Medical education faces new challenges in the development and acquisition of competencies in medical students, and although there are teaching strategies that can be helpful to reach this goal, PBL is one of the best strategies. In order to take advantage of PBL, it is important to understand the method and the various ways in which it has been implemented, as well as to identify the difficulties and disadvantages of PBL. The objective of this article is to review the PBL method, its advantages and disadvantages, and some frequent mistakes in its implementation, emphasizing the Mexican context. Key words: Medical education; PBL; didactic; competences