FExPrep helps Australian surgical trainees prepare for their fellowship examinations. It brings together practice questions written and reviewed by surgeons, practice exams, a study planner and the key exam resources in one place.
We're starting with General Surgery. Orthopaedics, Urology, ENT, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Paediatric Surgery and Vascular are coming.
FExPrep is independent and isn't affiliated with RACS or any specialty society.
Questions or feedback? Email fexprepadmin@gmail.com.
General Surgery
General Surgery · Fellowship Examination
Train hard, fight easy.
FExPrep General Surgery has been built to help trainees preparing for the General Surgery Fellowship Examination. It is run by general surgeons and post-exam trainees.
Written by surgeons
Mapped to the curriculum
Spaced repetition
SpotsSmall Bowel › ObstructionSample question
A 68-year-old woman with a previous hysterectomy presents with colicky pain and vomiting.
Use it alongside your reading, courses and clinical work. Work topic by topic through the question bank, sit practice exams under exam conditions, and let the daily review bring back what you're least sure of.
How it works
Three steps, every week
01
Plan
Set your exam date and leave. FExPrep spreads the 17 curriculum topics across the weeks you have.
02
Practise
Answer each week's questions, then compare with the model answer and rate how you went.
03
Review
Questions come back at the right time: soon if you struggled, later as they stick. Never more than your daily limit.
Run by general surgeons and post-exam trainees.
Curriculum and exam
Official documents from General Surgeons Australia and RACS. Always check for the latest version.
Written for the Australian fellowship exam. Organised around the written papers, clinical vivas, anatomy, operative surgery and critical care. Published in 2013, so some guidelines may be out of date, but it remains valuable.
One volume per subspecialty, such as Core Topics in General and Emergency Surgery, Breast, Colorectal, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic, Oesophagogastric and Vascular. Evidence-based and written for senior trainees.
Best for quick summaries of more niche topics, such as Mondor disease or Littre hernia.
Advice: how to prepare
Based on one study group's experience of passing the General Surgery Fellowship Exam. There are many ways to prepare, and this advice is in no way prescriptive or the only way to do it: take what works for you.
Timeline
About 18 months before the written
Before starting the curriculum
Form a study group.
Collect your resources.
Ask senior trainees and fellows for their advice.
Decide on your study plan.
About 12 to 15 months before the written
Start studying: first pass through the curriculum
Aim to have finished the curriculum for the first time 3 months before the written.
Depending on how much leave you have, how busy your terms are and how many hours you can commit to studying, the first pass may take between 40 and 52 weeks.
10 to 15 hours a week is plenty at this stage. You'll need your energy for the last 6 months.
Build in a few buffer weeks. If a topic isn't "finished", move on with the schedule anyway.
Revise as you go, so you don't learn a topic and then not see it again for months.
About 6 months before the written
Step it up
Step up to around 20 to 25 hours a week.
Do more in-person tutorials with consultants, and with registrars from other specialties for topics and operations you're less familiar with.
From about 4 months out, write practice exams regularly, and have someone outside your study group mark them.
About 3 months before the written
Second pass: high-yield topics
With the first pass finished, go back over the curriculum targeting the high-yield topics.
About 8 weeks before the written
Exam-specific preparation
In the last 4 weeks, sit up to 3 practice exams a week. They're draining, so plan around them.
Focus on what has come up in previous exams. The questions are written by surgeons and the themes tend to recur. See Previous Exam Summaries in the Question bank.
Exam
Written exam
About 4 weeks
Viva-specific preparation
About 4 weeks of viva-specific work between the written and the vivas.
Practise out loud, and get your mistakes out in group sessions before the day.
Exam
Vivas
Starting 12 months out is doable, but riskier: one busy term in the last 6 months can leave you short.
Your study group
Groups of 2 to 5 work; 2 or 3 seems best.
Look for someone reliable, driven, honest, with a team mentality, who wants to progress at the same rate as you.
