The PLAB 1 Syllabus: 24 Clinical Areas Mapped to 12 Revision Domains

Where the syllabus comes from

The GMC states that PLAB 1 complies with the Medical Licensing Assessment requirements and that its questions are based on the MLA content map. The content map defines the core knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to practise in the UK. It is built on three themes: readiness for safe practice, managing uncertainty, and delivering person-centred care. That is the closest thing PLAB 1 has to an official syllabus, and the GMC lists it first among its recommended preparation resources.

The same map underlies the assessment taken by UK medical graduates, which is why PLAB 1 revision and UK finals revision often look alike. See UKMLA and PLAB compared for the relationship.

The six domains of the content map

1. Areas of clinical practice. 24 areas, from acute and emergency care to surgery.
2. Areas of professional knowledge. 13 areas, including ethics and law, pharmacology and population health.
3. Clinical and professional capabilities. Professional skills, and professional values and behaviours.
4. Practical skills and procedures. What a new doctor must be able to do or understand.
5. Patient presentations A to Z. About 221 presentations, such as chest pain or collapse.
6. Conditions A to Z. About 428 conditions. The GMC notes that the lists are not exhaustive.

The counts of presentations and conditions are our own count of the GMC's September 2026 document. Treat them as a guide to scale, not a quota.

The 24 areas of clinical practice

Domain 1 lists these areas. We show the revision domain that covers each one in our blueprint.

The 13 areas of professional knowledge

Domain 2 lists allergy and immunology; biomedical sciences; clinical biochemistry; clinical imaging; clinical pharmacology and therapeutics; genetics and genomics; histopathology; human factors and quality improvement; laboratory haematology; medical ethics and law; microbiology; psychological principles; and social and population health.

These areas are the reason that PLAB 1 questions often feel integrated. A single question on a patient with kidney injury can involve biochemistry (interpreting results), pharmacology (which drug to stop), ethics (what to tell the patient) and quality improvement (how to report an error). In our blueprint they feed mainly into the professional and therapeutics domain, but also into every clinical domain through investigations, prescribing and safety.

Clinical and professional capabilities

Domain 3 of the content map covers clinical and professional capabilities, which the GMC divides into professional skills and professional values and behaviours. This is where communication, consent, working with colleagues, dealing with uncertainty and professional integrity sit. PLAB 1 tests this domain through the way scenarios are framed: a patient who refuses treatment, a colleague whose practice worries you, a relative who asks for information. The best answer usually respects the patient's autonomy, protects safety and follows GMC guidance, rather than choosing the most cautious or the most convenient option.

Revise this domain from Good medical practice 2024 and the GMC ethical guidance rather than from a textbook. Read it as a set of principles, then apply each one to three or four situations until the reasoning becomes automatic. Our professional and therapeutics domain page lists the subtopics.

Practical skills and procedures

Domain 4 lists the practical skills and procedures a new doctor must be able to perform or understand. PLAB 1 is a written test, so it cannot assess a procedure directly. It can ask which procedure is indicated, what to check first, how to avoid harm, what complication to expect or how to interpret a result. For each procedure on the map, make sure you can answer four questions: when it is indicated, what consent is needed, what the main risks are and what to do if it goes wrong. Performance of the procedure itself is better rehearsed for PLAB 2.

How a presentation-based question works

The A to Z lists of presentations and conditions explain why PLAB 1 stems often start from a symptom or a set of observations, not a diagnosis. The question gives you a patient and asks for the next step. To prepare, build a short template for every common presentation you meet in the map: the dangerous causes to exclude, the first-line assessment, the investigation that changes management and the point at which you escalate. Use that template to answer unfamiliar variants, because the exam is more likely to change the patient than to change the principle.

The GMC notes that the lists are not exhaustive. A condition that is not named may still appear if it sits naturally within a listed area, so do not treat the map as a closed list. Use it to find gaps, not to rule topics out.

Keeping up with changes

The content map is updated, and the version we checked was the September 2026 update. When you plan your revision, record the version you used. The GMC will say if PLAB 1 changes in a way that affects candidates, and its PLAB pages are the authority for format and scope. We update our pages when the GMC publishes changes, and each page shows the month it was last revised.

How our twelve domains and weights work

We group the map into twelve domains for planning. The weights are derived from the breadth of the map and the GMC's statement that questions focus on common, important or acute conditions at F2 level plus long-term conditions in primary care. They are estimates. The professional and therapeutics domain carries the largest share, about 15% (roughly 27 of 180 questions); acute care and obstetrics, gynaecology and sexual health are about 9% each; and respiratory and mental health are the smallest, at about 6% each.

If the GMC publishes official weights or changes the map, we will update the pages. Check the date at the top of each page, and the GMC site, for the latest.

Turning the map into a checklist

1. Download the content map from the GMC. Use the latest version. The version we checked was dated September 2026.
2. Tick presentations you have managed in the last two years. Highlight the ones you have not. These are your blind spots.
3. Take a baseline set of questions across all twelve domains. Match each error to a map area.
4. Study by presentation, then by condition. The exam starts from a patient, not a diagnosis. Learn "breathless patient" before "pulmonary fibrosis".
5. Revisit the map before the exam. Skim the A to Z lists and check that no common presentation is unfamiliar.

Reading the map alongside the sample questions

The GMC says its 85 sample questions are based on the content map. After you finish a block of them, tag each question with the map area it tests. Over time, you see which areas the GMC chooses to illustrate and which you have never practised. That is not a prediction of the live exam, which will not repeat the samples, but it shows how a stem is built from a map entry.

What the content map does not tell you

It does not say which conditions appear most often, how many questions each area gets, or what depth of knowledge is expected for each condition. For depth, rely on the F2 scope statement: first safe steps, guideline-based management and appropriate escalation. For UK specifics, rely on the national guidelines in our guidelines guide. For practice questions that match the style, use the GMC's own 85 sample questions (valid at December 2024) and original questions mapped to the content map. Never use recalled live-exam material.

Use the high-yield topics guide to decide where to start inside the map, and the study plan to schedule it.