The plan in one paragraph
Eight weeks, six days a week, two scenarios a day. On four days each week you practise alone with an AI patient; on days 3 and 6 you practise with a partner who reads the patient card and marks you; day 7 is rest. Day 6 of week 4 and day 6 of week 7 are full mocks under exam timing. Every scenario is recorded and marked the same day against the exam's own headings: for PLAB 2, the GMC's three domains (data gathering, technical and assessment skills; clinical management skills; interpersonal skills); for PACES, the Federation's skills C, E, F and G in a communication encounter and all seven in a consultation. The weeks build in the order communication fails under pressure: openings and listening first, then explaining in plain English, then bad news, then anger and errors, then ethics and the long consultation. Most days take 30 to 55 minutes. The day-by-day version, with a link for every task, is in the roadmap on the PLAB 2 and PACES hub.
- 48 practice days: weeks 1 to 8, days 1 to 6. Day 7 is rest.
- Two scenarios a day, except week 1 day 1 (reading), week 8 day 1 (marking mock 2), the two mock days (a full circuit) and the night before the exam.
- Partner days: day 3 and day 6 of every week.
- Full mocks: day 6 of week 4 and day 6 of week 7.
- Communication only. Clinical knowledge and examination technique come from your own study and current UK guidance.
PLAB 2 or PACES: what the plan trains and what it leaves out
The plan is written for PLAB 2 and adapts to PACES. The clock and the marking differ, so set yours on day 1.
| PLAB 2 (GMC) | MRCP(UK) PACES (Federation) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A clinical and professional skills assessment (CPSA) for GMC registration | Part 2 Clinical of the MRCP(UK) Diploma, after Part 1 |
| Scenarios | 16 scenarios of 8 minutes, at least two rest stations, about three hours | 5 stations, 8 encounters, 125 minutes. Talking encounters: two of 10 minutes, two of 20 |
| Reading the card | 1 minute 30 seconds to move to the room and read the instructions | Written instructions for a communication encounter are given in the 5-minute interval |
| Marking headings | Three domains per scenario: data gathering, technical and assessment skills; clinical management skills; interpersonal skills | Skills A to G; communication encounters on C, E, F, G; consultations on all seven |
| Where | Two GMC Clinical Assessment Centres in Manchester | UK clinical centres and international centres; see the dates and centres page |
| Source | GMC: what is the PLAB 2 exam and how you will be tested (read in a browser on 21 October 2026; gmc-uk.org blocks automated checks) | Federation PACES format page (read 21 October 2026) |
What the plan trains is the part of both exams that is about how you talk: the interpersonal skills domain in PLAB 2, which the GMC says it tests "by observing the interaction between you and another person, usually a simulated patient or occasionally the examiner", and the explaining parts of clinical management; in PACES, Skills C, E, F and G. The GMC lists the interactions it may test: explaining diagnosis, investigation and treatment; involving the patient in decisions; communicating with relatives and with other professionals; breaking bad news; consent for an invasive procedure or a post-mortem; anxious patients or relatives; discharge instructions; and lifestyle advice. Every one of those appears in the eight weeks below.
What the plan does not train: physical examination, practical procedures and clinical knowledge. TalkDrill is an English communication practice tool, not a medical school. The clinical details in our scenarios are there to make the conversation real, and every one should be checked against current UK guidance. The GMC guide says PLAB 2 questions "relate to current best practice" and should be answered "in relation to published evidence and not according to your local arrangements", with drug names from the most recent British National Formulary.
