Read this before you buy. AceTheExam's ACEM product is an ACEM Primary basic-sciences MCQ bank, not an ACEM Fellowship (FACEM) resource. It does not reproduce the Fellowship's Short Answer Question paper, its Fellowship-level MCQ paper or the clinical OSCE. For a Fellowship candidate its only honest job is shoring up decayed anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology — genuinely useful for some, off-blueprint for most. Here is how to use it without losing weeks to the wrong exam.
Read this first: AceTheExam is a Primary bank, not a Fellowship product
The brief for this article assumed AceTheExam covers the ACEM Fellowship. Verification on 20 July 2026 says otherwise: AceTheExam sells an ACEM Primary question bank — the basic-sciences hurdle sat early in training — and nothing at Fellowship level. If you are preparing for the FACEM written and clinical exams, this is not your primary tool, and no amount of MCQ volume in it will prepare you for a Short Answer Question paper or an OSCE station. That is not a criticism of the product; it is a mismatch between the product and the exam this article's readers are sitting.
What AceTheExam offers right now (vendor-reported, 20 July 2026)
| Item | Vendor-reported detail |
|---|---|
| Exam covered | ACEM Primary (not Fellowship/FACEM) |
| Question volume | Over 5,000 multiple-choice questions |
| Blueprint | Anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology (the Primary domains) |
| Fellowship components supported | None — no SAQ, no Fellowship-level SCQ, no OSCE |
| Price | NZ$79 (1 month), NZ$129 (3 months), NZ$169 (6 months) |
| Adaptive/AI | None reported; progress tracking, category comparison against user averages, a notebook, and question repeat/reset |
| Question type | Single-best-answer MCQ only |
All figures are vendor-reported and should be re-checked on acetheexam.co.nz before purchase. The honest headline is unchanged by any of them: this is a Primary bank.
The exam you are actually sitting: ACEM Fellowship
The FACEM examination has two parts. The written component is two 180-minute papers (six hours in total): a Short Answer Questions (SAQ) paper and a Single/Select Choice Questions (SCQ) paper, which is MCQ-only but pitched at Fellowship level. The clinical component is an OSCE of up to 12 stations, each 11 minutes long (4 minutes reading and 7 minutes assessment), totalling 132 minutes across two consecutive days, with station types spanning history, examination, communication, resuscitation discussion, teaching and case-based discussion. Fees are college-reported — check acem.org.au. The ACEM Primary, which AceTheExam and iatroX both cover, is a separate, earlier basic-sciences exam. Confusing the two is the expensive mistake this article exists to prevent.
Where iatroX sits — and where it does not
To be equally plain about our own tool: iatroX's ACEM coverage is also ACEM Primary — a foundation-knowledge and unseen-MCQ layer across anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology. iatroX is not a Fellowship SAQ or OSCE product either. So if you are a FACEM candidate, both AceTheExam and iatroX belong in the same narrow slot: Primary-level basic-science recall. Neither replaces SAQ practice, mock OSCEs or Fellowship-level MCQ work, and this article will not pretend otherwise.
What actually prepares you for the Fellowship
If AceTheExam and iatroX only cover the Primary layer, what does the Fellowship itself require? Three things, in rough order of leverage. First, timed SAQ practice: writing structured short answers against a clock, then marking them on model answers or with a senior, because SAQ technique — the pattern of headings, breadth versus depth, time spent per mark — is a skill that multiple-choice questions never build. Second, mock OSCE circuits: rehearsing full 11-minute stations across history, examination, communication, resuscitation discussion, teaching and case-based discussion, ideally observed and scored by a colleague. Third, Fellowship-level written volume from a bank genuinely pitched at FACEM standard — for example a dedicated FACEM MCQ and SAQ bank such as ACEMCQ, alongside college trial papers and free open-access resources such as LITFL (verify current coverage and price on each). None of these is a Primary MCQ bank, which is exactly the point.
One job per feature (kept honest)
The point of assigning one job per feature is to stop four versions of the same passive activity. Here the honest allocation is unusually short, because most of the platform's features are aimed at the wrong exam.
- Diagnosis: a short AceTheExam Primary set can confirm whether your basic-science recall has decayed enough to undermine Fellowship reasoning. That is a legitimate diagnostic use.
- Retrieval: if the diagnosis is positive, the MCQ bank is a reasonable retrieval drill for basic sciences.
- Teaching, simulation, feedback for the Fellowship: none of these are served here. SAQ technique, OSCE performance and Fellowship-level clinical judgement need Fellowship-level materials.
If you still want to use AceTheExam: a bounded first-pass, review and exit plan
Use it only if your basic-science recall is genuinely rusty and is showing up as weak physiology or pharmacology in your Fellowship answers. If so: run one short diagnostic block across each Primary domain; note the two or three areas where you fall below your own floor; drill only those with brief, spaced sets; and exit as soon as recall stabilises. Do not attempt to "complete" a 5,000-question Primary bank while a Fellowship exam approaches — that is the sunk-cost trap in its purest form. Review each miss by writing the underlying mechanism in one line, not by copying the explanation.
