Updates and improvements

Sep 15 to 21 · 8 improvements

1. 21Sep · Mon

   START triage diagram fixed, plus fixes from your reports

   Improved

   • Improved
     A GTPAL explanation now says plainly that an ongoing pregnancy counts only toward gravida, never toward L. more ▾less ▴

     A student asked whether a pregnancy still in progress counts as a living child in GTPAL. It does not: an ongoing pregnancy counts only toward gravida, and the L counts only children who have already been born and are alive. The explanation on that question said the first half but not the second, so we added it.

   Undo a crossed-out option; correct answer marked

   Improved

   • Improved
     In explanations that walk through every option, the correct one now carries a check mark and a Correct answer label. more ▾less ▴

     Some of our newer explanations go through all four options one by one, A to D, and the correct option sat in that list looking exactly like the wrong ones, which made it read as if the right answer was being called wrong. The correct option in that list now has a check mark and a small Correct answer label. We checked the rule against all 11,930 questions in the bank: it marks exactly one option on each of the 381 explanations written this way, always the true answer, and changes nothing on the rest. From a student who sent us a screenshot.

   • Improved
     5,790 flashcards that were already scheduled too far away have been moved closer. more ▾less ▴

     A follow-up to the flashcard change earlier today: cards that had already been scheduled too far away have been moved closer, to the date the new rule would have given them. That covered 5,790 cards for 228 students. Nothing else about those cards changed, and no card was pushed later. No card in BoardPal now waits more than six months.

   Exam-aware flashcards, focus mode and resizable tapes

   Improved

   • Improved
     No flashcard waits longer than half the days left until your exam, so every card comes back before exam day. more ▾less ▴

     Flashcards now schedule around your exam date. Until today a card you knew well could be sent 7 or even 11 months away after you tapped Good or Easy, which for most of you is after the board exam, so that card would never have come back before the day you needed it. From now on the longest any card can wait is half the days left until your exam, and that limit is worked out again every time you rate a card. A student whose exam is 150 days away will see a strong card again within about 75 days, then within about 37, and so on, so everything you have learned comes back for a last look before the exam. This is the same rule the people who maintain Anki's scheduler recommend for anyone studying toward a fixed exam date. Nothing else about the scheduling changed: new cards, cards you miss, and cards that are still young behave exactly as before, and the time printed on each button is still the real time that button will set. If you have not set an exam date yet, the longest wait is 90 days. Cards that were already scheduled far out keep their current date until the next time you rate them. From a student who noticed the waits made no sense for someone taking the boards in five or six months.

   • Improved
     Tap a recall tape, then drag a corner handle to resize it so it covers only what you want hidden. more ▾less ▴

     Recall tapes on cram sheets can now be resized. Tap a tape to peek under it and two round handles appear on its corners: drag one until the tape covers exactly the words you want hidden and nothing on the line above or below. Undo works on a resize too. A quick swipe across a line also makes a slightly thinner tape than before, so it is less likely to cover the neighbouring lines in the first place. From a student who found tapes covering more than they meant to.

2. 20Sep · Sun

   133 practice questions rewritten to read more like the board exam

   Improved

   • Improved
     133 practice questions rewritten across 24 topics: shorter scenes, four believable options, and explanations that give you the principle. more ▾less ▴

     133 practice questions have been rewritten across 24 topics: the eye and critical care neurology, mental health nursing, respiratory care, and acute neurologic conditions such as raised pressure in the head, stroke, seizures and spinal cord injury. These were questions our own review had marked as wordy, or as asking something another question in the bank already asked. Three things changed in each one. The scene is shorter, so you spend your time thinking instead of reading (the middle question went from 344 characters to 214, and 130 of the 133 came out shorter). All four options are now written to look possible, so you cannot arrive at the answer by crossing off the obviously silly ones. And the explanation gives you the principle that decides the question, not only the facts of that one case. 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.

3. 19Sep · Sat

   The students quoted on the home page are nurses now

   Improved

   • Improved
     All five students quoted on the home page passed the August 2026 board exam. more ▾less ▴

     The five students whose words sit on the home page and the upgrade page took the August 2026 board exam while they were reviewing with BoardPal. PRC released the results on September 18 and all five of them passed, so their cards now read Passed instead of taker. Congratulations to Lheanne, Marie Joy, Ebrahim, Zairelyn and Raizelle, and to every one of you who found your name on the list.

4. 17Sep · Thu

   Practice bank trimmed to what the boards actually test

   Improved

   • Improved
     752 over-detailed or repeated practice questions retired. more ▾less ▴

     752 practice questions were retired after the whole bank was read against board-level review material: questions that went deeper than the exam does (fine-print percentages, specialist maneuvers, lab-interpretation modifiers) and near-duplicates of a question you already had. Your past answers and scores on them are unchanged. If one of them was in your bookmarks, it leaves that folder.

   • Improved
     205 flashcards re-linked to a live practice question. more ▾less ▴

     205 flashcards that pointed at a retired question now link to a live practice question that states the same fact, so the card's question link keeps working. 48 cards teach a point no live question states yet; they keep their old link until a new question is written.

5. 16Sep · Wed

   Bookmarks sorted into subject folders, with search

   Improved

   • Improved
     Bookmarks now sit in subject folders, with an All questions list and a search box. more ▾less ▴

     Resources > Bookmarks now keeps your saved questions in one folder per subject, the same way the Flashcards page shows its decks. Each folder shows how many questions and topics are inside, and opening one lists its questions under their topic names. Tap All questions at the top for one list with the newest first, or type in the search box to find a saved question by a word from it, its choices, its topic or your note. If all your bookmarks are in one subject, that folder opens by itself. Suggested by a student.

   Clearer explanations on questions that ask you to spot the mistake

   Improved

   • Improved
     Questions that ask you to spot the mistake no longer label true statements as wrong. more ▾less ▴

     On 1,072 practice questions that ask you to pick the statement or action that is wrong (which one needs correction, shows a need for further teaching, is incorrect or not appropriate, reflects a misunderstanding, is the exception, is least appropriate, or is the one to avoid), the explanation used to put statements that were actually true under the heading "Why the other options are wrong". The headings now read "Why C is the answer" and "Why the other options are not the answer". If you show explanations under each choice, the buttons now say "Why this is the answer" and "Why this is not the answer" on every question, so a true statement is never labelled wrong. No answers changed.