How a day works: two scenarios, marked the same day
A normal solo day takes about 40 minutes and has the same shape every time. The minutes column is the PLAB 2 timing; a PACES day runs about ten minutes longer, because each communication scenario has its 5-minute reading interval. The repetition is the point: by week 3 the routine runs without thought and your attention goes to the patient.
| Minutes | PLAB 2 day | PACES day |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 10 | The day's focus task: a page to read, ten lines to learn, or a read-aloud drill | The same |
| 10 to 20 | Scenario 1: 90 seconds to read the card, 8 minutes with the AI patient, recorded | Scenario 1: 5 minutes to read the card, 10 minutes with the AI relative or patient, recorded |
| 20 to 25 | Listen to the first two minutes and the last two. Mark the three domains on the grid below. Write one fix. | Mark C, E, F and G. Write one fix. |
| 25 to 35 | Scenario 2, applying the fix | Scenario 2, applying the fix |
| 35 to 40 | Mark it. Did the fix hold? | The same |
Run the solo scenarios as spoken conversations in role-play practice, with a card from the practice bank as your brief and a hard stop at exam time. Solo days build fluency, structure and the habit of the clock; the hidden concerns and the honest marking that only another person can give are what the partner days are for. The read-aloud drills on days 1 and 4 use read-aloud practice, which scores your pronunciation on the sentences you choose: your opening line, your bad-news sentences, your safety net.
Two rules make the marking honest. Mark from the recording, never from memory; candidates remember what they meant to say. And listen to the first two minutes and the last two first, because openings and closings are where rapport, structure and the agreed plan are won or lost.
The partner schedule
Days 3 and 6 are partner days in every week. A partner is another candidate, a colleague, or a friend who is not a doctor. The non-doctor is often the better patient for plain English, because they really do not know what "benign" or "cannula" means and will say so.
| Day | Mode | Who plays the patient | Who marks | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solo, with the week's focus task | AI | You, from the recording | 40 to 45 |
| 2 | Solo | AI | You | 40 |
| 3 | Partner | Partner, from the patient card | Partner first, then you | 45 to 55 |
| 4 | Solo, with read-aloud | AI | You | 30 to 40 |
| 5 | Solo | AI | You | 30 to 40 |
| 6 | Partner; full mock in weeks 4 and 7 | Partner (or partners for the mock) | Partner | 45 to 55; up to 180 on mock days; 20 on the night before |
| 7 | Rest | 0 |
How to run a partner session so it is worth the time:
- Swap roles every scenario. Playing the patient teaches you what good explaining feels like from the other chair. Both of you run two scenarios per session.
- Give the partner the patient card and nothing else. The practice bank has a card for the person playing the patient with each scenario. The official PACES surrogate briefs show what a good one contains: the facts, the attitude and emotions, and a question the surrogate must ask.
- Keep a strict timer. PLAB 2: 90 seconds to read, 8 minutes, stop mid-sentence at the bell. PACES: "two minutes left" at minute 8 of a communication encounter.
- Feedback by heading, one example each. "Interpersonal skills: you asked about her worries at minute 2, good. Clinical management: you never said what happens next." Vague praise is wasted time.
- Online works. A video call with cameras on is close enough. Turn your own camera off while you mark so the partner is not reading your face.
The week's partner task is fixed in the roadmap so you never spend the session choosing: a hidden concern in week 2, the "What does that mean?" interruption in week 3, ten seconds of silence after bad news in week 4, two escalations in week 5, and full consultations with an examiner minute in week 6.
The eight weeks at a glance
| Week | Theme | Goal for the week | Where the material is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Know the test and record a baseline | The clock and the marking by heart; two baseline scenarios recorded and marked; your two first-language habits named | PLAB 2 format page, mistakes by first language |
| 2 | Openings, agenda and ICE | Every scenario opened the same way inside a minute; ideas, concerns and expectations found before any explanation | plain English phrases, station scripts |
| 3 | Explaining in plain English | A diagnosis, a test or a medicine explained in short pieces with a check after each; no jargon | Plain English page (jargon table), station scripts (consent) |
| 4 | Bad news, then the first full mock | Bad news at the patient's pace with silence where it belongs; mock 1 on day 6 | breaking bad news script, practice bank |
| 5 | Repair, then angry people and errors | The three weakest mock scenarios fixed; acknowledge, apologise where due, explain what happens next | Station scripts (angry patient), practice bank (a missed fracture, a fall on the ward) |
| 6 | Ethics, consent and the long consultation | Capacity, confidentiality and consent conversations; a consultation that ends with an agreed plan and a clean examiner summary | worked PACES encounters, UKMLA and PLAB 2 |
| 7 | Second full mock | Mock 2 on day 6, compared scenario by scenario with mock 1 | Practice bank, scenarios you have not seen |
| 8 | Repair and taper | Fix what mock 2 showed, keep the voice warm, settle the logistics, no new material in the last two days | official links |
Why this order. In our judgement, the first thing to go under pressure is listening: candidates start explaining before they know what the patient thinks. So week 2 trains the first minute until it is automatic. Explaining comes next because it is the skill both exams reward most often, in the PLAB 2 clinical management domain and in PACES Skill C. Bad news comes in week 4 because it needs the first two skills plus silence. Anger and errors follow the first mock deliberately: the mock shows you how you behave when you are tired and something goes wrong, which is the exact condition of an angry-patient station. Ethics and the long consultation sit in week 6 because they draw on everything before them.
