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ACEM Primary Viva practice
Bring your basic science together for the Primary Viva.
Practise integrated ten-minute vivas across anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology and the clinical building block. Target individual subjects with focused practice and follow your syllabus coverage.
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Viva 01Candidate instructions
Vomiting and volume loss
No reading time · 10 minutes viva
This is a ten-minute ACEM Primary practice viva. Answer aloud or type your responses; material will be shown when required.
E
Examiner
We will start with the clinical building block. An adult has had repeated vomiting for three days and appears volume depleted. The sample was taken on room air. Interpret this arterial blood gas and electrolyte panel.
You
There is a metabolic alkalosis with hypokalaemia and chloride depletion, consistent with vomiting. The raised carbon dioxide is in the compensatory direction.
E
Examiner
What immediate assessment and correction priorities follow from these findings?
100+published stations per pathway
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Practise aloud, receive structured feedback and return with a clearer next focus.
Full or focused
Rehearse all five subjects or select a section to work on a particular gap.
Clinical building blocks
Connect core science to clinical information, images and results.
Choose your examination
Three critical care colleges.
Six purpose-built pathways.
Practise every oral exam across ACEM, ANZCA and CICM. Each pathway has original stations, realistic timing and interactions, and feedback aligned with that examination's expectations.
01VivaACEM Primary VivaFive-subject vivas, focused sections and syllabus-linked progress.02OSCEACEM Fellowship OSCEFull-length stations, role-players and integrated clinical props.03VivaANZCA Primary VivaFour-topic vivas, focused practice, drawings and syllabus coverage.04VivaANZCA Final Exam VivaAdaptive viva questioning across the Final Examination curriculum.05VivaCICM First Part VivaIntegrated basic-science vivas, drawings and syllabus-linked progress.06VivaCICM Second Part VivaHigh-stakes intensive care judgement and communication under exam conditions.
Inside an ACEM Primary Viva
Connect basic science to a clinical starting point.
Work through five timed subjects in a full viva, or practise a single section when you want to focus. Questions and material follow the authored viva structure.
“What immediate assessment and correction priorities follow from these findings?”
01Read
Begin with the examiner’s opening question; ACEM Primary practice has no reading period.
02Respond
Explain your reasoning aloud or by text as the viva moves through its five subjects.
03Review
Review the full viva or focused section and trace your practice back to the syllabus.
One connected product
From first visit to focused improvement.
Choose your pathway, perform a realistic station and turn the result into a specific plan for the next attempt.
01Choose a stationDASHBOARD
ACEM station libraryChoose what to practise next
- 01Integrated VivaVomiting and volume loss
- 02Integrated VivaChemical splash to the eye
- 03Integrated VivaWheeze and airflow
- 04Integrated VivaA raised haemoglobin after altitude
02Give your answerSTATION RUNNER
E
Examiner
We will start with the clinical building block. An adult has had repeated vomiting for three days and appears volume depleted. The sample was taken on room air. Interpret this arterial blood gas and electrolyte panel.
You
There is a metabolic alkalosis with hypokalaemia and chloride depletion, consistent with vomiting. The raised carbon dioxide is in the compensatory direction.
E
Examiner
What immediate assessment and correction priorities follow from these findings?
Type your response...
03Understand the resultFEEDBACK
Practice ratingAt Standard
You identified the primary acid–base disturbance and linked it to the clinical context. Develop your explanation of the mechanisms that maintain the alkalosis.
Next focus: Explain the mechanism, then apply it.
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Your AI coach can help you plan your study, choose what to work on next, and use your feedback to address recurring difficulties.
Practise techniques in short spoken exercises, save useful reminders as cards, and get suggestions for relevant stations to try next.
Coaching unlocks as you complete stations on an eligible paid plan.
AI coach
“Your feedback across several stations mentions long answers that lose focus. Do you find it difficult to decide what matters, or do you know what matters but worry about leaving something out?”
You
“I worry that anything I leave out could cost me marks.”
AI coach
“Then working on shorter answers alone won’t address that worry. Let’s look at one of your attempts alongside its marking criteria and separate the detail that supported your answer from the detail that distracted from it.”
Why CriticalExam?
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CriticalExam is built for the part traditional question banks and AI tutors struggle to reproduce: performing in the exam itself.
Whole-station practice
Rehearse the exam, not an isolated answer.
Work through the full instructions, interaction, pacing and constraints as one timed performance.
Responsive questioning
Questions respond to what you have already covered.
The examiner probes what remains untested, using the time left and the depth expected in your examination.
Exam-specific authorship
Written for the examination you are sitting.
Stations are authored around each college's format, curriculum, terminology and marking expectations.
Whole-station assessment
Feedback reflects the performance as a whole.
Your complete attempt is assessed against the station rubric, with feedback, domain evidence and transcript kept together.
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