Plab Experience

First of all thanks to dr.Faisal sami to agree on sharing his plab experience again. I went at length to retrieve it. So we can all take benefit out of it and it is a charity work. May this file help you in choosing ur future endeavours deliberately and carefully Ameen. Share it with your fellows.Thankyou and JazakAllah

Dr.Faisal Sami 

Hello all

For those of you who don't know me, I am Dr.Faisal Sami Riaz, from Batch 13. I’ve been contacted by many colleagues for guidance about PLAB. But unfortunately, due to busy schedule, I haven't been able to respond to most of the queries properly. Therefore, I have decided to write about my whole PLAB experience, so that it could help those of you, who are looking for a career in UK. And yeah, “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse” 😎

So here we go!

Why I Choose PLAB

For a fresh graduate there are a lot of options out there. The famous ones are

1.    AMC

2.    PLAB

3.    USMLE

4.    FCPS

So why did I choose PLAB? I did it because

●     It's a quick route to enter into one of the world's finest health system.

●     Better job prospects. I will talk about it in more detail, later.

●     After full GMC registration and 1 year of work in UK, you get exemption from both AMC 1&2, so there you go, you’ve covered options 1&2 with a single stroke.

●     Doctors in UK can apply for “indefinite leave to remain visa”, after 5 years.

●     Finally I have relatives in UK, which is not a main reason to go for PLAB but still an important one, as moving to a new place, with culture so different from your own, could be very easier if you have some friends or relatives there.

●     Or may be I watched way too much Downton Abbey 😅

Why not USMLE

●     It’s a long, WAIT, a very long process. Yeah, this sums it up :p

●     Let me clear the air, when I say that it's not a bad option but you have to weigh the pros against the cons. Let's go with the fairy tale that once you are done with the steps you get into residency and then look at the current stats. How many people are actually getting it? It’s depressing, isn't it?. During my  PLAB 2 course in London, I met a lot of people from India and Pakistan, who had wasted 5 to 7 precious years of their life but couldn't get successful in the match, even though their scores were amazing.  So after trying their luck and wasting both the time and money, they were sitting with me to prepare for PLAB 2.

To me, wiser is the one, who learns from other’s mistakes, instead of making them.

Having said that, I wish all the best to those who are gonna go for this option. If Ryan Reynolds can make a good superhero movie then anything is possible😅

Why not FCPS

LOL, I’ll leave u to be the judge of that.

Now that, we have got this out of the way, let’s move on to the next topic

 The problems I had to face before PLAB

All those people, who are too consumed with the love for NSMC, to look at the basic pitfalls in it and can't hear anything bad about it, are requested to please skip this part because I would like to discuss some of the stupidest blunders, that made me waste 6 months of my life and I couldn't sit PLAB 1 in March, 2015.

 So once I set my mind to go for PLAB, I had a lot of pointless and crappy problems waiting for me, just because of the fact that I was graduated from a college, whose admin’s speciality was to never know about their responsibilities.

        In order to book PLAB 1, the first thing to do was to make an online account on the GMC (General Medical Council) website to get a GMC reference number. Since, I was from the first batch of NSMC, our college was not registered with the GMC. The solution was to get the PMQ( primary medical qualification) of the graduates of NSMC, recognised by GMC and for that I needed a transcript, which must show clock hours of atleast 5500 hours.

     Hence, when I contacted the admin about that, they didn't know, what the hell, that trancript thingy was. So I decided to take the matter into my own hands. I contacted few of my friends from PMC and AIMC, to get the samples of transcript from their colleges and following their pattern, I made a final draft of the transcript for our college and visited the admin to get it typed on the official letterhead. Well, the guy over there (I won't name him but it's easier to guess) said, ”type it urself and then bring it to me”, as he was apparently too busy, doing nothing.

 Well, after all that drama, our college finally had a transcript and from that day onwards, no NSMC student should have to worry about this problem, anymore.

But the crapstorm didn't stop there. Soon after that, GMC, sent me an email saying that they can't accept my PMQ because NSMC is affiliated with UOG, instead of UHS in IMED. That was the height of irresponsibility, I could expect from the college. I mean, the least they could do was to keep their records straight. I emailed to IMED, on the very first day I got that email from GMC and they said that they need some one from UHS or UOG to email them, in order to support my claim. Well I emailed them the link from the UHS site, showing NSMC as one of the affiliated colleges. In the meantime, I talked to the principal(Prof. Sajjad) about the situation, he sent me to registrar UOG office to discuss the issue.

