What's new
What's new in August 2026
Everything we shipped to BoardPal in August 2026.
Aug 22 to 31 · 18 fixes
31Aug · Mon
Words like defensible and red herring are gone from our explanations
Fixed- Fixed
An explanation that called candidiasis and trichomoniasis the two most common vaginal infections was wrong, and is corrected. more ▾less ▴
While rewriting those explanations we found a fact that was wrong and corrected it. One explanation called candidiasis and trichomoniasis the two most common vaginal infections. Bacterial vaginosis is far more common than trichomoniasis, which is in fact the least common of the three, so that claim is gone and the explanation now stops at the point it was teaching: fluconazole treats the yeast infection and leaves trichomoniasis untreated. A second explanation described a condition as common in one client, which now reads common in the population, because that is what the word means.
Your profile badge now names your actual plan
Fixed- Fixed
The gold badge on your Profile page now names your actual plan instead of always saying Beta; access was never affected. more ▾less ▴
If you bought one of the official plans, the gold badge next to your name on the Profile page still said Beta, as if you were on the old founding pass. It now names the plan you actually hold, whether that is the 1-Month Plan, the 2-Month Plan, the 1-Year Plan, or Beta. This was a label mix-up only: your access, plan length and expiry date were always correct, and the Membership section further down the same page already showed the right plan.
Your reports fixed five questions and two cram sheet pages
Fixed- Fixed
A question you already answered could reappear the next day and use up one of your ten free questions. Fixed. more ▾less ▴
A practice question you had already answered could come back the next day as though you had never seen it. This happened when the grading of your last answer reached us but its reply never made it back to your phone, for example when the connection dropped or the tab was closed at that exact moment. Your answer was always saved. What fell behind was the session's own progress marker, and because the question was served again, answering it a second time used up one of that day's ten free questions, leaving nine. Progress is now recorded in the same step as the answer itself, so the two can no longer disagree, and any session left in that state is repaired the moment you next open Practice.
- Fixed
Five questions revised from student reports, including the tetanus, oxygen saturation, serum osmolality and oxytocin items; answer keys unchanged. more ▾less ▴
Five practice questions were revised after student reports this week. The flooded-barangay tetanus question now states the residents' immunization history, so choosing between a toxoid booster and tetanus immune globulin turns on the guideline rather than on a missing fact, and its explanation now teaches the rule for an incomplete or unknown vaccine history. The oxygen saturation question that lists SvO2 and P50 among its reference values now defines both terms right where they appear, so they no longer read like misprints of SpO2. The serum osmolality question now teaches the normal range, approximately 275 to 295 mOsm/kg, inside its explanation. And the oxytocin question with abrupt fetal heart rate drops was reworded so the infusion is already stopped in the scenario, which makes the next action unambiguous; its explanation now walks through both sequences, and the neighboring question in the same case was aligned to match. Answer keys are unchanged, so every result you have already recorded still stands.
- Fixed
The overlapping chart labels on page 14 of the Anatomy and Physiology sheet are fixed; highlights unaffected. more ▾less ▴
On page 14 of the Anatomy and Physiology cram sheet, the bone mass chart's peak label was printing on top of the grey subtitle, and the menopause label ran off the edge of the chart. The page was rebuilt so every label sits in its own clear space. Nothing else on the sheet moved, so your highlights and notes stay exactly where you drew them.
- Fixed
30Aug · Sun
Chest indrawing now reads the same everywhere: the current IMCI chart
Fixed- Fixed
Chest indrawing is now taught from the current IMCI chart in all twenty-three places it appears; one question corrected, answer keys unchanged. more ▾less ▴
BoardPal teaches the current WHO and DOH IMCI chart: a calm child aged two months up to five years who has chest indrawing but no general danger sign and no stridor is classified as pneumonia and treated with oral amoxicillin at the health facility, with follow-up in three days, rather than referred to hospital automatically. Referral belongs to a general danger sign or stridor, to young infants under two months with severe chest indrawing, and to a child who is no better at follow-up. Many older Philippine review materials still teach the earlier chart, which graded chest indrawing as severe pneumonia needing urgent referral, and our explanations name that older position wherever the difference matters so it cannot surprise you on exam day. During a review we re-checked every place chest indrawing appears across our questions, flashcards, case situations and cram sheets, twenty-three in all, against the WHO chart booklet itself. Twenty-two already followed the current chart; one primary health care question still assumed the older referral pathway in one of its choices, and that wording and its matching explanation line were corrected. Answer keys are unchanged, so every result you have already recorded still stands.
- Fixed
29Aug · Sat
Explanations corrected after a source check of 22 questions
Fixed- Fixed
22 explanations corrected against primary sources; questions and answers unchanged. more ▾less ▴
Twenty-two questions had their explanations corrected or sharpened after every disputed fact behind them was checked against the primary source — the law text, the official guideline, or the published study. Among the fixes: two questions used to teach opposite sides on which jugular vein a turned head pinches (ultrasound studies show it is the vein on the side the face turns toward, and pressure inside the skull rises whichever way the head turns, which is why the midline position is the answer); a missed-pill explanation now says the seven days of backup follow from missing two tablets, not from where in the pack the miss fell; an ECT explanation now matches the guideline wording that improvement usually appears within the first week of treatments; and a refeeding explanation now traces the confusion to the brain being starved of phosphate. Every correct answer and every question is exactly as it was — only explanations changed.
The Plans page now shows the plan you actually own
Fixed- Fixed
The "Your plan" badge now marks the plan you actually bought, with the date your access runs through — it used to sit on the Beta card for everyone. more ▾less ▴
The Plans & Pricing page used to pin its "Your plan" badge on the founding Beta card for every member, whichever plan you had actually bought — so someone who had just paid for the 1-Year Plan could open the page and see "Beta access · 2 months" presented as theirs. The badge now marks the plan you really own, and the heading names your plan together with the exact date your access runs through. If this page ever made you doubt what you paid for: your subscription itself was always recorded correctly — only this label was wrong.
- Fixed
26Aug · Wed
Three questions you reported, and four more the same check turned up
Fixed- Fixed
A sterile technique question claimed the field was not contaminated when someone leaned over it. It was, and the explanation now says so. more ▾less ▴
A question about a break in sterile technique in the operating room defended itself with a claim that was wrong. A medical student leans over the open sterile field and a nurse reaches across the drape, and the explanation said the field had not been contaminated. It had. An unsterile person who reaches or leans over an open sterile field contaminates it, which is what our own cram sheet on surgical asepsis already teaches, and laying a fresh drape over the area does not undo it. The explanation now says that plainly. It also gives the real reason clearing both people comes before replacing anything: the choice that replaces the drape covers only what the student leaned over, so fresh drapes and instruments would be laid out while the nurse is still across the field. The question, the choices and the credited answer are unchanged.
- Fixed
A question on home care after nephrotic syndrome had the mother checking her child's first morning urine for protein, while its explanation told her to dip it. Nothing you could read said a test strip was involved, so the choice on its own read as though protein could be judged by looking. The choice now names the dipstick. Three other questions on this topic already named it, so this one was the odd one out rather than the rule. The credited answer is unchanged, and the reworded choice is exactly as long as the one it replaced so that it does not stand out from the others.
- Fixed
Five questions that ask which action is not appropriate had explanations that looked like they contradicted themselves. The heading said the choice was correct and the very next words said "Do not" do it. That is the right teaching for a question asking what to avoid, but side by side the two lines fight each other. All five now name what the question is asking before they give the instruction. Only one of the five was reported; checking every question of that shape in the bank found the other four. No credited answer changed, and the wording of the questions themselves was deliberately left alone, because spotting the word "not" is part of what the board is testing.
200 more explanations rewritten, one contradiction fixed
Fixed- Fixed
One question about the Glasgow Coma Scale contradicted itself. Explaining why orientation, attention and language are not what the scale measures, it said a client could score full marks on the scale while failing all three. That cannot happen, because full marks requires the top verbal score, and the top verbal score means the client is oriented. The explanation now says what the scale does measure, which is eye opening, speech and movement, and it no longer makes the claim that fought its own answer. The question, the choices and the credited answer are unchanged.
Fixes in tuberculosis, consent, pregnancy dating and water
Fixed- Fixed
Two tuberculosis questions had a second choice that was also correct. Each now has one clear answer. more ▾less ▴
Two tuberculosis questions had two correct answers instead of one. Both ask you to pick the finding that does not point to a possible TB case. Under the current National Tuberculosis Control Program manual, the screen has four signs (a cough, an unexplained fever, unexplained weight loss, and night sweats), any one of them counts on its own, and each has to have lasted two weeks or longer. Coughing up blood and chest pain are not on that list. That left a second choice in each question just as correct as the credited one, so a student who picked it was marked wrong while the manual was on their side. One choice in each question has been replaced so there is a single defensible answer. The credited answer did not move in either question.
- Fixed
Five tuberculosis questions and one flashcard were teaching the screening rule differently from one another. Some listed coughing up blood as a criterion, one described the screen as having a single entry point, and one taught that an unexplained fever which had already settled still counted. All of them now teach the same rule from the same manual: four signs, any one of them qualifies, and each needs two weeks or more. No credited answer changed.
- Fixed
Two questions about who may sign consent for a child said a relative cannot consent without a formal legal guardianship. The Family Code does not require an appointment. When both parents are absent, authority passes on its own to a surviving grandparent, then to the oldest brother or sister over twenty-one, then to whoever actually has custody of the child and is over twenty-one. Both explanations now give the reason that really settles those two cases, which is that a parent was available. This also brings them in line with another question in the bank that already credits the aunt and the older sister as valid.
- Fixed
A pregnancy dating question said the womb sits midway between the pubic bone and the navel at eighteen weeks. It is sixteen weeks, which is what five other questions already teach. The explanation now says sixteen. The credited answer, twenty weeks for a womb felt at the level of the navel, was already correct and did not change.
- Fixed
Two questions on collecting a sputum specimen explained themselves incorrectly. One said an antiseptic mouthwash would kill the bacteria and ruin the slide, which the national manual does not claim and which is not how that slide test works. The other treated collecting the second specimen an hour after the first as a mistake, when the manual allows exactly that. Both explanations were rewritten and neither credited answer changed.
- Fixed
Questions, a flashcard and a cram sheet page disagreed on how long to boil drinking water, most saying one minute and one saying two. The Department of Health tells households to boil for two minutes. Every one of those places now names two minutes, and the explanations say plainly that a minute at a rolling boil already kills the organisms, so a shorter boil is never marked as an error.
Two hundred more explanations now lead with the answer
Fixed- Fixed
Two questions about a baby with tetralogy of Fallot said the knee-to-chest position works by lowering the amount of blood returning to the heart. It works the other way round: drawing the knees up raises the resistance in the body's circulation, which pushes more blood into the lungs to pick up oxygen. Both explanations now say that, and the credited answer to both questions is unchanged.
- Fixed
A question about a child on steroids for nephrotic syndrome said these children often need extra protein to replace what they lose in the urine. Current guidance is a normal, age-appropriate protein intake, and supplementing beyond that has no proven benefit. The explanation now says so.
- Fixed
A leprosy question said that eighteen months is not a recognised treatment length, while another question told you that the twelve monthly doses of multidrug therapy have up to eighteen months to be completed. Meeting both left you with two answers that disagreed. The leprosy explanation now says what is true of both: eighteen months is not the length of the course, and the multibacillary course is counted as twelve monthly doses.
Flashcard deck progress now shows correctly for heavy reviewers
Fixed- Fixed
If you had studied more than about a thousand flashcards in total, some decks on the Flashcards page wrongly showed "Learn new" with no due count, as if you had never touched them. Your progress was always saved correctly; only the page's counting was cut short. Every deck now shows its true learned and due-now numbers no matter how much you have studied.
- Fixed
25Aug · Tue
Three corrections where an explanation misstated a Philippine law
Fixed- Fixed
Two questions and a flashcard corrected where their explanation misstated a Philippine law. more ▾less ▴
Two practice questions and one flashcard described Philippine health law incorrectly, and all three are now corrected against the text of the laws themselves. The rabies question said the law obliges the local government to give free post-exposure treatment. Under the Anti-Rabies Act it is the Department of Health that provides post-exposure treatment, and the Act says at the minimum expense rather than free — what the Act gives free is the pre-exposure course, for people like vaccinators and animal handlers and for schoolchildren in high-rabies areas. The flashcard on the same law repeated the free claim and now teaches that split too. A burial question credited the Code on Sanitation with a rule about the burial permit: the Code requires a death certificate before any burial and puts the permit with the local health authority, while it is the civil registry law that bars a burial until the certificate has been recorded. The questions, the choices and the credited answers are all unchanged, so no score was affected — what was wrong was the explanation printed beside the right answer.
Every law a rationale mentions is now named, plus two timing fixes
Fixed- Fixed
The streak display no longer shows a streak as lost between midnight and 4 AM while the day is still savable. more ▾less ▴
The streak display now respects the 4 AM day boundary the same way streak crediting does. Before, if you checked between midnight and 4 AM, the app could show your streak as already lost while the study day was still open and savable.
- Fixed
The mock board countdown can no longer show more time than the section has. more ▾less ▴
The mock board countdown can no longer display more time than the section actually has. A rare display glitch after a long pause could briefly show, for example, almost 3 hours remaining on a 2-hour section; the real clock underneath was always correct, and now the display is capped too.
- Fixed
24Aug · Mon
Explanation fixes on six questions
Fixed- Fixed
Rewrote the explanations on six practice questions. more ▾less ▴
Six practice questions got their explanations rewritten after an earlier update reintroduced an outdated style of wording. Each was rewritten against the current question text, and one sentence that could be read two ways now names who it is talking about. The answers did not change.
Clearer explanations on select-all-that-apply questions
Fixed- Fixed
Fixed answer hints and several facts inside question explanations. more ▾less ▴
Corrected explanations that hinted at the answer to other questions in the bank, and rechecked several facts against current sources, including how long the Moro reflex should still be present, how long scabies mites survive away from skin, and why a long-acting inhaler is not the one to reach for during an attack.
Per-question timer now works from your Study Plan
Fixed- Fixed
Study Plan practice sessions now use your saved per-question timer. more ▾less ▴
Starting a practice set from a Study Plan task now brings your per-question timer along. Sessions opened from the plan used to skip the practice setup screen, so the timer you chose there never appeared; the app now remembers your last timer choice on this device and applies it to plan sessions too. Turning the timer off on the setup screen turns it off everywhere, and if you have never used the timer nothing changes.
- Fixed
23Aug · Sun
Harder practice questions in ALS, IMCI and Hematologic Disorders
Fixed- Fixed
A sucralfate flashcard no longer prints its own answer in a bracketed cue, so the card tests recall instead of reading.
- Fixed
22Aug · Sat
Practice progress counts only questions still in the bank
Fixed- Fixed
The Practice page's "answered of total" line no longer counts retired questions, so it can no longer exceed the total. more ▾less ▴
The "answered of total" line on the Practice page could read higher than the total, for example "1,682 of 1,623 answered" on Community Health, if you had answered questions that we later retired from the bank. Retired questions still count in your history, the Vault and your scores; they just no longer count toward a topic's progress line, so the answered number can never pass the total again. One of you spotted this while finishing every Community Health question, which is how we found it. Nothing about your answers or scores moved.
- Fixed