The Day Of Plab 2 Exam, A Sunny Day in London

Dear friends,

The day of my exam of Plab 2 was an exceptionally sunny day in London on 1st of June.
Sunny days are very rare in London, and I felt anxious when I took the train from Reading to London Paddington Station.

I was afraid deep inside because if I fail in this attempt, not only I will lose huge sum of money, and the next exam will be three months later. Regarding my six months visa, this means that I will lose five months in doing the exam, and I will have only one month to search for work.

I reached the exam centre in the General Medical Council in 350 Euston Road which is a beautiful building near the Royal College of Physicians building.

After checking my papers and taking a photo for me, I waited at the lounge with other candidates. There I met a Syrain doctor and a Pakistani doctor and we chatted about the courses we took and the most important topics in the exam.

The exam format is called OSCE(Objective Structured Cinical Exam). There are stations that you have to pass thropugh, each station with a scenario that you must react and respond to it. In the station there is an examiner who will mark your performance. There may be also simulated patients, i.e., actors who play the rule of patients.

My first station was how to take a cervical smear. There was an British examiner who was very nice, and what is called (manniquine) which is a model that simulate the woman's reproductive tract.

The examiner want to see if you are doing the essential things right(like positioning your self, ensure good light source, preparing your instrument) and do not want you to make a professional smear.

The second station was a child patient diagnosed with appendicitis, and the father want to discharge his son without doing the necessary operation. You have to speak to the father and convince him to let the surgeons do the operation.
By the way, you have to finish within four and a half minutes. And you have to speak clearly and slowly and intorduce yourself and ask permission to discuss any issue with the patient. If you did not do these steps right, even if you do the station right, you will fail.

The third station was a patient with history of fall and the doctor did not see a fracture on her x-ray, and she came later with severe swelling. You have to apologize for that error.

I did good in that station and the patient(actor was very satisfied after I finished with her).

Other stations included stright forward examinations, like examine the respiratory system, the cranial nerves and inserting a cannula.

Other communication stations was to break bad news for a mother who just have missed birth. You have to speak to the mother and tell her that her son died in her uterus.

I did that station in a perfect manner because they taught us in the course exactly the same scenario. The mother (actress) started to cry and I offered her some water and tissues (kleenix) and discussed with her future management. At the end of the interview she was satisfied, and that is enough for success.

I must say that the british actors are professional and very nice and kind, and even if you did not know what to say, or say it in a wrong way, they will correct you with a smile. This has really helped to bring my spirit up.


I felt very happy about my performance in the exam and after the exam I went with the Syrian doctor to walk in the nearby Reagent Park in London.

It was the first time I ever see such a park and we walked there for hours. I cried there silently when I saw all these green spaces and remebered my country.

The results appeared one week later on the General Medical Council web site, and than God I passed.

That was my experience about this test.

Tnx again doctor for sharing ur experiment with us ...
We are really grateful for that!

Wow..I really enjoyed reading this ..And congrats Doctor.
you made me aware of many things
thanx.

wallah doctor, i think we enjoy ur experience cause we are dreaming to be in ur place and and that is what we are3 lookinng forward to do with our career,
so thanks again .
ali

Congratulations Doctor...
What a beautiful way of describing ur experience thnx alot for sharin' it with us...
am thinking of making a folder called [Dr.Yasir's Plab]... ..
again,thnx & we're waiting for the complete seies..

so could u tell us what happened when u started looking for a job? why didn't u get one? as i understand u got good marks?

well doctor .. this is another great topic that is made to help us get to know what to do in such exam and what it is all about ..so thanks again

as for hamoodi's question , im not sure whether the exam was on JUNE this year , or JUNE of the past year .. becoz in July this year new legislations were made that give the priority of work to British ppl , then doctors of the EU passports ..and then only other nationalities got the right to do it

but it would be of big help if doctor yasir gives the direct answer and whether this is the reason or not

the most imp. word in ur article dr. ...

... mabroooook

يوم الالي بس لاميركا.. ادعيلي

hi
its amazing article doc , we r proud of u &inshalla always forword.

Congratulations Doctor