Critical
CriticalSyllabus coverage
Link your viva practice to the syllabus and identify topics that need more attention.
ANZCA Primary Viva practice
Explain the science behind anaesthesia in the Primary Viva.
Rehearse four-topic vivas, focus on individual sections and track your syllabus coverage. Draw graphs and diagrams when the question calls for them, then explain your reasoning.
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Viva 02Candidate instructions
Neuromuscular function and oxygen delivery
2 minutes reading · 20 minutes viva
Describe transmission of an impulse across the neuromuscular junction.
E
Examiner
Describe transmission of an impulse across the neuromuscular junction.
You
The nerve action potential opens presynaptic calcium channels. Calcium entry triggers acetylcholine release, which binds nicotinic receptors on the motor end plate and produces an end-plate potential.
E
Examiner
How is the end-plate potential converted to a muscle action potential?
100+published stations per pathway
1,590+stations completed
180+hours practised
Practise aloud, receive structured feedback and return with a clearer next focus.
Four topics or one
Practise a full twenty-minute viva or focus on an individual section.
Draw and explain
Draw and label graphs and diagrams in supported questions, or upload a drawing.
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 ANZCA Primary Viva
Make your basic science reasoning clear.
Move through four timed topics spanning the basic sciences. Practise a full viva or choose a focused section, with drawings available in questions that ask for them.
“How is the end-plate potential converted to a muscle action potential?”
01Read
Use reading time to prepare the opening question.
02Respond
Explain mechanisms aloud or by text; draw and label a diagram when requested in a drawing-enabled viva.
03Review
Review your answers and use the linked syllabus topics to guide further practice.
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
ANZCA station libraryChoose what to practise next
- 01Primary VivaLung mechanics and drug handling
- 02Primary VivaNeuromuscular function and oxygen delivery
- 03Primary VivaVentilatory control and recovery
- 04Primary VivaCardiac mechanics and anaesthesia
02Give your answerSTATION RUNNER
E
Examiner
Describe transmission of an impulse across the neuromuscular junction.
You
The nerve action potential opens presynaptic calcium channels. Calcium entry triggers acetylcholine release, which binds nicotinic receptors on the motor end plate and produces an end-plate potential.
E
Examiner
How is the end-plate potential converted to a muscle action potential?
Type your response...
03Understand the resultFEEDBACK
Practice ratingAt Standard
You described presynaptic release and receptor activation. Make the distinction between an end-plate potential and a propagated muscle action potential explicit.
Next focus: Link each step in the mechanism.
Support between stations
Build on every attempt.
Your learning journey brings together feedback across your completed stations, highlighting recurring strengths and areas for improvement.
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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