CareAide Prep
The Alberta HCA exam prep app
Ten practice surfaces built for one exam and the job after it. This page is the honest inventory: what each one does, and what it is for. Free to start, no card.
Start here: what actually gets you through
The AHRE is 100 multiple-choice questions in two hours, reported as pass or fail with no numeric score. Most of the marks — between 53 and 73 per cent — test applying knowledge rather than recalling it. That single fact shapes everything below: reading notes is not practice, and answering questions you have seen before is not practice either.
Practice that follows the blueprint
Questions are generated against the current Alberta HCA Competency Profile rather than drawn from a fixed bank that circulates and leaks. Every question carries an explanation for all four options, so a wrong answer tells you why the others failed rather than just marking you down.
- Full mock exam — 100 questions, two hours, closed book, weighted to the real mark distribution across the six domains.
- Domain quizzes — target one weak area at a time.
- Quick 10 — a blueprint-shaped ten-question set for a spare ten minutes.
See the blueprint for how the marks are distributed, or try twelve free questions with no account.
Flashcards that know when to ask
Spaced repetition on the SuperMemo-2 schedule. A card you find hard returns tomorrow; one you know cold waits weeks. The point is not to review more, it is to spend your review time where it changes the outcome.
Speaking, not typing
Voice simulation is a real-time spoken conversation with an AI-played resident, family member or colleague. A resident with a responsive behaviour. A daughter who is frightened and angry. A handover to a nurse who is already busy.
You speak; they answer; the conversation goes wherever you take it. You are scored on empathy, protocol and clarity. This is the part of the work a multiple-choice question cannot rehearse, and the part most candidates have practised least.
Charting the way you will on shift
Two labs, both marked against a rubric on accuracy, terminology and professionalism:
- SBAR — Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation. The handover.
- DARP — Data, Action, Response, Plan. The progress note.
Both enforce the scope line that catches people out. A health care aide observes, reports and documents; assessment and clinical judgment sit outside the role. See HCA scope of practice.
Study notes the AI builds for you
Ask for a cheat sheet on any topic and get back a structured visual note rather than a wall of text: comparison tables, decision paths, scope boundaries, worked examples. They are built from your own weak areas, and when a domain improves the note is re-minted deeper rather than left to go stale.
A coach that changes mode
The AI coach is one conversation with several modes — tutoring, quiz me, case study, exam prep, and career. It can generate questions, build a study plan, and move you around the app. In career mode it reads your resume and answers the questions that arrive after you pass.
The part that starts after the exam
Passing is the middle of the process, not the end. Two surfaces exist for what follows.
The Interview Room runs a spoken mock interview. Alone with one interviewer, or against a three-person panel that hands off between them mid-interview the way a real panel does. Questions cover all six competency domains, scored on a five-dimension hiring rubric — and any scope-of-practice slip caps the hire signal, because it would in the room too. See the questions Alberta employers actually ask.
Job Hunter pulls genuine dated openings from Job Bank Canada, filters to Alberta, and drafts a tailored cover letter for the posting in front of you. Not a list of links — the actual application. Also see where the work is.
One number for "am I ready?"
A readiness score blends mock exams, quizzes, SBAR, DARP, voice sessions and study streak into a single figure, weighted so no one surface can carry it alone. It exists because the real exam gives no numeric score, so the only way to know where you stand is to build the measure yourself.
Written for people learning in a second language
A large share of Alberta health care aides trained or grew up in another language, and the exam is written in English. Explanations are in plain language, a medical glossary gives phonetic guides on hover so a word you have only read is a word you can say, and an ESL mode slows the vocabulary without simplifying the clinical content. See the terms glossary.
For colleges
Institutions get a white-labelled portal: enrol a cohort by CSV, set timed assignments, and see each student's domain mastery, readiness score and at-risk status in one place. Details on the colleges page.
What it costs
Free to start, with no card. New independent learners get a trial window covering a mock exam, daily quizzes, flashcards, the AI coach, a voice session and both charting labs — enough to judge whether the practice is any good before deciding anything.
After that a personal subscription is $99 CAD a month plus GST (plus HST or provincial tax outside Alberta), cancellable at any time. If your college pays for your access you are never asked to subscribe personally and never shown a price.
CareAide is exam preparation. It is not a course, it cannot certify anyone, and it is independent of the CLHA and of Meazure Learning. The route to the register is on how to become a health care aide in Alberta.
Common questions
What does the CareAide app include?
Practice questions generated to the AHRE blueprint, full 100-question mock exams under exam conditions, per-domain quizzes, spaced-repetition flashcards, spoken roleplay with AI-played residents, SBAR and DARP charting labs, AI-built visual study notes, an AI coach with tutoring and career modes, mock job interviews by voice, and a job search that pulls real Alberta postings. A readiness score blends them into one number.
Is there a free version of the Alberta HCA exam prep app?
It is free to start with no card required. New independent learners get a trial window with a mock exam, daily quizzes, flashcards, the AI coach, a voice session and the documentation labs. After that a personal subscription is $99 CAD a month plus GST (plus HST or provincial tax outside Alberta). Students whose college pays for access are never asked to subscribe personally.
Can I practise talking to residents, not just answering questions?
Yes. CareAide's voice simulation puts an Alberta health care aide candidate in a real-time spoken conversation with an AI-played resident, family member or colleague — a responsive behaviour, a worried daughter, a handover to a nurse. You speak, they respond, and you are scored on empathy, protocol and clarity. It is the part of the HCA role a multiple-choice question cannot rehearse.
Does it help with finding a job after the exam?
Yes. Job Hunter pulls genuine dated Alberta postings from Job Bank Canada and drafts a tailored cover letter for the posting in front of you. The Interview Room runs a spoken mock interview, alone or against a three-person panel, scored on a hiring rubric with any scope-of-practice slip capping the result.