Short answer: DHA prints a list of content headings for every title but no weights, so a plan must cover every heading. Copy your list, rate each heading red, amber or green, give red headings the most slots, add timed mixed sets and review weekly. Redo the ratings every week from your results, not from feelings.
How do you plan when DHA gives only a list of headings?
You cover every heading, spend most time where you are weakest, and test yourself often. DHA’s guideline gives each title a plain list with no percentages, so you cannot trim a heading on the guess that it is small. Weights exist, according to DHA’s Assessment Manual, but they are not published. The method below works for any title, and takes about an hour to set up. Meddex is independent and is not connected to the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) or Prometric.
Key facts and where they come from
Official facts from DHA, then our method.
- Every title in the CBT Guideline lists content headings with no weights. Source: CBT Guideline, read 18 October 2026.
- DHA calculates results from correct answers and the weighting of each domain, and does not publish the weights. Source: Assessment Manual 7.2.13.
- The Registered Nurse row lists four headings, and General Practice lists twelve. Source: CBT Guideline.
- Retrieval practice and spaced review are supported by research on learning in general. Source: Roediger and Karpicke 2006, Cepeda and colleagues 2006.
- The steps below are Meddex’s suggestion, not DHA guidance.
How do you audit your own list?
Copy the headings for your title from the guideline into a table with four columns: heading, rating, first practice score and next action. Then rate each heading by evidence, not by feeling.
- Take a short timed set on each heading, or a mixed set tagged by heading, before you read anything.
- Mark a heading green if you answered most correctly and could explain the wrong options, amber if you were mostly right but unsure, and red if you were wrong or guessed.
- If you have no questions for a heading, rate it on whether you can explain the main ideas aloud in two minutes without notes.
- Do not skip headings you work in daily. Daily work builds skill, and exams test knowledge of the rules and the reasons behind them.
What if your list is very short or very long?
A short list needs breaking down. Registered Nurse has four headings, Unit Management and Leadership, Maternal-Child Nursing, Fundamentals and Adult Nursing, and each one is huge. Split each into subtopics yourself, for example medication safety, infection control, fluids and priority setting under Fundamentals, and audit those. A long list, such as the twelve General Practice areas, can be planned heading by heading, with one or two as the theme of each week. Our GP six week plan shows that pattern.
How do you turn ratings into a calendar?
Give each red heading two or three fixed slots a week, each amber heading one, and each green heading one short slot every two weeks to keep it alive. Fix the days in advance. Put a timed mixed set in every week, from the start, so you do not meet mixed questions for the first time in the final fortnight. Add spaced review of your error log, since reviewing at growing intervals helps retention.
Use your exam date as the anchor. If you have only a few weeks, see the last 14 days. If you have more, the 4, 8 and 12 week plans give the shape.
How do you review each week?
Once a week, spend twenty minutes redoing the audit on one or two headings, not all of them. Move a heading to a new colour only on new evidence, such as two sets in a row above your threshold. Keep a line for what changed in your plan and why. If a heading stays red for three weeks, change the method, not only the time: switch from reading to questions, or from questions to explaining aloud. Our guide to reviewing your mistakes shows how.
What does Meddex add?
The study plan screen in the app builds phases from your exam date, hours per week and study days, and the progress screen shows accuracy by subject. For allied titles without a question bank, the method above still works with your own materials and the free assessment. See the allied health hub for what exists today.
What we do not know
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. Review of Meddex content by named, licensed clinicians is not complete yet. See how we write and check our content.
Last updated .