Frequently Asked Questions

Geek Vitals is an AI-native exam-preparation platform for nursing students. Every study artifact — practice questions, spaced-repetition flashcards, video lessons, mind maps, vocabulary decks — is generated by large-language-model systems (Claude + Gemini) and reviewed by a licensed RN before it reaches you.

We cover seven exams, spanning the whole path from nursing-school application to licensure:

• Getting in — HESI A2 (HESI Admission Assessment), ATI TEAS (Test of Essential Academic Skills), and NLN NEX (the NLN Nursing Entrance Exam, which replaced the PAX in 2024). Programs differ on which one they accept — confirm yours with their admissions office.
• Getting through — HESI Exit (E2), the NCLEX-readiness predictor most programs use before they let you sit for licensure.
• Getting licensed — NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN. These are separate licences at different practice levels, not two names for the same exam.
• Pre-med — the MCAT, for students heading to medical school rather than nursing.

The platform is built on 30+ years of peer-reviewed learning-science research — spaced repetition, retrieval practice, the Feynman technique, and mastery-based progression.

Six instructors, one curriculum. Angelica (US English), Holly (British English), Cassie (Australian English), Pablo (US English), Chad (Australian English), and Andrew (British English) are AI-generated composite characters, not real people. They deliver video lessons via neural text-to-speech plus open-source lip-sync animation.

Every lesson script is written ONCE and curriculum-reviewed by a licensed RN before production. All six instructors read the same word-for-word transcript, so the lesson stays unified across voices. You pick the voice that resonates with you; the science is identical. This is a structural property no live tutor platform can offer: zero drift between teachers.

The FTC's 2023 Revised Endorsement Guides require AI-avatar disclosure, and every instructor page, video, and social post carries an AI Instructor badge. We make no medical claims through them.

When you click Mark Complete on any lesson, you're asked to explain the topic in your own words — like you're teaching a classmate who just woke up from a 14-hour shift. This is the Feynman technique, peer-reviewed as the single highest-retention study method (Bloom's mastery learning, effect size d ≈ 1.0).

We run two checks on your explanation: semantic similarity to the lesson script using neural embeddings (same tech that powers Google AI Overviews), and coverage of the five key concepts we extracted from that lesson. Both must clear the threshold to pass.

You get three attempts. After three tries, the lesson is marked complete with effort credit and automatically re-queued through spaced review so you encounter it again on a cooler day — no sand trap, no shame.

Pick the plan that matches where you are right now:

• Applying to nursing school — HESI A2, ATI TEAS, or NLN NEX, whichever your program requires. They are not interchangeable, so check with admissions before you buy.
• Already in a program, facing the exit exam — HESI Exit.
• Graduating and sitting for licensure — NCLEX-RN if you are becoming a registered nurse, NCLEX-PN if you are becoming an LPN/LVN.
• Heading to medical school instead — MCAT.
• Moving through them in sequence — start with your entrance exam and switch when you are roughly 3 months out from the next one.

How switching works. All plans run month to month. To change tier or change exam, cancel your current plan and start the new one. No-hassle cancellations mean you cancel anytime and your payment stops, no charge runs next month. We do not prorate refunds. Your access discontinues at the end of the month.

On the pricing page, the toggle at the top swaps between each exam's tier ladder.

Confirm the requirement on your school's own admissions page before you buy anything. Entrance-exam requirements are moving unusually fast in 2026. Programs are switching between the HESI A2, the TEAS, and the NLN NEX; some have dropped the entrance exam entirely; and the details that decide whether your score even counts differ school by school:

• Which exam the program accepts, and whether it accepts more than one
• Minimum score overall and per section
• Retake rules — how long you must wait, and how many attempts are allowed
• Score expiry — how old a score can be and still be accepted

Any of these can change between application cycles, and a requirement that was accurate last year may not be accurate for your cohort. Your admissions office is the only authoritative source — not us, not a forum, and not a study guide.

We are a study platform, not an admissions authority. We do not determine what your program requires and we cannot confirm your eligibility. What we can do is prepare you thoroughly for the exam your program names. If you are not sure which one that is, ask your admissions counselor first, then pick the matching plan on the pricing page.

No score guarantees, ever, on principle. We refuse to sell a refund on a number you cannot reach. Look at any competitor's 510+ guarantee or pass-or-refund offer and read the fine print: you have to complete every assigned lesson, every practice question, every full-length exam by specific dates, you have to attend every live session, and you have to score within a narrow window. Almost no one qualifies. The guarantee is a sales tool, not a real promise. We do not play that game.

For billing: no retroactive refunds. Cancellation is one click and takes effect immediately. Future charges stop right away. You keep access until the end of your current billing period. See our Cancellation & Refund Policy for full details.

