PLAB ONGOING JOURNEY OF A MOMMY

(Specially for the mommies out there and fellows with clinical gaps)

I recently passed my PLAB1 exam in May 2021 in first attempt with good marks. I was approached by many people for the steps I took and material I used to prepare for PLAB1 exam. To answer their queries I thought I should write about It to help those who are in need of help or in some cases have lost the hope due to their career gaps and other unforeseeable reasons. I’d say if you have a clear objective to pursue this profession, then with out any hesitation or doubt give your best and success will be at your door step.

I received my final year result when I was about to go for my caesarean section and luckily I had passed my MBBS degree. After the birth of my son, I couldn’t do my house job right away however, after 6 months I started my House job and completed by the end of 2016. In 2017, we as a family moved to Saudi Arabia and I couldn’t practice there since I had my daughter born by that time, hence the gap between my graduation and my job kept increasing. In 2020, we had moved to Qatar and I started looking for countries where career gap was not an issue.

UK became a natural choice since their requirement is to pass the PLAB1 and PLAB2 exams and there are a lot of job opportunities overall in UK for the doctors. To sit the PLAB1 exam, passing an English exam is a pre-requisite, so I started preparing for my IELTs exam. I did a preparation of 1 month and appeared for IELTS exam and couldn’t get the desired results in writing section. Moving forward, I decided to take OET exam instead of IELTS since it is more suitable for Medical professionals. Since OET didn’t have any exam center in Qatar where I am currently living so I booked my exam in Pakistan. It was the peak of pandemic back in November 2020 and traveling was a big risk. Anyhow my husband and kids were on board with me and we took that risk and Alhamdullilah (Praise be to Allah) I got my required scores.

(OET VS IELTS) this is another important topic which I will discuss in detail in another post separately. We came back and with a great hope I started looking for dates for PLAB-1. Due to pandemic, I had fair idea that Its going to be difficult as seats were not available at all I used to login many times in a day to book my seat.

Due to Covid-19, Although PLAB1 exam bookings were being cancelled but still seats were very difficult to get and I was targeting for the month of August’21. However, I was lucky to get a seat in May’21, the location I got was Dubai. This was possible after so many attempts to book the test on GMC website. Although when I opted for Dubai, Dubai Qatar relations were getting normal after a 3 year blockade and it was uncertain about how Visa would be processed and what would be my travel trajectory given the worsening conditions in pandemic. Despite all this, I had my test booked and it was time to get my preparation done as soon as possible.

I had no clue from where to start as I had such a long gap between my graduation and my PLAB1 test and didn’t study in between so I watched videos on YouTube for guidance. I started doing questions notes titled “1700 Questions by Dr. Khalid”. I wasn’t satisfied with the explanations since they didn’t help me make the concepts and some answers were incorrect. Next, I bought subscription of PLABABLE which is a known and reliable source with some good recommendations. In parallel, I also got hold of PLAB-Keys and made a study plan which covered both PLABABLE domains and PLAB-Keys. My approach was to go through the PLAB-Keys first and then do the same domain from PLABABLE. For example, If I did respiratory section from Plab-Keys1 on Sunday and Monday, I’d do the Respiratory Domain From PLABABLE on Tuesday and Wednesday. While going through the questions, I read the explanations from PLABABLE and PLAB-Keys and made my notes.I flagged the questions as I was moving on with my prep.In addition to this, I also watched YouTube videos for certain topics which required further clarifications. Once I completed my PLABABLE domains and PLAB-Keys, it was time to go through my notes.

Quick scan of my notes made me believe that I should go through the PLABABLE one more time, so I started it again but this time a little quickly.After my second read I was just left with 2 weeks.So, I did flagged questions and their explanations. One important thing which made me confident was going through GEMS from PLABABLE. When I was going through my second read of PLABABLE I started its mocks.After every mock test, I’d review the questions which I got wrong and improve where ever my concepts required further clarity. I took total of 9 mocks and my results was around 78% at the start which improved up to 85% by 9th mock exam. Now my exam was just 1 week away and I had to travel during these days also. I started revising my notes again and again as I couldn’t help myself in that tense situation.

I made a study plan and followed it which gave me a bit of confidence and I felt ready for the exam. However as the days of exam were getting closer a natural gush of anxiety would take me over. On exam day, I had mix feelings, and I was a bit worried since the next few hours were crucial and I had come this far despite all odds. The exam centre was fine and seating arrangement was as per the Covid-19 guidelines. During those 3 hours, I don’t know what was happening around me I was trying to stay ahead of time so was reading fast.Some questions were easy so didnt take much time and others were a bit time taking.At the end I was able to finish 15 min earlier and then I had time to go back do questions which I left due to confusion.

Exam Day Tips:

1. Rest well the night before the exam so you are fresh and able to focus during the exam.
2. Take a water bottle with you, but don’t over-hydrate yourself on the exam day as you won’t have time for toilet breaks in between as time is very short.
3. Keep an eye on the time and increase or decrease your pace to solve questions accordingly.
4. Stay focused on the question which is right in front of you don’t confuse your mind with whatever you had done in previous question.
5. Read and understand the question before answering it
6. Fill the bubbles on your answer sheet as you go if you are sure about your answer and leave those you are not sure about. Just mark them and move on.
7. If a question requires calculation leave it for last.
8. Try to save 15 min at least for the end so that you can go through your marked questions easily.
9. Last and most important point is believing in yourself and have faith because you can do this.

I wish best of luck to all those who are planning to go for plab and I am planning to update everyone with my ongoing journey as I am heading towards Plab 2 exam.

Last year and even this year has been very hard for everyone. It really was a matter of survival for most of us but it hit even harder on those like me who were looking forward to start their career after a long break. Starting from prep of English competency exams either IELTS or OET and then booking of seats has been a marathon itself. Cherry on the top was cancellation of exams and of course traveling in this pandemic with kids has never been an easy decision to opt.Now here I am writing to my best abilities to just motivate those like me and those who have lost hope due to any reason.

Please feel free to reach me at dr.moiza1[@]gmail.com for any queries related to your PLAB or OET/IELTS journey.