Hello, so I recently passed my exam. However, I couldn’t have passed it alone. It was a combined effort of friends ,family , seniors and other plab graduates guidance.
I was talking to my senior yesterday and he told me it’s time for you to give back . I don’t know much about ukmla and the changes that will take place. But, I am confident in helping with different stations any queries that anyone might have.
So fire away I’m here to help you guys out. Cause I was helped when I was in a similar situation.
Thank you.
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That’s a noble act. We appreciate you for coming forward to help your colleagues and juniors. We’ll be sending a lot of fresh doctors to this thread.
Would you be comfortable joining the WhatsApp Community of the PLAB Forum, or does the website suit you better where you can remain more anonymous? Let me know which option suits you better, and we’ll make the necessary arrangements accordingly.
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Hi, Congratulations and really apricate your nice gesture of paying it forward. Please share some information on staring as a fresher just after PLAB 1.
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Yeah I would prefer the website and yes I will be happy to help out as much as I can.
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Hello, well it depends on how much time you have before your plab 1 exam.
I have my plab 1 in 2023. I used plabable and plab gems and I would read the links given in plabable notes as well. And I found those to be sufficient.
If you have like 4 months left this would be sufficient.
If you have like more than 4 months you can even go a bit deeper using nice cks guidelines.
However , the exam is mostly a repetition of concepts which are explained well in plabable.
Most important thing is look at a lot of ECG, DERMA IMAGES, FUNDOSCOPY images of different eye presentations, practice drawing genetic charts alot. Like do this from the start as they give a lot of these in plab.
Last but no the least talk to some people who gave exam in 2024 you will find them here. As they will give you certain tips which I might not be cognizant of.
And if you need any other help or have anything in particular you are worried about feel free to ask.
@Faizan2024 That question by @IGG was a bit of curve ball, I don’t blame you, I also got confused in the begining. Don’t worry about the PLAB 1 guidance comment, those searching for that response will be automatically helped.
Sorry I want to ask about PLAB 2, My bad , Thank you any way
Nah nah my bad I didn’t read that properly 
Nervous start alright so first and foremost there are some questions that I have for you
Have you booked plab 2 exam ?
Are you currently working ?
And have you worked out your visa documents?
My PLAB 2 will be on 30th August and I’m not working and looking after family and residing in UK.
Alright that’s great.
So first and foremost you need to choose a particular set of notes. I used Mo sohby notes. Most of them are in accordance to the recent NICE guidelines.
After choosing notes just talk to lot of plab 2 people as to how they prepared. It’s really important to talk to people as they will give an insight on the exam that any academy can’t give.
Now it’s your decision whether you want to opt for full academy package or take Dr lovan master class.
Just start by reading notes and talking to people so that you have an understanding of how the exam works and what they are testing you on.
And then you can start practicing.
If there is anything specific you can post questions so it’ll be more easier for me to help you out.
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Thank you so much, for the reply. if any this comes on I will definitely get your advice. This is really helpful as a start.
Hi and many congratulations on your success! I am wondering if you have a way to approach the sickle cell anemia case. I guess, it was in Dr. Lovaan’s notes which I cannot seem to locate on the forum anymore (sigh)! This case has been repeated in the recalls, i.e., “phone call: the result of mild dyskaryosis HPV negative”. Any pointers would be very beneficial. Thank you.
Hey, so regarding the sickle cell case I’ve practiced this case a few times. It is tricky the forum user has attached the notes. I used those notes along with few additions from Mo sohby’s notes.
Now I saw two cases during my prep.
Usually in one of the cases the patients STEP BROTHER has the sickle cell anemia.
When you will ask her about how her brother is doing she will reveal this.
So you’ll have to ask her and she will tell you that they both have separate fathers.
There is one loop hole.
Some pointers you have to make sure that you assess her knowledge as well. How much does she know about it ? Make sure to ask about brother as then she will reveal the loop hole of step brother. And ask about her partner history as well just few Qs to find out whether her partner has any conditions running in his family or not and whether the partner is healthy or not ?