The logic: we want the platform to feel obviously worth it on day one, not sell hard then handle buyer's remorse. If it's not clicking after a week, cancel. You stop being charged. You keep your access through the month. No retention call, no win-back coupon, no shame trigger.

Short answer: no retroactive refunds for billing periods already charged. Cancel anytime stops all future charges, and access continues through the end of your current billing period.

If you had a genuinely catastrophic experience — the platform was broken for you for multiple days, a billing error charged you twice, something along those lines — email hello@geekvitals.com and we'll make it right. This is the exception, not the default.

Card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) charge merchants ~2.9% + $0.30 per credit-card transaction. ACH and debit cards cost a fraction of that, so they pay our base price. If you pay by credit card, you'll see Stripe's actual processing fee on your invoice as a line item — we don't add anything to it.

Many merchants do the same: gas stations, gyms, government agencies. We're being transparent about what's already happening behind the scenes everywhere.

Yes. Specifically:

• Video lessons: closed-caption mode shows one hero sentence at a time under the video (research-backed for reduced cognitive load), plus a collapsible full transcript for readers who prefer to skim.
• Keyboard navigation: every interactive element reachable via Tab/Enter.
• Reduced motion: confetti, glow effects, and other animations respect prefers-reduced-motion.
• Screen readers: semantic HTML and ARIA labels on all icons and controls.
• Color contrast: teal-on-white meets WCAG AA for body text.

We're targeting full WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance before cohort-1 expands beyond 300 students. If you hit an accessibility issue, email hello@geekvitals.com — we'll triage immediately.

Nothing. You just study — the eight features run automatically. Specifically:

• Spaced Repetition (SM-2): We compute your optimal review interval using the Cepeda et al. 2006 10-20% rule (interval ≈ 10-20% of the time remaining to your exam date). You don't pick when to review — the system queues cards at the research optimum.
• Active Recall Gate: Feynman check blocks passive completion. You can't "mark complete" without demonstrating understanding.
• Interleaving Engine: Practice sets mix topics per Bjork's desirable-difficulty research (effect size d = 0.60 over blocked practice).
• Metacognitive Dashboard: Brain Map + Patient Rounds show you where you stand vs. where you think you stand — Hattie 2009 meta-analysis: d = 1.44 on self-reported grades.
• Behavioral Nudge System: Flatline email + mannequin state tell you when your knowledge curve is decaying (Murre & Dros 2015 replication of Ebbinghaus).
• Growth-Mindset Onboarding: First-run framing cues learned-not-born mindset (Dweck 2006).
• Desirable Difficulty Tuning: Questions get harder as you master topics — not easier.
• Multimedia Replay: Video + caption + transcript + Spaced Repetition System (SRS) practice combine dual-coding (Paivio 1986) for deeper encoding.

We took a former nationally-qualified mathlete, handed him the peer-reviewed cognitive-science literature, and had him calculate the applied mathematical optimization for every interval, weight, and threshold in the system. The result: the scaffolding does the heavy lifting. Your only job is to log in, relax, and learn.

Cohort-1 is our first live cohort and pass-rate data will publish when they sit the exam (estimated Q3 2026). Until then, two anchors:

• The national NCLEX-RN first-time pass rate for US-educated candidates was 91.22% in 2025 (NCSBN).
• The learning-science features running under the hood produce effect sizes between d = 0.42 and d = 1.44 across 30+ years of research (Hattie 2009 meta-analysis of 800 meta-analyses).

We'll publish cohort-1 outcomes at /press as soon as the data is in.

Geek Vitals is the only AI-native nursing prep platform. Practical differences:

• Content generation: our questions, lessons, and flashcards are generated by Claude + Gemini and reviewed by RNs. UWorld/Kaplan use static banks updated annually.
• Personalization: our Spaced Repetition System (SRS) intervals tune to your exam date. Incumbents use generic calendars.
• Mastery enforcement: our Feynman gate blocks passive "mark complete." Theirs don't.
• Gamification: Patient Rounds + Brain Map turn progress into a visible game. Theirs is spreadsheet-dashboard aesthetic.
• Pricing: we match ATI's pricing tier, but you get exam-date-tuned scheduling, a mastery check that blocks passive "mark complete," and 6 instructor voices to pick from, not just a bigger question pile.

Many students use 1-2 complementary resources. Geek Vitals works fine alongside UWorld or Kaplan if you've already started with them.

NCBSN's candidate-preparation research (2023) found a median of 2-3 months of consistent daily practice for first-time US-educated candidates. Anything under four weeks is measurably worse for retention (Cepeda et al. 2008 spacing studies).

