EDAIC OLA, HOLA and ITA: What They Are and How They Differ

If you have started reading about the European Diploma in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, you have probably run into a small alphabet soup: edaic ola hola ita. These acronyms describe in-training assessments that sit around the EDAIC examination proper, and trainees regularly confuse them — partly because the names overlap, and partly because what they offer (especially exemption from the written exam) genuinely matters for how you plan your study. This guide untangles them in plain English, explains who sits each, and shows how they relate to the main exam.

Before we go further, one anchor fact: the EDAIC is awarded by ESAIC (the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care) and has two parts — a written Part 1 and an oral Part 2. The OLA, HOLA and ITA all orbit Part 1. They are formative, in-training instruments; they are not the diploma itself. Keep that distinction in your head and most of the confusion dissolves.

The quick answer: what is EDAIC OLA, HOLA and ITA?

Here is the short version before we unpack each one.

• OLA (On-Line Assessment) is a formative, in-training online assessment built from EDAIC Part 1-style content. Sat under ESAIC's conditions, a pass can exempt you from sitting the Part 1 written exam.
• HOLA (Host OLA) is the same assessment delivered through a host institution or national/regional arrangement — the "H" reflects that a department or training body hosts the sitting for its own trainees, rather than the candidate registering as a standalone individual.
• ITA (In-Training Assessment) is the umbrella idea these tools serve: a low-stakes, repeatable measure of where a trainee stands against the EDAIC syllabus, used to track progress year on year rather than to award a final qualification.

If you only remember one thing, remember this: the OLA family is about practising and benchmarking against EDAIC Part 1, and the OLA in particular can carry an exemption that lets eligible candidates skip the written Part 1 sitting. Everything else is detail.

For the foundations of the exam these assessments mirror, our complete EDAIC Part 1 preparation guide is the natural companion to this article.

First, the exam everything points at: EDAIC Part 1

You cannot understand the OLA, HOLA or ITA without a firm grasp of the Part 1 written examination, because all three are modelled on it.

Part 1 is a written paper made of two components:

• Paper A — Basic Sciences: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physics and clinical measurement, equipment, and statistics.
• Paper B — Clinical Anaesthesia and Intensive Care: including regional anaesthesia, special and sub-specialty anaesthesia, intensive care, emergency medicine, and pain.

The question format is MTF (Multiple True/False): a stem followed by five statements, A to E, each judged independently as True or False. Crucially, there is no negative marking — it was removed in 2014 — so a correct statement scores, while a wrong or blank statement scores zero. The practical consequence is simple and you should internalise it now: answer every statement. Leaving one blank can never help you. We dig into the tactics in our piece on MTF question strategy with no negative marking, and there is a deeper walkthrough in our guide to MTF questions for the EDAIC.

Standard setting is criterion-referenced (Angoff-style). The pass mark reflects a defined standard of competence, not a fixed quota and not a norm-referenced curve. You are measured against the standard, not ranked against the cohort — which is reassuring, because it means strong performance by everyone is rewarded rather than capped. If pass marks and standard setting interest you, see our explainer on the EDAIC pass rate and pass mark.

One more useful detail: the Part 1 written exam is offered in several European languages, whereas Part 2 (the structured oral examination, or SOE) is generally conducted in English. For the full structure of the written paper, our breakdown of the Paper A and Paper B format lays it out section by section.

What is the OLA (On-Line Assessment)?

The OLA is the headline member of this family and the one most worth your attention.

It is a formative, in-training online assessment that uses EDAIC Part 1-style content — the same MTF format, the same syllabus coverage across basic sciences and clinical anaesthesia. Because it mirrors the real paper so closely, the OLA does double duty:

1. As a rehearsal. It lets trainees experience genuine EDAIC-style questions under assessment conditions, well before they commit to the full written sitting. This is the single best way to discover, early, whether your knowledge is exam-shaped or merely textbook-shaped.
2. As a route to exemption. This is the part that changes study plans. Passing the OLA under ESAIC's conditions can exempt a candidate from sitting the Part 1 written examination. In other words, a strong OLA result, achieved through the recognised in-training pathway, can stand in for the written Part 1 — letting an eligible candidate proceed without sitting that written paper separately.