Watch out for big egos and very different learning styles.
A typical first-pass week: meet once or twice, about 2 hours before work. Write answers to old questions, read each other's answers and talk through spot slides. The rest is solo study.
Resources
Don't let people hand you huge folders of material: sifting through it takes ages. Ask what they actually used and found helpful, and how they used it.
Useful: the White Book, trainee notes, the Companion series, Top Knife, UpToDate, StatPearls, an anatomy text you enjoy (Last's, Jamieson's) and podcasts such as First Incision and Behind the Knife for the drive to and from work.
See and for links.
Courses, in our experience
Very worthwhile: the GSA exam preparation weekend.
Worthwhile: the GSA preparation course, and the AANZGOSA and AANZHPBA online tutorials.
Less useful for the exam itself: MOSES, and DSTC (which is also expensive).
People are your best resource
Ask any general surgery consultant, fellow or trainee you can to run a session with you. It takes your answers out of the books and into real clinical practice, and gets you out of the study group's echo chamber.
In the last 4 months or so, approach registrars from plastics, vascular, urology, paediatric surgery and ENT about their topics, especially operations you're less familiar with.
Teach medical students and interns. Trying to explain something quickly shows you what you don't understand.
Look after yourself
Schedule sleep, exercise and good food, the same way you schedule study.
Keep some time protected: in the final 6 months, Friday and Sunday nights were always off.
Plan your leave: 2 separate weeks of study leave, 2.5 weeks before the written and 1 week before the vivas worked well.
Frequently asked questions
Who can use FExPrep?
Trainees and surgeons registered in Australia. Every new account is checked against the AHPRA register before it's approved, which usually takes a day or two.
Who writes the questions?
Surgeons write and submit questions, and an admin reviews each one before it goes into the question bank. Contributors are listed on the Contributors page.
Is FExPrep run by RACS?
No. FExPrep is independent and isn't affiliated with RACS or General Surgeons Australia. Always check official exam information with the College.
How do weekly questions work?
Build a study plan first. Each week, My weekly questions shows questions on that week's planned topics. In catch-up weeks it shows the questions you marked "Not confident".
Who can see my answers?
Only you. Your practice answers and confidence ratings are saved to your account and aren't visible to other users or to admins.
I've found a mistake in a question. What should I do?
Please tell us. Email fexprepadmin@gmail.com with the question and what's wrong, and we'll fix it.
Courses
Courses relevant to fellowship exam preparation. Fees are in Australian dollars including GST. Prices checked October 2026; confirm with the provider before booking.
General Surgeons Australia
MOSES: Management of Surgical Emergencies
An intensive two-day course on assessing and managing emergencies in the perioperative period, taught through lectures, skills stations and small-group case discussions. For SET3 / GSET3 trainees and above.
Price$1,100
Benefits
Decision-making in perioperative emergencies, such as upper GI bleeds, bowel obstruction and post-thyroidectomy bleeds
Small-group discussion of real cases with a high faculty-to-participant ratio
Listed by GSA as useful preparation for the Fellowship Exam
Four online evening sessions for senior SET trainees, two run by the upper GI association (AANZGOSA) and two by the HPB association (AANZHPBA). They review the content needed for the Fellowship Exam. Held each February.
Price$100 for all four sessions
Benefits
Upper GI and HPB content taught by subspecialist surgeons
Sessions are recorded, and registrants also get recordings from previous years
The General Surgery Fellowship Examination (FEX) is run by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). It assesses candidates at the standard expected of a general surgeon in their first year of independent specialist practice.
The exam has seven components: two written exams and five clinical/viva exams. Content is based on the General Surgery curriculum and tests surgical knowledge, clinical reasoning, operative decision-making and applied anatomy.
