REACHE PLAB 1 Guide
Structure
The PLAB 1 is a 3-hour exam leaving an average of about one minute to answer each question. You will be given a book containing 200 multiple choice questions known as Single Best Answer or Best of Five questions. You may write on this book, but you will not be allowed to take it out of the examination hall. Each question has:- A number from 1 to 200
- A paragraph containing clinical information, sometimes with figures and illustrations
- A one sentence question, e.g. “What is the most likely diagnosis?” Read this carefully and process exactly what question is being asked.
- Five statements listed A to E from which to choose one answer. There may be only one correct statement, or there may be several correct statements from which to choose the most or least likely.
Content
The PLAB 1 covers a range of medical topics:- Diagnosis, investigation and management of common diseases in the UK
- All specialities
- Health promotion and monitoring
- Basic science: anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology
- Legal and ethical matters
Technique
- Set a time-keeping strategy and check your progress at least every hour. For example, answer at least 35 questions every half hour, or 70 questions per hour, leaving 8 minutes at the end.
- Set an answer sheet strategy: for example, transfer your answers one by one or after every 25 questions.
- Answer every question and don’t leave blanks: a guess is still more likely to get you a point than a blank answer. It is very important not to lose track of the current question number.
- Read the stem carefully and try to understand what skill they are testing.
- Don’t miss negative words like 'no', 'not', 'none', 'never' or prefixes like 'il-' and 'un-'.
- Focus on the meaning of qualifiers like 'some', 'most', 'none', 'usually'. Be particularly careful with 'always' and 'never' – it is rare that statements with such absolute qualifiers are correct.
- Where possible, come up with an answer before looking through the choices available. This way, the listed answers will help you reach your final answer. Often the right answer is the most likely statement out of a selection of statements that are all true.
- Apply basic principles: Be safe (ABC resuscitation, etc). Think of guidelines such as Good Medical Practice.
- For investigations, consider guidelines and cost efficiency. Consider routine investigations first with special tests later, unless you are asked for the single best investigation to make a specific diagnosis.