MedExamHelperExam-format guides by country
How to use this guide
This pillar covers the exam formats the platform currently supports: UKMLA-style assessment for UK candidates, and the PLAB route for international medical graduates.
Each section follows the same shape: who runs the assessment, who can sit it, the format on the day, and the marking. The format details are at the level you need to plan revision. The marking details are the level that decides what you practise.
If you are sitting more than one of these assessments, read the section on each. The formats look similar on the surface and test very different things. The format you revise towards is the format the examiner will mark.
UKMLA-style assessment (UK)
The Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA, often called the UKMLA) has two parts: an applied knowledge test (AKT) and a clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA). Both are built on the GMC's MLA content map.
Who runs it. The General Medical Council. The published content map is the blueprint for both parts.
Who sits it. UK medical students must pass the MLA, along with their university's requirements, to graduate. International medical graduates take PLAB, which is MLA-compliant.
Format. The AKT tests whether you can apply medical knowledge to clinical situations, rather than recall isolated facts. The CPSA tests what you do with patients: history, examination, communication, reasoning and professional behaviour.
What to read next. The GMC's published content map, in full, before you book any revision product. Anything that does not map to the content map is doing the wrong work for you.
PLAB route (UK)
The PLAB route is the established route to UK practice for international medical graduates. PLAB 1 is a written MCQ paper. PLAB 2 is a practical OSCE. The GMC has made PLAB MLA-compliant: PLAB 1 meets the applied knowledge test requirements and PLAB 2 meets the clinical and professional skills assessment requirements.
Who runs it. The General Medical Council.
Who can sit it. International medical graduates whose primary medical qualification is accepted by the GMC, and who have passed the English language requirement.
Format on the day. PLAB 1 is a single sitting of MCQs mapped to the published blueprint. PLAB 2 is a single day of OSCE stations covering history, examination, communication, and procedural skills.
Marking. Criterion-referenced at a single pass mark. The blueprint is published; the pass mark is set after each sitting using a standard-setting method.
What to read next. The GMC's PLAB blueprint, the eligibility checker, and the sample questions. Then a revision plan built around the blueprint, not around a general medical finals syllabus. See doctor job hunting in the UK? The exams come first for the order-of-operations that turns a passed PLAB into a UK post.
Choosing your first exam, and stacking them
The order you sit matters. Eligibility is the upstream gate; job application is the downstream delivery. Most candidates do better by treating the exam as the project plan and the job application as the result, not the other way around.
UK medical students sit the MLA as part of their degree. International medical graduates take PLAB 1 and then PLAB 2; a passed PLAB 2 is one of the steps to GMC registration.
Where this pillar sits
This page is the hub for the P5 exam-format cluster. The other pillars complete the picture: complete OSCE station library for the case bank behind each format, how to pass the viva for the spoken component, and the med-school study system that actually sticks for the schedule that gets you through revision.