What is the PRES Examination?
The purpose of the examination is to determine whether a doctor possesses the clinical knowledge, communication skills and professional judgement expected of a doctor entering clinical practice in the Irish healthcare system.
Like the PLAB examination, the PRES assesses the application of medical knowledge, clinical judgement and decision-making within realistic clinical scenarios.
How Similar is PRES to PLAB?
The PRES and the UK's PLAB examination are both licensing examinations for international medical graduates and have a similar overall format.
Historically, PRES Level 2 closely resembled PLAB 1, consisting of single best answer questions based on realistic clinical scenarios. The close overlap between the two examinations has led the Irish Medical Council to move towards recognising PLAB as equivalent to PRES for eligible candidates.
PRES Level 3 closely resembles PLAB 2. Both are OSCE-based clinical examinations assessing communication, practical skills, clinical judgement and professionalism across the core specialties. Although PRES Level 3 has a slightly different structure, including a separate interpretation examination and shorter OSCE stations, candidates who are well prepared for PLAB 2 will find the style, standard and clinical approach very familiar.
Candidates who have prepared for PLAB are therefore likely to find the style of questioning familiar.
We have reviewed several independent blog posts and candidate reviews and found many candidates commenting that PLABABLE is highly relevant for preparing for the PRES examination. One example is the blog post below, where the author discusses using PLABABLE as part of their PRES 2 preparation:
https://presexamireland.blogspot.com/2026/05/preparing-pres-2-exam-plabable.html
Why PLABABLE is Excellent Preparation for PRES
At www.plabable.com, our educational philosophy has always centred around developing clinical reasoning.
Our resources were written to prepare doctors for licensing examinations that assess applied medical knowledge, making them highly relevant for candidates preparing for the PRES.
Because the PRES and PLAB assess the same core competencies, candidates preparing for the Irish Medical Council examination will find that PLABABLE teaches the same topics required to succeed.