This plan is for international medical graduates preparing for the PLAB while working full-time. The GMC still delivers this route as the PLAB, now aligned to the Medical Licensing Assessment content, so PLAB 1 is a single-best-answer paper sat under time pressure. The defining constraint is that you are doing this around a demanding clinical job and the fatigue that comes with it, so the plan is built for sustainability over months and for short, high-quality sessions rather than long blocks you will not reliably get.
What you're up against
You are working full-time, whether in your home country or in an NHS role, and your study time is whatever the shifts leave — evenings, days off, and the gaps within a working day. Fatigue is a real factor, so the plan favours frequent short sessions over occasional long ones. You may be self-funding and working to a timeline set by visa or job considerations. PLAB 1 tests MLA-aligned reasoning across a broad content map, which means recognition of memorised questions is not enough; the exam reframes familiar material into longer clinical vignettes.
What to revise from
Anchor on a PLAB-specific bank — PLABable is the recognised incumbent for many IMGs and strong for exposure and exam themes, and Quesmed also covers the route. Use the GMC's content map and sample questions to calibrate to the MLA style. Use iatroX as the free, adaptive layer alongside these: the UKMLA-aligned bank is free, re-sequences practice toward your weak presentations, and its source-grounded clarification helps bridge from recall toward UK decision-making — the gap that most often separates a strong PLABable score from exam readiness.
The plan, week by week
Plan over several months rather than weeks, because consistency around shifts beats intensity. In the coverage phase, work through your main bank systematically, targeting a realistic daily minimum that survives a working week — even twenty to forty questions a day, properly reviewed, compounds over months. In the targeting phase, use an adaptive engine to concentrate on your weakest presentations rather than re-covering strengths, and convert any question you "only knew because you had seen it" into rebuilt reasoning. In the consolidation phase, in the weeks before your sitting, shift to full timed papers that match the 180-question, three-hour format, both for pacing and for stamina. The weekly minimum is the anchor: protect a short daily block on working days and use a day off for one longer timed session, rather than waiting for a clear week that full-time work will not give you.
A representative week
To make the weekly minimum concrete, picture a working week with a mix of day and late shifts. On a long day, the realistic study is a short mobile block — twenty to thirty questions on your current weak area, reviewed on the commute or before sleep — rather than a session you will be too tired to do well. On a shorter day or an evening off, you do a longer block and properly debrief your misses. Your day off carries one timed session that approaches the real format, both to build pacing and to find weaknesses under pressure. Across the week that might be a hundred and fifty to two hundred questions, weighted toward quality of review over raw count, with the adaptive engine concentrating your tired minutes on real gaps rather than familiar ground. You hold a single theme across several days so it consolidates, and you treat any question you got right only by recognition as a flag to rebuild. The discipline that makes this work over months is accepting the short days as short — doing the small block well rather than skipping it in the hope of a long session the rota will not deliver. Consistency, not intensity, is what gets a full-time IMG to the line.
Where iatroX comes in
iatroX is the free, adaptive companion to your PLAB bank, rather than a replacement for the exposure that bank provides. Its adaptive sequencing means your scarce, tired evening minutes go to your real weak spots, and its Socratic Tutor rebuilds the UK decision behind a miss — asking what would change the answer — rather than letting you re-memorise a stem. Because it runs on mobile, the blocks fit into the gaps of a working day, which for a full-time IMG is often the only study time available. Ask iatroX settles a UK pathway from a sourced corpus when a management point, not a fact, was the problem.
Knowing when to deviate
Set the timeline by your real availability, not an idealised one: if shifts are heavy, extend the months rather than compressing the daily load into sessions you will skip. If fatigue is degrading the quality of your review, do fewer questions and review them properly rather than more questions skimmed. Watch for the recognition trap — a high score on a familiar bank that does not transfer — and slow down to rebuild reasoning if you see it. If your timeline is fixed and tight, prioritise the highest-yield presentations and full timed practice over exhaustive coverage.
Questions worth answering
Is it still called PLAB? Yes — the GMC delivers this route as the PLAB, now aligned to the MLA content.
How do I study around full-time shifts? Frequent short sessions with a protected daily minimum, plus one longer timed session on a day off — sustainability beats intensity.
Why isn't a high bank score enough? Because the MLA-aligned exam reframes familiar questions into longer vignettes, so recognition without reasoning does not transfer.
Is iatroX free for this route? Yes — the UKMLA-aligned bank is free, so it adds an adaptive layer alongside your PLAB bank at no cost.