# UKMLA AKT pass mark: 115 to 117 of 200, and a 98.3 percent pass rate

> UKMLA AKT pass mark: 115 to 117 out of 200 across the 2024-25 exams, with the 98.3 percent pass rate, the format, attempts, dates and PLAB 1 side by side.

Markdown copy of https://meduniexam.com/blog/ukmla-akt-pass-mark-dates-and-results (the HTML page), published by MedUni Exam. Published September 22, 2026. Site guide for agents: https://meduniexam.com/llms.txt.

Written by [Nicholas](https://meduniexam.com/about.md). Checked on September 22, 2026.

The UKMLA AKT pass mark ranged from 115 out of 200 to 117 out of 200 across the exams held from September 2024 to August 2025. That is 57.5 to 58.5 percent of the items, and the pass mark range for the most recent published year. The pass rate over the same period was 98.3 percent across 10,437 students at 40 medical schools. Both figures come from the first annual report on the applied knowledge test, published in April 2026 and checked on September 22, 2026.

## What is the UKMLA pass mark, and the UKMLA passing score

The UKMLA AKT pass mark is set one paper at a time, and across the exams held from September 2024 to August 2025 it ran from 115 out of 200 to 117 out of 200, or 57.5 to 58.5 percent of the items. The UKMLA passing score is that same figure from the candidate side: 115 correct answers out of 200 at the low end of the 2024-25 range, and 117 out of 200 at the high end.

The number moves because it is set for each paper. The Standard Setting Group, 17 members drawn from 14 medical schools, sets the passing score with the 30 members of the standard setting panels, by the Modified Angoff method, in which expert panels estimate how a minimally competent candidate would perform. That is why the year carries a range instead of one fixed national figure. The average of the range, the UKMLA pass mark average people search for, is 116 out of 200, or 58.0 percent of the items, by the arithmetic in this article.

| UKMLA AKT reporting period | Pass mark out of 200 | Medical schools | Students, main sit | Pass rate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| September 2024 to August 2025, final and penultimate year sittings | 115 to 117 | 40 | 10,437 | 98.3 percent at the end of August 2025 |
| June and August 2024, penultimate year sittings | 115 to 116 | 8 | 1,580 | 96.4 percent at the end of August 2024 |

Source: Medical Schools Council, [Annual report on the MLA Applied Knowledge Test 2024-25](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MLA-AKT-Board-Report-2024-5.pdf), tables 1a and 1b on pages 21 and 22. Checked on September 22, 2026.

## UKMLA pass rate and UKMLA fail rate

The UKMLA AKT pass rate was 98.3 percent at the end of August 2025, across 10,437 students at 40 medical schools, main sit only. Fail rate is the same number the other way: 1.7 percent, about 177 students, since 100 minus 98.3 is 1.7 and 1.7 percent of 10,437 is 177.4. UKMLA failure rate is that same 1.7 percent under a different word. Penultimate year sittings in June and August 2024 passed 96.4 percent of 1,580 students at 8 schools.

A pass rate that high is by design, not a sign of a soft paper. The Medical Schools Council calls the AKT a minimum competence standard exam, so most students are expected to pass if they meet the knowledge level it requires. Every main sit exam in 2024-25 showed a Cronbach alpha above 0.8, and no items were removed after post exam analysis.

The report does not say how the 10,437 students split between final year and penultimate year sittings, so the two periods stay as two separate rows here. The 98.3 percent also excludes one penultimate year school that holds resits the following year.

## UKMLA pass mark 2026 and UKMLA pass rate 2026

No UKMLA AKT pass mark or pass rate for 2026 exists yet. The Medical Schools Council has published one annual report on the AKT, covering 2024-25, and it came out in April 2026. The current figures are the 2024-25 ones: a pass mark of 115 to 117 out of 200 and a pass rate of 98.3 percent, both checked on September 22, 2026 on the [Council's board reports page](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/what-we-do/world-class-medical-education/mla-akt-board-reports/).

