Frequently asked questions.

The UK Medical Licensing Assessment, introduced by the GMC. From 2024/25, every doctor registering to practise in the UK must pass it. It has two components — the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), a written multiple-choice paper, and the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA), an OSCE.

UK medical students sit the AKT as part of their final-year exams, on dates set by each medical school (typically spring or summer of final year). IMGs on the PLAB route sit PLAB 1 — the AKT-equivalent paper — at British Council and Pearson VUE test centres throughout the year.

Content-wise, yes. The AKT and PLAB 1 share the GMC's Medical Licensing Assessment blueprint. Delivery differs: medical schools write their own AKT papers from the national bank, whereas PLAB 1 is a single national paper run by the GMC on fixed sitting days.

The blueprint covers 13 clinical presentation groups and 25 knowledge areas — the full specialty map from cardiovascular to mental health to practical skills. See the breakdown at /curriculum.

200 single-best-answer (SBA) questions over a 4-hour paper. Each stem has five options. There is no negative marking — blank and wrong score the same.

The GMC uses a modified Angoff standard-setting process to set the pass mark on each paper, so there is no fixed percentage cut-off. You get one mark per correct answer, zero for incorrect or blank.

Not today. MLA Prep is focused entirely on the written AKT / PLAB 1 — SBAs, flashcards and mock papers. A CPSA companion product is on the roadmap; we'd rather ship the AKT tooling well than OSCE tooling halfway.

Over 10,000 SBAs, covering every domain of the GMC blueprint. Every question has a worked explanation referenced to NICE, BNF or the relevant royal college guideline where applicable.

Every question is written to the GMC content map and reviewed before it enters the bank, with a worked explanation referenced to current NICE / BNF or royal college guidance — so you can verify any answer against its source.

We use the SM-2 spaced-repetition algorithm. Cards you find easy resurface in weeks; cards you find hard come back within a day. The scheduler adapts to your actual recall — not a fixed review window.

Yes. Every mock paper is 200 SBAs under a 4-hour timer, with specialty weighting that mirrors the GMC blueprint. You get unlimited attempts on premium — no cap, no surcharge.

Yes. The UK-student and IMG pathways share the same question bank; the pathway toggle adjusts weighting, terminology and phrasing (UK-context vs IELTS-friendly). Your progress and scheduled flashcards carry over.

The web app needs an internet connection to sync progress between sessions. A minimal offline mode — cached questions, progress queued for the next sync — is on the roadmap.

The free tier unlocks 2 full topics — every SBA, flashcard and NICE-referenced note in them — plus a one-off 50-question diagnostic mock with a per-specialty breakdown, and basic analytics. The remaining topics, unlimited 200-question mocks and full per-specialty analytics live behind the paywall.

No. MLA Prep is a one-off lifetime purchase — pay once and you keep full access for good. We never charge you again.

Lifetime app access comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee — email support@mlaprep.co.uk within 7 days of purchase and we'll refund you in full, no questions asked. Digital book downloads (PDF + EPUB) are delivered instantly, so they're final sale and non-refundable — see the refund policy for details.

One payment unlocks lifetime access — the full 10,000+ SBA bank, all 10,766 flashcards, unlimited mock exams and per-specialty analytics. Pay once, no auto-renewal, with every future update included. During sale windows the pricing page shows the discounted price, applied automatically at checkout.

UK prices shown are inclusive of VAT where applicable. Dodo Payments handles VAT collection and displays a VAT-compliant invoice in your account after checkout.

The latest two major versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, on desktop and mobile. Legacy browsers (IE, pre-Chromium Edge) are not supported.

Yes. The web app is fully responsive and works on iOS and Android browsers. A dedicated mobile app is on the roadmap.

Yes. Your progress, answers and payment data are encrypted in transit and at rest. We don't sell data, don't run third-party ad tracking, and don't share study data with medical schools or any third party without explicit consent. See /privacy for specifics.

Email support@mlaprep.co.uk and we'll reply within one working day.