Well, after the non stop exchange of emails and involving the authorities from UOG and UHS, the GMC, finally recognised our PMQ after the constant struggle of three months. Although, I couldn’t appear for PLAB 1 in March, 15, because of all that drama but the good thing is, from that day, any NSMC grad. can make an online account and book the PLAB exam with just a single click, Cheers!

                      THE PLAB

The PLAB exam consists of 2 parts. But, trust me when I say this, it has 4 parts.

1.    IELTS

2.    PLAB 1

3.    PLAB visa(Business Visit Visa)

4.    PLAB 2

IELTS

Unlike other international licensing exams,GMC demands the minimal required IELTS bands to be achieved before applying for PLAB 1. The required scores are 7 bands in each and 7.5 overall. But I would suggest to target at least 7.5 in each, as well, otherwise you won't be able to work in the training post even if you are offered one.

I don't wanna make this exam, sound so easy. But it's an easy exam. I prepared for this during my house job. I hardly spent 5 to 7 days on it's prep and ended up getting the required bands but, I would suggest you to judge yourself honestly and then decide, how much time you actually need for this exam.  The books I used were

1.    New insight into the IELTS by Vanessa Jackman

2.    Cambridge book series, volume 1 to 10, though you don't actually need to do all of them. I did 4 or 5.

There are two different IELTS organizations, out there.

1.    AEO

2.    British Council

There isn't much difference between them except the fact that AEO doesn't provide headphones for the listening module while British council does. Other than that, there is no difference at all.

There is another misconception that at AEO, the marking is lenient, which I believe is spread by the same person who is responsible for the rumor about Unicorns farting rainbow. 😅

One other confusion is between UKVI and simple IELTS. As far as, GMC is concerned they only need an academic IELTS with the required score. It could be either UKVI or simple.

Like I said, it's an easy exam. You don't need to attend any academy for it. There are some loopholes in it, find them, exploit them and you'll be OK.

PLAB part 1

PLAB 1 is a MCQs exam. There are 200MCQs in it. The subjects that are assessed include Medicine, Surgery, OBGYN, Paeds, Psychiatry, ENT, Eye and there are few questions from the basic sciences, as well. Total time for the exam is 3 hours. It conducts 4 times, every year. InPakistan, it occurs in the month of March and November.

Following is the list of things that u need to cover

1.    OHCM

2.    Oxford Handbook of clinical specialities (only the important topics)

3.    Samson Notes

4.    Pass medicine for PLAB

5.    1700 MCQS

6.    Samson Mocks( atleast the 7 famous ones, favorably as many as you can)

7.    Pt.co.uk, NICE guidelines and NHS choices (for references)

I took my exam on 5th November, 2015. I had 1.5 months to prepare for it. During that time, I spent about 18 hours daily on the prep. So if you have some other responsibilities, u might wanna take a little longer time to prepare. I passed it in my first attempt with the score of 176/200.

The PLAB visa

The PLAB visa is called the “Business Visitor Visa”. It's duration is between 2 weeks to 6 months max with Multiple entries.

I'm gonna level with you here, the visit visa situation is not so good for Pakistanis. So if you have a British nationality or about to have one( u know what I mean!), then you are damn lucky. For the rest of you, don't worry mate! take a number, I’ve got u :p

     Though Pakistanis are facing the biggest number of visa rejections, these days, but still, there are few points, if you work on them, the process could be more streamline.

1.    U need to prove them that you are a genuine visitor and your sole purpose is to take PLAB on this visa. Like, in my application I showed my stay for 2 weeks only and they gave me multiple entry visa for six months.

2.    They ask for a 6 months bank statement. It’s always better to show them ur own bank statement and if it needs some work on it then u must start preparing it 6 months prior to ur application.

3.    Although u can show ur parents or relatives as ur financial supporters but a couple of my friends have got their visa rejected because of that.

4.    It's always good if u have a UK sponsor.

I think it's premature to talk more about visa, right now. But, in future, if any of you need any guidance regarding this, pls let me know.

PLAB part 2

Part 2 is an OSCE exam. It’s the last hurdle on your road to GMC registration. It's believed to be the toughest of all.

Basic Structure of Exam

There are 14 actual stations and 2 rest stations. The break down of stations is as follows

●     4 History stations

●     4 Counselling stations

●     4 physical examination stations

●     2 practical procedures

Changes to PLAB 2 exam from September,2016

From September, this year, 4 more stations will be introduced. They will focus on Ethics.

