Professional And Linguistic Assessments Board Test (PLAB)
The Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board Test (PLAB) is a two-part test taken to demonstrate a medical practitioner’s competence to practice medicine in the UK. It is administered by the General Medical Council.
Note: The PLAB has now been brought into line with MLA requirements, and the test will continue to be administered. For more information, visit the GMC website here.
What Cambridge Professional Trainers does for you
Our trainers have a highly-successful track record in helping students reach their potential in the PLAB.
The PLAB is an exam in English, rather than a test of English, taken in the light of an already-demonstrated level of English (IELTS 7.5 or an unpaid attachment to a British hospital of at least 30 days) and as such requires detailed and focussed knowledge of a wide range of subject matter in English, rapid and accurate processing skills, and excellent communicative competency in specified medical contexts.
To this end, out trainers always take a detailed, tailored approach, accounting for a candidate’s needs, short-comings, potential, deadlines and study regimes.
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The PLAB is designed to test the competence of non-UK, EEA, and Swiss qualified medical practitioners to practise medicine in the UK.
It tests the skills and knowledge of medical practitioners, in both multiple-choice and oral examinations, including the English-language competence of the applicant.
NOTE: the General Medical Council (GMC), the body which regulates eligibility to practise medicine in the UK, requires applicants for the PLAB to show proficiency in the English Language, by means either of an IELTS test (overall 7.5 grade, with no lower than 7.0 in each part of the test, equivalent to the C1 CEFR band) taken within two years of starting the course, or by means of an unpaid 30-day attachment to a participating hospital.
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PLAB 1
PLAB 1 is a three-hour multiple-choice examination consisting of 180 questions. The exam tests a candidate’s ability to apply their knowledge to the care of patients. Questions relate to current best practice in the UK, and equipment routinely available in UK hospitals, and cover the common, important or acute conditions (those common in emergency departments) seen by trainees entering the second year of their foundation programme (F2), and the management of long-term conditions seen in primary care.
PLAB 2
The PLAB 2 is an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). It is made up of 16 scenarios, each lasting eight minutes, and aims to reflect real life settings including a mock consultation or an acute ward. After reading the instructions and patient information outside each room, candidates enter the exam cubicle and complete the task outlined. The whole exam takes around three hours.