The 20 most common PLAB 2 stations

The big five: prepare these first

These five themes are as close to guaranteed as PLAB 2 gets, because each one carries a safety behaviour the exam exists to check.

1. Chest pain. The most heavily tested presentation in the exam. It recurs because discharging an acute coronary syndrome is the costliest mistake a new doctor can make: the station checks serial troponins, an ECG before management, and safety-netting.
2. Breaking bad news. The classic interpersonal-skills station: a new cancer diagnosis, an unexpected scan finding, a death. SPIKES structure, warning shots, silence tolerated, no false reassurance.
3. Acute abdominal pain. Recurs because the differential spans surgical emergencies: the station tests whether you actively exclude the ruptured AAA and, in any woman of childbearing age, the ectopic.
4. Headache with red flags. Thunderclap onset and subarachnoid haemorrhage screening. A red-flag sweep done out loud is most of the data-gathering marks.
5. Depression with suicide risk. The risk assessment is the station: asking directly about suicidal thoughts, plans and protective factors, without euphemism, decides the outcome.

The communication core: where the exam is really decided

PLAB 2 fails more candidates on consultation behaviour than on clinical knowledge, and these stations exist to test exactly that.

6. Medication error apology. Duty of candour under pressure: a clear apology, honest explanation, and the incident report, without blaming a colleague.
7. Capacity and treatment refusal. The Mental Capacity Act's four-limb test woven into a conversation, and the harder skill: respecting a capacitous refusal.
8. Domestic violence disclosure. Creating safety to disclose, HARK screening, and knowing exactly where confidentiality ends when children are at risk.
9. The angry patient or relative. A complaint about waiting times, a missed result, a colleague's manner. Acknowledgement before explanation; the station marks de-escalation, not victory.
10. Confidentiality dilemmas. A relative wants information, an employer calls, the police ask. The station tests whether you know the narrow, defined exceptions and can hold the line kindly everywhere else.

The counselling regulars

11. New type 2 diabetes. Explaining a lifelong diagnosis in plain English: lifestyle first, metformin, monitoring, complications screening, all in shared-decision style.
12. Hypertension counselling. ABPM confirmation, the five lifestyle areas made specific, and staged treatment per NICE, with the accelerated-hypertension red flags screened.
13. Atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation. The stroke-prevention conversation: CHA2DS2-VASc, an honest bleeding trade-off, and a patient who has usually already refused warfarin once.
14. Alcohol history and brief intervention. Units quantified without judgement, dependence screened, and the safety-critical warning never to stop suddenly in a dependent drinker.
15. Contraception counselling. Options laid out fairly, effectiveness in real terms, and the specific rules (missed pills, emergency contraception) that carry the marks.

The clinical regulars

16. The febrile child. A worried parent, a traffic-light assessment in plain words, and explicit written-style safety-netting: the non-blanching rash, the dry nappies, the floppy child.
17. Diabetic ketoacidosis. Recognising the emergency and, in its hardest variant, persuading a patient with capacity who wants to self-discharge.
18. Acute asthma and COPD. Severity classification out loud, stepwise management, and the discharge conversation with inhaler technique and smoking cessation.
19. Miscarriage and early pregnancy bleeding. Clinical assessment and grief handled in the same eight minutes: ectopic excluded, and it is explicitly not her fault.
20. TIA and stroke. Recognising the transient event the patient is minimising, aspirin, and the 24-hour specialist referral pathway.

How to use this list without it using you

The list above is a floor. Since PLAB aligned to the MLA content map, sittings draw from a wider pool of presentations than the classic high-yield lists cover, and the pass-rate dip that followed is widely blamed on candidates who prepared the greatest hits and nothing else. The working plan: drill these twenty themes until the breakdowns come back clean, then use the full station library to cover every specialty and every station type at least once. And treat any list built on leaked recalls with caution: sharing recalled stations breaches GMC exam conditions, and the themes rotate anyway.

Practise the common stations free Browse all 474 stations

Frequently asked questions

Methodology: ranking reflects the published GMC PLAB 2 syllabus, the MLA content map, and recurring candidate reports; no recalled station content is used. Last reviewed 6 July 2026.

See also: the complete PLAB 2 guide · PLAB 2 practice · free PLAB 2 mock test · the PLAB 2 mark scheme