightly more difficult than those on PLABABLE although very doable. I averaged about 75% on the mocks on MedRevison. I did it side by side with PLABABLE and by October, after about 2 months, I felt like I was ready for the exam although I still doubted if I had done enough but considering how close I was to the exam date, all I could really do was revise what I had studied over and over again. By this time, I had finished my Medical Internship and had decided to go to the UK for my masters degree, so I was now applying for a student visa which although more expensive, seemed to be the best option for me. I had started the Application and Admission process in June and was waiting for the VISA decision. Fortunately, I got the VISA and arrived in the UK on October 27th, 2021, which was 7 days away from my exam date. During this time, I heard about a special mock costing about 30 pounds on PLABABLE which was supposed to be really difficult and would give me a good idea of what my PLAB score would be. I decided to pay for this special mock and scored a 72% which was a relief to me.

I travelled a day before the exam to Cardiff and spent the night at a bed and breakfast hotel. I arrived at the centre on-time with my Identification documents and writing materials. Once the ID check was complete, we were all moved to the Examination room. I had a runny nose that day as I was just recovering from a cold and I couldn’t draw too much attention to myself by sniffing as we were still in the thick of the pandemic hence, I’ve never been so grateful for a facemask as I was on this day since no one could see my dripping nose. Once the exam commenced, I was pleasantly surprised to see that 80% of the questions were similar to what I had encountered on PLABABLE. Some questions were identical to what was on PLABABLE while some appeared to be identical but with subtle variations that would cause the answer to be totally different from what I had seen on #PLABABLE. There were a few questions that were brand new and some that were quite confusing, but I was sure that I had answered at least 70% of the questions correctly. I came out of the examination room smiling. I knew I had passed the exam. I was relieved and I'll admit, a bit annoyed with myself for panicking so much before the exam. The results came out 6 weeks later and by God’s grace, I passed with a 78% average.

Retrospectively, considering the way the exam was structured, I realized that #PLAB part 1 is a straight-forward exam, and I really didn’t need all of those study materials I had used. In summary, I would say that to pass the exam, all you need is a thorough read/cover of PLAB 1 Keys and PLABABLEfor a duration of 6 weeks - 4 months depending on your pace.