AskMed
AskMed is our pick for PLAB 1: 500 single-best-answer questions across 15 topics and cited medical answers, in one app. Every option has its own explanation and a source you can open.
| Questions | 500 PLAB 1 questions (5,499 across 11 exams) |
|---|---|
| Format | Single best answer, 5 options, like PLAB 1 |
| Topics | 15, from cardiology to biostatistics and ethics |
| Explanations | One for every option |
| Sources | 1–3 per question: NICE, Merck Manuals, GOV.UK, RCOG, GMC |
| Modes | Practice, spaced-repetition review, timed mock (40 questions in 60 minutes) |
| Doses | Never |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Android, web |
The other options
Five other apps are worth comparing with AskMed for PLAB 1: PLABable, Pastest, iatroX, MedRevisions and ChatGPT. Four of them are built around a question bank. PLABable is a large bank made only for PLAB 1, with discussion under each question. Pastest is a full package of questions, mock exams and notes. iatroX pairs adaptive UK practice with an AI tutor for guideline questions, and MedRevisions maps a big bank to the MLA content map and adds an AI study assistant. ChatGPT is different: it is a general AI chatbot, useful for talking a topic through, but it has no PLAB 1 question bank, so you need to check its sources yourself. AskMed sits between the two groups, with a 500-question PLAB 1 bank and cited answers to any medical question in the same app. The table below shows the type of each app and what it is best for.
| App | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| PLABable | Question bank | A large bank built only for PLAB 1, with discussion under each question |
| Pastest | Question bank + course | A full package: questions, mock exams and notes |
| iatroX | Question bank + AI tutor | Adaptive UK practice plus guideline Q&A |
| MedRevisions | Question bank + AI study assistant | A big bank mapped to the MLA content map |
| ChatGPT | General AI chatbot | Talking a topic through. It has no PLAB question bank, so check its sources yourself |
What to look for in a PLAB 1 app
A good PLAB 1 app should match the format of the exam and teach UK practice. PLAB 1 is 180 single-best-answer questions in three hours, each with five options, which leaves about one minute per question. That gives five things to check before you choose a PLAB 1 app: questions in the same five-option format; an explanation for every option, not only the correct one; sources that follow UK guidance such as NICE rather than US guidelines; timed mocks plus spaced review of the questions you got wrong; and a way to read up on what a question exposed without leaving the app. Open a few sample questions and read their explanations and sources before you commit to a bank. The list below explains each point and shows how AskMed's 500-question PLAB 1 bank handles it.
- Questions in the real format. Practising with five-option questions makes the format feel normal on the day. All 500 of AskMed's PLAB questions have five options.
- An explanation for every option. In a single-best-answer paper, the hard part is ruling out the options that are almost right. An app that only explains the correct answer skips that. AskMed explains every option, so you learn why each wrong answer is wrong.
- UK sources. PLAB tests UK practice, so explanations should follow NICE and other UK guidance, not US guidelines. Across AskMed's PLAB bank, NICE guidance is cited 222 times, alongside GOV.UK, the RCOG, the GMC, the British Thoracic Society and the Resuscitation Council UK.
- Timed practice and review. The real paper allows about one minute per question. Timed mocks build that pace, and reviewing the questions you got wrong, spaced out over days, makes the lessons stick. AskMed has both: a 40-question, 60-minute mock and spaced-repetition review.
- A way to fill the gaps. A question bank shows what you don't know. AskMed also answers any medical question with citations to journals, guidelines and drug labels, so you can read up on a topic and go straight back to practice.
AskMed's PLAB bank by topic
AskMed's PLAB 1 bank has 500 questions across 15 topics: 142 easy, 255 medium and 103 hard. The questions are spread almost evenly: cardiology, gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and surgery have 34 each, and the other ten topics have 33. The topics follow the medical specialties, from endocrinology and nephrology to psychiatry, plus microbiology, pharmacology and a combined biostatistics and ethics topic. Each question also names a subtopic, such as hypertension within cardiology in the sample question below. In the app you can practise one topic at a time, 10 questions per session, or choose all topics to mix questions from the whole bank. Each answer feeds spaced-repetition review: a question you miss comes back after 10 minutes, and each right answer pushes it further out, to 1, 3, 7, 16 and then 35 days. The table below shows how many PLAB 1 questions each topic has.
| Topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Cardiology | 34 |
| Gastroenterology | 34 |
| Obstetrics and gynecology | 34 |
| Pediatrics | 34 |
| Surgery | 34 |
| Biostatistics and ethics | 33 |
| Endocrinology | 33 |
| Hematology and oncology | 33 |
| Infectious diseases | 33 |
| Microbiology | 33 |
| Nephrology | 33 |
| Neurology | 33 |
| Pharmacology | 33 |
| Psychiatry | 33 |
| Pulmonology | 33 |
See a question
A 52-year-old man of Black African family origin has a clinic blood pressure of 166/98 mmHg. Ambulatory monitoring confirms stage 2 hypertension. He does not have diabetes, and his renal function and urine dipstick are normal. Which is the most appropriate first-line drug treatment?
An ACE inhibitor is step 1 for people under 55 who are not of Black African or African–Caribbean family origin, or for anyone with type 2 diabetes. It is not first choice here.
Beta-blockers are not a routine step 1 treatment for hypertension in NICE guidance.
Correct. NICE recommends a calcium-channel blocker as step 1 for adults of Black African or African–Caribbean family origin without type 2 diabetes, at any age.
Alpha-blockers are a step 4 option for resistant hypertension (for example when potassium is above 4.5 mmol/L), not step 1.
Spironolactone is a step 4 option for resistant hypertension when potassium is low enough.
Tap an answer to see why each option is right or wrong.
Source: NICE NG136: Hypertension in adults: diagnosis and management
Questions
Is AskMed's PLAB bank written by AI on the spot?
AskMed's PLAB 1 questions are not written by AI on the spot. Every question comes from a fixed bank that was written and checked before it went into the app, and only questions marked as reviewed are served. Each PLAB 1 question has five different options, one explanation per option, and one to three sources you can open, such as a NICE guideline or a GOV.UK page. Every source is a link, so you can check an explanation against the guideline or reference it comes from. If a question looks wrong, tap Report question in the app. A question reported by two or more people is held back until it is checked. When you practise, AskMed serves the questions you have not seen yet first, then the ones you saw longest ago, so you work through the whole 500-question PLAB 1 bank before questions repeat.
Does AskMed give drug doses?
No. Questions test the right choice of treatment, never doses.
Can I ask about something a question raised?
Yes. Ask AskMed any medical question and the answer cites the journals, guidelines or drug labels it comes from, so you can check the guideline behind a question you got wrong.
Which devices does it work on?
iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. One account works on all of them, so you can practise on your phone and review on a laptop.
Do I need a UK licence or a US NPI to use it?
No. AskMed works worldwide, and you don't need a medical licence or an NPI to sign up.
Which other exams are covered?
5,499 questions in all: USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, PLAB, NEET-PG, ENARM, TUS, PLE, UKOMNAS, EDN, Ghana MDC and Israel MLE, each in the exam's own language.