About the PLAB 1 Exam

About the PLAB 1 Exam

Quick Answer: PLAB 1 is the first part of the General Medical Council's Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test. It is a 3-hour written paper of 180 single best answer questions set at the level of a doctor starting the second year of the UK Foundation Programme (FY2). The fee is GBP 283 (from 1 April 2026). Passing PLAB 1 lets you book PLAB 2, the clinical skills test, which must be passed within 2 years.

The PLAB test is the main route for international medical graduates to show that they have the knowledge and skills to practise safely as a doctor in the UK. It has two parts: PLAB 1, an applied knowledge test, and PLAB 2, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Both parts meet the requirements of the GMC's Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA).

Exam Format

Questions test the application of knowledge, not recall of isolated facts. They cover common and important conditions an FY2 doctor would see, acute presentations, and long-term conditions managed in primary care, but not the advanced work of a general practitioner.

What PLAB 1 Covers: The MLA Content Map

PLAB 1 is written to the MLA content map (GMC/MLACM/1025, published October 2025 and used for all MLA assessments from September 2026). It describes six domains:

1. Areas of clinical practice (24 areas, from acute and emergency care to surgery, mental health, child health and the new clinical imaging area).
2. Areas of professional knowledge (13 areas, including clinical pharmacology, medical ethics and law, genetics and genomics, social and population health, and human factors and quality improvement).
3. Clinical and professional capabilities.
4. Practical skills and procedures (assessed mainly in PLAB 2).
5. Patient presentations.
6. Conditions (about 430 conditions grouped by body system).

This guide follows that structure: chapters 1–15 cover the clinical areas, chapter 16 covers infection and travel medicine, and chapter 17 covers older adults, statistics, population health, genetics and imaging.

Results Feedback Areas

The GMC does not publish percentage weights for PLAB 1. Your results letter breaks your performance into 10 areas: reproductive health; renal and urology; neurosciences and senses (including skin); musculoskeletal; mental health; gastrointestinal; endocrine, metabolic and clinical haematology; child and adolescent health; cardiorespiratory; and ethics and other.

Booking, Eligibility & Venues

• Before booking, create a GMC Online account, check that your primary medical qualification is accepted, and provide accepted English language evidence (for example IELTS Academic with 7.5 overall and at least 7.0 in each component, or OET Medicine with grade B in each sub-test). Booking opens only after the GMC has verified it.
• Sittings: usually four a year (February, May, August and November).
• Venues: UK venues and European venues in Dublin and Madrid are delivered by VICTVS; overseas venues are delivered by the British Council. Bookings close between 2 and 6 weeks before the test.
• 2027 changes: the GMC has announced that Dhaka, Alexandria, Accra, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata will no longer host PLAB 1, and there will be no international sitting in February 2027 (UK and European sittings continue).
• Cancellation: cancelling more than 42 days before the test loses 10% of the fee; cancelling within 42 days loses the whole fee.
• Refugee doctors living in the UK can sit their first two attempts free.

Attempts

You can keep sitting PLAB 1 until you have failed it four times. After a fourth fail you can apply for a fifth and final attempt, which needs evidence of at least 12 months of additional learning: structured reports of clinical practice from senior doctors, or a postgraduate qualification. Observerships and clinical attachments do not count.

Scoring & Results

• Your score is the number of questions answered correctly; there is no negative marking, so answer every question.
• The pass mark is set for each paper using the Angoff method plus one standard error of measurement, reflecting the standard of a doctor entering FY2. There is no fixed pass mark and no target pass rate.
• Results are released about 6 weeks after the test in GMC Online and show your score, the pass score and the average score.
• GMC data show 62.2% of 13,691 candidates passed in 2025 and 70.5% of 21,058 in 2024.

After PLAB 1

1. Book PLAB 2 (16 scenarios of 8 minutes each, held in Manchester). You must pass PLAB 2 within 2 years of passing PLAB 1 (the pass date is the date of the PLAB 1 test).
2. Apply for registration with a licence to practise; the application must be approved within 2 years of passing PLAB 2.

How to Prepare

• Read the GMC's PLAB 1 sample questions and the MLA content map.
• Learn red-flag referral rules (NICE NG12 suspected cancer criteria), first-line drugs and emergency algorithms.
• Practise the ethics and law questions: consent, capacity, confidentiality and raising concerns appear in every paper.