Free PLAB 2 mock test online
A PLAB 2 mock should do three things: put you on the real eight-minute clock, mark you the way the examiners mark, and show you exactly where the marks went. In-person mock courses charge £300 to £500 for one run through that experience. Plabity gives you 474 timed PLAB 2 mock stations, marked across the three PLAB domains with feedback after every station, free.
What a PLAB 2 mock test is for
PLAB 2 is 16 marked stations of eight minutes each, sat back-to-back over roughly three hours at the GMC's assessment centre in Manchester. Most candidates who fail do not fail on knowledge. They fail on the cubicle: running out of time in the history, freezing when the patient pushes back, forgetting safety-netting under pressure, or slipping into jargon. A mock test exists to expose those problems while they are still fixable.
That means a useful mock has to be timed, spoken and marked. Reading a station script and nodding along is revision. Performing the consultation against the clock and being scored on what you actually said is a mock.
What PLAB 2 mock courses cost
The established route is a one-day in-person mock course, usually in Manchester, at £300 to £500 for the day, plus travel and accommodation, on top of the £1,036 exam fee itself (see PLAB 2 dates and fees). You rotate through a circuit of stations with role-players and get verbal feedback. It is valuable, but you get exactly one attempt at each station, the feedback depends on who happens to be observing you, and if the mock reveals a weak area there is no way to drill it again the next morning without paying again.
An online mock inverts that. On Plabity every station is free, so the mock stops being a one-off event and becomes something you can do every day: sit a station, read the mark-scheme breakdown, and immediately sit it again with the feedback fresh. If you are weighing up the paid providers too, the courses and academies comparison lists them factually.
How our free PLAB 2 mock stations work
- You get the real cubicle setup. A task card with the setting, the patient and your instructions, then eight minutes on the clock.
- You speak, out loud. The patient answers you in real time, holds back what a real patient would hold back, and reacts to how you handle them. Address the examiner when you want observations or test results.
- You are marked like the exam. Every station is scored across Data Gathering, Clinical Management and Interpersonal Skills (the PLAB 2 mark scheme explained), with safety-critical actions flagged the way the real exam flags them: miss one and Clinical Management collapses to Clear Fail.
- You see the evidence. Feedback arrives in seconds with band scores per domain, every rubric criterion marked hit or missed, and quotes from your own consultation showing why.
How to run a full free PLAB 2 mock day
Single stations build skill; a full-length sit builds stamina. Two or three times in your final month, run a complete mock day:
- Pick 16 mock stations across specialties you have not seen recently. Mix history-taking, counselling, breaking bad news, ethics and risk assessment, the way the real circuit does. Do not preview the task cards.
- Sit them back-to-back. Take two short breaks in place of the real exam's rest stations, and otherwise keep moving. Switching specialty every eight minutes for three hours is a skill of its own.
- Save the feedback for the end. On exam day nobody tells you how station four went. Reviewing all 16 breakdowns afterwards also shows you patterns a single station cannot: the same missed safety-net phrasing in three different stations is a habit, not an accident.
- Turn the misses into the next week's drill list. Every criterion you missed is a station to repeat until the breakdown comes back clean.
Online mocks vs in-person mock courses
An honest comparison, because they are not interchangeable. An in-person course gives you physical examination stations with real bodies and the nerves of performing in front of strangers, and some candidates find one day of that valuable close to the exam. What it cannot give you is repetition: one pass through each station, once, for £400.
For the spoken consultations that make up the large majority of PLAB 2 stations, repetition with consistent marking is what moves your bands. A free online mock lets you sit your weakest station five times in a week and watch the domain scores climb. Many candidates do both: Plabity daily for volume and feedback, and one in-person day near the end if the budget allows. If it does not, the spoken practice is the part that predicts the result.
Start your free PLAB 2 mock
Sign up with an email address and sit your first timed station in the next five minutes. All 474 stations are free, marked to the PLAB rubric, with feedback in seconds. No card, no plan, no £400 course fee.
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Frequently asked questions
Is there a free PLAB 2 mock test?
Yes. Plabity lets you sit timed PLAB 2 mock stations online for free. Each station runs for the real eight minutes: you speak with a simulated patient, address an examiner when you need findings, and get marked across the three PLAB domains with evidence-backed feedback the moment you finish. There is no card and no paid plan.
How much do PLAB 2 mock courses cost?
In-person PLAB 2 mock courses typically cost £300 to £500 for a single day, usually in Manchester, plus travel and accommodation. You get one run through each station. An online mock on Plabity is free and can be repeated as many times as you need.
Are online PLAB 2 mocks as good as in-person mock courses?
They test the same skills the examiners mark: spoken data gathering, clinical management and interpersonal skills under an eight-minute clock. An in-person course adds physical examination practice and a peer cohort, which matters for a small number of stations. For the spoken consultations that make up most of PLAB 2, unlimited free repetition with per-station rubric feedback is the higher-yield option, and many candidates combine both.
How many mock tests should I do before PLAB 2?
Aim for at least two or three full-length mock sits of 16 stations back-to-back in the final month, on top of daily single-station practice. The full-length sits build the stamina to switch specialty every eight minutes for three hours, which is the part of exam day that surprises most candidates.
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474 timed stations, marked to the PLAB rubric. Free, no card.
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