Short answer: Doctors often do best with question-led study: do a block of questions on a topic, read each explanation, then fill gaps from notes. Plan eight to ten hours a week, protect two long blocks, avoid studying post-call, and take timed mocks in the final month. Do not over-study your own specialty.
What is different for doctors
Doctors preparing for a licensing exam usually know a lot already. The risk is not ignorance but narrowness: deep knowledge of your own specialty, and gaps in areas you have not used for years, such as paediatric emergencies, obstetrics, public health or psychiatry. The exam format, single best answer questions that reward the first or best action, adds a skill you may not have practised since medical school.
The DHA exam for doctors page describes the exam in more detail.
Lead with questions
For experienced clinicians, a question-led approach saves time. Start each topic with a set of 20 to 30 questions, before reading anything. Read every explanation. Then fill the gaps from notes, guidelines or a textbook. You skip the material you already know and spend time where the questions show a need. The question bank lets you filter by role and domain.
A weekly structure
This structure assumes eight to ten hours a week.
- Two long blocks of 90 to 120 minutes on protected days: a topic by questions, then notes.
- Three short sessions of 20 to 30 minutes: flashcards and ten questions.
- One weekly review of 30 minutes: your error log, the top three rules and the plan for next week.
On-call and post-call
Protect post-call time for sleep, not study. Attention after a long call is poor, and a bad study session teaches little. On call days, use the quiet moments for cards. Move your long blocks to days when you start fresh. If your rota is unpredictable, plan the week on Sunday and accept that one block may move.
Make a breadth list
Write down the subjects you have not used in years. For many doctors the list includes psychiatry, obstetrics, paediatrics, ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology and public health. A first-week mixed set of 50 questions will show which of these are real gaps. Give those the first four weeks. Specialists often find that questions on their own field are quick, and the time is better spent elsewhere.
A ten-week outline
An example of how the weeks can look.
- Week 1: baseline set, set up cards and error log.
- Weeks 2 to 5: the weakest four subject areas, one per week, each ending with a mixed set.
- Weeks 6 to 7: remaining subjects and shared topics such as ethics, patient safety and infection control.
- Week 8: mixed sets and the first full mock. Analyse it with the mock review method.
- Week 9: repair the weak areas and take a second mock.
- Week 10: taper, a light final review and the last seven days plan.
Run the licensing paperwork in parallel
The paperwork often takes weeks, so start it alongside your study. The documents checklist and Sheryan steps cover it. If you also plan to apply for a residency place, note that EMREE is a separate exam with its own plan.
What to do with guidelines and textbooks
Doctors tend to reach for guidelines and big textbooks. They are valuable, but not as a first step. After a block of questions, open the guideline for one topic you missed and read the relevant section, not the whole document. Write a summary of three lines. If your guideline differs from the exam’s teaching, note the difference and learn the version your exam expects. When you finish, add a card if there is a discrete fact. Keep your reading tightly linked to the questions you got wrong.
Protecting study time at home and at work
Tell the people around you about your plan and ask for specific help, such as an uninterrupted two hours on Saturday. At work, ask colleagues not to schedule you for extras during your exam week if you can. Treat study blocks as appointments. If a block is taken by a clinical emergency, reschedule it for that week rather than skipping it.
Mocks for experienced clinicians
Experienced doctors sometimes skip mocks because they feel confident. Do not. A mock shows pacing, the effect of fatigue by the third hour and a sample of questions in the exam’s style, all of which are separate from clinical competence. Two full mocks are a minimum, taken under real conditions and analysed with the mock review method.
If you are a specialist or a senior doctor
Senior doctors often fear that years of narrow practice have left gaps, and they are usually right about some of them. They also have an advantage: pattern recognition and judgment honed by experience. Use both. Spend the first week on a broad baseline, then give most of your time to the areas furthest from your daily work, such as paediatrics, obstetrics or psychiatry. Keep a brief daily session of questions in your own field to stay sharp and to build confidence.
Be careful with questions in your own specialty. It is easy to answer from local practice rather than from the guideline the exam follows. When your answer differs from the explanation, read the reasoning properly before deciding the question is wrong.
Using weekends and leave well
A weekend block of three hours, with a break in the middle, is the best use of a free morning. Do questions first while you are fresh, review them, then read. Add a half day of leave in the last fortnight for a full mock under exam conditions. Avoid taking a whole week of leave right before the exam to cram: you will lose the benefit of spacing and may arrive tired. A few light days before the exam are better.
Keeping learning and practice separate
Take care not to bring exam-style thinking into clinical decisions without checking. Exam answers follow a single best choice in a simplified scenario, while real patients are more complex and local protocols apply. Use exam learning to refresh principles, then confirm clinical decisions against your own guidelines and senior colleagues. Do not post identifiable patient details in study groups.
A sample week for a doctor on a busy rota
An example for a doctor working clinic days with one on-call night. Monday clinic day: 20 minutes of cards in the morning, nothing in the evening if tired. Tuesday: a 90 minute block in the evening, 30 questions on one subject and a review. Wednesday: cards in a break. Thursday on call: cards only. Friday post-call: sleep. Saturday: a two-hour block with 50 questions and a review, plus a short reading session. Sunday: 40 minutes for the weekly review and planning.
That sums to about seven hours. If the rota is lighter, add a block. If it is heavier, protect the Saturday block and the cards.
A monthly review of the plan itself
Once a month, spend half an hour asking whether the plan is working. Compare your mixed-set scores with the previous month, look at how many hours you actually studied against what you planned, and ask which sessions you skipped and why. If you keep skipping the same session, move it to a different day rather than blaming yourself. A plan that fits your rota gets followed, and one that does not fit gets abandoned.
Be honest about your results
A doctor’s instinct is to explain away a wrong answer: the question was poorly worded, the guideline differs. Sometimes that is fair. Often the explanation holds a pattern worth learning. Record the error cause, as in the review method, and look for repeated causes across weeks.
Frequently asked questions
This article is general educational guidance, not official advice. Exam rules, fees and timelines are set by the Dubai Health Authority and the test provider and can change, so always confirm the latest details on their official channels.
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