This is an operating manual for international medical graduates using MedRevisions as their main PLAB 1 bank. It covers the full 180-question paper but focuses on three decisions the platform will not make for you: when to let the weakness-targeting feed drive, when to override it and force neglected material, and when to stop topic-drilling and move to timed mixed blocks. The principal limitation to keep in view is that the feed optimises your performance inside the MedRevisions pool, so your readiness has to be measured on unseen questions elsewhere.
What MedRevisions offers for PLAB 1 right now
Vendor-reported figures, last checked 19 July 2026; verify current numbers on the product page before buying.
| Feature | Vendor-reported detail (19 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Question pool | 5,400+ MLA-mapped single-best-answer questions; ~1,800 high-yield "Study Essential" subset |
| Coverage | PLAB 1 and the UKMLA Applied Knowledge Test |
| Adaptive / AI | "AI Professor" tutor, "Weakness Mocks" (spaced repetition), "AI Study Assistant" plan, "Readiness Score" |
| Mocks | 30+ customisable full-length mocks |
| Price | From around $10.83–$10.99/month (verify tiers, currency and access length) |
The features you will actually steer with are the weakness-targeting feed and the analytics. This article makes no claims about how those work internally; it tells you when to trust them and when not to.
The exam anchor: PLAB 1 and the MLA content map
PLAB 1 is 180 single-best-answer questions in three hours, set by the GMC and built on the MLA content map — areas of clinical practice, presentations and conditions — pitched at a doctor entering the second Foundation year. The January 2026 content-map revision applies from September 2026. The GMC publishes official sample questions to show the standard and style, but not a public per-domain weighting, and no third-party bank is the exam. Your workflow therefore has two jobs: cover the blueprint's breadth, and rehearse unaided recall at roughly one minute per item.
Baseline week: sample before you personalise
For the first week, do not let the feed personalise anything. Take a blueprint-stratified unseen baseline — a spread across the areas of clinical practice, timed and unassisted, at least 100 items in total. Record first-attempt accuracy by area. This tells you where you genuinely stand before the algorithm starts steering you towards your errors and reshaping your visible average. Everything after this week is aimed at the gaps this baseline exposes, not at the topics the feed finds convenient.
First pass: set domain floors
As you begin drilling, set a minimum attempted count for every area of clinical practice, so a rising overall score cannot hide an area you have barely touched. The weakness-targeting feed will naturally pull you deeper into two or three high-volume topics; floors are the discipline that stops that from starving the rest. Check attempted counts by area weekly and treat any starved cell as the next priority, regardless of your headline percentage. This is the coverage-matrix habit from completion is not coverage.
When to follow the algorithm
Let the feed drive when its incentives and yours align:
- Early to mid preparation, when you have broad, genuine weaknesses and simply need more reps on things you get wrong.
- When a topic is both high-yield and weak — the feed's instinct to over-sample it is correct.
- For spaced re-tests of reasoning errors, where seeing the same concept again after a gap is exactly right.
In these situations, following the algorithm is efficient and you should not fight it.
When to override it
Override the feed — force material manually — when the algorithm's convenience diverges from the blueprint:
- Low-volume domains the feed rarely surfaces: palliative care, ophthalmology, ENT, dermatology, sexual health.
- Image-dependent items — rashes, fundoscopy, ECGs, radiographs — which are under-represented in most feeds.
- Ethics, consent, capacity and safeguarding, high-yield on the MLA map and easily neglected.
- Prescribing and calculations — doses, infusion rates, fluids — using the SmPC via the electronic medicines compendium (eMC) as your reference source.
- Anything your blueprint audit shows as starved, whatever the dashboard says.
The rule is simple: follow the feed for depth on known weaknesses; override it for breadth the feed cannot see.
Error taxonomy and review interval
When you get an item wrong, label why, because the fix differs:
- Knowledge gap → short source read, then a spaced re-test on a different item — not an immediate repeat.
- Misread stem → a process fix; build a stem-checklist habit (allergies, renal function, age, pregnancy, current drugs).
- Premature closure → practise generating a differential before choosing, on transfer questions.
- Guideline error → correct against NICE, CKS or the SmPC via the eMC, then re-test after a gap.
- Calculation error → drill a dedicated calculation set to rebuild speed.
- Time-pressure error → not content; fix it in timed mixed blocks.
Avoid immediately re-answering a question you just saw; it inflates your score without improving recall.
