User Manual

Welcome to Med Exam Helper. This manual walks you through everything you can do as a student, step by step — from your first anonymous try to reading your examiner feedback. No account is needed to have a first go.

1. Trying without an account

1. Open the app and you land on Stations. Without an account you see the free taster station.
2. Pick the station to read the pre-brief: where you are, who the patient is, what they came in with, and what you are asked to do.
3. Choose Study mode (hints and a coverage map while you play) or Exam mode (a clean run with nothing shown).
4. Press Start station and have the encounter — type to the patient, they reply in character.
5. Press Finish, then Grade my encounter to see your marking.

Without an account you get 3 plays of the taster station per day (with a ceiling of 5 plays per day per network). Grading, the viva and flashcards all work exactly as they do for registered students. Anonymous visitors see a small set of free practice blocks; locked sets say "Free account unlocks this set."

A quick bot check sits under the chat box. It verifies once when the encounter opens and stays quiet after that.

2. Creating your account

1. Open Sign in in the sidebar and choose Create account.
2. Enter your email and a password (10 to 128 characters), tick the terms box, and pass the bot check.
3. You will see: "Check your inbox — if this email is new to us we've sent a verification link."
4. Open the link in the email. It works once and is valid for 24 hours. Until you verify, playing is paused with: "Please verify your email to keep playing — the link is in your inbox." There is a resend button on the account page.
5. If the link has expired, sign in and request a fresh one from the account page — the expired-link page tells you the same.

Signing in uses the same page — once you are in, the sidebar entry and the page both read Settings. A session lasts 30 days. One active session per account: signing in on a new device signs the previous one out. After 8 failed attempts you will see "Too many tries — wait a few minutes."

Forgot your password? Use the forgot-password link on the sign-in page. You will see: "If that email has an account, we've sent a reset link." The link works once and is valid for 1 hour.

3. Your free allowance

A free account gives you 6 stations: the taster station plus 5 more, one in each core specialty.

• 5 plays per station per day, and 10 plays in total per day.
• Each station card shows "N plays left today" so you always know where you stand.
• When you run out, you will see: "That's your free plays for today. Your flashcards and deck stay open." Nothing you have earned is lost — come back tomorrow.
• Limits reset at midnight (server time), not 24 hours after your last play.

Practice blocks work the same way: free blocks open with your account; paid sets say "Unlocks with paid packs at launch."

4. A station, step by step

The pre-brief tells you the setting, the patient, their complaint, your role and task, the time limit (8 minutes), the learning objectives, and the broad marking domains. The full checklist is revealed at grading.

The timer shows 08:00 and starts on your first message or when you start speaking — not when the page opens. It pauses while the patient is thinking, and in Study mode also while you are typing. At 00:00 a "Station time elapsed" note appears and the station moves to finishing — you cannot run over.

The encounter works like a messaging app. Type what you would say to the patient; they reply in character within a few seconds. You have up to 40 messages per encounter and 4,000 characters per message.

The action palette has tabs:

• History — free text, everything you say to the patient. There is a Dictate button if your browser supports speech input.
• Examine — pick an examination target; the findings come back in the encounter.
• Investigate — order investigations; results appear immediately and do not use up a play.
• Notes — private running notes, saved to your transcript but never sent to the patient.
• Differential — your working diagnosis list, also saved to your transcript.

On the right (or behind the Chart button on mobile) is your Encounter Record: Vitals, Findings, Investigations, Notes and Differential, building up as you go.

Voice: press Voice: off to switch voice on — your browser will ask for microphone permission. The button tells you the state: "Voice: connecting…", "Voice: listening", "Voice: thinking…", "Voice: speaking…", and "Voice: sleeping — talk to resume". Voice is available if your device supports it; if not, you will see "Voice is unavailable — you can keep typing." and nothing is lost.

Finishing: press Finish. The patient asks "Is there anything else you'd like to ask me?" Press Finish station again and confirm. This ends the encounter and moves to grading.

Left halfway? Your Dashboard keeps a Resume card for your unfinished encounter — pick up where you left off.

5. After the encounter

1. Press Grade my encounter. Grading runs in seconds; a panel of examiner judges reads your transcript against the marking scheme.
2. Your debrief shows the total score, per-domain scores, your strengths, and every missed point with the exact line of your encounter quoted as evidence. Click a missed point to jump to that moment in the transcript.
3. Missed points automatically become flashcards in your personal deck.
4. A badge tells you the checklist's status: "Clinician-verified practice feedback" means a clinician has endorsed that station's checklist; "Uncalibrated practice feedback" means it has not been endorsed yet.

The viva: for each missed point the examiner asks you a question. Answer in free text and you get a verdict — correct, partial or incorrect — with short feedback. It is practice in discussing your gaps, not a re-grading.

6. Practice tools

Dashboard is your home base: your readiness score, today's rail (cards due for review, your weakest area, a recommended next station), your resume card, and your stats — deck size, plays today, day streak.

Flashcards: "From your stations" holds every card made from your missed points — click a card to flip it. Drill due cards runs a spaced-repetition review: rate each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy and the schedule adapts. "Again" means you will see it again tomorrow.

Practice blocks are question banks and flashcard sets. Each block has a Questions tab (multiple-choice with explanations) and a Flashcards tab. Long lists load in stages — use the "Show all" button to see everything.

7. Progress

Progress in the sidebar shows:

• Readiness out of 100. It blends mastery (your mean domain score), recency (recent practice counts, fading over 14 days) and streak (consecutive days), weighted 60/25/15. The page points at your weakest area — raising that moves the number most.
• Domain scores — weak, mid and strong areas.
• Coverage — how many stations you have played per specialty group.
• Recent runs — your last few encounters with scores.

8. Your account

• Change password — signs out every other session.
• Download my data — everything we hold about your account (profile, encounters and sign-in history) as a JSON file. It never contains password hashes or session tokens.
• Delete account — asks for your password to confirm. The warning is honest and worth reading: "Deleting your account removes your email and sign-in access. Your practice history is anonymised and kept for service operations. This cannot be undone."

9. Troubleshooting

• Voice is not working — check the browser's microphone permission for the site, then press Voice again. Voice needs a device and browser that support it; you can always keep typing.
• "Voice couldn't connect — you can keep typing." — a dropped connection; press Voice to start again.
• Verification or reset link expired — they are single-use and time-limited (24 hours for verification, 1 hour for resets). Sign in and request a fresh one from the account page.
• Plays have not reset — limits reset at midnight (server time), not 24 hours after your last play.
• "Busy — try again in a moment." — brief overload; wait a moment and retry. A failed reply does not cost you a play.
• Anything else — open the Support card in Settings and send us a ticket; we reply there and by email. You can also email hello@medexamhelper.com — tell us what happened and roughly when.

A note for the curious

There is a clinician review console where clinicians endorse station checklists and review graded runs — that is what the "Clinician-verified" badge means. It is for staff, not students, so it is not covered here.