The length of each station will be 8 minutes, instead of 5.

Preparation of exam

PLAB 2 is the only exam that needs coaching. Indeed, trust me when I say that passing PLAB 2 without joining any academy is almost near to impossible!

There are two main academies and both are in East London

1.    Common stations at Barking

2.    Samson at Bow road

Both have almost the similar course and .same fee.

My Experience

I booked my exam on 8th March, 2016, got my visa on 29th January. I booked a course at Common Stations and reached London, one day prior to the start of my course.

I didn't study anything before and I had total 32 days, including 17 days for course, before my exam.

During the course I stayed at my relative’s place, which was in West London (about 1.5 hr away from the academy). Also, the sessions were too exhausting (12 to 14 hr/ day). So I couldn't do any self study during that time but atleast I started to have idea about the exam.

First 12 days finished and for the next 1 week, I was free. I did try to give a read to most of the stations during that time but I was more busy in roaming Central London (guilty :p)

To be honest, there were only 2 weeks left and my prep was weaker than the morality of Pakistani politicians. So I decided to move to some place near the academy (my advice to all of you)

So I and three other course mates, got the place in Barking and that's when the hunger games began.

For the next 4 days, I had supervised session at the academy, where I covered Physical examinations and practical procedures, and boy did I covered it!!!

The next day was a mock and I did good in physical exam and procedures but History and counselling needed work.

So, the big day was just 9 days away. All four of us divided Hx-Cx stations among each other and in the next 3 days, we beat the shit out of each station.

After that, for the next 6 days, it was practice, practice and just practice. I revised my course 3 to 4 times in those six days. I barely slept. As a matter of fact, during those days sleep was a limbo where I was again taking history or counselling patients😅

Well all that effort, paid off, when I received my result on 23rd March and passed the bloody exam in first attempt.

Total Estimated Cost on PLAB

PLAB 1 = £230

PLAB 2 = £840

Academy fee for PLAB 2 from July onwards (Samson/ common stations = £850)

IELTS( simple) = PKR 23000

IELTS (UKVI)= PKR 33000

Return ticket(Economy)= PKR 80,000 to 1,05,000/

GMC registration fee: £425

Room on rent in East London= £75-100/week

travelling expenses on tube= depends, as I used to travel to West London,every day,so they were almost £10/day for me

After PLAB 2

GMC REGISTRATION

After passing PLAB 2, the first thing to do is to apply for registration. You need to fill an online application. I sent my application in the first week of April. I got approval email in the next two weeks and GMC invited me for the ID check.

ID check is nothing, you just have to take all the required original documents to their office and there, they take a picture of you and your signatures for record keeping. The whole process takes 30 minutes. It only occurs in London or Manchester. I was in Pakistan then, so I booked my appointment on 12th of May and finally got registered.

Job Hunt

You can apply for job after passing PLAB 2, even before registration. But you need to have registration first, in order to accept the offer.

The two main ways to apply for job are via NHS jobs website and through recruitment agencies.

I was too lazy in making my CV and profile on NHSJ site. I started applying for jobs in the third week of April. I applied through NHSJ and recruiters both. Within, 1 week, I started to receive interview invitations. I had seven interviews, all agreed on skype and got job offers from all of them. I got two job offers in General Medicine, two in paeds, two in trauma & ortho and one in General Surgery.  After that, I started declining further interview calls, it wasn't fun anymore😅

  Hence, it's safe to assume that, right now, the job situation is great in UK, but I can't predict the future.

Tier 2 visa

In order to work in UK, you need Tier 2 visa. The first one needs to be stamped from Pakistan, after that u can apply for that in UK, as well.

Remember, when I told u that PLAB visa is kinda nightmare?! WELL, fortunately Tier 2 is a piece of cake. Here, your NHS trust provides you with the certificate of sponsorship (COS) and that's more than what you need to secure the visa.

NOTE!

PLAB is gonna be replaced by UKMLA in 2019 for IMGs.

 So that’s all about PLAB. I hope it would be of some help to you guys. Everything, I said is based on my own opinions, derived from my personal experiences. If anyone, disagrees with anything, he is welcome to ignore this.

Remember me in your prayers,

visit visa fee 14500pkr tier 2 fee 94000Pkr health surcharge for tier 2: £200/yr

Cheers.

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