UKMLA Exam: The UK Medical Licensing Assessment Explained (2026)

The UKMLA (UK Medical Licensing Assessment) is the national exam every UK medical graduate must pass to join the GMC register. It has two parts, both sat at your own medical school: the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) and the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA), an OSCE style practical. UK students have sat it as part of finals since 2024-25.

I am Dr Akash Gandhi, an NHS GP and the founder of TheUKCATPeople. Applicants ask me about the UKMLA at mock interviews, and doctors overseas ask whether it has replaced the PLAB. This guide answers both, checked against the GMC and Medical Schools Council guidance in August 2026.

UKMLA at a Glance: Key Facts for 2026

If you only need the headline facts, this table has them. Everything here comes from the GMC and the Medical Schools Council as of August 2026.

Key Takeaway: The UKMLA stopped being the new exam a while ago: it is simply how UK medical finals work now. The one date to note is September 2026, when the updated MLA content map starts applying.

What Is the UKMLA?

The UK Medical Licensing Assessment (UKMLA), usually shortened to the MLA, is the national licensing exam overseen by the General Medical Council (GMC). It tests the core knowledge, skills and behaviours a new doctor needs to practise safely in the UK.

You do not book it the way you book the UCAT. The UKMLA is built into your medical degree and sat at your own medical school. Pass it, along with the rest of your degree requirements, and you can join the medical register as a doctor.

It replaced the old arrangement where every school set finals to its own standard. The first cohort sat it in the 2024-25 academic year, under the GMC’s Assuring readiness for practice framework, with the written paper built centrally by the Medical Schools Council (MSC).

If you are a medical school applicant rather than a current student, the UKMLA does not affect your application at all. Every medical school in the UK uses it, so it should not influence where you apply either.

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Key Takeaway: The UKMLA is the GMC’s single national standard for new doctors. It has been part of UK finals since the 2024-25 academic year, and every UK medical school uses it.

Will the UKMLA Replace the PLAB?

No, and this is the detail most articles get wrong. The PLAB still exists, and international medical graduates who want to join the UK register still book and sit PLAB 1 and PLAB 2. What changed is the content inside the exam.

Since 2024 the PLAB has been compliant with the MLA requirements: its questions and stations are drawn from the same MLA content map as UK finals. PLAB 1 meets the requirements of the AKT, and PLAB 2 meets the requirements of the CPSA.

The name: The GMC has kept the PLAB name for now, though it has said it plans to modernise the name at a later date. So "UKMLA for international graduates" and "MLA aligned PLAB" describe the same exam.

In practice, this is what an international graduate sits in 2026:

• PLAB 1: 180 single best answer questions in three hours, run four times a year (February, May, August and November) in UK cities, Dublin, Madrid and overseas British Council centres.
• PLAB 2: a 16 station OSCE of eight minute scenarios, around three hours in all, sat at the two GMC clinical assessment centres in Manchester.
• Fees from 1 April 2026: £283 for PLAB 1 and £1,036 for PLAB 2.
• From 2027: Dhaka, Alexandria, Accra and Chennai will no longer run PLAB 1, and there will be no international sittings in February 2027. The GMC says international demand has fallen.

EU and EEA graduates are the one genuinely unsettled group. Doctors whose European qualification is recognised under the pre-Brexit arrangements do not currently need to sit the PLAB. Anyone who qualified more recently is assessed like any other international graduate, so check your own route directly with the GMC.

Thinking of studying medicine in the UK instead, and skipping the PLAB entirely? Our guide to studying medicine in the UK as an international student walks through that route.

Key Takeaway: The UKMLA has not replaced the PLAB, and the PLAB has not been scrapped. International graduates still sit PLAB 1 and PLAB 2, but both now test the MLA content map, so everyone joining the register meets the same standard.

What Is the Format of the UKMLA Exam?

The UKMLA has two components, and you must meet the standard in both:

1. Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), the written part
2. Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA), the practical part

The Applied Knowledge Test (AKT)

The Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) is an on screen exam of applied clinical knowledge. It asks how you would manage realistic scenarios, not how well you can recite facts.

• Two papers: 100 single best answer questions each, sat on sequential days.
• Five options per question: with no negative marking, so never leave a blank.
• Two hours per paper: as standard, with adjusted timings where reasonable adjustments apply.
• One national paper: written centrally through the Medical Schools Council and delivered by your school.

The Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA)

The Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA) is the practical half: an assessment of clinical and communication skills that your medical school sets and runs, against requirements the GMC quality assures. Most schools deliver it under a familiar name such as an OSCE or OSLER.

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Key Takeaway: The AKT is 200 single best answer questions across two sequential days, with no negative marking. The CPSA is your school’s OSCE style exam, run to nationally checked requirements.

When Is the UKMLA Exam in 2026?

There is no single national exam day, which surprises people. Each medical school chooses its own UKMLA dates, so the honest answer for 2026 is: whenever your school schedules finals.

• Most students: sit both the AKT and the CPSA during their final year, on dates set by their school.
• Some schools: hold written finals earlier, in which case the AKT is sat in the summer of the penultimate year.
• International graduates: sit PLAB 1 in February, May, August or November, and PLAB 2 runs throughout the year in Manchester.

