Understanding the ideal resources to study the UKMLA

TL;DR

This paper explores which study resources are most helpful for UK medical students preparing for the new UKMLA exam.

Contribution

The study identifies the most useful resources for clinical-year medical students preparing for the UKMLA through a novel lecture series and survey.

Findings

Free online resources, paid question banks, and clinical placements are the most used study resources.

Over half of participants found paid online question banks to be the most useful resource.

Participants came from a wide range of UK medical schools in their clinical years.

Abstract

The United Kingdom Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA) is a new national examination being introduced for all final-year medical students graduating from the academic year commencing in 2024. The examination will be a national initiative to standardize medical school exams. In this paper, we aim to understand which resources can be developed in the future to help clinical-year medical students studying for the UKMLA.

We organised a novel 25-lecture series delivered by post-CCT doctors using an online platform. A form was created and distributed amongst the lecture audience to understand which resources medical students find useful for studying clinical medicine. The form was created using Google Forms©.

Our form was completed by 71 participants. The three most used resources were free online resources, paid question banks, and clinical placements. More than half of the participants reported that the single most useful resource was paid online question banks. The form was completed by participants from a wide range of UK medical schools, with most students being in their clinical years of study.

Digital resources are widely used by medical students, and to further support clinical students in their learning, the Society should develop such resources.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-026-08814-7.

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