EDAIC Part 1 written exam – how long did you study and what resources worked?
Just finished sitting the EDAIC Part 1 last month and wanted to share some notes while it's still fresh. I spent about 14 weeks studying, averaging 3 hours a day on weekdays and closer to 5 on weekends. The written component covers a huge range – physiology, pharmacology, physics, and clinical sciences – so I had to be pretty systematic about it.
I leaned heavily on the ESAIC learning portal and the recommended reading list, but honestly the single biggest help was working through past MCQs. My mock scores started around 58% and crept up to 74% by week 10. The pharmacokinetics section tripped me up the most, especially the volatile agent comparisons. If you're weaker there I'd front-load that topic early.
For the oral section that follows, I found pairing up with a study partner for viva practice made a huge difference. We did 45-minute sessions three times a week from about week 8 onward. Not everyone does it that way but it really sharpened my ability to structure answers under pressure.
Happy to answer questions if anyone's prepping right now. The exam isn't easy but it's very passable with structured prep – just don't underestimate the breadth of what they can pull from.
Did the viva format change recently? I heard they adjusted how structured scenarios work. Preparing for the oral component is honestly what's worrying me most right now.
Physics was probably 15–18% of what I saw, so don't ignore it. The gas laws and measurement principles questions can feel oddly specific. I'd say the real exam was comparable to the ESAIC bank in difficulty, maybe slightly more clinical in framing.
Thanks for this writeup. I'm sitting Part 1 in November and currently hovering around 61% on practice questions, which is making me nervous. Did you find the actual exam harder or about the same difficulty as the ESAIC question bank?
Also curious whether physics and equipment was heavily weighted or if you could get away with lighter coverage there.
The viva structure has shifted toward structured clinical problem-solving rather than pure knowledge recall. Best advice I got was to think out loud and demonstrate your reasoning process – examiners care more about how you approach a problem than whether you hit the exact answer immediately.
Honestly I almost bailed around week 8. The physiology section felt endless and I wasn't retaining anything, so I took a few days off and nearly didn't go back. What turned it around for me was switching from passive reading to doing questions first and then reading the explanation -- suddenly the material actually stuck. I didn't use anything fancy, just the core texts and a lot of past-style questions I found through my anaesthetics department.
If you're in that mid-study slump right now, don't quit. It's genuinely not a sign you're going to fail, it's just the point where the volume hits you all at once. I passed with a score I was actually proud of and looking back the dark patch was probably three weeks before everything clicked. Keep grinding the MCQs even when they feel pointless.
Something that changed my prep completely was stopping myself from just ticking the right answer and moving on. When I got something wrong, I'd spend time figuring out exactly why each wrong option was wrong, not just why the correct one was right. It's slower, but you start seeing the examiners' logic and that's what the EDAIC really tests. I used the free edaic basic sciences questions for this because there were enough of them to practice the habit without burning through paid material too fast.
Physics was the one that caught me off guard. I didn't think it would be weighted as heavily as it was, so if you're earlier in your prep than I was, don't leave it until the last few weeks. Physiology I found easier to reason through once I had the mechanisms down, but pharmacology was just brutal without spaced repetition. Anki saved me there. Honestly the whole exam rewards people who understand the "why" over people who grind answers, so build your studying around that from day one.