When you set your exam date during onboarding, we use it to compute your spaced-repetition schedule per the Cepeda 2006 rule (interval ≈ 10-20% of time remaining to exam). If you have 90 days, we space reviews at ~10-18 day intervals; if you have 30, we compress to ~3-6 days.

Our practice items are AI-generated and modeled on the publicly available NCSBN NCLEX-RN Test Plan. They are not recycled from any actual NCLEX administration — we don't have access to that content and wouldn't use it.

The style, difficulty distribution, and clinical-reasoning patterns mirror NCLEX-format items (including Next-Gen NCLEX item types: bowtie, matrix, drag-drop, case studies). The specific stems, options, and rationales are original material reviewed by a licensed RN before publication.

No — accounts are strictly single-user. Sharing credentials violates our Terms of Service and may result in account suspension.

If you have a study buddy who wants in, use our 10% referral credit program: each paid signup from your referral link gives you 10% off your next billing cycle. Email hello@geekvitals.com from your account email and we'll send your personal referral link.

Not yet as a native app. The web app is fully mobile-responsive and works in any modern browser on iOS or Android — video lessons, practice questions, Feynman gate, and Patient Rounds all work on phone.

Native iOS and Android apps are on the 2026 roadmap, prioritized after cohort-1 data validates the learning loop. If you'd like to be notified when they ship, join our cohort-1 waitlist.

Elite includes 4 live 1:1 sessions/month (30 minutes each) with a credentialed RN. The policy is designed to be fair for both you and your tutor.

Booking + scheduling

Open slots show on your dashboard. Pick a time and the booking auto-confirms — no waiting on a tutor to approve. If a specific recurring day/time fits your life better (clinical rotations, shift work, childcare), message your tutor and we'll arrange accommodations when their availability allows. Otherwise, sessions are booked week-by-week from whatever is open.

15-minute grace for late arrivals

Your tutor waits 15 minutes for you to join. If you arrive late, the session still ends at its originally scheduled end time — tardiness comes out of your session time, not theirs. This protects the tutor's schedule and the next student's slot.

Behavior expectations

Sessions stay focused on your nursing-exam preparation. Tutors reserve the right to end a session early if behavior is disrespectful, harassing, or off-topic — that session counts as used. You can appeal any session decision by emailing hello@geekvitals.com.

Monthly reset, no rollover

Your 4 sessions refresh on the 1st of every calendar month. Unused sessions don't roll over — this is intentional. The research on weekly study cadence is much stronger than the research on binge-then-skip, so we structured it to steer you toward 1 session per week. Need more in a given month? Additional sessions are $100 each and can be booked any time your tutor has availability.

Cancellation policy

Cancel up to 24 hours before the session for a free credit-restore. Cancellations inside 24 hours forfeit the credit (it counts as used) — this respects your tutor's reserved time. If your tutor cancels for any reason, your credit is automatically restored.

We're here to support your study work, not police you. If life happens — illness, family emergency, last-minute clinical-schedule change — email hello@geekvitals.com and we'll figure it out.

Short answer: because the research is overwhelming that mixing topics produces better long-term retention than studying one subject at a time, and the NCLEX and TEAS themselves are mixed-format exams.

The numbers

• Rohrer & Taylor (2007, 2010): interleaved math practice produced +25 to 43% better performance on delayed transfer tests vs. blocked practice.
• Brunmair & Richter (2019), meta-analysis of 56 studies: interleaving consistently outperforms blocked when items are similar enough to be confused — exactly the situation on a nursing exam.
• Bjork's “desirable difficulties” line of research (2011, 2013): the subjective feeling that interleaving is harder is the mechanism — your brain is doing the extra discrimination work that builds transferable knowledge.

What this means on Geek Vitals

• Learning surfaces (/nclex/study, /teas/study): blocked one topic at a time. That's where you build the underlying schema.
• Practice surfaces (/nclex/exam/practice, /teas/exam/practice): interleaved by default. A Focused mode toggle lets you narrow to one subject when you're actively drilling a weak spot.

One caveat from the research (Karpicke & Aue 2015): interleave only after you've done at least one blocked pass on a topic — otherwise you're asking the brain to discriminate between things it hasn't learned yet. That's why our learning catalog stays blocked and only the practice exam interleaves.

First: the platform is designed so you do pass. The national first-time pass rate is 91.22%, and our learning-science engine targets above that.

If you don't pass on your first attempt:

• Elite tier: If you completed the full 12-week program (3+ sessions per week) and failed, we extend Elite access for one additional 90-day cycle at no cost so you can re-prepare. This is extended access, not a cash refund. See Refund Policy.
• Other paid tiers: Email hello@geekvitals.com with your exam result. We handle this case-by-case — typically discounted continued access, direct founder outreach, and a review of your study plan.