How the ABA Standardized Oral Exam works

By The MockOral.ai team. Updated October 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026.

The SOE is two 35-minute conversations with pairs of board-certified examiners about a patient you have had a few minutes to read about. Here is how the time is divided, what the stems look like, and what the ABA says it is measuring.

The format in one paragraph

The Standardized Oral Examination (SOE) is one of the two components of the ABA APPLIED Exam. You sit two 35-minute sessions. Each starts with a written stem: a brief clinical history, exam findings and a few results. Two board-certified anesthesiologist examiners then question you in a standardized way, and the second session has two different examiners. The ABA describes the SOE as guided questions that emphasize the scientific rationale behind clinical management decisions.

The clock, minute by minute

The ABA's exam manual lays out the SOE block as 1 hour and 40 minutes:

A tone ends each session. If you know an examiner, say so before you start and the ABA sends a replacement. The rooms are video monitored for auditing.

Candidates often call the first stem the long stem and the second the short stem, because of the difference in reading time. Use the 20 minutes to build a problem list and a plan; use the 10 minutes to find the two or three issues that will drive the questions.

How a session is divided

The ABA's public sample questions show how examiners move through a stem. In the sample, one session runs intraoperative management for 10 minutes, postoperative care for 15 minutes, then additional topics for 10 minutes. The other runs preoperative evaluation for 10 minutes, intraoperative management for 15 minutes, then additional topics for 10 minutes.

• Preoperative evaluation: Is this patient optimized? What else do you need? Do you proceed, delay or cancel? Expect to defend the decision when the examiner changes a lab value or a symptom.
• Intraoperative management: Induction, monitoring, maintenance and the events the stem was written to produce: hypoxemia on one-lung ventilation, sudden hypotension, a rising end-tidal CO2. Each answer invites a "why" and then a twist.
• Postoperative care: Extubation criteria, analgesia, and complications that surface hours or days later (new ST changes, a nerve deficit, an abnormal lab).
• Additional topics (the grab bag): Short, unrelated scenarios from other parts of the specialty. The ABA sample includes an urgent cesarean delivery in a parturient with preeclampsia and a newborn with a tracheoesophageal fistula. These are rapid-fire: give the decision and the reason, then stop.

You do not choose the order, and the examiners control the pace. They will interrupt to move on when they have what they need, which is normal and not a sign of failure.

What the examiners are assessing

The ABA says the SOE assesses judgment, adaptability to unexpected clinical changes, and the organization and presentation of information. Its Policy Book describes the qualities the whole APPLIED Exam is designed to show:

• sound judgment in making decisions
• proper management of surgical and anesthetic complications
• appropriate application of scientific principles to clinical problems
• adaptability to unexpected changes in the clinical situation
• logical organization and effective presentation of information

Notice what is missing: recall for its own sake. A correct fact delivered without a decision, or a decision delivered without a reason, earns less than a short answer that does both. That is why candidates who have passed so often advise practising out loud, and briefly. We cover the technique in how to answer concisely.

What a good answer sounds like

Examiners typically ask a direct question, then probe. A strong answer to "Would you proceed?" sounds like this:

Decision first, the one or two reasons that drive it, the next action. Then stop and let the examiner steer. You will see full worked examples in the preoperative sample stem and the intraoperative crisis stem.

Habits that cost candidates

• Lecturing. Reciting a differential of twelve items when the examiner asked for your most likely diagnosis and your action.
• Hedging. "It depends" without saying on what, and what you would do in each case.
• Abandoning a safe plan under pressure. Examiners will push back on correct answers to test conviction. Reconsider honestly; if the plan is still right, say why and keep it.
• Ignoring the change. When the examiner adds "the blood pressure is now 60/30", the question has changed. Address the new problem first.
• Running out the clock on one topic. The examiners have a set of questions to get through; a long answer means fewer chances to score.

The ABA posts videos on its APPLIED Exam page, including a model candidate and a "what to avoid" example. Watch both before your first mock.

How to prepare for the format

1. Read the ABA's sample SOE questions once, start to finish, to absorb the structure.
2. Practise with a timer: 20 minutes of reading, then 35 minutes of questions; then 10 and 35.
3. Have someone (or something) interrupt you. The rhythm of being cut off and redirected is the part that cannot be learned from a book.
4. Record yourself and listen back for length. First recordings are usually much longer than they need to be.

If you do not have a study partner for every session, see ways to practise without a partner.