Reading Time = 4 minutes
Scores
- My score: 129/180 (71.66%)
- Passing score: 120/180 (66.66%)
.
Preparation Time
- 50 days
- 2 hours per day
Sources
- PLABABLE
- 1700 Questions
Preparation
I started my House Job (in medicine) in January and planned to give my exam in March. It took me 15 days to adjust to the routine of the House Job and begin studying. I studied for approximately 50 days and only 2 hours a day. My only source was PLABABLE online question bank. I did approximately 50-100 questions with explanations a day. When I realised I was running out of time I just started doing a whole subject per day. I read the explanations for each question thoroughly and went through some of the topic notes on the website. I never opened the links given at the end of each question because I felt I wouldn’t have time. I completed PLABABLE by the end of February and I did 4 mocks. I scored 90%+ on each mock with 1 hour 30 mins left to spare each time.
After that, I went through some subjects on plabable for a second time (not all subjects). In March, I started 1700 questions of which I could only complete 1200 questions. I felt that it had a lot of repeated questions, questions that were better explained on PLABABLE.
Exam Day
On the actual exam day, I couldn’t manage my time. Lots of questions were extremely tricky and I was confused between 2 options. The stems were longer than PLABABLE’s and they had given lab values with each question; this increased the time you spent reading the question. So in my first go, I left approximately 80-90 questions. But since I had spent a long time on those questions which I left unsolved even after pondering upon them, I ran out of time. I did not realise at the time that I had left so many unsolved. When I had gone through 180 questions, I only had 30 minutes remaining and I started panicking since I wasn’t even sure how many questions I had left unsolved. I just started solving them without thinking too much and just going with my gut feeling.
I left approximately 40 questions unsolved because I couldn’t manage my time.
I was sure that I was going to fail. However, since I had spent a lot of time on each question I was sure that I had about 125 correct answers. Thankfully the pass mark was 120 and I barely made it with 129/180.
So I think along with plabable, time management is the most important thing for PLAB 1. And it really seems like you’re going to fail after you come out of the exam hall but most people end up passing. So do not worry too much. I left 40 questions and still passed.
