Planning and tracking guides for international medical graduates. Pace your coverage, question banks and mocks backward from a real exam date, not generic study advice.
You do not choose between these three. Where you want to practise chooses for you — Australia takes the AMC, the UK takes PLAB, the United States takes the USMLE. There is no easier route to a different country, and comparing their difficulty is the wrong question. The useful comparison is structural, because it tells you what a preparation plan has to survive.
| Exam | Run by | To practise in | Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMC | Australian Medical Council | Australia | CAT MCQ, 150 questions in 3.5 hours, then either a 20-station clinical exam or a workplace based assessment |
| PLAB | General Medical Council | United Kingdom | PLAB 1, 180 questions in 3 hours, then PLAB 2, a 16-scenario OSCE of 8 minutes each |
| USMLE | FSMB and NBME | United States | Three Steps: Step 1, Step 2 CK and Step 3 |
Structures checked against the regulators' own pages on 14 August 2026 — the AMC and USMLE pages linked above, and the GMC's published PLAB guidance for the PLAB figures. Exam formats change without much notice, so confirm a number with the regulator before you plan around it.
Two of the three share a shape worth planning around. The AMC and PLAB are each a written stage followed by a clinical stage, and both put a clock on the gap: the AMC's MCQ authorisation runs for 12 months, and PLAB 2 must be passed within two years of PLAB 1. The AMC does not publish what date starts its 12-month clock, so take the start from your own authorisation letter. The USMLE is the outlier: three Steps spread across training, so the two-gate clock above does not describe it.
The practical consequence is the same in each case. The written exam is the one candidates prepare hardest for, and the clinical stage is the one that decides more outcomes. If you are on the Australian route, our guide to the AMC pass rate shows what that gap looked like in the last figures the AMC published.
What we cover, honestly. The guides below are deep on the AMC and cover it end to end. StudyRise's Exam mode supports PLAB 1 and USMLE Step 1 alongside AMC MCQ and a custom exam, but we have not written the guides for those two yet. If you are sitting PLAB or the USMLE, take the structure above and go to the GMC or the USMLE program for the detail.
The AMC gives you a 12-month authorisation, not a calendar. How booking with Pearson VUE works, and how to choose a date you can prepare for.
A three-phase plan with blueprint-weighted coverage, question-led learning, and timed mocks, built backwards from your exam date.
Before the exam prep, the plain answer: what the AMC is, what it does, and how it differs from AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia.
The whole map: an Australian medical degree on one side, the AMC assessment pathways on the other, and which of them require an exam.
The published blueprint, patient group by patient group, plus the sitting rules that catch people: no skipping, no going back, and 84 seconds a question.
What the higher cut score changes, what it leaves alone, and how to adjust a preparation plan that was built against the old standard.
A sustainable daily range, why reviewing is the real work, and when to push harder or ease off without wrecking the rest of the plan.
Your medical school, your degree title and your graduation year each have to appear on the AMC's list before you can apply. Three separate checks, all of which must pass.
Every AMC fee, the refund cliffs that quietly cost candidates money, and the costs that never appear on the fee page.
What each route costs, how the assessments are structured, and how to choose your second stage once the MCQ is behind you.
Which AMC resources are worth buying, which are already free, and the order to use them in — with a verdict on each.
What a re-sit costs, what your score report tells you, and how to diagnose the failure before paying another A$2,920.
Figures from the AMC's own annual report. The second stage is where the pathway narrows hardest.
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