Prep site figures are a long way off. Those pages quote 62 to 68 percent for the pass mark and 82 to 90 percent for the pass rate, neither with a source, against a published pass mark of 57.5 to 58.5 percent of the items and a published pass rate of 98.3 percent.

So UKMLA pass mark 2025 means that same 115 to 117 out of 200, and UKMLA pass rate 2025 means 98.3 percent. For 2024, the penultimate year sittings of June and August give 115 to 116 out of 200 and 96.4 percent.

## UKMLA pass rate by medical school and by university

No UKMLA AKT pass rate by medical school or by university is published. The Medical Schools Council answers the question in its report FAQ: results should not be used to rank medical schools, because the purpose of the MLA is consistency, fairness and safety for patients, and a pass or fail exam makes league tables misleading.

What the report does publish is the pass rate by student group, from the same 10,437 students: a gap of 3.1 percentage points between students with a disability and students without one, about 3 points between Black British and White British students, 1.6 points on English as an additional language, 1.1 points by age on entry, and 0.9 points on free school meal eligibility.

| UKMLA AKT 2024-25 student group | Students | Students who passed | Pass rate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| White English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British Irish | 3,674 | 3,646 | 99.2 percent |
| Asian or Asian British, Indian | 1,112 | 1,081 | 97.2 percent |
| Asian or Asian British, Bangladeshi | 159 | 154 | 96.9 percent |
| Black or Black British, African | 397 | 382 | 96.2 percent |
| No disability reported | 7,363 | 7,261 | 98.6 percent |
| Disability reported | 583 | 557 | 95.5 percent |
| English is a first language | 6,066 | 5,984 | 98.7 percent |
| English as an additional language | 556 | 540 | 97.1 percent |
| Eligible for free school meals | 1,029 | 1,005 | 97.7 percent |
| Not eligible for free school meals | 6,518 | 6,426 | 98.6 percent |

Source: Medical Schools Council, [Annual report on the MLA Applied Knowledge Test 2024-25](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MLA-AKT-Board-Report-2024-5.pdf), pages 30 to 38, and the [AKT board report FAQs 2024-25](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/AKT-Board-Report-FAQs-24-25.pdf), question 28, for the statement on ranking. Checked on September 22, 2026.

## How many questions are on the UKMLA AKT, and how long is each UKMLA paper

The UKMLA AKT is 200 questions: two papers of 100 items taken on sequential days, two hours for each paper. Two hours is 7,200 seconds, so 7,200 divided by 100 items is 72 seconds a question. That makes the UKMLA AKT four hours of exam time, two hours a day across two days. Every item is single best answer with five options, and the AKT is not negatively marked.

Source: Medical Schools Council, [2026 Student Handbook](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MS-AKT-Student-Handbook-2026.pdf). Checked on September 22, 2026.

Behind those 200 items sits a sampling grid: four clusters of 50 items, two clusters in each paper, with a minimum item count for each of the 24 areas of clinical practice. Those minimums add to 40 in every cluster, so 160 items are fixed by area and 40 are flexible. General practice, acute medicine, surgery and clinical imaging carry no quota of their own. Counts for the other exams are in the post on [how many questions are on each medical exam](https://meduniexam.com/blog/how-many-questions-are-on-each-medical-exam.md).

