Creston Education — EDAIC Part I & Part II preparation

The case for sitting it

Why put yourself through another examination

Most doctors who reach the end of anaesthesia training have had enough of exams. The argument for this one is not that it makes you a better anaesthesiologist, though it will. It is that it is the credential you can start on now, from where you already are, that keeps the most doors open later.

You can start from where you are

Part I asks for a primary medical qualification and anaesthesia training. Not a European post, not prior European experience, not a relocation you have not yet made. Most international credentials require you to already be inside the system before you can begin. This one does not, and that is the whole point of it.

It travels between systems

It was built as a pan-European standard rather than one country's fellowship, so it is designed to be read the same way in several health systems at once. If you do not yet know which country you will end up in, that portability is worth more than a credential tied to a single one.

It removes examinations later

It is currently accepted as exemption from the Primary FRCA and from the Irish college's primary-level examination. Sitting one diploma can take an entire stage out of two other pathways — a saving in fees, travel and, more than either, in years.

There is no deadline on it

Part I can be sat during residency, and a pass does not expire. You can take it while the basic sciences are still fresh and cash it in five years later, which makes it one of the few career decisions here with almost no downside risk.

It makes your CV legible

A licensing assessor or a recruiter who cannot judge the standard of your national degree can judge this one immediately. That matters in Gulf licensing files, in European applications, and in non-clinical hiring where nobody on the panel is an anaesthesiologist.

It raises your clinical ceiling

The honest version: preparing for it drags your physiology, pharmacology and measurement back up to a level most of us quietly let slide after residency. Candidates routinely say the exam changed how they run a list long before it changed where they work.

What you are actually sitting

Two parts, two completely different skills

Part I rewards precision under a format most doctors have never trained for. Part II rewards spoken structure under time pressure. People who prepare for both the same way tend to pass one and fail the other.

Format: Two papers, 60 stems each. Every stem carries five independent true/false statements.
Paper A: Anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physics and clinical measurement.
Paper B: Clinical anaesthesia across subspecialties, regional, pain, intensive care, internal and emergency medicine.
Timing: 120 minutes per paper on paper, 90 minutes if computer-based, with a break between the two.
Marking: One mark per statement, so 300 per paper. No negative marking — a blank scores the same as a wrong answer.
Passing: Both papers must be passed. The cut-off is set each year against the standard of the paper, so it is not a fixed percentage.
Language: Offered in several languages, held annually in September.

Why the format decides the result

Because each statement is marked independently, a stem you half-know is worth three or four marks, not zero. Because nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, every blank you leave is a mark you have donated back.

That changes how you should revise. You are not building recall of topics — you are building the ability to take any sentence about a topic and decide whether it is defensible. Creston's whole method is drilled around that conversion — turning what you read into testable true/false statements, then justifying each call out loud.

How the programme drills it →

Try a stem in the real format

Five independent statements, each marked on its own. Nothing is deducted for a wrong call.

Paper A · Pharmacology Question 1 of 3

Answer all five statements — there is no penalty for a wrong one.

Format: Four Structured Oral Examinations in a single day — two basic science, two clinical.
Each station: 25 minutes with two examiners, so eight examiners across the day.
Preparation: A short written brief is given roughly ten minutes before you meet the examiners.
Prerequisite: A Part I pass, which does not expire, plus specialist certification recognised for your country.

What separates a pass from a near miss

Candidates rarely fail Part II on knowledge. They fail on shape — answering the question that was asked, opening with a framework instead of a fact, and holding a position when an examiner pushes back without either collapsing or digging in.

That can only be trained by being examined, repeatedly, by someone who will tell you plainly what went wrong. Mock vivas with structured feedback are the core of the Part II programme.

Part I is open early. You need to hold a primary medical qualification and to be in or through anaesthesia training — you do not need European experience, and you do not need to be near the end of your residency. A pass never expires, so sitting it early costs you nothing later.

Part II is the end-of-training assessment and requires specialist certification that ESAIC recognises for your country. ESAIC publishes a country-by-country list of which national diplomas qualify.

Holders of the FRCA, FCAI or FCARCSI can be exempted from Part I and enter at Part II.

Check before you plan around it

Eligibility rules, fees and recognised diplomas are set by ESAIC and change between cycles. Everything on this site is a guide to help you think, not a substitute for the current official documents.

Always confirm against the ESAIC diploma guide and the Part II eligibility list for your country before you commit money or a year of preparation. If you want help reading what applies to you, that is a free conversation — just ask.

What it opens, honestly

What the diploma is worth, region by region

The EDAIC is oversold by people selling courses and undersold by colleagues who never sat it. Here is the version with the caveats left in.

