What is PLAB ?

The PLAB test is relevant for international medical graduates.

Those who wish to take up a period of limited registration (which you can do only if you are in supervised employment) and who need evidence that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to practise medicine in the UK.

The PLAB test is designed to test ones ability to work safely in a first appointment as a senior house officer in a UK hospital in the National Health Service (NHS).

Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board test

The Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board test (PLAB) is the assessment procedure conducted by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom that is required for overseas doctors outside the European Union before they can practice medicine in the UK.

The PLAB test has 2 parts:

Has EMQs (extended matching questions) and SBAs (Single Best Answer questions), This part is conducted in a number of countries including Egypt (Cairo), India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.

Part 2 : Consists of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). This Part is available only in United Kingdom. It consists of 14 clinical stations, a pilot station and a rest station. The pilot station is usually unannounced and mixed with the clinical stations. The marks for the pilot station do not count towards the final score. All the stations are of five minutes duration. The level of difficulty of the clinical part of the PLAB exam is set at the level of competence of a senior house officer (SHO) in a first appointment in a UK hospital. The skills assessed in this exam are: clinical examination, practical skills, communication skills, and history taking.

Useful things to buy during medical school

The following is a brief list of some of the things I think have been useful and worth their money in my first two years of med school:

1. Large, widescreen computer monitor. The volume of information required to internalize during the preclinical years of medical school can’t be compiled and organized on paper. You would end up with bookshelves filled with those gigantic 4″ binders. Therefore, almost everything happens on a laptop. Of course, the advantages of portability afforded by laptops are offset by the tiny screen size. Plugging into an external, gigantic screen when at home is a huge advantage. You can actually see what you need to be looking at. It’s brighter and generally has better resolution. More important, the additional real estate allows you to have multiple windows open side-by-side so you can take notes in one and look at material or watch videos in the other.
2. Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease. One of our professors once said, “You could lock a med student in a basement for two years with a copy of Robbins and they would come out and not miss a question on Step 1.” A single textbook doesn’t exist for medical school, but this one pretty much covers everything you need to know in the first two years. Unfortunately, Robbins often goes into too much detail, but it is the best reference book for anything during the preclinical years. This is a required book for any med student.

3. Smartphone. If for nothing else, to keep track of your email and schedule. I don’t know exactly how much email I get in a given day, but it’s a lot. Being able to check these emails anytime without sitting down at a computer is a huge advantage. The other thing smartphones are getting better and better at is on-the-go studying. I can pull up a set of anatomy flashcards while I’m waiting for a meeting to start and quickly hit high-yield information. You can also use it for quick reference while in the clinics — either to teach yourself about a condition/medication relating to a patient or help out your preceptor/attending (be careful with this one, though, they might not appreciate your help).

4. A decent stethoscope. The key word here is “decent.” Get one better than the base model, but don’t go out and drop $500 on an electronic cardiology stethoscope — (1) you’ll look like an idiot, (2) it’s not worth it at this point and (3) you’ll probably lose it at some point. A good quality stethoscope will help tremendously, both in terms of hearing what you’re supposed to be hearing and comfort.

5. A good bed. You may not get a lot of sleep, so what you do get you want to be very good.

6. Question and review books. Hundreds of question and review books exist. Some advise med students against getting any of these until they are actually preparing for Step 1. The fear is two-fold:

1. Students will use review books as a primary source for studying and miss out on some of the nuance provided by studying actual textbooks or materials from professors.
2. Students will become too focused on prep Step 1 and look past the fact that they need to focus on their current courses and pass them.

Both risks are very real for students. However, review books and question books can effectively be incorporated into normal test prep during coursework in Year 1 and 2. The benefit of using these tools in your preparation for regular course tests is that you become familiar with these materials before you begin your arduous Step 1 preparation. Also, many of the review books contain very helpful mnemonics and tools for memorizing complicated pathways or concepts. Instead of wasting time coming up with your own, often inferior, memorization tools you can use some of the most effective ones from previous students. But don’t fall into the aforementioned traps — study primary materials first and only use these as your last bit of review/self-testing before an exam.

7. A good anatomy atlas. I think it’s important to have a true anatomy atlas, meaning one that is simply labeled pictures/diagrams. Several anatomy texts exist that are a combination textbook and atlas. I generally don’t like these because I find the text only functions to make the book thicker and makes finding the diagram you want difficult.

