Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, all final year medical students in UK medical schools, including Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed), have to take the UK Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA) as part of their medical degree before graduating. The UKMLA has 2 parts, the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) and the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA).
Currently, all medical graduates from non-UK medical schools, with the exception of NUMed graduates and graduates with a relevant European qualification, have to take the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) in order to apply for provisional or full registration with the UK General Medical Council (GMC) and practise Medicine in UK. The PLAB has 2 parts, PLAB 1 and PLAB 2. Starting from 2024, PLAB 1 is aligned with the UKMLA AKT while PLAB 2 is aligned with the UKMLA CPSA.
The UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1 are in the form of a Single Best Answer (SBA) examination. For each question, there are 5 options and you have to choose the most appropriate option. The questions may include images.
I got a score of 75.5% for my final year SBA examination in July 2020. I completed my medical degree at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) and subsequently worked as a Teaching Fellow there. Here, I would like to share some tips for passing the UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1. I am writing the tips based on how I revised for the exam previously. However, different individuals may have different learning styles, so you should just take this as a guide.
You have to start your revision no less than 2 months before the UKMLA or PLAB. I recommend studying at least 5 hours per day on weekdays and 7 hours per day on weekends and holidays. If possible, you should revise every day. To pass the exam, you should aim for a score of at least 65%. If you do not understand any topic when doing revision, ask a lecturer or a friend for further clarification.
All specialties will be covered in the UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1, including:
- Internal Medicine
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- Paediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Surgery
- Trauma and Orthopaedics
- Ophthalmology
- ENT
- Dermatology
When revising, I recommend going specialty by specialty. Finish all topics in a particular specialty before moving on to the next specialty. Your focus when doing revision should be on risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnosis, investigations, management and complications. You should complete at least 4 full rounds of revision for all topics if possible.
Medicine should be studied mainly through understanding, not memorising. Basically, for every fact you come across in your revision, try to think "Why is this the case?" If there is an explanation, read it and make sure you understand what it says. If there is no explanation, try to come up with your own explanation based on your knowledge. Even if your explanation is wrong, it does not really matter as the exam questions will not ask for the explanation. You can also look up the internet for an explanation. The fact is that, when you actively seek an explanation for a fact, you will end up remembering the fact much better and your revision will also become more interesting. This is so much more effective than simply memorising the facts. However, do note that not everything can be studied this way. Certain facts have no possible explanation at all, so the only way to study them is by memorising.
You do not need to memorise the normal range of values for investigations as it will be provided in the questions during the UKMLA AKT or PLAB 1. You also need not memorise the doses of medications apart from very commonly used ones.
The most important revision resource for the UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1 is the textbooks. I recommend using the following textbooks for each specialty:
Internal Medicine - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (11th Edition)
Ophthalmology, ENT, Dermatology, Trauma and Orthopaedics - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties (11th Edition)
Surgery - Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (11th Edition) and Surgical Talk (3rd Edition)
Psychiatry - Psychiatry by Ten Teachers (2nd Edition), Psychiatry - A Clinical Handbook and ICD-11
Obstetrics and Gynaecology - Obstetrics & Gynaecology by Lawrence Impey & Tim Child (5th Edition)
Paediatrics - Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics (6th Edition)
These textbooks are not essential for the UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1 but may be helpful to refer to if you are looking for some specific information:
Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine, Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine, Apley and Solomon's Concise System of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Robbins Basic Pathology, Underwood's Pathology, Rang and Dale's Pharmacology
You need to know the latest clinical guidelines. Important guidelines are those covered in the textbooks, and you should look up the internet for the most up-to-date version of those guidelines. For obstetrics and gynaecology, use NICE and RCOG Green-top guidelines. For asthma, use BTS guidelines. For other conditions, use NICE guidelines. Take note of the publication date of each textbook and focus on guidelines released or updated after the textbook's publication date. However, do not spend too much time on the guidelines, as it is more important that you revise the textbooks and understand the facts.
You should do practice SBA exam questions. Start doing practice questions after you have completed at least 1 full round of revision of the textbooks. Go through all practice questions on the Medical Schools Council and PLAB websites and those provided by your lecturers. Apart from that, PassMedicine and Pastest have a large number of practice questions, as well as revision materials. They require paid subscription and I recommend that you subscribe to one of them. After finishing each practice question, check the correct answer and make sure you understand the reasoning behind every correct or wrong answer.
You should also revise the high-yield revision notes in PassMedicine or Pastest. It summarises the important information you need to know in a concise manner, and it also contains some extra information not found in the textbooks.
While Year 1 and Year 2 knowledge can be helpful at times, they are not essential for the UKMLA AKT or PLAB 1. There is no need for you to specifically revise any Year 1 or Year 2 topics.
During the UKMLA AKT and PLAB 1, you will have a limited amount of time to answer the questions. Therefore, you should be careful not to run out of time. Always time yourself when doing the practice questions. As you are reading the question, you should already be thinking of the diagnosis so that you can get to the answer faster.
All the best in your revision! I hope you will do well in the exam.
Tips for the Newcastle University WriSkE can be found here:
Tips for the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA) can be found here:
Tips for the MRCP Part 1 can be found here: