Updates and improvements

Sep 22 to 23 · 12 updates

1. 23Sep · Wed

   Ten more flashcard decks read whole, fifty-nine cards sharpened

   ImprovedFixedNew

   • Improved
     Ten more flashcard decks read whole; fifty-nine cards sharpened. more ▾less ▴

     Every card in ten more decks was read against its practice question: Musculoskeletal Interventions, Increased Intracranial Pressure, Peripheral Vascular Disease and Hypertension, Malnutrition and Obesity, Postpartum Complications, Somatic and Behavioral Therapies, Health Laws on Nursing Practice, Basic Needs, Leadership and Management, and Pediatric Neurologic Disorders. Fifty-nine cards were sharpened: cards that printed most of a list and asked for one item now ask for the whole set (Cushing's triad, the 4 Ts of postpartum hemorrhage, the five rights of delegation, Lewin's three stages), look-alike cards now name each other (the face mask and nasal cannula flow rates, the two uterotonics to hold, shunt infection against shunt blockage), and fronts that gave their answer away now ask the question plainly.

   • Fixed
     Six flashcards corrected against their sources. more ▾less ▴

     Six cards were corrected against their sources: the first drop in a hypertensive emergency is no more than about 25 percent in the first hour; RA 9173 names gross incompetence and serious ignorance, but negligence needs no qualifier; the Board of Nursing itself revokes and suspends a certificate; the delegation card now names the nursing attendant; a change in level of consciousness belongs to infants and older children alike; and the DVT activity limit applies to a fresh clot before anticoagulation starts.

   • New
     Five new flashcards fill gaps in their decks. more ▾less ▴

     Five new cards fill gaps in sets the decks already teach: instillation of hope and cohesiveness among the group therapy factors, the three expected effects after ECT, RA 877 as the first nursing law, and the accommodating conflict style.

   • Improved
     Nineteen flashcards linked to the right practice question. more ▾less ▴

     Nineteen flashcards now link to the practice question that teaches their fact; they had no linked question before, or pointed at one about something else.

   Ten more flashcard decks read whole, sixty-six cards sharpened

   ImprovedFixedNew

   • Improved
     Ten more flashcard decks read whole; sixty-six cards sharpened. more ▾less ▴

     Every card in ten more decks was read against its practice question: Schizophrenia, Heart Anatomy and ECG, IMCI, Primary Health Care, Foundations of Mental Health Nursing, Adrenal Disorders, Myasthenia Gravis, Nursing Research, Sanitation, and the Normal Puerperium. Sixty-six cards were sharpened: cards that printed most of a list and asked for one item now ask for the whole set (the heart auscultation areas, the drug groups that worsen myasthenia gravis, the three parts of evidence-based practice), look-alike cards now name each other (IVIG against plasmapheresis, Conn syndrome against Cushing's, the S1 and S2 heart sounds, the five environmental laws), and thin notes under the answer now carry what the practice question teaches.

   • Fixed
     Three flashcards corrected against their sources. more ▾less ▴

     Three cards were corrected against their sources: the ACTH stimulation test is read by how high cortisol peaks (below 18 mcg/dL suggests adrenal insufficiency), not by how much it rises; a pour-flush toilet is a Level I facility, and Level II is the water-sealed flush into the household's own septic tank; and the lochia card no longer calls odor the single most reliable warning sign, since the amount matters too.

   • New
     Three new flashcards fill gaps in their decks. more ▾less ▴

     Three new cards fill gaps in sets the decks already teach: the IMCI young-infant classifications followed up in 2 days, how a barangay health worker gains official standing under RA 7883, and the Level III excreta disposal facility.

   • Improved
     Nineteen flashcards linked to the right practice question. more ▾less ▴

     Nineteen flashcards now link to the practice question that teaches their fact; they had no linked question before, or pointed at one about something else.

   Add your full name so we can recognize you when you pass

   New

   • New
     Add your full name (optional, private) so we can recognize you when board results come out. more ▾less ▴

     You can now add your full name, written the way it will appear on the PRC list of passers. It is optional and private: only the BoardPal team sees it, and your display name stays what other students see on the leaderboard. There is a new box for it when you sign up and in Profile under Edit profile, and if you signed up before today a small card on your Home page asks once (Not now hides it for good). Next to the box is a tick box, off unless you tick it, that says BoardPal may recognize you by name if you pass. You can change either one anytime in Profile.

   110 more practice questions rewritten to read like the board exam

   ImprovedFixed

   • Improved
     110 more practice questions rewritten across 25 topics: shorter scenes, four believable options, and explanations that give you the principle. more ▾less ▴

     110 more practice questions have been rewritten across 25 topics: community health nursing and the health laws, communicable diseases, diabetes, thyroid and adrenal disorders, family planning and the postpartum period, cancer care, and pharmacology, including dosage calculation. The changes follow the 133 questions rewritten last week. The scene is shorter, so you spend your time thinking instead of reading (the middle question went from 293 characters to 183, and 90 of the 110 came out shorter). All four options are written to look possible, so you cannot reach the answer by crossing off the obviously wrong ones. And the explanation gives you the principle that decides the question, not only the facts of that one case. Questions that ask you to name the right law still list the laws by number alone, because those are pure recall. Where a question repeated a point another question already covered, we moved it onto something the bank was not teaching yet rather than removing it. Nothing was deleted and no correct answer moved, so your past attempts and your topic scores still line up.

   • Fixed
     Several questions that taught something wrong, from a furosemide infusion rate to two family planning timings, are now corrected. more ▾less ▴

     Checking those questions against current sources turned up several that taught something wrong or had two defensible answers, and each one is now corrected. A question on an 80 mg dose of furosemide into a vein said to give it over twenty minutes; for that dose the drug label says to push it slowly over one to two minutes (the slower rate is for much larger doses given as a drip). Two family planning questions were set on a day or week that made the listed answer wrong under the WHO family planning handbook, and the timing now matches the answer. A question about a late progestin-only pill did not say which pill she was taking, and one kind allows a longer delay than the others, so two answers could be defended; it now names the pill. A sanitation law question had two laws among its options that both require the same thing, and it now asks about the one duty only the correct law covers. A school vaccination question followed the United States schedule, and it now follows the DOH school immunization program. And one dosage calculation explanation had an arithmetic slip in how it explained a wrong option.

   A shorter Study menu

   Improved

   • Improved
     My Notes and Bookmarks now open from Resources; the Study menu has four items. more ▾less ▴

     My Notes and Bookmarks were listed twice: in the Study menu and as the two cards at the top of Resources. They now live only in Resources, so the Study menu is down to Study Plan, Diagnostic Exam, Flashcards and Resources. While you are on My Notes or Bookmarks, Resources stays highlighted in the menu so you can see where you are. Nothing inside either page changed.

   A shorter, up-to-date Start Here lesson

   Improved

   • Improved
     The Start Here lesson is shorter and describes the app as it works today. more ▾less ▴

     The Start Here lesson now takes about three minutes instead of five and matches BoardPal as it is today. It covers your daily loop on Home, the parts of your plan you can change (Rebalance and its undo, skipping a task, adding a practice topic to any day, and Focus), how many mock boards your plan holds, and the tools on every question, including the Pen, bringing back a crossed-out choice, Bookmarks, Make a flashcard and Focus mode. The video-coming-soon note at the top of each lesson is gone.

2. 22Sep · Tue

   A clearer What's New page

   Improved

   • Improved
     One date per day, a month picker, weekly pages and a filter by type. more ▾less ▴

     This page now shows each date once, with everything from that day together, instead of repeating the date above every update. Each update is its title and its labels; tap it to read the notes. You move between months with the arrows or the month name at the top, and between weeks with Newer and Older at the bottom, and the labels line up so every line starts at the same edge. You can also show only New, Improved or Fixed updates. Long titles were shortened so the list is easier to scan. Links to older pages of this page still work.