Exam format and marking
Exam
Format
Time
Marking
Pass level (ECMS grade 3)
Written 1 – Spot questions
25 questions, usually image-based
130 min
Each question marked pass/fail by 2 examiners
18 or more of 25 questions passed
Written 2 – Short answer questions
8 structured questions
130 min
Each question marked pass/fail by 2 examiners
6 or more of 8 questions passed
Viva – Operative surgery
1 extended scenario (10 min) and 5 mini-scenarios
30 min
3 marking points for the extended scenario (knowledge, application, global assessment) and 1 per mini-scenario: 8 per examiner, 16 in total
12–14 of 16 marking points graded 3 or more
Viva – Pathophysiology, critical care and clinical reasoning
2 extended scenarios (10 min each) and 4 mini-scenarios (5 min each)
40 min
3 marking points per extended scenario (knowledge, application, global assessment) and 1 per mini-scenario: 10 per examiner, 20 in total
15 or more of 20 marking points graded 3 or more
Viva – Clinical imaging and applied anatomy
8 image sets: 4 single images and 4 multislice radiological image sets
32 min
1 marking point per image set per examiner: 16 in total
12–14 of 16 marking points graded 3 or more
Viva – Clinical 1 (medium cases)
2 clinical cases (15 min each)
30 min
4 marking points per case per examiner (clinical presentation, knowledge, application, global assessment): 16 in total
ECMS grade 3: adequate performance across the key domains
Viva – Clinical 2 (short cases)
5 clinical cases (8 min each)
40 min
2 marking points per case per examiner (clinical presentation, global assessment): 20 in total
ECMS grade 3: adequate performance across the key domains
The written exams are usually held about four weeks before the clinical/viva exams. The five viva segments take place over two consecutive days.
Clinical cases are presented electronically using photographs, videos, investigation results and clinical information. Live patients aren't used.
How the exam is marked
The exam uses the Expanded Close Marking System (ECMS). Two examiners assess each candidate independently, and each segment receives a final consensus grade.
Grade
Standard
4 – Excellent
Complete and expert knowledge
3 – Pass
Appropriate and adequate knowledge, addressing the key issues
2 – Borderline
Errors or omissions in several areas
1 – Fail
Significant errors or omissions
In the written exams, each question is marked pass or fail, and the number of questions passed sets the segment grade.
In the vivas, each marking point is graded from 1 to 4. A grade of 3 or 4 is at or above the passing standard.
Overall result
Each of the seven segments receives an ECMS grade from 1 to 4. These are added to give an overall score out of 28, with each segment counting equally.
Total ECMS score
Outcome
21 or more out of 28
Pass
19–20 out of 28
Detailed review by the General Surgery Specialty Court
18 or less out of 28
Fail
A total of 21 is the same as a passing grade of 3 in all seven segments. Overall performance, including the number of failed segments, is considered when deciding the final result.
Candidates with borderline overall scores are considered further by the General Surgery Specialty Court. Its recommendations go to the full Court of Examiners, which ratifies the final results.
Moving from the written exams to the vivas
The written exams must be completed before the clinical/viva exams.
Candidates who fail both written papers don't progress to the clinical/viva exams at that sitting.
Candidates who pass both written papers but then fail the overall exam get a one-time exemption from the written papers at the next scheduled sitting.
Candidates who fail one written paper and then fail the overall exam must repeat both the written and clinical/viva components at their next attempt.
Official exam information
Check these for current exam dates, applications, eligibility and regulations. To be eligible, candidates also submit Patient History and Clinical Examination assessments with a letter of support.
This is a general guide. The detailed viva marking allocations and thresholds come from past examiner presentations. The exam format, marking and regulations may change between sittings, so always check the current GSA and RACS guidance.
Daily review
Questions you've rated or worked on come back here when they're due. Not confident: in 2–5 days. Neither: in 1–2 weeks, stretching to 3 weeks. Confident: in 2–4 weeks, then about twice as long each time you're confident again, up to 3 months. You set a daily limit, and the exact day is chosen to keep your load even.
Areas for improvement
Every question you've marked Not confident. Rate one Confident once you've got it, and it leaves this list.