The full mocks in weeks 4 and 7
A PLAB 2 mock
Mirror the format the GMC guide describes: 16 scenarios, each eight minutes, with "1 minute and 30 seconds to travel to the next room and to read the instructions" before each one, at least two rest stations, and about three hours in all. Build the circuit from the practice bank so that it covers the interaction types the GMC lists: at least two bad-news scenarios, two with an anxious or angry patient or relative, one consent, one discharge or lifestyle conversation, one conversation with another professional, and one telephone consultation, since the GMC says some rooms have telephone consultation stations. Begin every scenario by giving your name and a GMC number, as the GMC tells candidates to do in the exam, because the examiner may be watching remotely.
With one partner, they play all sixteen patients from the patient cards, or you split the circuit: eight scenarios with the partner and eight with the AI, alternating, so you keep changing voice and register as you will on the day. Record everything. Do not stop to discuss between scenarios.
A PACES mock
Run the four talking encounters in exam order with 5-minute intervals: station 1 communication (10 minutes), station 2 consultation (20 minutes: 15 with the patient, then 5 with your partner as the lead examiner), station 4 communication (10 minutes), station 5 consultation (20 minutes). That is 60 minutes of encounters and about 80 minutes with the intervals. If a clinical colleague and a patient with signs are available, add the examination encounters; if not, say so to yourself and do not count the mock as a full PACES.
Marking the mock
Mark every scenario on the grid below, then total each heading across the circuit. Choose the three lowest scenarios. Those are week 5's repair work after mock 1, and week 8's after mock 2. When you mark mock 2, put the two sets of marks side by side. If one heading has not moved in three weeks, it is a habit, not a gap in knowledge, and the first-language page for your language is the place to look for it.
Fitting the plan to your PLAB 2 date or PACES diet
PLAB 2
Per the GMC page on booking a PLAB 2 place (read in a browser on 21 October 2026): you book in the PLAB booking service in GMC Online once you have a valid PLAB 1 pass; you must pass PLAB 2 within two years of passing PLAB 1, and the pass date is the date you took the test, not the date of the result; you are limited to four attempts, after which you must apply for an additional, fifth and final attempt. The exam runs only at the GMC's two Clinical Assessment Centres in Manchester. The GMC says results are published within a month of your exam date. For the fee, the booking page points to the GMC fees page; we have not verified the current figure there, so we do not quote one.
Start day 1 of week 1 eight weeks before your booked date. If you have less time, compress as follows. Six weeks: keep week 1; merge weeks 2 and 3 into one week of openings and explaining; keep week 4 and its mock; merge weeks 5 and 6; keep weeks 7 and 8. Four weeks: week 1 is baseline, openings and explaining; week 2 is bad news and anger, with mock 1 on day 6; week 3 is ethics and consent, with mock 2 on day 6; week 4 is repair and taper. If you have more than eight weeks, repeat weeks 2 and 3 before starting week 4. Do not add more mocks; add more marked scenarios.
