Exams
Written papers set from your own board, sat under a clock that autosaves, and marked against the notes they came from.
A paper is set, not picked. There is no question bank behind the Exam tab: when you ask for a paper, the examiner reads the board you are on and writes the questions from what is actually on it, in the format and at the length your exam uses. Nothing you have not written down can be asked, and nothing you have written down is off limits.
Setting#
You choose four things before a paper is written, and they are the whole of the setup:
- Format — short-answer written, single-best-answer multiple choice, or both.
- Length — 5, 8, 12, 16 or 20 questions.
- Difficulty — easier, standard or harder.
- Exam conditions — on for a clock that ends the sitting, off for an advisory one that only counts up.
Written questions are weighted 2 to 10 marks by how much there is to say; a multiple-choice question is worth one. Each question is tied to the section of the board its answer mostly comes from, which is what later lets the platform tell you where your marks keep going. Where the board has pictures, one or two questions can be set on them.
Papers are set per board. To sit one across several boards at once, set it from the subject dashboard instead.
A 1.2 mm Breslow, non-ulcerated melanoma on the upper back has been diagnosed on excisional biopsy. What is the recommended wide local excision margin?
Between 1 and 2 mm Breslow the recommended clinical margin is 1-2 cm, taken down to fascia. 5 mm is the margin for melanoma in situ and 1 cm for lesions 1 mm or thinner; 2 cm applies above 2 mm. Margins are set by Breslow thickness, not by the site or the diameter of the lesion.
Sitting#
The clock in the header is the sitting. Under exam conditions the allowance is worked out from the marks on the paper, and it is a wall-clock deadline rather than a stopwatch — so leaving and coming back does not buy you time, and the number you see is honest whenever you return. It turns red under five minutes, and when it reaches zero the paper submits itself for marking with whatever you have written. On an untimed paper the same clock counts up and enforces nothing.
Answers are saved as you type. Closing the tab, losing the connection or walking away mid-question does not lose the sitting: the paper is still there, still unmarked, with everything you had written, and it shows up under Continue on your subject dashboard until you finish it.
Marking#
Multiple-choice answers are marked on your own device, instantly and for nothing — they are arithmetic, not judgement, and are never sent to a model.
Written answers go to the examiner the paper was set for, together with the marking key written alongside each question and the notes the paper came from. Marks are awarded for content: partial credit is normal, spelling and grammar are ignored because you typed it under time pressure, and correct material you bring that the key never mentioned still earns marks. What comes back is, per question, the marks awarded, the points you did not make, and one or two sentences naming the single change that would most improve that answer — plus two or three sentences on the paper as a whole.
Outline the staging and management you would arrange for a 62-year-old with a 2.5 mm ulcerated melanoma of the calf.
3/5Wide local excision with a 2 cm margin down to fascia. Examine the regional nodes and the rest of the skin. Refer to the melanoma MDT and arrange dermatology follow-up.
The excision margin and the MDT referral are right. You stopped short of the nodal staging this thickness calls for, which is where the marks were.
Missed
−Offer sentinel lymph node biopsy - indicated from T1b (0.8 mm, or thinner with ulceration) upward, and this is T3b
−Discuss that SLNB is staging and prognostic, not therapeutic
−Baseline imaging by stage, per the MDT's protocol
Model answerWide local excision with a 2 cm clinical margin to fascia, sentinel lymph node biopsy offered and its purpose explained, clinical nodal and full skin examination, MDT referral, staging imaging as the MDT protocol directs, and a follow-up schedule with skin self-examination advice.
Each paper also carries its own must not miss core — the skeleton the marker works against, written from the paper's own questions rather than from the board. You can open it before you sit, which is revising exactly what is about to be asked, or after marking, to see what you should have hit. See the must not miss core.
Score history#
Every paper is kept. The Exam tab shows your average, your best, how many of your papers have been marked and how many reached 75 per cent, and a marked paper can be reopened in full at any time.
Underneath is the longitudinal view: which sections keep losing marks, worst first, across every paper you have sat on that board. Each row is a door back to the section on the board it came from.
What you missed becomes cards#
A point you demonstrably did not make is a flashcard waiting to be written. The platform writes it for you and puts it in the tray at the top of the Exam tab; one tap adds it to that board's deck, where spaced repetition picks it up like any other card. Cards you already have are not written again, and a miss you would rather not drill can be dismissed. The same tray offers a resit, a lecture or an oral station on the material you lost the marks on.