Progress summary
Each topic and subtopic, with the share of its questions you've rated Confident and the share you've completed. Open a topic to see its subtopics.
Log in to use the question bank
The question bank is available to approved trainee and surgeon accounts. New accounts are checked before they're approved.
Admin PDF
Your submissions awaiting review
Submissions wait here until they're reviewed. Approved questions move into the question bank.
Log in to generate exams
Practice exams are available to approved trainee and surgeon accounts.
Question type
Topics to include
· ·
Question bank summary
Admin only. How many questions the bank has for each topic, subtopic and detail, by question type. Open a topic to see its subtopics, and a subtopic to see its details.
Previous Exam Summaries
How often each topic has come up in past exams.
Loading…
Log in to use practice exams
Practice exams are available to approved trainee and surgeon accounts.
0whole weeks from your start date to the written exam
Weeks per topic
Set how many weeks to spend on each topic, and drag the rows (or use the arrows) into the order you'll study them. Catch-up and leave weeks are rows too, so you can place each one where you want it. The Starts column shows the date each row begins. If you've already covered a topic, set it to 0 weeks to skip it.
Catch-up weeks are built-in spare weeks for when work gets unexpectedly busy. Nothing new is scheduled, so you can catch up on topics you've fallen behind on (My weekly questions shows the questions you marked "Not confident"). Leave weeks are weeks you won't be able to study at all, such as holidays, so no topics are assigned to them.
TopicStartsYour weeksRecommended
Catch-up weeks3–4
Leave weeksAs needed
Total weeks0
Rearrange it your way: drag ⋮⋮ in the Week column to move a whole week, drag ⋮⋮ beside a topic to move that topic to another week, or drag a single subtopic into another week. Dates and revision topics update as you go. A week you empty becomes a catch-up week.
Loading…
Loading…
Contributors
The surgeons and trainees who write and review FExPrep's questions.
Loading contributors…
Log in to see your dashboard
Your dashboard shows your progress through the curriculum. It's available to approved trainee accounts.
FExPrep is a study tool to be used as part of your overall study plan. Once you've built a study plan, it gives you questions tailored to you, with a focus on repetition and retaining what you've learnt.
We've put a tremendous amount of work into the question bank, but not every question or answer will be perfect. If you spot an error or something needs clarifying, please flag the question using "Flag or ask about this question" underneath it, and the team will do our best to sort it out.
Here's how to get the most from it.
1Setting up a study plan
Choose Study plan in the top bar (on a phone, open Menu).
Enter your start date and your written exam date. FExPrep counts the weeks you have.
Set the weeks for each topic. The Recommended column is a sensible starting point; change any number to suit you.
Drag the rows (or use the arrows) into the order you'll study them. Catch-up and leave weeks are rows too, so put them where you need them.
Click Generate plan, check it, then Save to my profile. You can also download it as a PDF.
Once your plan is saved, My weekly questions gives you each week's questions on that week's topic: New questions on the current topic and Review questions on recent topics.
2Moving through questions
Questions are in two places in the top bar (on a phone, open Menu). My questions holds your personal study: Daily review, My weekly questions, Areas for improvement and Progress summary. Question bank holds the full bank, Submit questions, Generate exam and Previous Exam Summaries.
Daily review: questions due again today, based on how confident you were last time, up to a daily limit you choose. A good first stop each day.
My weekly questions: this week's questions from your study plan. Mark each one done as you go.
Areas for improvement: every question you've marked Not confident.
Progress summary: each topic and subtopic, with how much you've completed and how much you're confident in.
Question bank: every question, with search and filters.
Generate exam: a practice exam you can do on screen or print.
For each question: write your answer in the box (it's saved to your account when you move on), click Reveal answer to compare it with the model answer and the "must include" and "fail" points, then rate your confidence and click Next question. Your past answers appear under the model answer.