| UKMLA AKT area of clinical practice | Paper and cluster of 50 items | Minimum items in that cluster |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cardiovascular | Paper 1, cluster 1 | 10 |
| Respiratory | Paper 1, cluster 1 | 10 |
| Gastrointestinal | Paper 1, cluster 1 | 10 |
| Medicine of older adult | Paper 1, cluster 1 | 10 |
| Neurosciences | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 8 |
| Endocrine | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 8 |
| Renal and urology | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 10 |
| Infection | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 8 |
| Dermatology | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 4 |
| Ophthalmology | Paper 1, cluster 2 | 2 |
| Cancer | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 8 |
| Musculoskeletal | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 10 |
| Emergency medicine | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 8 |
| Haematology | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 4 |
| Ear, nose and throat | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 4 |
| Breast | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 2 |
| Palliative care | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 2 |
| Peri-operative medicine and anaesthesia | Paper 2, cluster 3 | 2 |
| Child health | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 12 |
| Mental health | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 12 |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 10 |
| Sexual health | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 2 |
| Social and population health and research methods | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 2 |
| Medical ethics and law | Paper 2, cluster 4 | 2 |
| General practice, acute medicine, surgery and clinical imaging | Both papers, all four clusters | No quota of their own |

Source: Medical Schools Council, [MS AKT sampling grid](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ms-akt-sampling-grid-updated-2023.pdf), the figure Areas of Clinical Practice in Finals AKT, which prints a greater than or equal sign before each number. Checked on September 22, 2026.

## UKMLA exam dates for 2026 and 2027

Your UKMLA AKT date comes from your own medical school, and no national list of AKT dates is published for 2026 or 2027. The Medical Schools Council states in its [MLA frequently asked questions](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/for-students/medical-licensing-assessment/faqs/) that medical schools choose when to take the AKT, from assessment dates that fit local schedules, some in the final year and some in the penultimate year. Schools with written finals in the penultimate year run the AKT in the summer of that year. Checked on September 22, 2026.

Several AKT papers are in use in each academic year, assigned across schools and built to the same content map, with a standard set separately for each paper, so a candidate has the same likelihood of passing whichever paper they take. Results take around five weeks at most.

The international route does publish dates. PLAB 1 runs four times a year, in February, May, August and November, and the GMC prints each exam date with its result date. The next sitting is November 5, 2026, with results on December 17, 2026.

| PLAB 1 exam date published by the GMC | Result date, by 4 pm UK time |
| --- | --- |
| August 6, 2026 | September 17, 2026 |
| November 5, 2026 | December 17, 2026 |
| February 11, 2027 | March 25, 2027 |

Source: GMC, [Your results, PLAB 1 guide](https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-our-registers/plab/plab-1-guide/your-results), read on September 21, 2026. Every 2026 and 2027 PLAB 1 exam date with its fee and result date is in [the post on PLAB 1 exam dates, fees and results](https://meduniexam.com/blog/plab-1-exam-dates-2026-2027-fees-and-results.md), and the GMC pass mark with the pass rate by year is in [the PLAB 1 pass mark and pass rate post](https://meduniexam.com/blog/plab-1-pass-mark-and-pass-rate.md). Checked on September 22, 2026.

## Difference between PLAB and UKMLA, and is the UKMLA harder than PLAB 1

The difference between PLAB and UKMLA in one line: 200 items in two papers for UK medical students, who passed at 98.3 percent in 2024-25, against 180 items in one paper for international medical graduates, who passed at 62.2 percent in 2025, both published by the Medical Schools Council and the GMC. UK medical students take the medical school AKT and international medical graduates take PLAB 1, and both are built against the GMC MLA content map. PLAB 1 is the harder pass by 36.1 percentage points, though those are two candidate populations over two periods, so the gap is about who takes each exam as much as the papers. The AKT gives 72 seconds a question and PLAB 1 gives 60, from 10,800 seconds over 180 questions.

| UKMLA AKT against PLAB 1 | UKMLA AKT, UK medical students | PLAB 1, international medical graduates |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Questions | 200, in two papers of 100 | 180, in one paper |
| Time | 2 hours a paper, 4 hours over two days | 3 hours in one session |
| Pass mark | 115 to 117 out of 200 in 2024-25, Modified Angoff | Set per test, Angoff plus one standard error of measurement |
| Pass rate | 98.3 percent, September 2024 to August 2025 | 62.2 percent in 2025 |
| Attempts | Normally 4 valid attempts, 2 actual sits a year at most | 4 failures, then a fifth on application |
| Fee | None for UK students | GBP 283 from April 1, 2026 |
| Validity of a pass | 2 years while still at medical school | 2 years from the test date, to pass PLAB 2 |