That exemption is why the OLA is more than a mock exam. Treat it as a legitimate, lower-stakes on-ramp to the diploma — but always confirm the current eligibility and exemption rules directly with ESAIC, because the conditions attached to OLA exemption are specific and they are set by ESAIC, not by any third party.

We have a dedicated deep-dive — our EDAIC OLA online assessment explained article — which covers eligibility, mechanics and the exemption conditions in far more depth than there is room for here. If the OLA pathway is relevant to you, read that next.

How the OLA relates to Part 1

Think of the OLA and the written Part 1 as two doors into the same room. Both test the Part 1 syllabus in MTF format to the same criterion-referenced standard. The written exam is the traditional door; the OLA is the in-training door that, when passed under the right conditions, can grant exemption from the written one. They are not different syllabuses and not different standards — they are different delivery routes to demonstrating the same Part 1 competence.

What is the HOLA (Host OLA)?

The HOLA is best understood as a delivery variant of the OLA rather than a separate exam with separate content.

The distinction is organisational. With the standalone OLA, the focus is on the individual candidate. The HOLA — the "host" version — is delivered through a hosting body: a department, training programme, or national/regional society that arranges an OLA sitting for its own trainees as a cohort. The questions, the format and the educational purpose are the same EDAIC Part 1-style material; what changes is who organises and administers the sitting.

For a trainee, the practical implications of a hosted sitting are usually:

• Where and how you register. You may be enrolled through your department or training body rather than registering entirely on your own.
• When you sit it. Host sittings are often scheduled to fit a training-year rhythm, so the timing is coordinated by the institution.
• How results feed back. Because a host body runs it, results can be used by your programme to benchmark its trainees and inform supervision.

What does not change is the underlying assessment: it is OLA content, to OLA standards. So when you read "HOLA", read it as "OLA, hosted by an institution" — the ola vs hola difference is essentially one of delivery and administration, not of difficulty, syllabus, or the standard you are measured against.

Because the exemption conditions and any institutional arrangements vary, always verify with ESAIC and with your own training body whether a particular hosted sitting carries the same exemption status as a standalone OLA.

What is the ITA (In-Training Assessment)?

The ITA — in-training assessment — is the broadest concept of the three, and the one trainees most often misread as a single named exam.

An in-training assessment is, at heart, a formative checkpoint: a low-stakes, repeatable measure of where you stand against the EDAIC syllabus at a given point in your training. The OLA (and its hosted HOLA form) are the concrete tools that deliver this in-training assessment using EDAIC Part 1-style questions. So the edaic in training assessment idea and the OLA are not rivals; the OLA is the vehicle, and the ITA is the purpose it serves.

What an in-training assessment is for:

• Tracking progress year on year. Sitting EDAIC-style questions repeatedly through training shows whether your knowledge is moving in the right direction, well before the high-stakes written exam.
• Targeting revision. A breakdown across basic sciences and clinical topics tells you where to spend your limited study hours — for example, whether high-yield pharmacology or physics and clinical measurement is dragging your average down.
• Low stakes by design. Because it is formative, a weak in-training result is information, not a verdict. The point is to find the gaps while you still have time to close them.

The most reliable way to make in-training assessment work for you is to combine repeated EDAIC-style testing with spaced repetition and a realistic study plan for the EDAIC. Testing tells you what you do not know; spacing and a plan tell you when to revisit it.

OLA vs HOLA vs ITA: a side-by-side comparison

The table below summarises the differences. Treat the OLA row as the reference point — HOLA is its hosted delivery, and ITA is the formative purpose both serve.

A final clarifying note: none of OLA, HOLA or ITA is the same thing as Part 2, the structured oral examination. Part 2 is a separate, English-language viva taken after you have satisfied Part 1 (whether by the written exam or, where applicable, by OLA exemption). If you are thinking ahead, our Part 2 oral exam SOE guide explains what that stage involves.