8 . Not over-paying for med school. A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed physicians who went to med school at US News & World Report Top 10 research or primary care medical schools did not perform any better on quality measures than their peers who went to less prestigious institutions. Med school debt is bad enough, don’t exacerbate the problem.

101 Things You Wish You Knew Before Starting Medical School

Simple enough, here are 101 things you wish you knew before starting medical school.

1. If I had known what it was going to be like, I would never have done it.
2. You’ll study more than you ever have in your life.
3. Only half of your class will be in the top 50%. You have a 50% chance of being in the top half of your class. Get used to it now.
4. You don’t need to know anatomy before school starts. Or pathology. Or physiology.
5. Third year rotations will suck the life out you.
6. Several people from your class will have sex with each other. You might be one of the lucky participants.
7. You may discover early on that medicine isn’t for you.
8. You don’t have to be AOA or have impeccable board scores to match somewhere – only if you’re matching into radiology.
9. Your social life may suffer some.
10. Pelvic exams are teh suck.
11. You won’t be a medical student on the surgery service. You’ll be the retractor bitch.
12. Residents will probably ask you to retrieve some type of nourishment for them.
13. Most of your time on rotations will be wasted. Thrown away. Down the drain.
14. You’ll work with at least one attending physician who you’ll want to beat the shit out of.
15. You’ll work with at least three residents who you’ll want to beat the shit out of.
16. You’ll ask a stranger about the quality of their stools.
17. You’ll ask post-op patients if they’ve farted within the last 24 hours.
18. At some point during your stay, a stranger’s bodily fluids will most likely come into contact with your exposed skin.
19. Somebody in your class will flunk out of medical school.
20. You’ll work 14 days straight without a single day off. Probably multiple times.
21. A student in your class will have sex with an attending or resident.
22. After the first two years are over, your summer breaks will no longer exist. Enjoy them as much as you can.
23. You’ll be sleep deprived.
24. There will be times on certain rotations where you won’t be allowed to eat.
25. You will be pimped.
26. You’ll wake up one day and ask yourself is this really what you want out of life.
27. You’ll party a lot during the first two years, but then that pretty much ends at the beginning of your junior year.
28. You’ll probably change your specialty of choice at least 4 times.
29. You’ll spend a good deal of your time playing social worker.
30. You’ll learn that medical insurance reimbursement is a huge problem, particularly for primary care physicians.
31. Nurses will treat you badly, simply because you are a medical student.
32. There will be times when you’ll be ignored by your attending or resident.
33. You will develop a thick skin. If you fail to do this, you’ll cry often.
34. Public humiliation is very commonplace in medical training.
35. Surgeons are assholes. Take my word for it now.
36. OB/GYN residents are treated like shit, and that shit runs downhill. Be ready to pick it up and sleep with it.
37. It’s always the medical student’s fault.
38. Gunner is a derogatory word. It’s almost as bad as racial slurs.
39. You’ll look forward to the weekend, not so you can relax and have a good time but so you can catch up on studying for the week.
40. Your house might go uncleaned for two weeks during an intensive exam block.
41. As a medical student on rotations, you don’t matter. In fact, you get in the way and impede productivity.
42. There’s a fair chance that you will be physically struck by a nurse, resident, or attending physician. This may include slapped on the hand or kicked on the shin in order to instruct you to “move” or “get out of the way.”
43. Any really bad procedures will be done by you. The residents don’t want to do them, and you’re the low man on the totem pole. This includes rectal examinations and digital disimpactions.
44. You’ll be competing against the best of the best, the cream of the crop. This isn’t college where half of your classmates are idiots. Everybody in medical school is smart.
45. Don’t think that you own the world because you just got accepted into medical school. That kind of attitude will humble you faster than anything else.
46. If you’re in it for the money, there are much better, more efficient ways to make a living. Medicine is not one of them.
47. Anatomy sucks. All of the bone names sound the same.
48. If there is anything at all that you’d rather do in life, do not go into medicine.
49. The competition doesn’t end after getting accepted to medical school. You’ll have to compete for class rank, awards, and residency. If you want to do a fellowship, you’ll have to compete for that too.
50. You’ll never look at weekends the same again.
51. VA hospitals suck. Most of them are old, but the medical records system is good.
52. Your fourth year in medical school will be like a vacation compared to the first three years. It’s a good thing too, because you’ll need one.
53. Somebody in your class will be known as the “highlighter whore.” Most often a female, she’ll carry around a backpack full of every highlighter color known to man. She’ll actually use them, too.
54. Rumors surrounding members of your class will spread faster than they did in high school.
55. You’ll meet a lot of cool people, many new friends, and maybe your husband or wife.
56. No matter how bad your medical school experience was at times, you’ll still be able to think about the good times. Kind of like how I am doing right now.
