This audit is for Primary FRCA candidates weighing up TeachMeAnaesthetics as a bank, and it addresses the MCQ knowledge component only. TeachMeAnaesthetics is a low-cost, UK-authored SBA bank that maps onto the Primary FRCA syllabus and is a reasonable volume engine for the written paper. Its principal limitation is structural: it is an SBA bank, so it does nothing for the OSCE or SOE, and it does not offer adaptive analytics. Verify the domain balance against the 30/30/30 blueprint yourself.
Current-state box (last checked 20 July 2026)
All figures below are vendor-reported from teachmeanaesthetics.com and should be re-checked on the product page before you buy.
- Live question count: Over 1,100 Primary FRCA SBAs (vendor-reported). The site also offers Final FRCA SBAs and states the content is applicable to the EDAIC and ANZCA exams.
- Access period / price: One-off subscriptions — vendor-reported at £30 for 1 month, £50 for 3 months (marked most popular) and £75 for 6 months, with no automatic renewal and no free trial mentioned (20 July 2026). Verify current pricing.
- AI / adaptive features: None stated. Practice is organised through a quiz generator that lets you choose category, question count (from 5 to 40), difficulty and a filter for all, unanswered or previously incorrect questions.
- Supported Primary FRCA components: MCQ / SBA only. There is no OSCE or SOE product.
- Additional assets: The site pairs the bank with revision notes and exam guidance for the Primary FRCA.
The honest headline: this is an inexpensive, single-format SBA bank with a straightforward custom-quiz tool and accompanying notes — not an analytics-heavy adaptive platform, and not a practical-component product.
Exam anchor
The Primary FRCA MCQ is 90 SBA online in 3 hours, remote-invigilated, split 30 pharmacology / 30 physiology (with biochemistry and anatomy) / 30 physics, clinical measurement, statistics and data interpretation; MTF was discontinued in September 2023; the MCQ gates the OSCE and SOE. The RCoA defines this; the bank's own categorisation is a third-party mapping onto it. If your diet is 2027 or later, verify against the RCoA 2027 changes hub, as the written paper becomes a two-paper Applied Knowledge Test.
Domain coverage — go beyond the headline total
A total of "1,100+ SBAs" tells you nothing about balance. What matters is whether the bank's coverage tracks the three blueprint thirds. The vendor may not publish a per-domain split, so audit it yourself: run category quizzes for pharmacology, physiology and physics/measurement/statistics in turn and record how many items each yields and how deep they go. Physics, clinical measurement and statistics is the third most often under-populated in commercial banks and the one candidates most need drilled, so check it specifically rather than assuming the headline total is evenly distributed.
| Blueprint third | What to verify in the bank | Common finding |
|---|---|---|
| Pharmacology (30) | Depth on mechanisms, kinetics, interactions | Usually well populated |
| Physiology incl. biochem/anatomy (30) | Applied physiology, not just facts | Usually well populated |
| Physics, measurement, statistics (30) | Equipment, graphs, data interpretation, stats | Frequently the thin third — verify |
Sample question style and cognitive level
Sample a stratified set across the three thirds and characterise the items rather than trusting a marketing line. The questions to ask: are stems written at true SBA length with a clinical or scientific frame, or are they short single-fact recall; are the five options plausible and discriminating, or is the correct answer obvious; does the bank use images, graphs and data where the real exam does, especially in the physics and measurement third; and do items ever require sequencing or applied reasoning rather than recognition? A low-cost bank can be entirely legitimate and still sit lower on the cognitive ladder than the exam — more recall than application — which is useful for foundation-building but must be topped up with harder, applied practice before the exam.
Jurisdiction and recency
TeachMeAnaesthetics is UK-authored and aligned to UK anaesthetic practice, which is the right jurisdiction for the Primary FRCA. Recency still needs checking: take a stratified sample of items on guidance-sensitive topics — drug handling (checked against the SmPC via the electronic medicines compendium, never a secondary summary), resuscitation, and any measurement standards — and confirm they reflect current guidance, recording the date you reviewed them. No bank is immune to drift; a dated explanation is a quiet source of error.
Format gap
State it plainly: a standard SBA bank cannot prepare you for the OSCE or the SOE. It can build the knowledge those components draw on, but the OSCE's equipment handling, data stations and communication tasks, and the SOE's spoken defence, are performances that a multiple-choice interface cannot rehearse. Physics apparatus, graph interpretation and viva reasoning in particular need either the bank's data-interpretation items supplemented with station practice, or a separate modality tool. Plan for that gap explicitly; do not let a high bank percentage lull you into thinking the practical components are covered.
Duplication and contamination
The filter for "previously incorrect" questions is genuinely useful, but repeated cycling through a finite 1,100-item bank carries a recognition risk: after two or three passes your rising score reflects familiarity with these specific stems, not growing knowledge. Watch for near-duplicate stems on the same concept, and treat any block you have seen before as consolidation, not measurement. When completion starts to feel like recall of the bank rather than of the syllabus, it is time to measure on genuinely unseen items — the principle behind the two-Q-bank rule.
