I will share why I think PLAB 2 is one of the easiest exams in the world.
I did not study hard for PLAB 2. But I still got a high score of 155/216. In my opinion, knowledge and clinical skills do not matter a lot in PLAB 2. Kindness, confidence and good communication skills matter more than anything else.
The scoring criteria judges us for 3 different skills:
A) History taking (4 marks)
B) Management (4 marks)
C) Interpersonal skills (4 marks)
Since passing scores are only around 50%, you only need to score 6 out of 12 in each station to pass.
A) Even if you mess your history taking, you will still ask something, so you will still score at least 1 or 2 out of history taking.
B) Unless you make any blunders in your management, even if you make mistakes, you will still score at least 1 or 2 out of 4.
C) As long as you are nice to the patients and communicate well, you will score 4 out of 4 in interpersonal skills.
Thus, even if you mess up any stations, you will still score 6 to 8 out of 12 and pass your bad stations.
As long as you do well, you can score 10 to 12 out of 12 in other stations.
Therefore, as long as you are nice, confident and communicate well, it can be very difficult to fail PLAB 2.
Thanks
Thank you for your kind words! And thank you for visiting the blog! 🙂
Thank you doctor.
Is it important to register in an academy before plab 2 ? I mean we already have pretty good knowledge.
There are example of people who have passed PLAB 2 without registering at any academy. One such example is of Dr. Maged Hassan. Here is his experience:
https://naseersjourney.com/2017/02/26/maged-hassans-plab-2-experience/
However, it becomes difficult to pass the exam without attending an academy course. And I would never advise anyone to not attend the academy.
The academy makes us familiar with the exam setting and teaches us exactly what we need for the exam. This can be difficult to learn otherwise. Remember that the exam checks our behavior, attitude, body language, etiquettes and manner more than our knowledge and skills.
Thanks Dr. But I noticed that you left out the procedural stations. That is the ones where you don’t take history or interact with any patients. How’s d scoring like then? Thanks
There are no stations where we don’t interact with a patient/simulator. Even the stations where we perform examinations or procedures, there is some form of history and/or management. 🙂
Thanks a lot for ur nice & helping post,
here i have a question.
If i miss/get less mark in any station due to lack of time/others causes,
is it possible to pass by scoring a good score in others stations?
Yes, it is still possible to pass PLAB 2. We only need to pass 11 stations and clear the cut off score. That is the point I tried to make in this post.
Hello Dr Naseer! I just want to know which academy would you recommend to join for PLAB 2 – Dr Swamy’s or Samsun ? I have heard more of Dr Swamy’s. I stay in London. So Samsun suits me but if you say that joining Dr Swamy’s better then I can do that. Please guide me. Thanks in advance.
Dr. Naseer does it matter if someone has no one to practice with, except mirror or objects.
This isn’t ideal but I’m sure people have passed like this.
Dear Dr Khan,
I am full of praise for you for this wonderful website, but looking at the 19 days preparation you recommended for PLAB 2, do you think that is still feasible because in your time, there were only about one third of the stations that they have now, today there are about 260 stations, please can you kindly through more light.
Thank you so much Dr.
At present, it is ideal to have 6 weeks of prep after the course. All the best! 🙂
Dear Dr. Naseer Khan
Thank you for every single advice you are offering us.
My question regards the internship year required for applying to a full registration in the UK.
I got my MD degree outside my home country and in order to register in my home country i’m enrolled in a 12 months internship program(6 months of surgery and 6 months of medicine rotations) . Unpaid .
Will the fact that it is unpaid affect my journey to residency in the UK ?
Thank you for your time
The internship being unpaid will not cause any issues. Do not worry. All the best! 🙂
Dear Dr. Khan and wonderful path mates,
I am super glad to inform you that i havr just received my PLAB 2 results. I PASSED!
I cleared PLAB 1 on October 5, 2019 and I cannot speak enough how much this blog had enormously helped me in my PLAB 1 preparation. I believe I spread my PLAB 1 experience in a post that Dr. Khan gratefully posted.
After an extensive search on the best academy, best resources and best methodologies for PLAB 2 preparation, Dr. Khan’s advices and recommendations, again, have served as another point of departure to my PLAB 2 journey.
I began the journey on November 22, 2018 taking a course at one of the academies in Manchester. I found the course satisfactory for an exam that runs at the FY2 level. However, while preparing for the exam, i focused on the three domains, Dr. Khan emphasized in his initial post, Data Gathering, Management, and IP Skills. I realized that to pass any station, i have to touch upon every domain, rather than emphasizing one and overlooking the others.
I ended up passing 16 stations and scoring 158/216.
From the deepest of my heart, Thank You very much, Dr. Khan for your support and help throughout my PLAB journey.
Anonymous PLABer!