A seven-day plan for a busy trainee (Primary-science shoring-up only)
This plan assumes you are a registrar revising around clinical shifts and using AceTheExam for one narrow job, with iatroX supplying unseen basic-science measurement. It makes no claim to any proprietary algorithm.
- Days 1–2: a 30-minute AceTheExam diagnostic across physiology and pharmacology; log the weakest sub-areas.
- Days 3–5: 20–30 minutes daily of targeted AceTheExam sets on those sub-areas only; the rest of each study block goes to Fellowship SAQ practice under time.
- Day 6: a short iatroX unseen basic-science block to check whether the recall transferred, kept separate from your seen AceTheExam items.
- Day 7: review persistent basic-science errors in one line each; spend the majority of the day on a mock OSCE station or timed SAQs — the components that actually decide the Fellowship.
The ratio is deliberate: a minority of the week on Primary-level shoring-up, the majority on Fellowship-level SAQ and OSCE work.
Three mistakes this plan is designed to stop
The first is buying a Primary bank for a Fellowship exam and only discovering the mismatch weeks in — always check the exam level before the price. The second is completionism: grinding a 5,000-question Primary bank towards 100% while the SAQ paper and the OSCE that actually decide the Fellowship go under-rehearsed. The third is mistaking basic-science fluency for Fellowship readiness; strong physiology recall does support your written reasoning, but the Fellowship is passed on structured short answers and clinical stations, not on isolated facts recalled in a multiple-choice frame.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue with AceTheExam only if a measured basic-science gap is genuinely dragging your Fellowship reasoning, and only in short doses.
- Supplement — this is the real need — with a Fellowship-level SAQ/SCQ bank and mock OSCE practice (for example, a dedicated FACEM MCQ/SAQ bank such as ACEMCQ, plus college trial exams and structured OSCE circuits; verify current coverage and price on each provider's page).
- Switch your primary effort immediately if you bought a Primary bank expecting Fellowship preparation; the correction is to move the bulk of your time to Fellowship materials, not to grind more Primary MCQs.
- Stop using AceTheExam as soon as your basic-science recall is stable. Stop early; the Fellowship is not won here.
Frequently asked questions
Is AceTheExam enough for ACEM Fellowship on its own? No, and the reason is more fundamental than "not enough." AceTheExam is an ACEM Primary basic-sciences MCQ bank, so it does not address the Fellowship at all: no SAQ paper, no Fellowship-level SCQ, no OSCE. As a stand-alone Fellowship tool it is not merely insufficient; it is aimed at a different exam. Its only defensible role is a short Primary-level basic-science refresh where recall has decayed.
Which ACEM Fellowship component does AceTheExam not reproduce well? All of them. It does not reproduce the SAQ paper (there are no short-answer written items), it does not reproduce the Fellowship-level SCQ (its MCQs are pitched at Primary basic sciences), and it does not reproduce the OSCE (there is no clinical-station simulation). The honest summary is that AceTheExam reproduces none of the FACEM components; it reproduces the ACEM Primary MCQ experience.
How many AceTheExam questions should I complete per day for ACEM Fellowship? Very few, and only if you have a diagnosed basic-science gap: a focused 20–30 minute set on your two or three weakest Primary sub-areas is plenty. The metric that matters for a Fellowship candidate is not AceTheExam questions per day but SAQ attempts and OSCE stations per week. If AceTheExam is consuming more than a small slice of your study time, your plan has drifted onto the wrong exam.
When should I stop using AceTheExam and move to mixed mocks? Stop as soon as your basic-science recall stabilises on unseen items — which for most Fellowship candidates is within a week or two, because the gap, where it exists, is narrow. Fellowship readiness is built on mixed SAQ and SCQ mocks and full OSCE circuits, not on Primary MCQ volume, so move to those quickly and treat AceTheExam as a brief tune-up rather than a training programme.
How should I combine AceTheExam with iatroX without duplicating practice? Recognise first that both are ACEM Primary-level tools, so the risk is duplicating Primary work, not Fellowship work. Do not run two Primary banks in parallel; pick one for any basic-science drilling and reserve iatroX's unseen items purely to measure whether that drilling transferred. Then put the freed-up time into Fellowship-level SAQ and OSCE practice, which neither tool provides. In short: one Primary layer for shoring-up, iatroX unseen items for measurement, and the bulk of your effort on the Fellowship itself.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Product figures (question counts, prices, access periods and features) are vendor-reported and change frequently; verify each on the provider's own page before you rely on it. Honesty flag: contrary to the article's original framing, AceTheExam covers ACEM Primary, not the Fellowship, and iatroX likewise covers ACEM Primary only — this piece therefore leads with that finding rather than fabricating Fellowship coverage. Disclosure: iatroX operates an ACEM Primary bank; its role here is confined to Primary-level foundation knowledge and unseen-MCQ measurement, explicitly not Fellowship SAQ or OSCE preparation. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: Australasian College for Emergency Medicine — Fellowship examination format (acem.org.au); AceTheExam ACEM Primary question bank (acetheexam.co.nz/exam/acem); iatroX ACEM Primary page; the iatroX comparison hub; and the Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score explainer.