Help

Getting the microphone working, what the examiner will and will not do, which browser to use, and how your cases are scored.

Microphone Troubleshooting

Allow the Microphone in Chrome

Click the site controls icon at the left of the address bar.
Set Microphone to Allow.
Reload the page.

If the site was blocked earlier, open chrome://settings/content/microphone, remove this site from the blocked list, and reload.

Allow the Microphone in Safari

On a Mac: Safari, then Settings, then Websites, then Microphone. Set this site to Allow and reload.
On an iPhone or iPad: open the Settings app, then Safari (under Apps on recent versions), then Microphone, and choose Allow or Ask. You can also set it for this site alone from the page settings button in the address bar, under Website Settings. Then reload.

On a Mac, also check System Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Microphone, and make sure your browser is switched on there.

Choose a Real Microphone

Chrome listens to the microphone chosen at the top of chrome://settings/content/microphone. Safari uses the input chosen in System Settings, then Sound, then Input. Virtual audio devices (BlackHole, Loopback, Soundflower, aggregate devices, VB-Cable, Zoom or Teams audio) carry no voice. The exam room warns you when the browser is listening to one of them. Pick your built-in microphone or your headset instead, then reload.

The Microphone Check

Before the examiner speaks, the room asks you to stay quiet for a moment while it measures the background noise, then to read one sentence aloud. It shows what it heard and one of four results: fine, nothing heard, too quiet, or too much background noise. Check Again repeats it. Start Anyway goes on regardless.

Nothing heard: the wrong microphone is chosen or it is muted. See the two steps above.
Too quiet: move closer or raise the microphone's input level.
Too noisy: the examiner may not notice when you stop talking. Find a quieter room or use a headset.

Your microphone is muted while the examiner speaks, so speakers work. A headset helps in a noisy room.

What the Examiner Can and Cannot Do

It Can

Read a short history and show the first study, then listen while you talk the case through.
Ask a clarifying question and redirect you once when you are stuck.
Show the next study when you ask for it by name. If you ask for a different study than the case calls for, it asks you once to think again and then shows what was obtained.
Move to the next case when you are done, and end the period when the 25-minute clock runs out.

It Cannot

Tell you how you are doing during the case. As on the exam, it gives no feedback until the debrief. The Guidance setting in Practice Settings switches on study hints if you want them.
See what you point at or draw on the images. Say what you see in words.
Answer general questions or teach during the case.
Hear you perfectly. It can mistake a term, especially a rare one. Speak at a steady pace, then pause for about two seconds when you have finished a thought. A sentence that trails off on a word such as "and" is held a few seconds longer in case you go on.

Browsers and Devices

Use Chrome or Safari, kept up to date, on a recent laptop or desktop. A larger screen makes the images easier to read. Phones and tablets work, but the images are small. Other browsers are not tested. Run the Technical Check before your first period to test the camera, microphone and speakers.

A case opens a Grok Voice session. The page streams the microphone to xAI and the examiner speaks in that session. If the session cannot open, the page falls back to dictation: xAI speech recognition with a radiology vocabulary, or Chrome's built-in dictation from Practice Settings, which works in Chrome only.

How Scoring Works

Each case is scored after it closes, against that case's rubric, on three parts: observation (findings and pertinent negatives), synthesis (the differential and the most likely diagnosis) and management (the next step). Scores use the exam's scale of 68 to 72, where 70 is a pass, and a section passes on a mean of 70. A score usually lands within a minute or two. The debrief fills it in when it arrives.

On the debrief, every case card has a How This Score Is Decided panel: the five score bands with this case's marked, what 72, 70 and 68 mean for each part, and the case's rubric as a checklist of what you were credited for and what you missed. The About page shows the debrief. Scores are a rehearsal estimate and not an official ABR result.

Sending Feedback

Open the Menu at the top right and choose Send Feedback, or use the link at the foot of any page. In the exam room it is in Practice Settings and in the Leave Exam sheet. Choose Bug, Idea or Other and write what happened. When a case is on screen, Include This Case attaches its number. The page address, your browser and the last few errors the page saw are sent with it.

See Privacy and Terms for what happens to your data.