Core Revision
PLAB 1 · Core Resources
PLAB 1 Core Resources
The GMC’s own pages, the standards the exam is written around, and the free practice the GMC publishes — in one calm place, so you can spend your energy revising rather than searching.
Straight from the source
PLAB 1 is run by the General Medical Council. It is a written applied knowledge test of 180 multiple-choice questions answered in three hours; each question is a short clinical scenario with five possible answers, and you choose one. Everything below is the GMC’s own material — start here, and let third-party summaries come second.
What PLAB 1 is and how it works
The GMC explains the format, the level (conditions seen by a doctor in their second foundation year, including the emergency department and long-term conditions in primary care), and that answers should follow current UK best practice rather than local arrangements.
What is the PLAB 1 exam? — General Medical Council
Dates, venues and booking
Where and when PLAB 1 runs, how to book a place, and what to do if you need to cancel or change a booking. Fees and dates change, so check them on the day you book.
When and where can I take PLAB 1? · Booking a place · GMC fees
The GMC’s sample questions
A set of 85 example questions with an answer sheet, published by the GMC in December 2024 and based on the MLA content map. Sit them under timed conditions once you have covered the content — they show the style and pitch better than anything else.
PLAB 1 sample questions — General Medical Council
PLAB and the Medical Licensing Assessment
PLAB meets the requirements of the MLA that UK graduates sit, so the same content map applies to both.
PLAB and the MLA requirements — General Medical Council
What the GMC says to revise from
The GMC’s own preparation page points to a short list. These are the sources the questions are built on.
The MLA content map
Every topic and skill PLAB 1 can test, grouped by area of clinical practice and presentation. Use it to find your blind spots; our PLAB question bank is organised the same way.
MLA content map — General Medical Council
Good medical practice
The GMC expects you to show these professional standards in the exam — consent, confidentiality, raising concerns and working with colleagues come up as clinical scenarios, not as essays.
Good medical practice — General Medical Council · Professional standards in action
The UK Foundation Programme curriculum
The GMC says the content map matches what is expected of a doctor starting the second year of UK foundation training — a useful check on the level.
Foundation Programme curriculum — UK Foundation Programme
Welcome to UK practice
The GMC’s free case studies on how practice works in the UK — worth an evening if you trained elsewhere.
Welcome to UK practice — General Medical Council
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries
Not on the GMC’s list, but the clearest free statement of current UK management for common conditions — the “current UK best practice” the GMC asks for.
cks.nice.org.uk — NICE
Your Core Revision toolkit
Everything on this site built for PLAB 1, in the order most people need it.
- PLAB 1 Question BankSingle-best-answer questions across the content map, with the reasoning on every answer.
- PLAB Core 10Ten focused minutes of questions a day.
- PLAB Core CompassSee where you actually are, and what to do next.
- PLAB Core LensSee each topic the way the exam frames it.
- PLAB Core CalendarA revision plan built around your exam date.
- PLAB mock exam180 questions in three hours, to practise the pace.
- PLAB Core ToolsInteractive tools for the topics that trip people up.
- PLAB Core WisdomArticles on the exam, the timeline and working in the NHS.
- Free PLAB 1 tasterTwenty questions to try first.