How EDAIC Part 1 Is Marked and Scored

Once you understand the EDAIC Part 1 marking scheme, a lot of exam-day anxiety simply melts away. The mechanics are refreshingly transparent: every statement you face is judged independently as true or false, there is no penalty for a wrong answer, and your raw marks accumulate one statement at a time. Knowing exactly how points are earned changes how you sit the paper — and, for most candidates, it nudges the result in your favour.

This article focuses purely on the scoring mechanics. If you want the pass threshold and how standards are set, see our companion piece on the EDAIC pass rate and pass mark explained. If you want answering tactics, head to the MTF answering strategy guide. Here, we stay on the question that trips up so many trainees early on: how is it actually scored?

The format that drives the marking: MTF

The EDAIC (European Diploma in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, awarded by ESAIC) Part 1 is a written examination built entirely from Multiple True/False (MTF) questions. The marking scheme follows directly from this format, so it is worth being precise about the anatomy of a question.

Each MTF item has two parts:

• A stem — a short clinical or scientific lead-in. For example, "Concerning the pharmacology of propofol…".
• Five statements, labelled A to E — each one a complete proposition that follows from the stem.

The crucial point is that the five statements are judged independently. They are not a "pick the single best answer" set, and they are not mutually exclusive. Within a single stem you might have three statements that are true and two that are false — or all five true, or all five false. Your job is to decide, for each statement on its own merits, whether it is True or False.

So a question with a single stem is really five separate scoring decisions. This is the heart of the edaic mtf scoring model, and it explains why a single paper contains a large number of individual marking points even though the number of stems looks modest. You are not answering questions so much as adjudicating statements.

Paper A and Paper B both work this way

Part 1 is delivered as two papers, and the MTF mechanic is identical in each:

• 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.

For a full walk-through of how the two papers are structured and what each covers, see our Part 1 format guide to Paper A and Paper B. For scoring, the headline is simple: both papers are marked on the same true/false-per-statement basis, and both contribute to your overall Part 1 result.

The EDAIC Part 1 marking scheme: the raw-mark mechanic

Here is the rule that matters most, and the one candidates most often ask about when they search for edaic how is it scored:

Each statement is worth a mark. A correct true/false judgement earns the mark. An incorrect judgement earns nothing. A blank (unanswered) statement earns nothing.

There is no half-marking, no partial credit for "nearly right", and no bonus for getting all five statements in a stem correct. The unit of currency is the individual statement, not the question. Your raw score is, quite literally, the count of statements you marked correctly across the paper.

Because each statement is scored on its own, your marks build up in a smooth, additive way. Getting four of five statements right in one stem and one of five right in the next leaves you with the same five marks as any other combination — the stem boundaries are invisible to the final tally. This is why strong candidates think in statements, not questions.

A worked illustration

Imagine a stem with five statements where the correct answers are T, F, T, T, F. Suppose you mark them T, F, T, F, F:

You score 4 out of a possible 5 from that single stem. Notice that the one error costs you only that statement's mark — it does not drag down the marks you earned on the other four. Over a whole paper, those independent decisions sum to your raw mark.

No negative marking: the rule that should change your behaviour

This is the single most behaviour-changing fact about the edaic negative marking question, so let us be unambiguous: there is no negative marking on EDAIC Part 1. Penalty marking was removed in 2014. A wrong answer and a blank answer are scored identically — both zero. Neither one subtracts from your total.

The practical consequence is direct and important:

Because there is no penalty for being wrong, you should answer every single statement. Leaving a statement blank can only guarantee zero; committing to true or false gives you a real chance of the mark.

In the old penalty era, the cautious move was to skip statements you were unsure about, to avoid losing marks. That logic is now obsolete. Under the current scheme, an unanswered statement is a wasted opportunity. Even a pure guess on a 50/50 true/false call has, on average, an expected value of half a mark — and most "guesses" in a well-prepared candidate are educated, nudging the odds well above 50%.

This is also why the absence of negative marking interacts so neatly with good technique. When you can eliminate the obviously absurd, lean on physiological first principles, or spot a giveaway absolute word ("always", "never"), your effective accuracy on uncertain statements climbs comfortably above chance. We cover those moves in depth in the MTF questions strategy article and in strategies to pass Part 1; the scoring rule is simply the permission slip that makes them worth using.

What "answer everything" looks like in practice

• Mark a true/false response for all five statements in every stem. No exceptions, even when a statement looks unfamiliar.
• Never leave a blank because you are "unsure" — uncertainty is not penalised, so it is never a reason to abstain.
• Use your last few minutes to sweep the paper for any statement you skipped intending to "come back to", and commit an answer to each.

Where the raw marks lead: standard setting

Your raw marks are only half the story — they have to be measured against a standard. EDAIC Part 1 uses criterion-referenced standard setting (an Angoff-style process). In plain terms, the pass mark reflects a defined level of competence: the score a "just-competent" candidate would be expected to achieve.

This is fundamentally different from a norm-referenced curve. The exam does not pass a fixed quota or rank you against your cohort and pass the top X per cent. If everyone sitting reaches the standard, everyone can pass; if nobody does, nobody passes. You are competing against a defined criterion, not against the person next to you.

