A realistic 6-week PLAB 2 practice plan (while working full-time)

If you work full time, you will not get long study days, but you can still prepare well in six weeks if every session has a job to do. This plan assumes about four to five hours a week: three short weekday sessions and one longer weekend block. Change the numbers to suit your rota, but keep the structure.

PLAB 2 is 18 scored stations of 8 minutes each, marked across three domains: data gathering, technical and assessment skills; clinical management; and interpersonal skills. Practise to that format from week one, not only in the final week.

How every practice session works

Use the same loop each time, so the habit builds:

1. Run the station against an 8-minute timer and speak out loud, even if you are alone.
2. Spend about 10 minutes reviewing straight afterwards: where did you lose time, what did you miss, which phrases worked.
3. Write down one thing to fix next time. Only one, or none of them stick.

A normal weekday session is two stations plus review, around 40 minutes. The weekend block is about two hours: five or six stations with a longer review at the end.

Week 1: Baseline and routine

Do four or five mixed stations with no special preparation, just to see which domain loses you the most marks. Then build one opening and one closing you use in every station: introduce yourself, confirm who the patient is, explain what you will do, ask for consent, and at the end summarise, check understanding and safety-net. A fixed routine frees your attention for the clinical problem.

Week 2: History and data gathering

Practise common presentations such as chest pain, headache, abdominal pain, breathlessness and a collapse. Aim for a conversation, not a checklist. Ask open questions first, summarise back, and always explore the patient's ideas, concerns and expectations. If you freeze, the summary buys you time to think.

Week 3: Management and safety-netting

Every station should end with a plan the patient can follow. Practise explaining the likely diagnosis in plain language, what happens next, who to contact and when to come back urgently. Add consent and capacity basics this week, since they appear inside many scenarios, not only the obvious ones.

Week 4: The hard communication stations

This is the week for the stations that unsettle people. Do at least one of each: breaking bad news, an angry or upset patient, a teaching or explaining station, a telephone consultation and a consultation with a parent about a child. These guides help: breaking bad news, angry patient stations, the inhaler teaching station and paediatric stations. Do not aim for perfect scripts. Aim for a calm structure you can reuse.

Week 5: Timed circuits

Now practise stamina. At the weekend, run six to nine stations back to back with only short breaks, in random order so you cannot choose your favourites. Review after the whole block rather than after each station, as you will on the day. If you can manage one full 18-station circuit this week or next, it is worth the time, because it shows you how your concentration holds up.

Week 6: Consolidate, do not cram

Redo your weakest stations from weeks 1 to 5 and check that the fix you wrote down actually stuck. Do one full or half circuit early in the week, then taper. In the last three days keep sessions light, sort out travel and documents, and protect your sleep. Last-minute new topics add anxiety and rarely add marks.

When work takes over a week

Keep the weekend block and cut the weekday sessions to one station each. Consistency beats volume. Missing a week is better handled by repeating it than by cramming two weeks into one.

Practising without a partner

Many candidates work shifts and have no study partner. You can record yourself on your phone and review it with the timer visible, or use OSCEPilot, which gives you an AI patient and feedback on demand, so you can fit a station into a spare half hour.

FAQ

Is six weeks enough? It depends on your starting point and how much time you can protect. The baseline in week 1 tells you more than any rule of thumb. If communication is your weak domain, give it more of your weekday sessions.

How many stations should I practise in total? There is no magic number. Keep a tally of stations done and, more usefully, a list of the fixes you wrote down and whether they stuck.

Do I need a study partner? It helps, mostly for honest feedback, but it is not essential. Recording yourself and reviewing against the three domains works well when you have no one to practise with.