Source: Medical Schools Council handbook, annual report and FAQ, checked on September 22, 2026; GMC [PLAB 1 guide](https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-our-registers/plab/plab-1-guide/what-is-the-plab-1-exam) and [PLAB pass rates](https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/join-our-registers/plab/recent-pass-rates-for-plab-1-and-plab-2), read on September 21, 2026. Practice question pages: [UKMLA AKT practice questions](https://meduniexam.com/exam/ukmla.md) and [PLAB 1 practice questions](https://meduniexam.com/exam/plab-1.md).

Against the USMLE, the UKMLA AKT is a different exam rather than a harder or easier one: 200 items with a pass mark of 115 to 117 out of 200 and a 98.3 percent pass rate, while Step 1 is scored on its own scale with a passing score of 196, reported as a pass or a fail. The Step 1 figures by year are in [the Step 1 passing score and pass rates post](https://meduniexam.com/blog/usmle-step-1-passing-score-and-pass-rates.md).

## How many times can you take the UKMLA, and how long is a pass valid for

The Medical Schools Council recommends no more than four valid attempts at the AKT, with no more than two actual sits in one academic year. The policy was tightened in 2024-25: two actual sits a year is a hard limit even where an earlier attempt was voided through mitigating circumstances or an appeal. A voided attempt does not count toward the permitted number, and your own university decides those cases.

A UKMLA AKT pass is normally valid for two years while you are still at medical school, which covers a break taken during the degree. A break taken after graduation has no effect on it, because the MLA forms part of the degree.

The MLA is part of the requirements for your degree, so a student who fails it cannot graduate until they pass. The two headline result tables are main sit only, and no resit pass rate is published. Attempt limits for the other exams, including PLAB 1, are in [the post on how many times you can take Step 1, NCLEX, the MCAT and PLAB 1](https://meduniexam.com/blog/how-many-times-can-you-take-step-1-nclex-mcat-and-plab-1.md).

## How to study for the UKMLA AKT

Start with the free 200 item practice exam the Medical School AKT Exam Board publishes, blueprinted to the MLA content map and supplied as a PDF with and without answers. The Council says you do not need to pay for private courses or textbooks, and no staff who set the AKT contribute to private materials.

How long to study for the UKMLA is not a question the Medical Schools Council answers with a number: no official study hours figure exists for the AKT, in the handbook or the annual report, so any week count you read elsewhere is an estimate. The exam does hand you a pace: 100 items in two hours, or 72 seconds each, which is a 50 question block in 60 minutes.

The item bank grew by 842 questions in 2024-25 and now holds more than 4,000. In that year 127 people from 44 UK medical schools took part in developing the AKT, from writing and reviewing items to standard setting. Six domains of the MLA content map sit behind those items, and the widest two, patient presentations and conditions, go beyond any set of lecture notes.

The generator here writes practice questions from the file you upload, and every question prints the sentence it came from and the page that sentence sits on. Sixty verified questions are free as a guest, an account gets 300 a month free, the 90 day Exam Pass is USD 19.99 and a 500 question pack is USD 5.99, and neither renews. Try the [sample exam](https://meduniexam.com/sample.md), and [the UKMLA AKT practice question page](https://meduniexam.com/exam/ukmla.md) carries the upload recipe. This is not an MLA item bank and has no connection to the GMC or the Medical Schools Council.

Source: Medical Schools Council, [Preparing for the Applied Knowledge Test](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/for-students/medical-licensing-assessment/preparing-for-the-medical-school-applied-knowledge-test/), the [2026 Student Handbook](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MS-AKT-Student-Handbook-2026.pdf) section 3.8 for the practice exam, and [Developing the Applied Knowledge Test](https://www.medschools.ac.uk/for-students/medical-licensing-assessment/developing-the-akt/). Checked on September 22, 2026.