3What Confident and Not confident mean
After each question, be honest about how you'd go if it came up in the exam:
Not confidentYou missed key points or couldn't structure an answer. It goes into Areas for improvement and comes back in your daily review in 2–5 days.
Neither (leave it unrated)You got most of it but not all. It comes back in 1–2 weeks, stretching to 3 weeks if you stay in the middle.
ConfidentYou'd pass it comfortably. It comes back in 2–4 weeks, then about twice as long each time you're confident again, up to 3 months, so you don't forget it.
Click a rating again to clear it. Your ratings feed the Progress summary, and you can hide Confident questions in the question bank.
4Adding your own notes
Under any question, open My notes.
Type your note: a mnemonic, a reference, a point you keep forgetting.
To add a picture (a diagram, a photo of your handwritten notes), click Add pictures and choose one or more images.
Click Save note. Use Edit or Delete to change it later.
Notes are private: only you can see them. If you think a question or answer is wrong or unclear, use Flag or ask about this question just below instead. It goes to the FExPrep team, and their reply appears under the question.
5Searching the question bank
Search: type keywords, for example Whipple leak. Every word must appear somewhere in the question, its answer or its topic.
Question type: General, Anatomy, Operative, Short clinical, Long clinical, Pathophysiology, Spots or Shorts.
Topic, then Subtopic and Detail to narrow it down.
My confidence: show only Not confident, Confident or unrated questions.
Switches to remove questions you've already done or rated Confident.
PEQ: show only previous exam questions, or remove them.
Filters combine, and the count above the question shows how many match. Clear all filters starts again.
6Studying with a study group
If you study with friends, a study group lets you all work through the same weekly questions and discuss them together.
Choose Study plan, then the My study group tab.
Give your group a name and click Start a study group.
Invite people by typing the email they use for FExPrep and clicking Invite. They need an approved FExPrep account.
They'll see the invitation on their own My study group tab and can Join or Decline. You can be in one group at a time.
The person who started the group can choose a shared study plan: one member's saved plan that everyone follows.
While the group shares a plan, everyone gets the same new questions in My weekly questions each week. Review questions stay personal: they follow your own Confident and Not confident ratings, so each person revisits what they found hard. Your own saved plan is kept, and comes back if the group stops sharing or you leave.
Sharing exams: after you generate a practice exam, click Share to study group. It appears for everyone in the group under Our exams on the My study group tab, so you can all sit the same questions and compare answers. Each person's answers and ratings stay their own. Whoever shared an exam, or the group's owner, can remove it.
The group's owner can rename the group, remove members and cancel invitations. Anyone can Leave group; if the owner leaves, the next member takes over.
Last updated 16 October 2026
FExPrep ("we", "us") is an online question bank and study tool for surgical trainees preparing for the Fellowship Examination. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who can see it, and how you can access, correct or delete it. We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
1. What we collect
Account details: your full name, email address, whether you are a trainee or surgeon, and your AHPRA registration number. Your password is handled by our authentication provider and stored only in encrypted (hashed) form; we can never see it.
Your study activity: practice answers you write, confidence ratings, questions marked done, your daily review schedule, saved study plans, and generated exams.
Your notes: notes and pictures you add to questions.
Messages to us: flags and queries you send about questions, and any emails you send us.
Questions you submit (surgeon accounts): the question, answer, any picture, and your name as the author.
Technical information: like any website, the services that host FExPrep receive your IP address and browser details when you visit. We don't use advertising or analytics trackers.
Please don't include patient-identifiable information in answers, notes, pictures, queries or submitted questions. Clinical images must be de-identified and used with appropriate consent.
2. Why we collect it
To check that you are a registered medical practitioner (using your AHPRA number against the public AHPRA register) before approving your account.
To run your account and the features you use: saving answers, notes, ratings, progress, study plans and the daily review.
To respond to your flags, queries and messages, and to review and publish submitted questions.
To keep the service secure and fix problems.