Best-fit matrix
| Use case | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation building, early revision | Strong | Cheap, UK-aligned, notes plus SBAs |
| First-pass breadth | Reasonable | Good volume; verify the physics third |
| Second bank for unseen measurement | Reasonable | Fresh stems if it was not your first bank |
| Retake diagnosis | Partial | Use a different bank from last time to avoid recognition |
| Final simulation / OSCE-SOE prep | Poor | SBA-only; no practical-component product |
Reading your results honestly
Because the bank is finite and inexpensive, the temptation is to treat a high completion figure as a finish line, and that is the misreading to guard against. A rising score across a first pass is meaningful; a rising score across a third pass through the same 1,100-odd stems is mostly recognition. Break your accuracy down by the three blueprint thirds rather than reading the blended number, because a strong pharmacology and physiology performance can mask a weak physics-and-measurement third that the exam will find. Separate first-attempt accuracy from your score after review — the first tells you what you know, the second tells you what you can recognise — and set your stop-point by that first-attempt figure, not by the percentage of the bank you have consumed. If the two numbers are far apart, you are further from ready than the completion bar suggests, and the honest next step is to measure on genuinely unseen questions rather than to keep cycling the same set.
Worked example: a seven-day plan (busy trainee)
The trainee uses TeachMeAnaesthetics for one job — cheap physiology and pharmacology volume — and iatroX for adaptive transfer practice, with no proprietary-algorithm claim.
- Day 1: TeachMeAnaesthetics category quiz, 30 items, pharmacology; log misses.
- Day 2: iatroX unseen, timed mixed block; compare first-attempt accuracy with the TMA session to check transfer.
- Day 3: TeachMeAnaesthetics physiology set, 30 items; read the linked notes for each miss.
- Day 4: Re-test day-1 and day-3 misses on TMA; then a short unseen iatroX block on the same topics.
- Day 5: Clinical day — 15-item TMA quiz on your phone, timed.
- Day 6: iatroX full unseen mixed block; note whether the physics third lags.
- Day 7: Consolidate misses; rest.
TeachMeAnaesthetics supplies inexpensive volume and notes; iatroX supplies the unseen measurement that shows whether the volume converted to retained, transferable knowledge.
Decision checklist: continue, supplement, switch or stop
- Continue if your first-attempt accuracy is still climbing and you have not yet exhausted the bank's fresh items.
- Supplement with a second, unseen source once you have cycled the bank once — especially to cover the physics/measurement third and to measure without recognition.
- Switch your primary bank only if the physics third proves too thin or the cognitive level sits below the exam, not on novelty.
- Stop using it for measurement once your scores reflect recognition of these specific stems; keep it only for consolidation.
Frequently asked questions
Is TeachMeAnaesthetics enough for Primary FRCA on its own? For the MCQ, it can carry a large share of your breadth at low cost, particularly for pharmacology and physiology, but "enough" depends on two checks: whether its physics, measurement and statistics coverage matches the blueprint's third, and whether its cognitive level reaches the exam's applied standard rather than staying at recall. It is not enough for the exam as a whole, because it is SBA-only and does nothing for the OSCE or SOE. Treat it as a strong-value knowledge spine, not a complete solution.
Which Primary FRCA component does TeachMeAnaesthetics not reproduce well? It does not reproduce the OSCE or SOE at all — these are practical, performed components that a single-best-answer interface cannot rehearse. Within the MCQ itself, the areas to watch are the physics, clinical measurement and statistics third and any items that need graph or data interpretation, which are harder to test well in a low-cost bank; verify the depth there yourself rather than assuming the headline total covers them evenly.
How many TeachMeAnaesthetics questions should I complete per day for Primary FRCA? A workable range is 30 to 60 timed items a day in the intensive phase, using the quiz generator to keep blocks timed and, once you have done a first pass, filtered to unanswered or previously incorrect questions. The number matters less than the conditions: do them timed and review every miss against the notes. Beyond roughly one full pass of the 1,100-item bank, additional repetitions measure recognition rather than knowledge, so shift some of that daily volume to unseen questions.
When should I stop using TeachMeAnaesthetics and move to mixed mocks? Move to mixed, timed mocks once you have completed a full pass and your rising score starts to reflect familiarity with the specific stems rather than growing command of the syllabus. That is the recognition threshold, and it is the signal to measure on unseen material and to rehearse under full paper conditions. You can keep the bank for targeted consolidation of weak topics, but it should stop being your readiness gauge at that point.
How should I combine TeachMeAnaesthetics with iatroX without duplicating practice? Assign each a separate role: TeachMeAnaesthetics for inexpensive volume and topic drilling, iatroX for unseen, timed measurement of whether that drilling transferred. The rule against duplication is to never immediately re-test on iatroX the exact concepts you have just drilled on TeachMeAnaesthetics; leave a day or two and use fresh, unseen questions, so you are measuring retention rather than short-term recall. Keep one bank as your engine and the other as your untouched measurement source.
Editorial notes and references
Written by Dr Kolawole Tytler, NHS GP and founder of iatroX. Last checked 20 July 2026. Question counts and prices for TeachMeAnaesthetics are vendor-reported from teachmeanaesthetics.com as of 20 July 2026 and change without notice; verify them on the product page before purchase. Exam-format facts are from the RCoA Primary FRCA guide and the 2027 changes hub.
Disclosure: iatroX operates a Primary FRCA question bank and therefore competes directly with TeachMeAnaesthetics. This audit confines iatroX's role to a job TeachMeAnaesthetics does not claim — unseen, timed measurement and adaptive follow-up on confirmed gaps — and iatroX is not an OSCE or SOE simulator. Corrections are welcome via the feedback route on iatrox.com.
References: TeachMeAnaesthetics — Primary FRCA question bank and pricing pages (vendor-reported); Royal College of Anaesthetists — Primary FRCA examination; RCoA 2027 Launch of the New FRCA Exams; iatroX Primary FRCA decision tree; iatroX — Your Q-Bank Percentage Is Not Your Exam Score.