TrueLearn

TrueLearn is a question bank platform for medical students, residents and other health professionals preparing for licensing, in-training and certification exams. Its products are called SmartBanks: practice questions with detailed explanations, wrapped in analytics that show a learner where they stand. The home page sums up the pitch as "The Data-Driven Approach to Exam Preparation". TrueLearn sells to two audiences. Students and residents buy their own subscriptions, while schools and residency programs buy institutional access to "Assign questions, track performance, & improve outcomes." The company trades as TrueLearn, LLC.

The exams it covers

The product menu is long. Under medical licensure it lists COMLEX-USA (Level 1, Level 2 CE, COMAT Shelf Exams and Level 3), USMLE (Step 1, Step 2 CK/Shelf and Free 120 Trials), and PANCE and PANRE for physician assistants.

The residency section is the deepest part of the catalog. It covers anesthesiology (the ABA In-Training, BASIC and ADVANCED exams, plus an Anesthesiologist Assistant bank), emergency medicine (ABEM In-Training and Qualifying), family medicine, general surgery (ABSITE and the ABS Qualifying Exam), internal medicine, neurology (RITE and ABPN Neurology Certification), OBGYN (CREOG and ABOG), pediatrics (the ABP In-Training and Certifying exams), PM&R (ABPMR Part 1/SAE-R), psychiatry (PRITE and the ABPN Certification Exam) and radiology (DXIT and Core exams). A CME and fellowship section adds anesthesiology, adult cardiac anesthesiology, general surgery, neurology and OBGYN products.

Beyond medicine, there are banks for therapy (BCBA for behavior analysis, the OT Board Exam and OTA, NPTE and PTA for physical therapy, and Praxis for speech-language pathology), dental hygiene (NBDHE), medical assisting (CMA, RMA, NCMA and CCMA), nursing (NCLEX-RN and the FNP exam for nurse practitioners) and pharmacy (NAPLEX, and PTCE and ExCPT for pharmacy technicians).

How a SmartBank works

The home page describes three parts. "Test" stands for high-quality questions, with a "Relentless focus on question quality" and answer explanations that give "simple, memorable bottom line explanations." "Assess" is the analytics layer, which covers study habits, question responses and peer tracking, and aims to predict outcomes. "Outperform" carries the company's results claim: "Our students and residents average 20% improvement after completing a TrueLearn SmartBank."

The FAQ fills in the mechanics. Learners build their own tests in three modes: timed (with the same time per question as the real exam), untimed, and tutor mode, which shows the explanation right after each answer. Tests can be retaken, and a learner can filter for missed questions or reset all questions to "New" without losing statistics. Each subscription has a cap of three times its guaranteed question count, so a bank guaranteed to include 1,000 questions allows up to 3,000 question attempts. Up to three answered tests can be deleted per subscription, to keep the statistics clean. A "Feedback" button sends error reports to the editorial staff.

Two study aids sit around the questions. Bottom line text notifications send the bottom line of a missed question by text three days after a test, a spaced-repetition idea the FAQ ties to research on long-term memory. Flashcards, released in July 2025, let learners create and review their own cards inside TrueLearn at no extra cost; they run on the web platform only. Retail assessments can be added to some subscriptions from the dashboard, and each assessment can be taken once.

The mobile app is free on iOS and Android and needs an active subscription. It has no offline mode, takes assigned quizzes but not assessments, cannot create flashcards, and cannot be used to buy subscriptions.

For institutions

An institutional subscription runs for a period set in the agreement with the school or program. Designated contacts at the institution can see a learner's scoring data for every question taken under it, and can assign quizzes and assessments and view the results. Programs can apply time multipliers for learners with approved accommodations, approve extensions on assignments, and let learners copy a quiz to retake it as a test. Faculty get an Institution Administration Guide with training documents and videos. The contact form for institutions asks how many users a program has, and lists inquiry types such as whole-program discounts, an Ambassador Program and a CME Group Package.

A learner can hold a retail and an institutional subscription under the same email. The FAQ is clear that no data from a retail subscription is shared with the institution, and if the two overlap the learner may merge them for a prorated credit or keep them separate for privacy.

Pricing, refunds and the Pass Guarantee

The pricing lives behind a "See Pricing" link rather than on the home page or FAQ, but the FAQ sets out the terms around it:

• Activation. A retail subscriber has one year from purchase to activate, after which the subscription self-activates. An activated but unused subscription can be reset if the request comes within 30 days of purchase. There is no way to pause or split a subscription.
• Auto-Renew. Auto-renew buyers save $10 off their initial subscription and get a lower renewal rate, and can cancel from their account.
• Extensions. Personal subscriptions can be extended from account settings. The extend option appears on the dashboard when fewer than 30 days remain, and there is a one-week grace period after expiry; after that a new subscription is needed and earlier data does not carry over.
• Refunds. Requests are considered within 7 days of purchase, or of a renewal charge, and no refund is given once more than 25 questions have been taken. The FAQ states that TrueLearn does not offer a money-back guarantee.
• Pass Guarantee. A member who does not pass after using TrueLearn gets a new subscription of the same length free. It applies to subscriptions of 90 days or longer and to pass/fail exams only, and requires at least 50% of the bank completed, activation at least 60 days before the test date, and a subscription that did not expire more than 30 days before the test. A full score report is required, one guarantee applies per subscription, and institutional subscriptions do not qualify.

Store credit comes as a coupon code and expires one year after issue. Sharing a subscription breaks the terms of service, and TrueLearn says it monitors accounts for it.

What learners say

The home page quotes learners across specialties. Meredith, an OBGYN resident, writes: "I saw my score increase by almost 40 points." Jennifer, an anesthesiology resident, says she "scored > 90th percentile on my CA1 ITE", and Carly, an OT student, retook her NBCOT exam after about 5 weeks with TrueLearn and passed. These are individual accounts.

Who it suits and who it does not

TrueLearn fits learners who study best by doing questions and reading explanations, and it is especially strong for residents, with in-training and board exam banks across anesthesiology, surgery, OBGYN, neurology, psychiatry and pediatrics under one login. Its timed mode and analytics suit anyone who wants to measure readiness, and the Pass Guarantee lowers the risk for a 90-day or longer subscription on a pass/fail exam. Residency programs and schools get assignment, tracking and accommodation tools, with clear rules on what learner data they can see.

TrueLearn is built around questions and explanations, so students who want a lecture series as their main resource will pair it with something else. The refund window closes after 7 days or 25 questions, so it is worth starting with the bank only once the study plan is set.