We don't sell, rent or trade your personal information, and we don't use it for marketing by anyone else. We'll only email you about your account or the service (for example sign-up confirmation, approval and password resets).
3. Who can see it
Other users can't see your account details, answers, notes, ratings or progress.
The FExPrep administrator can see account details (to approve sign-ups) and the flags and queries you send. Your answers, notes and progress are private to you. Because the administrator manages the database, they could technically access stored data, but will only do so where needed to fix a technical problem, respond to a request from you, or meet a legal obligation.
Surgeons' names on submitted questions are visible to the administrator. Contributors listed on the Contributors page have agreed to be listed.
Service providers that run the website store or process data on our behalf, under their own security and privacy terms:
Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage)
Cloudflare (website hosting and delivery)
our email delivery provider (account emails)
Google Fonts, cdnjs and jsDelivr (fonts and code libraries, which receive your IP address when pages load)
Overseas storage: some of these providers store or process data outside Australia (for example in the United States or Singapore). We choose reputable providers with strong security, but overseas laws may differ from Australian law.
Where required by law: we may disclose information if required by law, a court order or a regulator.
4. On your device
FExPrep stores a few small items in your browser's local storage, such as your filter choices, the question bank view you prefer, and drafts of answers you're writing, so they're not lost if you close the page. These stay on your device and you can clear them in your browser settings. Sign-in uses a secure session token stored the same way.
5. How we protect it
Data is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and stored with our database provider, which encrypts it at rest. Database rules mean each person can only read their own private data. Pictures you upload to notes are stored privately and are only shown to you through short-lived links. No system is completely secure; if a data breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected users and, where required, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
6. How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account is active. If you ask us to delete your account, we'll delete your account details, answers, notes, pictures, ratings and progress within 30 days, except where we need to keep something to meet a legal obligation. Questions you have submitted may stay in the question bank without your name unless you ask for them to be removed. Declined sign-ups are deleted within 90 days.
7. Your choices and rights
Access and correction: you can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it.
Deletion: you can ask us to delete your account and data at any time.
Notes and answers: you can delete your own notes, pictures and saved answers yourself at any time.
Email fexprepadmin@gmail.com and we'll respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity first.
8. Complaints
If you're concerned about how we've handled your personal information, email us first and we'll try to resolve it. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as FExPrep changes. We'll change the date at the top and, for significant changes, let you know by email or on the site.
We'd love to hear from you. Whether it's feedback on the site, a correction to a question, a resource we should add, or interest in writing questions, every message helps make FExPrep better.
We read every message and aim to reply within a few days.
Sign-ups awaiting approval
New accounts can't log in until you approve them. Check the registration number on the AHPRA register first.
Flags and queries
Sent from the "Flag or ask about this question" link under each question. Your reply shows to the sender under that question.
Questions awaiting review
Approved questions go straight into the question bank.
Practice exams
Each paper is a fixed exam shown under Practice exams, in the tab for its question type. Use the question template (the type column is ignored and topics are optional; one row per question, in exam order). Paper questions are kept separate from the question bank.
Import questions from a spreadsheet
Save your spreadsheet as CSV using the question template, then choose the file. Put each point on its own line within a cell, or separate points with a vertical bar ( | ). If questions have pictures, put each picture's file name in the image column and choose the picture files too. Imported questions go live straight away. Spots and Shorts need a question and a model_answer. Anatomy, Short clinical, Long clinical, Operative and Pathophysiology are VIVA style: put the stem in question (and its photo in image), then each question in question_1, answer_1, image_1 (optional), question_2, answer_2 and so on, adding columns as you need.
Past exam topics
Record the questions from past exams to build Previous Exam Summaries in the Question bank. Add them one at a time or import a spreadsheet using the past exam template.
Accounts and admins
To make someone an admin, set their role to Admin. Admins can approve sign-ups, edit and delete questions and manage contributors. New admins sign up like anyone else; approve them first, then change their role here.