57. Your first class get-together will be the most memorable. Cherish those times.
58. Long after medical school is over, you’ll still keep in contact with the friends you made. I do nearly every day.
59. Gunners always sit in the front row. This rule never fails. However, not everyone who sits in the front row is a gunner.
60. There will be one person in your class who’s the coolest, most laid back person you’ve ever met. This guy will sit in the back row and throw paper airplanes during class, and then blow up with 260+ Step I’s after second year. True story.
61. At the beginning of first year, everyone will talk about how cool it’s going to be to help patients. At the end of third year, everybody will talk about how cool it’s going to be to make a lot of money.
62. Students who start medical school wanting to do primary care end up in dermatology. Those students who start medical school wanting to do dermatology end up in family medicine.
63. Telling local girls at the bar that you’re a medical student doesn’t mean shit. They’ve been hearing that for years. Be more unique.
64. The money isn’t really that good in medicine. Not if you look at it in terms of hours worked.
65. Don’t wear your white coat into the gas station, or any other business that has nothing to do with you wearing a white coat. You look like an ass, and people do make fun of you.
66. Don’t round on patients that aren’t yours. If you round on another student’s patients, that will spread around your class like fire after a 10 year drought. Your team will think you’re an idiot too.
67. If you are on a rotation with other students, don’t bring in journal articles to share with the team “on the fly” without letting the other students know. This makes you look like a gunner, and nobody likes a gunner. Do it once, and you might as well bring in a new topic daily. Rest assured that your fellow students will just to show you up.
68. If you piss off your intern, he or she can make your life hell.
69. If your intern pisses you off, you can make his or her life hell.
70. Don’t try to work during medical school. Live life and enjoy the first two years.
71. Not participating in tons of ECs doesn’t hurt your chances for residency. Forget the weekend free clinic and play some Frisbee golf instead.
72. Don’t rent an apartment. If you can afford to, buy a small home instead. I saved $200 per month and had roughly $30,000 in equity by choosing to buy versus rent.
73. Your family members will ask you for medical advice, even after your first week of first year.
74. Many of your friends will go onto great jobs and fantastic lifestyles. You’ll be faced with 4 more years of debt and then at least 3 years of residency before you’ll see any real earning potential.
75. Pick a specialty based around what you like to do.
76. At least once during your 4 year stay, you’ll wonder if you should quit.
77. It’s amazing how fast time flies on your days off. It’s equally amazing at how slow the days are on a rotation you hate.
78. You’ll learn to be scared of asking for time off.
79. No matter what specialty you want to do, somebody on an unrelated rotation will hold it against you.
80. A great way to piss of attendings and residents are to tell them that you don’t plan to complete a residency.
81. Many of your rotations will require you to be the “vitals bitch.” On surgery, you’ll be the “retractor bitch.”
82. Sitting around in a group and talking about ethical issues involving patients is not fun.
83. If an attending or resident treats you badly, call them out on it. You can get away with far more than you think.
84. Going to class is generally a waste of time. Make your own schedule and enjoy the added free time.
85. Find new ways to study. The methods you used in college may or may not work. If something doesn’t work, adapt.
86. Hospitals smell bad.
87. Subjective evaluations are just that – subjective. They aren’t your end all, be all so don’t dwell on a poor evaluation. The person giving it was probably an asshole, anyway.
88. Some physicians will tell you it’s better than it really is. Take what you hear (both positive and negative) with a grain of salt.
89. 90% of surgeons are assholes, and 63% of statistics are made up. The former falls in the lucky 37%.
90. The best time of your entire medical school career is between the times when you first get your acceptance letter and when you start school.
91. During the summer before medical school starts, do not attempt to study or read anything remotely related to medicine. Take this time to travel and do things for you.
92. The residents and faculty in OB/GYN will be some of the most malignant personalities you’ve ever come into contact with.
93. Vaginal deliveries are messy. So are c-sections. It’s just an all-around blood fest if you like that sort of thing.
94. Despite what the faculty tell you, you don’t need all of the fancy equipment that they suggest for you to buy. All you need is a stethoscope. The other equipment they say you “need” is standard in all clinic and hospital exam rooms. If it’s not standard, your training hospital and clinics suck.
95. If your school has a note taking service, it’s a good idea to pony up the cash for it. It saves time and gives you the option of not attending lecture.
96. Medicine is better than being a janitor, but there were times when I envied the people cleaning the hospital trash cans.
97. Avoid surgery like the plague.
98. See above and then apply it to OB/GYN as well.
99. The money is good in medicine, but it’s not all that great especially considering the amount of time that you’ll have to work.
100. One time an HIV+ patient ripped out his IV and then “slung” his blood at the staff in the room. Go, go infectious disease.
101. Read Med School Hell now, throughout medical school, and then after you’re done. Then come back and tell me how right I am.

