PLAB exam format
The Plab 1 examination format comprises of 200 questions in extending matching questions (EMQ) and single best answer (SBA) questions. Approximately 30% of the examination are SBA questions and the remainder are EMQs. You have three hours to complete the examination.
Example of an Single Best Answer Question (SBA)
A young man has intractable epilepsy with numerous admissions to hospital with status in spite of good compliance with anti-convulsant treatment. He is being considered for a right temporal lobectomy.
Which visual field defect is he likely to develop following this surgical procedure:-
- Left homonymous superior quadrantanopia
- Right homonymous superior quadrantanopia
- Left homonymous inferior quadrantanopia
- Right homonymous inferior quadrantanopia
- Left homonymous hemianopia
Example of an 'Extended Matching Question' question (EMQ) Options:
- Aortic valve endocarditis
- Marantic endocarditis
- Tricuspid valve endocarditis
- Mitral valve endocarditis
- VSD endocarditis
- Libman-Sachs endocarditis
- Prosthetic valve endocarditis
Instructions:
From the list above select the most likely diagnosis for the patients described below:-
- A 27-year-old IV drug user with a 2 week history of fevers, cough and lung infiltrates and a systolic murmur
- A 60-year-old man with a 2 month history of fevers, weight loss, breathlessness who has 1st degree heart block on the ECG
- A 35-year-old woman with a past history of rheumatic fever who develops fever 2 weeks following dental treatment and pansystolic murmur
- A 40-year-old woman with SLE who develops unexplained fever and murmur but no obvious vegetations on echocardiography
- A 50-year-old man with a history of fever and breathlessness at 1 month from cardiac surgery