Four resources come up in almost every conversation about the ACEM fellowship written exam: ACEMCQ, ED MCQ, PRIMEX and Ace the ACEM. They are not four versions of the same thing. Two are question banks, one is a broad study platform that covers many exams, and one is a coached course with examiners marking your papers. This page puts them side by side, says what each is good at, and suggests which combination fits which candidate.
Side by side
| ACEMCQ | ED MCQ | PRIMEX | Ace the ACEM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Question bank + AI-marked SAQs | Question bank + free SAQ notes | Notes, flashcards, questions, AI SAQ grading | Six-month coached course with trial exams |
| Fellowship MCQs | 2,000+ MCQs, referenced explanations | 2,000+ MCQs | No fixed bank: questions are AI-generated continuously ("unlimited") | No MCQ bank published |
| How questions are written | Written by emergency clinicians led by Dr Liam Stephens FACEM, referenced to standard texts and Australian guidelines | Written and edited by a FACEM (Dr Cambridge Wong) | Generated by AI on demand; no clinician review process described | Written and taught by FACEM and PEM FACEM educators |
| Fellowship SAQs | 700+ SAQs, AI marked mark-by-mark against a model answer; 3 marked a day on Basic, unlimited on Premium | 1,000+ SAQ study notes (free); SAQ course | SAQ grading on a Fail / Borderline / Pass / Distinction tier | 800+ syllabus-aligned SAQs; 14 trial papers marked by FACEM and PEM FACEM examiners |
| Teaching | 20-week structured MCQ course (SAQs added on Premium) | Study notes by topic | 268 study notes, 8,843 flashcards, study plan | 500+ hours of live and recorded webinars; three-day course a month before the exam |
| Mock exams | Timed mock exams in the bank | 120-MCQ trial exam (A$99) | Written-readiness score | 14 online trial exams under exam conditions |
| Performance feedback | Topic and domain tracking; cohort comparison on the dashboard | Not stated | Curriculum tracker, 268-objective checklist | Examiner feedback on trial papers |
| OSCE | Not yet (in development) | OSCE AI trainer (A$10/month) | 12 stations, SCBD simulator | Separate OSCE course |
| Primary exam | Separate Primary bank, A$29/month or A$249/year, 100 free questions | Not offered | Separate Primary product, same pricing | Not offered |
| Price (AUD) | Basic A$29/month or A$249/year; Premium A$49/month or A$499/year | A$249 one-off for the MCQ bank; access period not stated | A$44.99/month, A$119.99/quarter or A$299/year | Not published; enquire |
| Free trial | Yes, no card required | Free SAQ notes; trial option listed | 7 days | Preview lessons |
| Platform | Web, plus the Moodle app on iOS and Android | Web (LearnDash) | Web + native iPhone app; no Android app | Zoom / online learning platform |
| Who built it | Dr Liam Stephens, FACEM, and emergency clinicians (independent) | Dr Cambridge Wong, FACEM (independent) | An anaesthetics registrar; 26 exam tracks | FACEM and PEM FACEM educators |
| Pass-rate claim | None published | "91% pass rate of 2026.1 class" | None published | Individual testimonials; no rate published |
“Not stated” means the provider’s public pages do not give the figure. Prices are in Australian dollars as displayed on 10 September 2026 and will change; check before you buy. ACEMCQ column figures are our own.
ACEMCQ
What it is. A question bank for the written exam: 2,000+ MCQs and 700+ SAQs written to fellowship standard, with referenced explanations, timed mock exams, a 20-week structured course, and topic-level performance tracking that shows you where you sit against other candidates. The SAQs are marked by an AI marker against a structured model answer, mark by mark, so you see which mandatory items you missed rather than a single score.
What it is good at. Volume and feedback. The examination reports show the average candidate finishing within one question’s worth of marks of the SAQ pass line, and losing marks to the same six technique factors every sitting. A bank that marks 700 SAQs the way the exam does is the cheapest way to get that practice in quantity. The Basic plan (A$29 a month, A$249 a year) includes up to three marked SAQs a day; Premium (A$49 a month, A$499 a year) removes the cap and adds SAQs to the 20-week course.