USMLE Step 1 Exam - 7 Tips For A Top USMLE Score

Studying for the USMLE Step 1 exam is serious business, and we are now in a time where there are more applicants than there are available residency positions, so there is absolutely no room for error in preparing for it thoroughly. It's true, there are almost twice as many people applying for residency today than there are available positions, so students should no longer be striving to simply "pass" the exam and go into a primary care field, because even the simplest residency programs to get into are now extremely competitive.


Because of the increasing difficulty in attaining a residency and the direct relationship between getting interviews and a good Step 1 score, I am going to share seven tips that I believe can help anybody do well on the USMLE exam, even if you are not a strong test-taker.


My seven tips for an outstanding Step 1 score are:


#1 - Start thinking USMLE from day 1 of med school



Get into the mindset from day 1 that you are preparing for the boards, because the sooner you set your mind for it's preparation the sooner you will start to absorb the appropriate material.


#2 - Class time = USMLE prep time



Pay close attention throughout your courses and pay extra attention to anything that your professors say is "high-yield", because they have been there already and they know what is likely to be on the exam. Take notes and develop your own process for marking the high-yield stuff that comes up in your classes.


#3 - Give the USMLE 1 hour every week from the start



If you are taking the right steps and making notes consistently for the Step 1 then you should have an ever-growing set of USMLE notes. Every week, take only 1 hour and sit and study your USMLE-specific notes, which will help you to absorb the high-yield information over time and this will ultimately help you best prepare.


#4 - Combine your class notes with your study guide notes



Something I didn't do but I wish I had done was get a USMLE Step 1 study guide from day 1 and bring it to all my classes. I had friends who did this and it helped them tremendously, and the only thing you need to do is jot down class information that comes up that is discussed in your study guide. This helps you to add more depth to the high-yield topics mentioned in the study guide and this ultimately gives you an even better study guide in the long-run.


#5 - Do a question bank from day 1



Starting a question bank from the beginning of your med school days is a great way to learn how to take standardized exam questions as well as a great way to help you prepare for your classes. Be sure to work through the qbanks slowly and take great notes along the way, as these will come in handy closer to your Step 1 exam date.


#6 - Create 3 sets of notes for the USMLE



Studying simply from a pre-written study guide is a fast way to a mediocre score, so instead of that you want to create 3 sets of study notes for your USMLE prep. First, you need to create notes straight from your classes which are your most in-depth set of study notes, secondly you need a set of notes mentioned in #4 which is more high-yield in nature, and third you need a thorough set of notes taken from your question bank. These three are a killer combination and will help you do very well on your exam.


#7 - Treat your USMLE preparation like a job



This test is tough, so approach it as if it was a job, giving it plenty of dedicated attention. When you are done with your 1st and 2nd year courses, create a schedule for studying and stick to it firmly, as you need to study intensely and consistently for a few weeks in order to get a top score.

Need to Prepare for USMLE

Admit it, in medical school, you have to juggle between lecture, classes, laboratories, and your personal and social life, such that you most probably review for a major examination a week or a day before the of test. And every time you gather with your colleagues, you huddle together and do a post-mortem of the test questions, right? In your mind, there's a small voice saying "You could have done better if you prepared properly." Then you start promising yourself that the next time will be different, but you only repeat the same process over and over again.


If you pass your medical school examinations, that means you have the capacity for memory retention, right? If you allocated enough time to your USMLE review, you could be at the top of the class, right? When your professors remind you to prepare for a test - then by all means, a medical student should be prepared. Why? Because you will later on deal with actual diseases and diagnoses, and prescribe actual medical or surgical interventions to real patients!