That is genuinely good news for a prepared candidate, because it means your job is well-defined: demonstrate the required standard of knowledge across the syllabus. The detail of how the threshold is derived, and what historical pass rates look like qualitatively, lives in the pass rate and pass mark explainer. For the exact current figures and dates, always confirm on the official ESAIC/EDAIC (myESAIC) website — pass marks and statistics are set per cycle and we deliberately avoid quoting fixed numbers here.

A quick comparison: EDAIC scoring versus what you might expect

Many trainees arrive with assumptions carried over from single-best-answer (SBA) exams or from older penalty-marked papers. Lining them up side by side helps:

The takeaway from the table is that MTF rewards breadth of accurate knowledge in fine granularity. You are not hunting for one perfect option; you are making many small, independent calls, each worth a mark.

How the scoring shapes your revision

If each statement is an independent scoring point, your study should produce a dense web of small, verifiable facts rather than a few big narratives. A vague gestalt of "I sort of know cardiac physiology" converts poorly into MTF marks; a precise grasp of individual propositions converts directly.

A few practical implications:

• Drill at statement granularity. A high-quality question bank trains exactly the decision you will make on the day — true or false on a discrete proposition. See how to use an EDAIC question bank effectively and our EDAIC question bank for that kind of practice.
• Use spaced repetition for the fine detail. Because so much of MTF success rests on recallable specifics — values, exceptions, mechanisms — a spaced repetition memory method keeps those facts retrievable under exam pressure.
• Build a structured plan. Coverage matters when every statement across the syllabus is a potential mark; an effective EDAIC study plan helps you avoid blind spots in low-frequency-but-examinable areas.

For the bigger picture of how Part 1 fits into the whole journey, including timelines and resources, our complete EDAIC Part 1 preparation guide for 2026 ties it together.

A note on clinical accuracy in your answers

Many statements turn on textbook clinical detail. When you revise topics such as local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST), the difficult airway, context-sensitive half-times, or diagnostic statistics (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values), anchor on standard, guideline-consistent values and steps — these are reliable for revision. In real clinical practice, always follow your current local and published guidelines, which evolve. For the intensive care components of Paper B specifically, our intensive care for Paper B guide covers the high-yield ground.

Language, the OLA route, and how it relates to marking

Two practical points round out the picture:

• Language of the paper. The Part 1 written exam is offered in several European languages, so the marking scheme applies equally whichever language you sit it in. Part 2 (the structured oral exam) is generally conducted in English — see the Part 2 oral exam SOE guide for how that stage differs.
• The OLA route. The On-Line Assessment (OLA) is a formative, in-training online assessment that uses EDAIC Part 1-style content. Under ESAIC's conditions, passing it can exempt a candidate from sitting the Part 1 written exam. The MTF-style content means the same statement-level thinking applies; our OLA online assessment explained article covers eligibility and conditions.

If you are weighing the EDAIC against other qualifications, note that the FRCA (Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the UK examination) is a separate qualification with a different awarding body; the EDAIC is the broadly comparable pan-European diploma. Our EDAIC versus FRCA comparison goes into the differences in format and marking philosophy.

Key dates and where to confirm the figures

The 2026 cycle Part 1 written exam is confirmed for 19 September 2026. The registration window for that sitting has already closed, so do not rely on any registration deadline being still open. For the current deadline, the next cycle's dates, fees, the live pass mark and pass-rate statistics, and your nearest examination centre, always check the official ESAIC/EDAIC (myESAIC) website — these details are set per cycle and we avoid quoting fixed numbers that could go stale. Our EDAIC 2026 dates and registration guide is a useful orientation, but the official site is the source of truth.

Frequently asked questions

Is there negative marking on EDAIC Part 1?

No. Negative (penalty) marking was removed in 2014. A wrong statement and a blank statement both score zero, and neither subtracts marks from your total. Because of this, you should answer every statement — leaving one blank can only guarantee no mark, whereas committing to true or false gives you a real chance of earning it.

How are the five statements in each question scored?

Each of the five statements (A–E) under a stem is judged independently as true or false, and each is worth one mark. There is no "best answer" and no all-or-nothing rule for the question as a whole. You can earn marks for the statements you get right within a stem even if you get others wrong, so your raw score is simply the total number of statements you answered correctly.

Does getting all five statements in a stem right earn a bonus?

No. There is no bonus for a clean sweep and no extra penalty for missing several within one stem. The stem boundaries are invisible to the final tally — marks accumulate statement by statement, so four correct statements always equal four marks regardless of which stems they came from.

Is the EDAIC Part 1 pass mark a fixed percentage or a curve?

Neither in the everyday sense. Standard setting is criterion-referenced (Angoff-style), so the pass mark reflects a defined standard of competence rather than a fixed quota or a norm-referenced curve. The exam does not pass a set percentage of candidates; if everyone meets the standard, everyone can pass. For the qualitative detail, see our pass rate and pass mark explainer.

Should I guess if I genuinely have no idea?

Yes. With no negative marking, a guess has an expected value above zero — on a pure 50/50 it averages half a mark, and most "guesses" by a prepared candidate are educated, raising the odds further. Never leave a statement blank; a committed answer can only help your score.

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Ready to turn this scoring knowledge into marks? The fastest way to train statement-level true/false judgement is deliberate practice on real EDAIC-style MTF items. Create a free AnesCORE account and start drilling with our EDAIC question bank — the same independent-statement format you will face on exam day, with explanations that build the dense, verifiable knowledge the marking scheme rewards.