PACES
For diet 2027/01 the UK application window is 10 November 2026, 08:00 GMT, to 17 November 2026, 08:00 GMT, with assessments from late January to mid April 2027, per the Federation dates page. Admission documents with your exact date arrive at least four weeks before the exam. So you will start the plan before you know your exact day. Count eight weeks back from the first day of your centre's dates (international centres are listed with their dates on our PACES dates, fees and centres page) or, for UK centres, from the start of the assessment period. When the admission document arrives, re-anchor weeks 7 and 8 so that mock 2 falls about a week before your exam and week 8 is the last week.
The self-mark grid
Mark each heading 2, 1 or 0. For PACES that is the Federation's own scale: Satisfactory 2, Borderline 1, Unsatisfactory 0. For PLAB 2 it is our scale, used to make self-marking consistent; the GMC pages we read name the three domains but do not publish a per-domain scale for candidates to use. The questions are ours. The headings are the exam bodies'.
| Heading | Ask yourself (from the recording) | 2 sounds like | 0 sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLAB 2: data gathering, technical and assessment skills | Did I ask open questions first, then the specific ones that rule things in and out? | Open start, focused follow-up, a summary checked with the patient | A list of closed questions read from memory |
| PLAB 2: clinical management skills | Did I say what I think it is and what happens next, in words the patient would use? | Diagnosis and plan in short pieces, checked, with a safety net | No plan, or a plan in jargon |
| PLAB 2: interpersonal skills | Rapport, open and closed questions, the patient involved, professional and ethical throughout? | Name, role, permission, the concern found and acknowledged, a shared decision | Talking at the patient; the concern never found |
| PACES C: Clinical Communication | Was the explanation "accurate, clear, structured"? Did I signpost? | "I'll explain the scan, then what happens next." Then exactly that. | Answers in whatever order the questions came |
| PACES E: Clinical Judgement | Was the plan sensible, negotiated, and right on the ethics and law? | A plan agreed with the person; senior help named where needed | A plan imposed, or an ethical error such as agreeing to lie |
| PACES F: Managing Patients' Concerns | Did I seek, detect, acknowledge and address the concern, and confirm understanding? | The hidden worry named back to them and dealt with | "Any questions?" at minute nine and nothing more |
| PACES G: Maintaining Patient Welfare | Respect, comfort, safety and dignity in every minute? | Calm, kind, never dismissive, nobody left without a plan | Interrupting, a cold phrase, an unsafe discharge |
Our rule of thumb: if your two scenarios in a day score the same on a heading three days running, change the drill, not the effort. The first-language patterns behind stubborn low marks (directness that sounds blunt, missing softeners, flat intonation on questions, over-formal register) are on the mistakes by first language page.
Test week and the night before
Week 8 has no new material after day 3. Days 4 and 5 are logistics and short warm-ups, and day 6 is the night before. What the exam bodies say about the day itself:
- PLAB 2 arrival. Per the GMC's what to expect on the day page, you are emailed an allocated arrival time; if you arrive early you may be asked to leave until then, and if you are late you cannot take the exam. The two Manchester centres have addresses that "look very similar", so check yours.
- PLAB 2 identity and belongings. Bring a passport, a full UK driving licence or an identity card with a machine-readable zone. No books, electronic devices, smart wearables or watches; your phone goes in a locker you cannot reopen until the end.
- PLAB 2 dress and conduct. Dress as you would for a UK hospital ward; the GMC says it is good practice to be bare to the elbow with no watches, bracelets or rings. Examiners observe in person, by telephone or by remote camera and "will not intervene, except in very limited circumstances".
- PACES conduct. The MRCP(UK) Regulations (September 2026) forbid devices that store information or communicate, require the PPE provided at each encounter, and say you must not visit the hospital or centre you have been allocated before the exam. They also say "It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure that they demonstrate the required skills within the time allowed."
The night before: read your opening line and your three safety-net lines once, out loud. Lay out your identity document and clothes. Check the route and the arrival time. Then stop. Nothing you learn that evening will be there at minute six of a bad-news station; the habits from eight weeks of marked scenarios will. On the day, if a scenario goes badly, the next card is a fresh start with fresh marks. Read it, breathe once, and say your opening line.