By Dr Diandra | MedExcellence
Preparing for the UKMLA while attending clinical placements can feel like trying to fit a second working day into your evenings.
You spend the day on the wards, travel home, make dinner and then somehow need to find the energy to revise. A timetable that looked perfectly manageable on Sunday can feel unrealistic by Tuesday.
I graduated in 2025 and was part of the first national UKMLA cohort. My advice is to build your revision around the time and energy you actually have.
Here is a practical way to create a plan that works alongside placements.
Start with your real availability
Before choosing topics or setting question targets, map out your existing commitments:
- Clinical placement hours
- Travel time
- University teaching
- Work or caring responsibilities
- Exercise and social plans
- Sleep and time to unwind
Then identify the study sessions you can realistically protect.
If you get home at 6 pm, scheduling three hours of revision every evening may leave little room for anything else. A focused 45-minute session you can complete is more useful than an ambitious session you repeatedly miss.
Build some flexibility into the week from the beginning.
Give each week a clear focus
Use the GMC MLA content map applicable to your exam date, your medical school’s guidance and your own knowledge gaps to organise your topics.
Choose a manageable focus for the week. For example:
- Main topic: cardiology
- Previous topic to revisit: respiratory medicine
- Clinical practice: explaining an investigation or taking a focused history
You can link your revision to your current placement when it helps. Seeing patients with a condition can give you a useful starting point for understanding it.
However, keep a broader checklist so your revision also covers specialties you are not currently rotating through.
Your placement can guide the week’s learning without determining your entire revision plan.
Use different sessions for different energy levels
Every study session does not need to look the same.
Short session: 15–20 minutes
Useful after a demanding day:
- Review a few previous mistakes.
- Recall the key features of one presentation.
- Complete a small set of questions and review the explanations.
- Practise explaining a condition out loud.
Standard session: 45–60 minutes
Useful on a typical placement evening:
- Review one focused topic.
- Complete relevant practice questions.
- Record the main gaps in your understanding.
Longer session: 90 minutes with a break
Useful on a free morning or afternoon:
- Work through a more difficult topic.
- Complete a timed question block.
- Review your answers carefully.
- Practise clinical skills or communication with a colleague.
These are suggested starting points. Adjust them to your workload and concentration.
Set goals you can finish
“Revise cardiology” is difficult to measure and easy to postpone.
A more specific goal might be:
- Compare the key features of three causes of chest pain.
- Complete and review 15 cardiology questions.
- Explain an investigation without using medical jargon.
- Revisit five mistakes from last week.
Choose tasks that fit the time available.
Question numbers are flexible. If reviewing ten questions exposes several important gaps, working through those gaps may be the most useful outcome of the session.
Count the review time as part of your revision.
Turn placement experiences into learning prompts
Clinical placements can give your revision context.
After seeing a patient, identify one learning question:
- What else could explain this presentation?
- Why was this investigation chosen?
- What features would change the urgency?
- When would I need senior support?
- How would I explain the plan to the patient?
Look up that question when you have an appropriate opportunity.
Keep any personal learning notes anonymous and free of identifiable patient information.
You do not need to turn every patient encounter into homework. One focused learning point can be enough.
Include clinical practice throughout your plan
It is easy to fill a timetable with written questions because they are straightforward to organise and track.
Make room for clinical and communication practice too.
A short session with a colleague could involve:
- Choosing one clinical scenario.
- Taking turns as the student and patient.
- Practising under a time limit.
- Giving specific feedback.
- Repeating the part that needs improvement.
Focus your feedback on observable points: whether the explanation was clear, whether concerns were explored and whether the next steps were explained.
Have a plan for difficult days
Decide in advance what you will do when you are tired or running late.
Your reduced session might be:
- Ten minutes reviewing previous mistakes
- One short explanation practised out loud
- A brief review of a topic you have already studied
On some days, rest will be the appropriate choice.
Avoid automatically moving every missed task into the following evening. That can turn one difficult day into an increasingly crowded week.
At your next weekly review, decide whether the task still matters, can be shortened or needs a different slot.
Adjust the plan using your progress
At the end of each week, ask yourself:
- What did I complete?
- Which topics still feel uncertain?
- What mistakes keep recurring?
- Was the workload realistic?
- What should I change next week?
Use your answers to set the next week’s priorities.
As the exam approaches, you can gradually include more mixed questions and timed practice, while continuing to review areas you find difficult.
Follow your medical school’s instructions for the assessment format and arrangements.
My advice as a first-cohort doctor
You do not need to recreate someone else’s revision routine.
Your placements, commute, responsibilities and concentration will shape what is realistic for you. Build a timetable that recognises those things.
Start with a manageable week, review how it went and adjust. Leave time to understand your mistakes, practise clinical skills and recover between busy days.
At MedExcellence, we aim to make UKMLA preparation more structured and approachable, helping you connect your revision to the clinical decisions you will make as a doctor.
Explore our courses and question bank at MedExcellence.
Useful resources
- GMC: Medical Licensing Assessment
- Your medical school’s assessment handbook, placement requirements and student support services