A medical student should never go to class unprepared, the same way that the doctor should never enter the =patient's room without proper training.
Have you heard the old saying, "What you sow today, you reap tomorrow?" Indeed, where you invest your time now as a medical student will define the physician that you are tomorrow.


With the fast evolution of technology, the information printed on your textbook (three years out of date, on average) may have changed, and what better way to prepare yourself for the medical board examinations than to do some serious USMLE review.


You can always study on your own with books open, but when help is available to give you the proper preparation to secure the next 25 years of your medical career, wouldn't you grab that chance? Here are several reasons why you should participate in a formal or informal, up-to-date, rigorous, USMLE review while you can:

1. It took you time, energy and money to complete your medical school application requirements and to pass the MCAT exam.
2. Both you and your parents have spent countless amounts of time, energy, and money for all the academic requirements asked of you (you can't make it to medical school without some sort of support structure).
3. If you belong to a family of physicians, failing on the USMLE Step 1 could make for some uncomfortable moments at family gatherings.
4. It would be far from impossible not to bump into one of your medical school classmates and see them wearing their scrubs and white coats while you struggle to walk faster so they will not recognize you.
5. Being left behind in medical school and starting all over again with the class below you is a little embarassing.
6. If you don't have the necessary good study habits to survive USMLE, just ask someone else for a little help. There is no embarassment there. Help can come in the form of a supporting community of student doctors, a formal USMLE review course, or an informal USMLE review with friends and classmates.

Some of the above situations are the worst case scenario. But all of the problems with USMLE exams can be prevented with the right study habits. Passing any academic examination all depends on one word: review. USMLE review will prepare you for the rigors of the exam. A regimented USMLE review can actually help you improve 20-40 percent on your previous USMLE (NBME test) scores. Don't get stuck revisiting the past and asking "What went wrong" when you could have taken a comprehensive USMLE review from the start.

USMLE Review and 5 Vital Study Techniques

When is an examination considered difficult? Just like any aspect of your medical education, the word "difficult" is subjective. An examination will be considered difficult when you lack the necessary preparation and review you need in order to pass a specific academic test.


Just like every academic test integrated in your medical education, you always need preparation. If you did not prepare, a moderately difficult examination will become very difficult. And the ease or difficulty of these tests will rely almost entirely upon your study techniques.


Furthermore, your study techniques will define how you will be able to retain necessary information to answer all the questions on your USMLE. The USMLE is a three-part licensing examination for medical students. Of course, you must pass all your academic examinations. And most of all, you must pass all the steps of USMLE.


Most medical students will participate in some form of a USMLE review program. For some, an online course best fits their needs, while others may choose a live or audio review. This USMLE review will play a major part in your passing or failing the examination. What happened if you did not prepare adequately on any test? You can expect either a failing score or a score that does not satisfy your expectations.


A USMLE Review usually consists of highly efficient medical doctors and specialists teaching material in a way that you, the student, can understand. These instructors should be fully equipped with the necessary credentials and training to facilitate a review of medical knowledge and adequately assist medical students in passing the USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2 CK, USMLE Step 2 CS or USMLE Step 3. However, if you don't utilize proper study techniques, even if the best specialists personally teach you in a USMLE Review, all will come to naught.


What specific study techniques can be helpful in conjunction with a formal or informal USMLE Review? Below are some helpful tips:

1. You should not overestimate your capabilities no matter how good your grades in your medical academic subjects.
2. You should put in mind that from the very first day you decided to take up medical education, preparation will always be a vital function you will need as a medical student.
3. The USMLE is not an easy examination but the degree of the ease or difficulty will be defined by how adequate or inadequate your preparation is.
4. You must define your goal in terms of passing the USMLE. Without any goal, your actions will have no direction.
5. You should be able to clearly set your goal and set specific actions to achieving the goal. It is also helpful to pick a specific score you want to achieve in the USMLE review tests as well as the actual USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2 CK, USMLE Step 2 CS and USMLE Step 3. This will further help you find appropriate initiative to achieve your objectives.

Preparation involves planning, and planning involves setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bounded objectives. Without these objectives, the actions you need to take will be more difficult to define, and the outcome of those actions will be uncertain. Remember that perparing for the USMLE is like implementing a treatment for the patient. Without knowledge of what your goals of treatment are, you are at a loss as to what should be the prescription.