The PLAB 1 is 180 SBAs in 3 hours. That is 1 minute per question — sustained for 180 consecutive questions with no breaks. The clinical knowledge is important. The time management is equally important. And the only way to build exam-ready time management is to practise under real exam conditions — not 20 untimed questions on your phone, but 180 timed questions in a single sitting.
iatroX mock exams replicate the PLAB 1 format exactly: 180 SBAs, 3 hours, back navigation permitted, deferred explanations, auto-submit on timeout. A half-length option (90 questions, 1.5 hours) is available for mid-week practice.
The Mock Exam Schedule
The optimal mock schedule builds exam stamina gradually while providing regular performance benchmarks.
8 weeks before the exam: first mock. This is your baseline. Do the full 180 questions in 3 hours under exam conditions — no phone, no breaks, no BNF, no Ask iatroX. Your score does not matter. What matters is the data: which topics are weakest, where did you run out of time, how did fatigue affect your accuracy in the final 30 questions. Feed this data into the AI study planner — it will use your baseline performance to calibrate your daily revision tasks.
6 weeks before: second mock. After 2 weeks of targeted adaptive practice on your weakest areas (guided by the study planner), take another full mock. Compare your scores by topic against the baseline. You should see improvement in the areas the planner targeted. Any areas that remain weak despite targeted practice need a different approach — review the explanations, use Ask iatroX to clarify the underlying guideline, then practise again.
4 weeks before: third mock. You are now in the performance phase. Your curriculum coverage should be broad, your weak areas should be narrowing, and your time management should be improving. Use the half-length mock (90 questions, 1.5 hours) mid-week for additional timed practice without the fatigue of a full-length sitting. The half-length mock is particularly useful for experimenting with pacing strategies — try different approaches (sequential vs flag-and-return, fast first pass vs careful single pass) and see which produces the best accuracy-per-minute ratio for your personal style.
2 weeks before: fourth mock + weekly mocks. From this point, mock weekly. The study planner automatically schedules this if you are using it. Each mock provides an updated readiness score — tracking whether your trajectory is on course for your exam date.
Final week: one last mock, then rest. Take your final mock 5-6 days before the exam. Review the results. Target the 2-3 weakest remaining topics with focused adaptive practice. Then stop. Rest the day before.
How to Interpret Mock Scores
What percentage correlates with a pass? The PLAB 1 pass mark varies by sitting (set by Angoff methodology), but historically sits around 60-65%. If your mock scores are consistently above 70%, you are in a strong position. If they are between 60-70%, you are borderline — the study planner's readiness score will factor in your trajectory (improving vs stable) to give a more nuanced assessment. Below 60%, you need more preparation time.
Topic analysis matters more than the overall score. A mock score of 65% could mean "consistently 65% across all topics" (evenly prepared but slightly below optimal) or "90% in cardiovascular, 40% in psychiatry" (strong in some areas, dangerously weak in others). The second scenario is more common — and more fixable. The post-mock topic breakdown identifies the specific domains pulling your score down. The study planner then concentrates your remaining preparation time on those domains.
Time analysis. Review how long you spent per question across the mock. If your first 90 questions averaged 55 seconds each and your last 90 averaged 75 seconds each, fatigue is affecting your pace. If you finished with 20 minutes to spare, you may be rushing — slow down and use the available time. The mock's time-per-question data helps you calibrate your pacing strategy.
The Study Planner Connection
The AI study planner integrates mock exams into your daily revision schedule automatically. In the foundation phase (weeks 1-4), the planner focuses on adaptive practice and curriculum coverage. In the application phase (weeks 3-6), it targets weak areas identified from your Q-bank performance. In the performance phase (weeks 5-8), it schedules mocks at increasing frequency — one every 2 weeks, then weekly, then twice in the final week if time allows.
You do not need to decide when to mock versus when to practise. The planner handles the balance based on your performance data and time remaining. Your job is to show up and do the daily tasks.
Common PLAB 1 Mock Mistakes
Mistake 1: Taking your first mock the week before the exam. Your first mock should be 8 weeks out — early enough to identify gaps and adjust your preparation. A first mock in the final week provides data you cannot act on. If the mock reveals a major weakness in psychiatry, you need 3-4 weeks of targeted practice to address it, not 3-4 days.
Mistake 2: Reviewing every question immediately after the mock. The post-mock review is valuable — but reviewing 180 questions in one sitting produces diminishing returns after the first 30-40. Focus your review on: questions you got wrong (understand why), questions you flagged as uncertain (verify your reasoning), and questions where the time-per-question data shows you spent more than 2 minutes (identify what slowed you down). Skip the questions you answered correctly and quickly — your reasoning was sound.
Mistake 3: Doing mocks but not changing your preparation based on the results. A mock score of 58% in psychiatry is only useful if it changes what you study tomorrow. The study planner automates this — mock results feed directly into the adaptive targeting, so your post-mock daily tasks automatically concentrate on the areas the mock identified as weak. If you are not using the study planner, you need to manually extract the weak topics from the mock breakdown and create targeted practice sessions for each.
Mistake 4: Comparing mock scores with other candidates. Your mock score depends on the specific questions in that mock, your fatigue level, and the conditions you sat under. Another candidate's mock score from a different question set under different conditions is not a meaningful comparison. Compare your own mock scores across time — the trajectory matters more than the absolute score, and more than anyone else's score.
Exam-Day Preparation That Starts With Mocks
By the time you sit the real PLAB 1, you should have completed 4-6 full-length mocks. Each mock teaches you something specific about your exam-day performance: your natural pace (how many seconds per question before fatigue sets in), your uncertainty threshold (how many uncertain answers you can tolerate before anxiety impairs concentration), your fatigue pattern (which question number marks the point where your accuracy starts declining), and your pacing strategy (whether to work sequentially or flag-and-return).
These are not abstract exam techniques — they are personalised performance insights that only mock exams generate. No amount of reading about "exam technique" replaces the experience of discovering your own performance patterns through timed simulation.
Start your first PLAB 1 mock at iatrox.com/quiz-landing.