The mixed-block switch
Move from topic-filtered practice to timed random blocks when two conditions hold: every area is above its floor, and your first-attempt accuracy on your weakest areas is rising rather than static. The trigger is coverage plus trajectory, not a magic percentage. In the final two weeks, most practice should be full-length, timed, mixed and unassisted, because PLAB 1 forces constant context-switching at pace — the one thing topic-drilling never rehearses.
Exit criteria
Stop grinding new questions — not when the bank is complete — when all of these hold: every area covered above its floor; stable unseen first-attempt accuracy across the blueprint; pacing near one minute per item; retention of rules days later without the explanation open; and a late unseen mixed mock, ideally cross-checked against the GMC sample questions, sitting comfortably above your working threshold. Bank completion is not on the list.
A seven-day plan for international graduates
MedRevisions does one job — content review with feedback — and an unseen bank measures transfer. No proprietary-algorithm claims are made.
| Day | MedRevisions job | Unseen-measurement job (iatroX) |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Follow the feed: 40 questions on flagged weak areas | — |
| Tue | Override: 40 questions forcing low-volume domains | — |
| Wed | Override: 30 image, ECG and calculation items | 20 fresh mixed items, timed |
| Thu | Follow the feed: 40 questions, full review | — |
| Fri | Review error log; re-test misses as transfer items | — |
| Sat | One 150-item timed mixed mock | — |
| Sun | Re-drill only reasoning errors from Saturday | Log first-attempt accuracy by area |
Keep the midweek and any additional measurement blocks on a bank you do not revise from — iatroX runs free UK-core PLAB 1 content — so your readiness reading is never a memory test of seen items. That division of labour is the two-Q-bank rule, and the reason it matters is set out in Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue the follow-and-override loop while any area is below its floor or your weakest areas are still improving.
- Supplement with a second, unseen bank the moment you notice you have never tested yourself cold — split learning and measurement before your calibration is contaminated.
- Switch your primary bank only for sustained factual errors or explanations that are not moving your unseen scores after a fair trial — not for novelty. Compare on the iatroX comparison hub.
- Stop buying questions once your exit criteria are met and a late unseen mock confirms readiness; then timed mocks and rest, not new items, are the intervention.
Frequently asked questions
Is MedRevisions enough for PLAB 1 on its own? As a primary learning bank it can be sufficient, given its vendor-reported 5,400+ MLA-mapped questions (19 July 2026) and 30+ mocks. The qualifier is measurement: learning and testing on the same pool overstates readiness. Treat "enough" as enough to learn from, paired with unseen mixed blocks elsewhere to verify transfer, and it holds up; used for both jobs at once, it will flatter you.
Which PLAB 1 component does MedRevisions not reproduce well? The experience of a genuinely unseen, mixed, three-hour paper — because a weakness-targeting feed is the opposite of a random blueprint sample, and topic-drilling never rehearses context-switching at pace. It can also under-serve low-volume, image and calculation material unless you override the feed to force those categories in deliberately.
How many MedRevisions questions should I complete per day for PLAB 1? A sustainable 40 to 60 a day with full review, rising in the final fortnight, works for most candidates. Volume is not the target — 30 questions fully understood beats 100 skimmed. Keep one longer timed mixed block each week for measurement rather than simply adding more daily items.
When should I stop using MedRevisions and move to mixed mocks? Shift towards mixed timed mocks once every area is above its floor and unseen first-attempt accuracy has plateaued across the blueprint. In the last fortnight, full-length timed papers train pacing and stamina — usually the remaining limiting factors — better than more topic-filtered questions.
How should I combine MedRevisions with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign each a single job: learn and drill on MedRevisions, measure transfer on fresh, timed, mixed PLAB 1 blocks in iatroX you never revise from. Because the pools differ, you avoid re-testing memorised items and keep an uncontaminated readiness signal, exactly as the two-Q-bank rule intends.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 19 July 2026; vendor figures (question counts, prices, feature names) are vendor-reported on that date and change between exam cycles — verify current numbers on the MedRevisions product and pricing pages. Disclosure: iatroX operates a competing PLAB 1 question bank; this article confines iatroX's role to unseen readiness measurement, a job MedRevisions' weakness-targeting feed is not designed to perform. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: General Medical Council — PLAB 1 format and the MLA content map (gmc-uk.org); MedRevisions product and pricing pages (medrevisions.com, vendor-reported); iatroX PLAB 1 bank; Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score; the two-Q-bank rule.