What it does not do. There is no live teaching, no human marking, and no OSCE component yet. It will not explain a topic to you from scratch; it will tell you, quickly and repeatedly, which topics you do not know.
ED MCQ
What it is. An Australian bank of 2,000+ ACEM-style MCQs written and edited by Dr Cambridge Wong, a FACEM and emergency department director in Sydney, sold as a one-off purchase (A$249; the access period is not stated on the site), plus a separate 120-question trial exam (A$99), an OSCE AI trainer (A$10 a month), and a large set of free SAQ study notes organised by topic.
What it is good at. The free SAQ notes are the standout: over 1,000 SAQ-style notes with no paywall, which makes ED MCQ the best free written resource of the four. The one-off price suits candidates who dislike subscriptions. The blog is active, with OSCE guides published through 2026.
What it does not do. The public pages do not describe performance tracking, and there is no AI or human marking of SAQ answers: the notes are for reading, not for practising under marking. ED MCQ publishes a "91% pass rate of 2026.1 class"; the site does not say how many candidates that is or how it was measured, so treat it as a claim rather than a statistic.
PRIMEX
What it is. A subscription study platform (A$44.99 a month, A$119.99 a quarter, A$299 a year, seven-day free trial) built by an anaesthetics registrar and covering 26 exam tracks, with the ACEM Fellowship as one of them. For the Fellowship it lists 268 study notes mapped to the curriculum, 8,843 spaced-repetition flashcards, AI SAQ grading on a Fail / Borderline / Pass / Distinction tier, 12 OSCE stations, and an iPhone app. Its questions are not a fixed bank. In the site’s own words, “the bank is generated continuously so you do not run out of fresh questions” and it offers “AI question generation in your college’s format, so you never run out”.
What it is good at. Breadth and structure. If you want notes, flashcards, questions and a study plan in one place, and you also want the Primary or another exam on the same subscription, it is the most comprehensive package on this list, and the annual price is competitive.
What it does not do. Because the questions are generated by AI on demand, there is no fixed set that a clinician has checked question by question, and the public pages describe no review or moderation step; the site itself notes that its AI grading “is an approximation”. That is the trade-off behind “unlimited”: volume without a human having read the question you are answering. The SAQ grading gives a tier rather than a mark-by-mark breakdown against mandatory items. It is a generalist platform across 26 exams, and its ACEM content is built to a curriculum map rather than written by emergency physicians who have sat the exam. Whether that matters is a judgement for you; for an exam where distractor quality and Australian practice detail decide marks, we think it does.
Ace the ACEM (Advanced Centre for Emergency Education)
What it is. A coached course, not a bank. The written program runs over a six-month cycle and, according to its own materials, covers 800+ core topics through more than 500 hours of live and recorded webinars, 800+ syllabus-aligned SAQs, 14 online trial exams sat under exam conditions and marked by FACEM and PEM FACEM examiners, and a three-day course about a month before the exam. There is a separate OSCE course. Pricing is not published; you enrol by enquiry.
What it is good at. Teaching and examiner-marked practice. Nothing else on this list gives you a FACEM reading your trial paper and telling you why it lost marks, fourteen times. For a candidate who wants the syllabus taught as well as tested under examiner marking, and who can commit to a timetable, this is the most complete preparation available, and in our view the best of its kind. It is also the most expensive option here by a wide margin.
What it does not do. The materials say the program covers both SAQ and MCQ components, but no MCQ bank or MCQ count is published, and the published content is SAQ-led. The MCQ paper is 120 questions in three hours, and the examination reports show that a strong SCQ score is what rescues a narrow SAQ miss under the borderline review. Candidates on the course generally add MCQ volume from elsewhere.
How they fit together
The useful way to read the table is not "which one" but "which layer". There are three layers to written-exam preparation and no single product covers all three well.
- Teaching. Someone explaining the topic. Ace the ACEM does this live; PRIMEX and ED MCQ do it with notes; ACEMCQ does it through referenced explanations after you answer.