Where the OLA family fits in your overall plan

For most trainees, the sensible sequence looks like this:

1. Build core knowledge across Paper A and Paper B using a structured plan and a strong question bank.
2. Use in-training assessment (the ITA idea) regularly via the OLA — or via a HOLA sitting if your department hosts one — to benchmark yourself honestly against the EDAIC standard.
3. Decide your Part 1 route. If you are eligible and you pass the OLA under ESAIC's conditions, you may be exempt from the written exam. If not, you sit the written Part 1.
4. Move on to Part 2 once Part 1 is satisfied.

Whichever route you take to Part 1, the preparation is the same: relentless practice with EDAIC-style MTF questions across the whole syllabus. That is exactly what our EDAIC question bank is built for — thousands of items in the real format, with explanations — and our overview of the Part 1 exam itself shows how the pieces fit together. If you want a structured route through it all, the plans page sets out how to combine the question bank with a guided schedule.

A note on dates, fees and deadlines

Here is where you must be careful, because the EDAIC calendar moves and several 2026 windows have already closed.

The one date you can rely on for this cycle is that the EDAIC Part 1 written exam takes place on 19 September 2026. However, the registration window for that 2026 Part 1 sitting has already closed — the deadline fell in June 2026 — so if you are reading this hoping to register for the September 2026 written exam, that window is no longer open.

For everything else — current fees, the next cycle's dates, OLA and HOLA scheduling, exemption conditions, eligibility, and examination centres — go straight to the official ESAIC / EDAIC (myESAIC) website. Those figures change between cycles and are the kind of thing you should never take second-hand. Our EDAIC 2026 dates, fees and registration guide tracks what is publicly confirmed, but ESAIC is always the authority for the live schedule.

If you are an international medical graduate weighing eligibility, our overview of EDAIC eligibility for international doctors is a useful starting point — but, again, confirm specifics with ESAIC.

Frequently asked questions

Does passing the OLA mean I have passed EDAIC Part 1?

Not exactly — but it can get you there. Passing the OLA under ESAIC's defined conditions can exempt an eligible candidate from sitting the Part 1 written examination, which means you can proceed without taking that written paper separately. The OLA is a formative in-training assessment, so the exemption it confers is governed by ESAIC's rules; always confirm your eligibility and the current conditions with ESAIC before relying on it.

What is the actual difference between the OLA and the HOLA?

The content and standard are the same — both use EDAIC Part 1-style MTF questions to a criterion-referenced standard. The ola vs hola difference is one of delivery: the OLA is organised around the individual candidate, while the HOLA ("Host OLA") is administered through a hosting institution or training body for a cohort of trainees. Check with ESAIC and your department whether a hosted sitting carries the same exemption status.

Is the ITA a separate exam I have to book?

No. The in-training assessment is a concept — formative, repeatable testing against the EDAIC syllabus — rather than a single bookable exam. In practice it is delivered through the OLA (or a hosted HOLA sitting). Think of the ITA as the purpose (benchmarking your progress) and the OLA as the tool that achieves it.

Is the EDAIC the same as the FRCA?

No. The FRCA (Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists) is the UK examination, with its Primary and Final stages, awarded by a different body. The EDAIC is the broadly comparable pan-European diploma awarded by ESAIC. They are separate qualifications; our EDAIC vs FRCA comparison weighs them up if you are choosing between them.

Where should I confirm the current dates and exemption rules?

Always the official ESAIC / EDAIC (myESAIC) website. The only firmly confirmed date for this cycle is the Part 1 written exam on 19 September 2026, and registration for that sitting has already closed. Fees, future dates, centres, and OLA/HOLA exemption conditions are all set by ESAIC and can change between cycles.

Start practising in the real format

The fastest way to make sense of the OLA, HOLA and ITA is to sit EDAIC-style questions yourself and see where you stand. Whether your route to Part 1 is the written exam or an OLA exemption, the preparation is identical: thousands of MTF items, in the real format, with explanations that teach as you go. Create a free AnesCORE account to begin, then put it to work with our EDAIC question bank — the closest thing to in-training assessment you can practise on your own schedule.