First Aid

What this exam is like

The First Aid exam has 25 multiple-choice questions across these levels: Choking (25). Each attempt draws 10 at random from the level you choose. You get two tries per question, and each answer is explained afterwards. At the end you see your grade.

Sample questions

1. 1. Your friend grabs their throat while eating: they can't speak or cough properly. What's the first thing you do?

   • Confirm out loud whether they're choking and if they can cough
   • Do the Heimlich maneuver without asking anything
   • Give them back blows immediately
   • Offer them water to help it go down
   Show the answer

   ✅ Confirm out loud whether they're choking and if they can cough

   Before acting you need to tell partial obstruction (coughing, can speak) apart from total (can't cough, speak or breathe): the protocol differs for each.

2. 2. The choking person is heavily pregnant. Where do you apply the thrusts?

   • In the centre of the chest, not the abdomen
   • On the abdomen, the same as always
   • On the lower belly
   • You do not compress: back blows only
   Show the answer

   ✅ In the centre of the chest, not the abdomen

   In advanced pregnancy there is no room in the abdomen and compressing there would put the baby at risk, so the thrusts move to the centre of the chest, over the sternum. The same adaptation applies to a very obese person, where you cannot get your arms round the abdomen. Back blows are unchanged.

3. 3. Which foods carry the highest choking risk for small children?

   • Bread soaked in milk
   • Purée and soup
   • Whole nuts, whole grapes, sliced sausages and hard sweets
   • Yoghurt and banana
   Show the answer

   ✅ Whole nuts, whole grapes, sliced sausages and hard sweets

   What they share is size and shape: round, hard or slippery, exactly the calibre to block a small airway. The usual advice is no whole nuts before age 5, and to cut grapes and sausages lengthwise.