## Questions people ask

### What is the UKMLA?

The UK Medical Licensing Assessment is a two part assessment made up of an applied knowledge test and a clinical and professional skills assessment, and every UK medical student has to pass both as part of their degree. The applied knowledge test is 200 single best answer items in two papers of 100, taken on sequential days, two hours a paper. International medical graduates meet the same requirement through the GMC PLAB test instead.

### Is the UKMLA hard?

The published numbers say most students pass: 98.3 percent of 10,437 students in 2024-25, on a pass mark of 115 to 117 out of 200, which is 57.5 to 58.5 percent of the items. The Medical Schools Council designs the AKT as a minimum competence standard exam, so a high pass rate is the intended result rather than a sign of an easy paper. Whether the UKMLA is difficult in practice depends on the paper you draw, because each one has its own standard set.

### Are there UKMLA percentiles?

No percentile table and no score distribution are published for the UKMLA applied knowledge test. The MLA is a pass or fail assessment: you receive a score, the Medical Schools Council states the exam is not used for national ranking, and the 2024-25 report reports pass rates by group rather than scores. Your own medical school may use student scores to award prizes and honors.

### What is the average UKMLA score?

The Medical Schools Council publishes no average AKT score, for 2025 or for any other year. What it publishes instead is a pass or fail outcome and the pass mark range for the year, so there is no mean, median or score band to quote. PLAB 1 does report an average: each GMC result sheet gives the candidate the average score for everyone who took that test.

### How many conditions are on the UKMLA?

No public count of UKMLA conditions could be verified on September 22, 2026. The condition list is one of the six domains of the GMC MLA content map, along with clinical practice areas, professional knowledge, clinical and professional capabilities, practical skills and procedures and patient presentations. What is published with numbers is the exam side: 24 areas of clinical practice carry minimum item counts in the MS AKT sampling grid, and 160 of the 200 items are fixed by those minimums.

### What happens if you fail the UKMLA?

You take it again, and you cannot graduate until you pass, because the MLA is part of the requirements for your degree. The Medical Schools Council recommends no more than four valid attempts in total and no more than two actual sits in one academic year. An attempt voided through supported mitigating circumstances does not count toward that total. No resit pass rate is published.

### How long is the UKMLA valid for?

A UKMLA AKT pass is normally valid for two years while you are still at medical school, so a break taken during the degree is covered. A break taken after graduation has no effect on it, because the MLA is part of the requirements for your degree. PLAB 1 runs on a different clock: that pass is valid for two years from the test date, and PLAB 2 has to be passed inside those two years.

## Related pages

- [UKMLA AKT questions from your own notes](https://meduniexam.com/exam/ukmla.md): UKMLA applied knowledge test practice generated from a UK medical student's own material, with the content map coverage gap stated plainly.
- [PLAB 1 questions from your own notes](https://meduniexam.com/exam/plab-1.md): PLAB 1 format practice generated from UK guidance the candidate uploads, with the source of the answer treated as the whole problem.
- [PLAB 1 Pass Mark and Pass Rate: 2016 to 2025](https://meduniexam.com/blog/plab-1-pass-mark-and-pass-rate.md): The GMC pass mark for PLAB 1, set per test by the Angoff method, with the four 2019 Angoff totals, the pass mark per diet in 2016 and 2017, and the pass rate for every year from 2021 to 2025.
- [PLAB 1 Exam Dates 2026: Results, Fees, Centers](https://meduniexam.com/blog/plab-1-exam-dates-2026-2027-fees-and-results.md): Ten published PLAB 1 exam dates with the GMC result date for each, the day of the week they fall on, both fee columns from April 2025 and April 2026, every exam city by country, and what changes in 2027.
- [Articles](https://meduniexam.com/blog.md): The article index: every post, newest first.