United Kingdom

The RCoA currently lists the EDAIC among the qualifications accepted as exemption from the Primary FRCA — a substantial saving in time, fees and travel for an overseas candidate aiming at the Final FRCA or a specialist registration portfolio.

The caveat that matters: exemption from an exam is not the same as eligibility to sit the next one. Final FRCA entry also carries GMC registration and training or post requirements. Check Section 7 of the RCoA regulations for the sitting you want.

Ireland

The EDAIC has long been recognised for exemption from the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland's primary-level examination, and the relationship runs both ways — FCAI and FCARCSI holders are exempted from EDAIC Part I.

For Indian and other international graduates, Ireland is often the more realistic first European post, and an EDAIC on the application is read as a European-standard benchmark rather than a foreign qualification that needs explaining.

Continental Europe

This is where the diploma does its clearest work. It is the pan-European standard for the specialty, and in a set of countries it is either mandatory or formally recognised in national certification. Because it is designed for portability, it travels between systems in a way a national fellowship does not.

It does not by itself grant you the right to work anywhere. Language certification, national registration and recognition of your specialist training all still apply.

UAE and the Gulf

Licensing in the UAE runs through the unified Professional Qualification Requirements, DataFlow verification and an authority assessment — DHA for Dubai, DOH for Abu Dhabi, MOHAP for the Northern Emirates. No single diploma bypasses that process.

What the EDAIC does is strengthen the file. It is an internationally recognised specialist-level qualification on a CV that is otherwise being assessed on a national degree an assessor may not know well, and in a market where private groups compete for consultants, that distinction is read.

The decision most people get stuck on

EDAIC, FRCA or FCAI

They are not competitors so much as different bets on where you will spend your career. The wrong question is which is hardest. The right question is which system you want to be inside in five years.

	EDAIC	FRCA	FCAI / FCARCSI
Awarded by	ESAIC — the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care	Royal College of Anaesthetists, UK	College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland
Built for	A pan-European standard, deliberately portable between countries	UK training. Primary to enter higher training, Final before CCT	Irish training, with strong international recognition
Where you sit it	Many centres worldwide, several languages, no prior European experience needed	Largely UK-based, in English	Ireland and some international centres
Entry barrier	Lowest. Part I needs only a primary medical qualification and anaesthesia training	Higher. Realistically tied to a UK training post or registration	Requires registration and a defined period of anaesthesia employment
Written format	Multiple true/false — five independent statements per stem	Mixed, including single best answer	Mixed MCQ and written
Cross-recognition	Accepted for exemption from the RCoA and CAI primary examinations	Exempts you from EDAIC Part I	Exempts you from EDAIC Part I
Strongest in	Continental Europe, and as an international benchmark on any CV	UK, Commonwealth, and much of the Gulf	Ireland, UK, and international posts
Sensible if	You are outside the UK now and want a European-standard credential you can start on immediately	Your career is going to be built inside the NHS	You are aiming at Irish training or the Irish route into Europe

Cross-recognition and exemption rules are set by the colleges and change. Confirm the current position with the RCoA, CAI and ESAIC before building a plan on it.

Two questions

Work out where you actually start

Most people arrive knowing they want the diploma and not knowing whether they should be sitting Part I this year, next year, or at all.

Where are you now?

Where are you trying to get to?

Beyond the operating room

Where a recognised specialist credential travels

A growing number of anaesthesiologists want a way out of continuous clinical service without leaving medicine. These roles all screen for the same thing: verifiable specialist standing plus evidence you can think in a structured way. That is exactly what an internationally recognised diploma supplies on a CV that would otherwise need explaining.

Medical affairs

Medical science liaison and medical advisor roles in pharma and device companies, particularly in anaesthesia, critical care and pain portfolios.

Clinical research

Medical monitor and clinical lead posts in CROs and sponsors, where specialist judgement on protocols and safety events is the job.

Pharmacovigilance

Safety physician work assessing adverse events — remote-friendly, and one of the most accessible first steps out of full-time clinical practice.

Medical writing

Regulatory documents, publications and evidence summaries. Rewards exactly the habits that peer review and exam preparation build.

Medical education

Curriculum design, simulation faculty, examiner roles and question-writing for colleges and platforms.

Health technology

Clinical input into monitoring, decision support and digital health products that need someone who has actually run a list and an ICU.

Publishing and review

Editorial and peer review work, which compounds — it builds the record that makes the other roles reachable.

Quality and safety

Perioperative pathway design, audit and governance leadership inside hospital groups.

Who is teaching you

Dr. Akansha Sharma

I am a practising consultant anaesthesiologist and intensivist in Pune. I teach EDAIC because I sat it, and because almost everything available to candidates in this part of the world is either a question dump or a lecture series that ignores how the paper is built.

