DHA GP 12-Week Study Plan on the 12 Official Areas, and GP Pay in Dubai

DHA publishes two things about what the General Practice exam covers: a list of 12 coverage areas and a list of 10 reference books. It does not publish how many questions come from each area. Any plan that tells you "internal medicine is 35–40%" is quoting a number that is not in DHA's current CBT guideline or its assessment manual. This plan gives the areas eleven weeks (only the two short prevention areas share one), leans on the books DHA names, and leaves the last week for timed mixed practice.

How the weeks are allocated is our choice, not DHA's: one area a week because DHA gives no reason to favour any, with the two short prevention areas sharing week 11. On our reading, Toronto Notes, a review book organised by specialty, is the broadest single source on DHA's list for surgery, psychiatry, eye, dermatology and public health, and the only one with its own surgery sections, so it carries weeks 5–11. If you are strong in an area, compress its week; do not drop it.

A week can be as simple as: two days reading, two days of questions from that area, one day re-reading what you got wrong, and one timed block of mixed questions from earlier weeks. The exam is 150 questions in 3 hours including registration and the introduction, so from week 6 onward practise at a little over a minute a question.

The last row matters more than it looks. A failed attempt at DHA also counts against you at DOH and MOHAP, so "sit it once to see what it is like" spends one of the three attempts in your set. There are ways back after three fails (one final attempt with a different authority under PQR 1.5.5, or a new set after a new qualification or two years of experience under 1.5.8), but none is quick. There is no waiting period between attempts, but there is no refund for a missed appointment either. Book when your weakest area has had its week and your timed mixed blocks are comfortably clear of 60%, the published pass mark; that threshold is our suggestion, since DHA does not share scores.

DHA does not publish a salary scale for General Practitioners; employers set pay. The only current figure we could read in full is Indeed's, which it describes as an average base salary estimated from job postings on Indeed over the past 36 months. It is not a survey of what GPs are paid, and it excludes allowances.

Read the average with care. It is a base salary taken from job adverts, some of them up to three years old, so it says nothing about housing, transport or other allowances, which Gulf offers often quote separately. Before comparing an offer, ask for the full breakdown and whether the licence fee (AED 3,000 for one year on Sheryan) and CPD are paid by the employer.

Once licensed, a physician keeps the licence by earning 40 CPD points a year, counted across the whole term of a multi-year licence (DHA licensing manual 15.3). Plan for it from the first year rather than in the month before renewal.