Frequently Asked Questions

For the story behind the Coach, read About.

What is the Urology Oral Boards Coach?

The Urology Oral Boards Coach is an educational practice tool for urology oral-board preparation. It behaves like an examiner: it gives you a case, withholds information until you ask for it, pushes you through management decisions, introduces complications, and tests communication moments.

It is not a medical advice tool, clinical decision support system, or substitute for independent physician judgment.

Who is this for?

It is built for urology residents, fellows, recent graduates, and practicing urologists preparing for oral-board style examinations or trying to sharpen case-based clinical reasoning.

It is most useful if you already have a fund of urology knowledge and want to practice organizing that knowledge under pressure.

How do I use the Coach?

1. Go to the Coach page.
2. Pick a domain or choose Randomized.
3. Pick a difficulty level.
4. Choose Test Mode or Open-Book Mode.
5. Press Start.
6. Respond like you would in an oral exam: ask for history, exam findings, labs, imaging, diagnosis, management, operative details, complications, and counseling.
7. Keep going until the topic has been adequately tested.
8. Use Score Me when it becomes available if you want a formal performance summary.

The best way to use it is to speak or type in complete oral-board answers, not one-word responses.

What should I type?

Type what you would say to an examiner.

Examples:

• “I would start with a focused history including duration of symptoms, fever, hematuria, smoking history, anticoagulant use, prior stones, and prior urologic surgery.”
• “I want a urinalysis, urine culture, CBC, BMP, and CT abdomen/pelvis with and without contrast including delayed images.”
• “My leading diagnosis is upper tract urothelial carcinoma. I would risk-stratify based on cytology, imaging, ureteroscopic appearance, biopsy grade, focality, size, and hydronephrosis.”

You do not need perfect grammar. You do need a clear, safe plan.

Can I dictate my answer?

Yes. The Dictate button records your answer, transcribes it into the answer box, and lets you edit the text before sending.

The examiner replies in text. This is intentional. Editable dictation is safer and more practical than live voice for board prep because you can correct transcription errors before your answer is graded.

Should I enter real patient information?

No. Do not enter patient names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, addresses, phone numbers, or any other patient-identifiable information.

The cases are simulated. Your answers should be educational and de-identified.

How is the Coach structured?

The Coach is organized around major urology oral-board domains, including oncology, stones, reconstruction, pediatrics, infertility, trauma, female urology, voiding dysfunction, transplantation, infection, adrenal disease, and others.

Each domain has structured case material behind the scenes:

• opening case patterns
• withheld history and physical exam data
• labs and imaging findings
• management decision points
• operative and procedural prompts
• complication branches
• OSCE-style communication prompts
• common misses
• must-test items
• topic pivots
• scoring rubrics

The goal is not to ask isolated trivia. The goal is to move through a realistic oral-board case arc.

Does the Coach repeat exact cases?

It may revisit similar disease patterns because oral boards repeatedly test classic presentations and management traps. The intent, however, is to vary patient details, decision points, and downstream complications so you practice the reasoning pattern rather than memorizing one script.

If a case feels too repetitive or too similar to a prior run, use Provide Feedback inside the app.

What are the modes?

Test Mode

Test Mode is the stricter simulation mode.

The examiner does not teach during the case. If you miss an item, it should not say “correct,” “wrong,” or “incomplete.” Instead, it may supply the minimum baseline data needed to keep the case moving and then test the next decision. This is closer to a standardized oral-exam feel.

Use Test Mode when you want pressure, pacing, and realism.

Open-Book Mode

Open-Book Mode is the teaching mode.

After you commit to an answer, the Coach explains what a stronger oral-board answer should include, why it matters, what candidates commonly miss, and how to phrase the answer more cleanly.

Use Open-Book Mode when you are learning a topic or rebuilding your framework.

Can I switch modes during a case?

Yes. You can switch between Test Mode and Open-Book Mode during an active session. The next examiner turn should follow the newly selected mode.

A practical workflow is to start in Open-Book Mode while learning, then repeat the topic later in Test Mode.

What do the difficulty levels mean?

Junior

Junior is still serious, but the prompts are a little more scaffolded. It is useful early in preparation or when reviewing a weaker topic.

Standard

Standard is the default. It aims for realistic oral-board pacing and common high-yield traps.

High

High is more demanding. It probes edge cases, complications, operative details, and vague answers more aggressively.

If you are not sure where to start, use Standard.

Why does the Coach withhold data?

Because that is the point of oral-board practice.

In real oral exams, the candidate must collect pertinent information systematically. The examiner does not hand you every lab, imaging result, physical finding, or complication up front. You have to ask for the right things, integrate them, and commit to a plan.

The Coach is designed to make you practice that rhythm.

Why did the examiner move on after I missed something?

In Test Mode, the Coach is designed to behave more like a standardized examiner than a tutor. If you miss a decision node, it may bridge to the next part of the case rather than repeatedly hinting until you guess the answer.

That can feel abrupt, but it is useful practice. Open-Book Mode is available when you want the teaching explanation.