In these cases you have to follow the patient’s concern . Tell her the chances of having the disease is based on faulty genes.
Offer genetic councelling.
This is how the cases usually comes. But beware they might change the case so to summarize
Assess knowledge of patient
Ask about brother health
Ask about partner and if any disease run in family
Address concerns (mainly if you know the inheritance pattern and can draw a chart you’ll be fine)
Management
Assure
Genetic councelling
Be truthful with her (usually the cases coming the chances of her baby having it is very low cause step brother has sickle cell)
But still be open as the scenario might change.
If you have any specific troubles please feel free to ask.
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Yeah this one I said above is atypical one.
And the normal sickle cell one is in the forum notes.
As for hpv dyskaryosis I’ll take a look and update. I don’t remember the pointers so don’t wanna give out any false info.
That’s very beautifully written. 
PLAB 2 candidates should take advantage of this opportunity.
Thank you so much brother, you’re a gem!
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Congratulations, Well done. My exam is in 3 weeks and Ive barely got amy studying done. What is the quickest and most effective steps to do to try and pass my exam ?
Hello, well I don’t need to tell you that this is going to be hard. I’m sure everyone is telling you the same.
Instead I’ll tell you this if you really haven’t studied much then your back is against the wall now and only way for you to go from here is FORWARD.
My advice would be BBN, LGBTQ, TALKING TO PATIENT RELATIVE (nursing home case, levothyroxine ADJUSMENT case, son doesn’t wanna tell diagnosis to mom cases, hematuria in heart failure case), councelling cases (endoscopy, genetic councelling, EM contraception, DC patient discuss lifestyle advice, DM patient discuss lifestyle advice, dka patient refusal, hypoglycemia with disability). Gynae (PID, STI, missed pill, need morning after pill) peads (teething, bronchiolitis, coin ingestion , teething, drowsy child 2" sepsis) , derma cases.
You need to have these cases on your tips that’s minimum to improve your chances. And apart from that go to recalls calendar and start.
Go through the TARGET POINTS of each case. Like what the examiner wants to here. What the patient is worried about in these cases.
PRACTICAL STATIONS
SUMMARY
divide your days into half go practice practical stations as much as you can in half
In second half try to cover categories that I’ve discussed and once you have them go through recalls
Golden tip
For practical stations practice the whole cases with management
For other cases practice with someone rigid , and someone who isn’t afraid to hurt your feelings. If your feelings are hurt during practice then you won’t get hurt during exam.
Practice with a 6 min or 6 30 timer isntead of 8 . I learned this trick in academy really helps a lot in the exam.
Don’t worry about whether you studied before or not. Only way now is FORWARD.
GOOD LUCK .
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@Faizan2024
Congratulations for passing the exam!
Can I please ask there is a wide gap between the number of conditions covered in Dr Mo notes and in MLA content map. For example in cardiology mo notes only cover the main topics between 6 to 10, and on MLA they mentioned about more than 20 conditions. How should we prepare for the remaining topics. Or those topics are not important to cover as they unlikely to come. I have three months left up until exam and want to cover all the topics, but if they won’t come, then should i leave those extra? Or how should i prepare now. Any strategy would be help!
Firstly, I haven’t seen the new map. Would you be kind enough to post the topics here.
Once I’ve seen the topics I’ll be in a better position to help you out.
Now my take is this this exam is a clerking exam. For any Cardio case there is a handful of presentations like chest pain, sob , feeling of pressure on chest , syncope
Now your history will be the same.
My advice would be whatever topics there are pick on the hot point like for eg pericarditis pain is relieved by position . So pick those points for all cases one line or two lines.
And just use Mo sohby’s map of management and fix points
As to your query whether to leave the topics completely for now it’s a bit difficult to say. We will know once they start testing on that .
Furthermore, for now I would say practice and master the things that you have instead of worrying for what’s gonna happen. In three months you will have lots of recalls as well.
Play it safe.