- Marked practice under exam conditions. Ace the ACEM’s 14 examiner-marked trial papers are the gold standard, and nothing automated matches a FACEM’s personal feedback on your paper. What ACEMCQ’s AI marking offers is different and smaller: a mark-by-mark check against the model answer that you can run every day between those papers. PRIMEX gives a tier; ED MCQ gives notes to compare against.
- Volume and feedback on where you are weak. This is what a bank is for. ACEMCQ and ED MCQ have 2,000+ MCQs each; ACEMCQ adds 700+ marked SAQs and topic tracking against the cohort.
Sensible combinations, in rough order of cost:
- Budget: ED MCQ’s free SAQ notes for reading, plus one MCQ bank (ACEMCQ Basic at A$249 a year or ED MCQ at A$249 one-off) for volume. Add ACEMCQ Basic’s three marked SAQs a day if you want any marking at all.
- Self-directed: ACEMCQ Premium (unlimited marked SAQs, 20-week course with SAQs) as the spine, with textbooks and free FOAMed resources for teaching. This is the candidate ACEMCQ was built for.
- Coached: Ace the ACEM for teaching and examiner-marked trial papers, plus ACEMCQ as the daily bank for MCQ volume, extra marked SAQs between trial papers, and the topic-level feedback that tells you what to take to the next webinar. This is the combination we would recommend to a candidate who can afford the course.
- Everything in one subscription: PRIMEX, if you want notes, cards, unlimited generated questions, OSCE and the Primary under one login, and you are comfortable practising on AI-generated questions that no clinician has reviewed.
What we did not compare
Question quality directly. Every provider says its questions are exam-standard, and there is no independent measure. What can be checked is provenance: ACEMCQ, ED MCQ and Ace the ACEM state that emergency clinicians write their questions, and PRIMEX states that its questions are generated by AI continuously. The only honest test of quality is to do twenty questions on each free trial and judge whether the explanations teach you something, whether the distractors are plausible, and whether the SAQ model answers look like the ones your DEMT shows you. Free trials, notes or previews are available for all four.
Sources
Figures were read from acemcq.com.au, edmcq.com, primexstudy.com.au and emexam.org (the Advanced Centre for Emergency Education, which trades as Ace the ACEM) on 10 September 2026. Where a figure is not stated on the public site we say so rather than guess. Pass-rate and examination-report figures are from the ACEM Fellowship Written Examination Reports; see our pass-rate analysis. ACEMCQ is not affiliated with ACEM or with any other provider named here. If you represent one of them and a figure is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best question bank for the ACEM fellowship exam?
It depends on what you need marked and who you want writing the questions. ACEMCQ and ED MCQ both offer 2,000+ clinician-written fellowship MCQs; ACEMCQ adds 700+ SAQs with mark-by-mark AI marking, and ED MCQ offers 1,000+ free SAQ study notes. PRIMEX has no fixed bank: its questions are generated by AI continuously, alongside notes, flashcards and tiered AI SAQ grading across many exams. Ace the ACEM is a coached course rather than a bank.
Is ACEMCQ cheaper than PRIMEX?
It depends on the plan. ACEMCQ Basic (A$29 a month or A$249 a year) is cheaper than PRIMEX (A$44.99 a month or A$299 a year). ACEMCQ Premium, which adds unlimited AI-marked SAQs, is dearer at A$49 a month or A$499 a year. ED MCQ charges A$249 as a one-off for its MCQ bank. Prices checked 10 September 2026.
Does Ace the ACEM include an MCQ question bank?
Its public materials describe 800+ SAQs, 14 marked trial exams and 500+ hours of teaching, and say the program covers both SAQ and MCQ components, but no MCQ bank or MCQ count is published. Most candidates who take the course use a separate MCQ bank for volume practice.
Can I use ACEMCQ alongside a course?
Yes. ACEMCQ is a self-paced bank with no timetable, so it fits around a coached program. The usual pattern is course for teaching and marked trial papers, bank for daily question volume and topic-level feedback.