Anesthesiology · ABA Applied Exam practice

Anesthesiology SOE and OSCE practice, out loud.

SOE-style stems and OSCE communication stations with an AI examiner who voices the patient, the family and the surgeon — and never coaches you mid-station.

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Free 7-day trial · practice as much as you want · 20 SOE stations and 10 OSCE stations · physician-reviewed
The exam

What the ABA Applied Exam is like

The ABA’s APPLIED Exam has two components: the Standardized Oral Examination (SOE) and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The ABA describes the SOE as two 35-minute sessions and the OSCE as seven eight-minute stations, with a short break to read each next stem.

Formats change by exam year. Check the ABA’s own published materials for the version you will sit.

  • SOE stems across airway, crisis (MH, anaphylaxis, aspiration), cardiac, OB, peds, regional/LAST, and ICU-to-OR
  • OSCE communication: consent, disclosure, professional conflict, DNR-in-OR
  • Not affiliated with the ABA
How to prepare

Practice the way you’ll be examined.

01

Talk the plan through, start to finish

The examiner credits what you say. Practice naming your plan out loud from recognition to aftermath, not just the first move.

02

Rehearse the hard conversations

Consent, disclosure and conflict with a colleague — the examiner voices the patient, family member or surgeon in character.

03

Ask for what you need

Findings, monitor changes and results come when you ask for them, the way they would in the room.

04

Read the debrief every time

Every station ends with a debrief of what you covered and what you left out.

Sample walkthroughs

Three free sample stations.

Short excerpts from physician-reviewed DOME stations: the opening stem and the teaching points from the debrief. In the full version you run it live, out loud, and the examiner only reveals what you ask for.

Sample 1 · Communication station

The stem

You are the attending anesthesiologist in an academic tertiary medical center with a full preoperative holding area, cell salvage available, and an OR board runner. A quiet corner of pre-op holding is free if you want it, and you will not be interrupted for these eight minutes. Pre-op holding, bay 3. Elena Ruiz, 58, is booked for left total knee arthroplasty under spinal anesthesia with a planned adductor-canal catheter. Her adult daughter Maria answers most questions for her. Elena nods but failed teach-back on nerve-injury risk and on what the catheter is. The orthopedic surgeon told them 'the block guy will numb it' and wants her wheeled in about twelve minutes. Your task: obtain a valid informed consent for the regional plan — or document a refusal with alternatives — without coercing Elena and without letting Maria replace her as decision-maker.

Key teaching points

  • Decision-maker is the capacitated patient; family supports.
  • Teach-back under time pressure beats a longer monologue.
  • Honest timeline is not coercion.

Excerpt only. The full communication station runs live with the AI examiner and ends with a full debrief.

Sample 2 · Communication station

The stem

You are the attending anesthesiologist in an academic tertiary medical center with a full preoperative holding area, cell salvage available, and an OR board runner. A quiet corner of pre-op holding is free if you want it, and you will not be interrupted for these eight minutes. PACU bay 2. You personally provided monitored anesthesia care for an upper endoscopy on James Okonkwo, 64, whose loose upper incisor was documented on the airway exam. On emergence he bit down; the incisor is avulsed and in a labeled saline cup. He is awake and asking why his mouth hurts. His wife is at the bedside. The endoscopist has left. Your task: disclose the injury, apologize, take responsibility without blaming only his tooth, and outline next steps.

Key teaching points

  • Name the event early
  • Apology and plan beat vagueness
  • Do not freelance payment guarantees

Excerpt only. The full communication station runs live with the AI examiner and ends with a full debrief.

Sample 3 · Communication station

The stem

You are the attending anesthesiologist in an academic tertiary medical center with a full preoperative holding area, cell salvage available, and an OR board runner. A quiet corner of pre-op holding is free if you want it, and you will not be interrupted for these eight minutes. OR 4 doorway / pre-induction. Aisha Thompson, 46, Jehovah’s Witness, for laparoscopic hysterectomy; signed refusal of allogeneic red cells; accepts cell salvage per form. Morning hemoglobin 9.8 g/dL. Dr. Patel (surgeon) is impatient in her hearing: he wants induction now without waiting on type-and-screen 'for a case that will not bleed.' Your task: protect Aisha’s stated limits, manage the conflict without humiliating anyone, and decide whether induction may proceed.

Key teaching points

  • Confirm the patient first
  • Advocacy may mean delaying induction
  • Cell-salvage details are part of consent

Excerpt only. The full communication station runs live with the AI examiner and ends with a full debrief.

Pricing

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