What is Score Me?

Score Me asks the Coach to pause the case and give a structured performance evaluation.

It is only useful after a topic has been adequately tested. If you ask too early, the Coach may keep the case going instead.

The score is educational feedback, not an official prediction of examination performance.

How should I study with this?

A good pattern is:

1. Pick one domain.
2. Run it in Open-Book Mode.
3. Write down your misses.
4. Repeat the same or adjacent domain in Test Mode.
5. Ask for a score after the topic has been tested.
6. Revisit weak areas later.

The app works best as active recall, not passive reading.

Is this affiliated with the American Board of Urology, AUA, NCCN, or any textbook?

No. This product is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or approved by any certifying, professional, guideline, or textbook organization.

The content is original physician-authored educational board-prep material. It is not a reproduction of guideline, certifying-body, or textbook material.

Does this use official guidelines?

The Coach is built from original educational frameworks and physician-authored guideline interpretation notes. It is designed to reflect modern guideline-aware practice without copying guideline text into the product.

Guidelines evolve, and no AI tool is perfect. Use this as board-prep education, not as a clinical authority.

Why is this expensive?

Because it is not a generic chatbot.

Behind the Coach are physician-authored oral-board frameworks, structured case trees, guideline interpretation notes, AI reasoning calls, medical dictation, hosting, monitoring, backups, and a home-lab infrastructure stack that has involved servers, rack gear, network storage, RAM, cooling, and a suspicious number of fan swaps.

There is also the less visible cost: time. The value is in converting years of study habits, index-card style recall, academic reading, board patterns, and guideline notes into a structured examiner that can quiz you on demand.

What plans are available?

Current public pricing is:

• Weekly Cram Pass: $49/week
• Standard Monthly: $89/month introductory price
• Pro Monthly: $152/month introductory price, with twice the standard usage allowance
• Annual Premium: $899/year introductory price

Pricing may change as the product moves from beta to full launch.

How much practice does my subscription include?

The current planning estimates are:

• Weekly Cram Pass: about 15-20 focused practice hours per week
• Standard Monthly: about 60-80 focused practice hours per month
• Pro Monthly: about 120-160 focused practice hours per month
• Annual Premium: about 60-80 focused practice hours per month, billed yearly

These are planning estimates for focused oral-board practice, not a promise of unlimited automated use. Heavy automated, abusive, or non-educational usage may be limited.

What counts as usage?

The main usage unit is an examiner turn: you send an answer, and the Coach generates the next examiner response.

Dictation may also be metered separately because speech-to-text has its own cost. If you dictate but do not send the transcript as an answer, it should not count as an examiner turn.

Can I use the app on multiple devices?

Each account is intended for personal use and may be limited to two active devices. If you need to use a third device, you may need to unregister one of your existing devices.

Do not share your account.

What happens after the beta trial?

Beta trial access is time-limited. During beta, payments may be paused, and beta users should not be automatically charged unless paid billing is explicitly enabled and you complete a paid checkout flow.

For public launch, trial and subscription behavior may change and will be described on the pricing and checkout pages.

Can I cancel?

Paid subscriptions are intended to be managed through the billing provider. Once full billing is active, the app should direct you to the appropriate subscription management flow.

If something looks wrong, use Provide Feedback or contact support.

What if the Coach gives an answer I disagree with?

Use Provide Feedback and include the case topic, what the Coach said, and what you think should have happened.

The Coach is designed for high-quality board preparation, but it is still an AI-assisted educational tool. It can miss context, overcall a point, undercall a miss, or apply a framework imperfectly. Feedback helps improve the cases.

Why does the Coach sometimes challenge vague answers?

Oral-board answers need specific action. “Surgery,” “imaging,” “antibiotics,” or “observe” may be directionally right but too vague for a strong board answer.

The Coach may press for:

• the exact imaging phase
• the operative approach
• the anatomic target
• the antibiotic choice
• the counseling language
• the complication plan
• the follow-up schedule

That specificity is the skill.

Is the Coach grading me like the real exam?

No. The scoring is educational. It is meant to help you identify weak areas, not to predict pass/fail status.

Real certifying exams use formal processes, examiner training, and psychometric analysis that this app does not claim to reproduce.

Can this replace books, guidelines, conferences, or faculty mock orals?

No. It is a practice tool.

Use it alongside standard study resources, guideline review, institutional teaching, faculty mock orals, and your own clinical judgment.

The Coach is especially useful for repetition: getting more practice turns than most people can realistically schedule with faculty.

What should I do if I find a bug?

Use Provide Feedback inside the Coach. Include:

• topic
• mode
• difficulty
• what you answered
• what the Coach replied
• what you expected instead

That is the fastest way to improve the beta.

What should I not use this for?

Do not use it for:

• real-time patient care decisions
• medical advice for a specific patient
• storing patient-identifiable information
• copying or distributing hidden app content
• claiming official board approval or endorsement

Use it for education, rehearsal, and structured oral-board practice.