Your medical school will confirm the practical arrangements as finals approach, so its exam office is the only source worth trusting on exact dates.

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Key Takeaway: UKMLA dates are set by each medical school, normally in the final year. Only the PLAB, the route for international graduates, has fixed national sittings.

What Is the MLA Content Map, and What Changes in September 2026?

The MLA content map is the syllabus. It sets out everything the AKT and CPSA can test, from areas of clinical practice and professional knowledge down to individual presentations and conditions, such as a chronic rash or asthma.

It is built around three themes: readiness for safe practice, managing uncertainty, and delivering person centred care. All of it traces back to the GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates, which describes what a newly qualified doctor must know and be able to do.

The 2026 change: The GMC published a fully reviewed content map in October 2025, its first full update since the map appeared in 2019. Exams sat in the 2025-26 academic year still use the original. Assessments delivered from the 2026-27 academic year onwards must follow the updated version.

If your finals are in 2027 or later, revise from the updated map. If you are sitting the PLAB in late 2026 or 2027, check the GMC’s PLAB guide for which version your sitting uses, since the GMC lists the content map as the basis for both routes.

Key Takeaway: The content map is the UKMLA syllabus, and it has just had its first full refresh. The original applies for 2025-26, and the updated version applies to exams from the 2026-27 academic year.

How Much Does the UKMLA Cost, and What Is the Pass Mark?

The cost for UK students: Nothing extra. The MLA is part of your degree and universities cover the cost, including from course fees. Some medical schools do charge for resits, so a failed sitting can carry a fee depending on your school.

Failing the UKMLA has the same consequence as failing any other degree requirement: you do not graduate. There is no separate certificate to chase afterwards.

The pass mark: There is no fixed percentage. The threshold is set for each exam through standard setting, a process that judges what a just safe candidate should score on that particular paper. The MLA is pass or fail.

You will see exact percentage pass marks quoted on forums and revision sites. Neither the GMC nor the Medical Schools Council publishes one, so treat any specific figure with caution. Your UKMLA score is not nationally ranked and does not feed into Foundation Programme applications.

For international graduates the costs are the PLAB fees above, plus travel to Manchester for PLAB 2.

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Key Takeaway: UK students pay nothing extra to sit the UKMLA, though resit fees vary by school. It is pass or fail, standard set for each paper, with no published fixed pass mark.

How Do You Prepare for the UKMLA?

The GMC’s advice here is genuinely reassuring: your degree is the preparation. The UKMLA does not test anything beyond your medical school’s curriculum, and the content map tells you exactly what is in scope.

The Medical Schools Council publishes free practice papers, a student handbook and webinars for the AKT, and states plainly that you do not need paid courses to pass. The people who write the exam produce those free resources.

For the AKT:

• Work from the content map: Use it as a checklist of presentations and conditions, and flag the ones you have never met on placement.
• Drill single best answer questions: Practise in the exam format, then review every wrong answer properly rather than moving straight on.

Active recall, spaced repetition and reflective practice after mock papers move marks faster than passive rereading ever will.

For the CPSA:

• Use your placements: Histories and examinations done on real wards are the core preparation.
• Run mock OSCEs: Practise timed stations with friends and ask for blunt feedback against a checklist.

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Key Takeaway: Your course is the preparation and the content map is the syllabus. The Medical Schools Council’s free practice papers are written by the same team that writes the real exam.

Which Medical Schools Use the UKMLA?

All of them. Every UK medical school builds the UKMLA into its final assessments, so there is no way to choose around it. That includes:

• University of Oxford
• University of Cambridge
• Imperial College London
• King's College London
• University College London (UCL)
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Manchester
• University of Glasgow
• University of Bristol
• University of Leeds

The written paper, known as the MS AKT, is constructed centrally through the Medical Schools Council and delivered locally by each school. That is how every school examines the same standard on its own timetable.

Key Takeaway: Every UK medical school uses the UKMLA. The exam is the same national standard wherever you study, delivered on each school’s own dates.

Why Does the UKMLA Matter for Your Medicine Interview?

You will not sit the UKMLA for years, so why raise it at interview? Because it shows you understand how UK medicine is regulated and why patient safety is standardised nationally. Knowing the GMC runs one licensing standard, rather than dozens of separate finals, signals real awareness of how the profession protects patients.

You can frame it through consistency of care: a patient anywhere in the country can trust that every new doctor met the same threshold. It also connects to wider workforce debates, such as the role of physician associates and how the NHS decides who is safe to practise.

Sample interview question: "What is the UKMLA and why was it introduced?"

A strong answer has three layers. Define it: the GMC’s national licensing assessment, the AKT plus the CPSA, which every UK graduate has passed since 2024-25. Explain it: separate school finals meant variable standards, and one exam gives patients a consistent guarantee. Then balance it: standardisation supports safety and fairness, though some argue it narrows teaching.

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Strong interview answers connect the dots between current affairs. Start with our hub on NHS hot topics and wider reading for MMI interviews, then read these closely related guides:

• Physician Associates: The Ultimate Guide
• Why Are Resident Doctors Leaving the NHS?
• The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT)

Key Takeaway: The UKMLA is a gift of an interview topic: define it, explain the patient safety logic, and show balance. That structure answers almost any question you could be asked about it.