What Creston teaches is not a library of recordings. The programme runs in batches, through modules built around how the paper is actually constructed, so that candidates work through the syllabus together, against the format, in a fixed order and to a fixed pace.

Consultant, Anaesthesia and Critical Care — ONP and Cloudnine, Pimple Saudagar, Pune
MD Anaesthesiology, MGM Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai
EDAIC · FCCM · CCrISP (RCS England) · ATLS
MBBS, Crimea State Medical University — which is why I understand what sitting a European exam from outside Europe actually involves
35+ peer-reviewed indexed publications; peer reviewer for the Indian Journal of Anaesthesia
Faculty at the ASA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia 2024; presentations at ESA, ESICM, ISACON and IACTACON
Special interest in POCUS, haemodynamic monitoring and perioperative medicine
English, Hindi, Russian (C1, TRKI certified), Marathi

Ask me something before you commit

Programmes

Three ways to work with me

All three run on the same method. They differ in how much of my time you get.

Question bank

₹9,999

full access for one exam cycle

MTF banks for Paper A and Paper B in the real five-statement format
An explanation for every statement, not just the stem
Timed mock papers with subject-level performance breakdown
Weekly written high-yield note
Works on its own or alongside either coaching programme

Get access

Where most candidates start

Part I coaching

₹29,999

full programme · taught in batches

Everything in the question bank
Live group teaching across the full syllabus blueprint, module by module
Every session recorded, so a clinical week does not cost you the module
Weekly assignments with model answers and a group walkthrough of where the batch went wrong
Timed mocks under exam conditions with your ranking against the batch
A batch discussion group for questions between sessions

Join a batch

Part II viva intensive

₹59,999

full programme · per exam cycle

Structured mock SOEs across all four station types
Feedback after every round, plus a written performance summary
An answer framework that holds when an examiner pushes back
Observed practice — you learn as much from watching the batch examined as from being examined
Exam-day logistics and rehearsal

Join a batch

How the batches and modules work

The syllabus is split into self-contained modules, and admissions roll. You do not have to wait for the next annual cohort or join halfway through something already running — you start at the beginning of the next module opening, and pick up the earlier ones as they come round again within your cycle.

It is built this way because almost nobody preparing for this exam has a clear calendar. A module you miss to a posting, a night rota or a personal month is a module you catch, not a course you have fallen out of.

Not sure which fits, or when the next module opens? Send your sitting date and where you are in training, and you will get a straight answer about which programme you need — including if the answer is none of them yet.

Asked before you ask

The questions candidates actually send me

Can I sit Part I while still in residency?

Yes, and it is usually the right call. Part I needs a primary medical qualification and anaesthesia training, not a completed one — and a pass does not expire. Sitting it during residency means you are revising basic sciences while you are still surrounded by them, and it takes the pressure off the year you are trying to finish everything else.

How long do I need to prepare?

For most working residents, four to six focused months. What matters far more than the number of months is whether your revision is question-shaped from the beginning. Candidates who read for three months and then start questions in the fourth almost always underperform against candidates who did both from week one.

I have failed Part I before. Is this useful?

It is the case where structured coaching helps most. ESAIC gives you a performance report broken down by paper and subject area. That report, not a textbook, is where the next attempt should start — so retaking candidates are placed into the modules their report actually points at, rather than restarting the syllabus from page one.

Should I do EDAIC or FRCA?

If your career is going to be inside the NHS, the FRCA is the road. If you are currently outside the UK, want a European-standard credential you can begin immediately without a UK post, or are aiming at continental Europe, the EDAIC is both more accessible and more portable — and it can exempt you from the Primary FRCA if you later change direction. The comparison table above lays out the trade-offs in full.

Does the EDAIC let me work in the UK or the UAE?

No qualification does that on its own, and be careful of anyone who says otherwise. The UK requires GMC registration; the UAE requires licensing through the relevant emirate's authority, DataFlow verification and an assessment. What the diploma does is remove exam barriers, strengthen an application and make your specialist standing legible to people who do not know your national degree.

What if I cannot make the live sessions?

Every session is recorded, and assignments and model answers are released to the batch regardless of attendance. Because admissions roll and the content is modular, a module lost to a rota is one you pick up on its next run rather than a course you have dropped out of.

Ask me anything about the exam

Including whether you should be sitting it at all. I answer these myself, so give me enough to be useful — where you are in training, which sitting you are aiming at, and what is worrying you.

WhatsAppFastest. Usually same day.

hello@crestoneducation.comFor longer questions and documents.

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