   The student stories page knows you are signed in

   Fixed

   • Fixed
     The stories page no longer asks signed-in students to log in again. more ▾less ▴

     Opening the student stories page from inside BoardPal showed a Log in link, and tapping it took you to the login form even though you were already signed in. When you are signed in, that link now reads Home and takes you to your dashboard, and the button at the bottom of the page reads Back to studying. The Log in and Sign up pages also send a signed-in student straight to the dashboard now, wherever the link came from.

   Intrapartum labor time limits and 3 reported questions

   ImprovedFixed

   • Improved
     The Intrapartum cram sheet's labor time limits now follow the 2024 ACOG guideline. more ▾less ▴

     The time limits box on the Intrapartum cram sheet now follows the current (2024) ACOG labor guideline. Arrest of dilation is counted from 6 cm with the membranes ruptured: no change after 4 hours of adequate contractions, or 6 hours of weak contractions on oxytocin. A protracted active phase is less than 1 cm of dilation in 2 hours, and arrest in the second stage means no descent or rotation after 3 hours of pushing for a first-time mother or 2 hours for a mother who has given birth before. The earlier lines gave the older two-hour and one-hour limits. Nothing was re-paginated, so every highlight and note you have made on this sheet is exactly where you left it.

   • Fixed
     An epidural fever question now uses the right timing and presents both explanations for the fever. more ▾less ▴

     A student pointed out that the cause of fever after an epidural is still debated, and that was right: a sterile inflammatory response is the leading explanation and reduced heat loss is another. While checking we found a second problem. The question placed the fever one hour after the epidural, when this fever usually appears four to six hours in. The scenario now fits that timing and gives the findings that separate it from infection, and the explanation presents both theories. The correct answer did not move, so your past attempts and topic scores are unaffected.

   • Fixed
     An arrest of dilation question now includes oxytocin in the six-hour rule. more ▾less ▴

     The same student noted that the 2024 ACOG definition of arrest of dilation counts six hours of weak contractions only once oxytocin is running, and that the guideline itself rates the definition as a conditional recommendation. A practice question on it now says both.

   • Improved
     A pre-operative question now explains how a hearing aid is kept track of through surgery. more ▾less ▴

     A student asked what happens to a hearing aid left in before surgery, in case it is forgotten. The explanation now spells it out: the aid is recorded on the pre-operative checklist and named at handover, removed after anesthesia is induced, kept in a labeled container and returned once the patient is awake. We also removed a line saying it is handed to the family.

   Forty more student stories

   New

   • New
     Forty more student stories are up on the stories page. more ▾less ▴

     Forty more nurses who passed the August 2026 board exam now share how BoardPal fit into their review, from daily practice questions on a break to mock boards and the progress checks that showed them where to improve. That makes 80 stories on nleboardpal.com/stories. Thank you for sharing them, and congratulations to all of you.

   Twenty-five more student stories

   New

   • New
     Twenty-five more student stories are up on the stories page. more ▾less ▴

     Twenty-five more nurses who passed the August 2026 board exam now share, in their own words, how BoardPal fit into their review, from the mock boards and rationales to the study plan and the days they just needed a break. Every story is on nleboardpal.com/stories. Congratulations to all of you.

   Ten more student stories, including two topnotchers

   NewImproved

   • New
     Ten more student stories are up, two of them from PRC top-10 placers. more ▾less ▴

     Ten more students who passed the August 2026 board exam now share how they reviewed with BoardPal, in their own words. Two of them placed in PRC's top 10: Allanah Beatriz Tubal of the University of St. La Salle (Top 5) and Lance Martin Santos of Calamba Doctors' College (Top 10). On the home page the stories now sit in a row you can swipe or step through with the arrows, and every story is on its own page at nleboardpal.com/stories. Congratulations to all fifteen.

   • Improved

     The student stories on the plans page now sit in a row you can swipe through too, and the page with every story has a Back button that returns you to wherever you opened it from.