PLAB and GMC Registration: The Gates Before the Job

What PLAB and GMC registration ask of you

English comes before the medicine does

The General Medical Council wants the academic IELTS English test at 7.5 overall and at least 7.0 in each of its four sections, all from one sitting.

That score has a two year life

An IELTS certificate counts for two years. It has to be valid on the day you sit PLAB part 1, and valid again when the council approves your registration.

Five tries at PLAB 1, then it closes

PLAB is the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test. You may sit part 1 until you fail four times, then apply for a fifth and final attempt.

Both parts, passed inside two years

For full registration the General Medical Council wants both parts of PLAB passed within the past two years. An older pass will not carry you through.

Your Indian internship fits, with conditions

A 12 month internship qualifies if it ran straight before or after graduation, was continuous, and carried three months of medicine and three of surgery.

Twenty days is the whole absence budget

Across any 12 months the council allows no more than 20 days away for illness or leave the law allows. Observation posts, shadowing and clerkships do not count.

Want the full picture of UK practice

Our guide to working in the United Kingdom after MBBS sets out the registration route end to end, what each stage costs, and how long the whole thing takes.