Hi, my name is Mansi. I am an IMG from India. I have recently cleared my PLAB-2 and am currently awaiting GMC registration while looking for jobs in the NHS.

I cleared my PLAB 2 exam in March 2024 and in today’s blog, I am going to share about 10 learnings from my experience of preparing for and taking the exam that I hope will help you succeed in it too.

1. Practice makes a man perfect: The more you practise, the more you become confident in doing the same things on exam day.

2. Be yourself: The examiners can make out when you are trying to fake empathy with rote memorised sentences and phrases. Everyone has their own style of communication and the more natural you are, the more convincing you sound.

3. Avoid sounding scripted: Even if you are sure of the diagnosis in your head before going in, explore all possible diagnoses and rule out with relevant questions in the history. This makes you sound genuine and also prevents situations where you might be too overconfident and end up giving a wrong diagnosis.

4. While practising with a single study partner may feel comforting, it is good to practise with different people to understand how they approach a situation. Learning to communicate with a patient-centred approach is key to ace the exam.

5. What a lot of people struggle with is dealing with too much feedback. Practising with multiple partners exposes one to feedback from all of them. Choose partners who you feel are providing you constructive feedback and avoid practising with someone who constantly tries to put you down.

6. Mocks are good to know where you stand and what you need to work upon. So try attempting 2-3 mocks seriously within the month before the exam.

7. Make sure you are comfortable with the 8 minutes timer. When you are beginning to practise, start with a 6-6.5 minutes timer and gradually increase it to 7.5-8 minutes. This helps build up the pace required for the consultation.

8. Do not carry any feelings of the previous station with you to the next one. What is done is done and there is no point being too happy or feeling too bad over a station. Focus on quickly reading the prompt for the next station and preparing for what the station demands from you.

9. Use the rest stations to REST. Do not think about what went wrong. Sit down, hydrate, have a cookie and use the washroom if you need to.

10. The examiners are supposed to keep a neutral face and not give any reaction to a candidate’s performance. So, when you go in, you should greet the examiner once, however, do not be intimidated by their presence in the room.

Last but not the least, on the day of the exam, be well-dressed, look confident, have a good meal before going in and treat the cubicle as your outpatient clinic where you are the boss!

Need more tips and advice?

If you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them at trewlink.com. You can register using this link. Find me as an ambassador and follow my profile – Mansi Jain – to receive regular support and guidance.

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