Once. Registration to use EM OnLine through a specific Gateway is a one time process. The User Name created by an individual, and the assigned or edited Password are all that is needed for future access to that Gateway.

Once. Registration to use EM OnLine through a specific Gateway is a one time process. The User Name created by an individual, and the assigned or edited Password are all that is needed for future access to that Gateway.

No. If you forget your User Name and Password click Login Reminder on the login screen and your User Name and Password will be Emailed to the Email addressed provided when you registered for EM OnLine.

On the Main Menu, click Settings, and then select My OnLine Profile. After updating your registration information, click Save.

Anyone who wishes to use EM OnLine must register and agree to the EXAM MASTER EM OnLine Licensing agreement. Providing incomplete, fictitious, or false information during the registration process can result in denial of access. EM OnLine is a professional business application used by many doctors, medical schools, universities and libraries. In registering for any professional organization or service, it is expected that valid information would be provided.

Each person who registers for EM OnLine agrees to the EM OnLine Licensing agreement. The sharing of a user name and password would be in violation of the licensing agreement and can result in denial of access to EM OnLine. If access is shared, the scoring history in no longer of any real value in measuring an individuals strengths and weaknesses since test results and answers will be intermixed between multiple users. The creation of any additional exams will not be tailored to offer the maximum benefit to any user based on their specific scoring on previous exams.

Yes. EM OnLine is accessible from any Internet connection on any computer worldwide. EM OnLine is designed for easy web access. Under normal conditions, using a 56K modem, all pages should load in 3 seconds or less (some images may take longer). In the past certain ISPs would limit the time allowed for an on-line session. If a person was taking an exam and the allowable session time was exceeded, the ISP would cut the session. Since EM OnLine saves all data based on the last keystroke, a user would log back in to continue the exam. It is now rare that we see this session limitation still used by ISPs, but there still may be some that have this policy.

There are several options that are available:
Help files are available throughout EM OnLine on each page as well as in a search menu. Hopefully the built in “Help Menus” will answer your questions. If you are not able to find the answers to your questions in the Help Files you can:


Call EXAM MASTER Customer Service
Email customer_service@exammaster.com
Email em-online@exammaster.com
Please be sure to check the EXAM MASTER support hours posted on the EXAM MASTER Website: http://exammaster.com/support/hours.htm.

In each exam outline you are able to drill down 4 levels and the number of questions that are available at the level will be displayed.

Exam Outline Name – Top level of outline.
i. Topic
ii. Subject
iii. Category
iv. Subcategory – may not exist is all outlines

You can mix topics, subjects, categories, and subcategories within any one exam outline, but you can not mix across the exam outlines, i.e. you can not mix between USMLE Step 1 and USMLE Step 2 or USMLE Step 3.

Vignette and Case Related Questions are normally longer vignette type questions that cover specifics that perhaps have a higher probability of being asked on the actual exam. The Non-Vignette/Recall questions will typically be shorter questions that cover more of the basics that will make it easier to quickly understand and answer the Vignette/Case Related questions. Our understanding is that the actual USMLE is comprised of both types of questions. You have only so much time to complete the exam. The easier, or more quickly, you can answer the basic questions, the more time you will have for the Vignette/Case Related Questions during an exam that combines both types of questions.

EXAM MASTER Questions and Explanations have been carefully constructed by over 100 medical specialist including scientists (PhDs, MDs), physicians (MDs), and other academic and clinical specialists (MA & MS degrees). These professionals are associated with or received their training in some of the finest medical schools and academic health centers in the country, including:


Harvard Medical School
Yale University School of Medicine
Thomas Jefferson University
Duke University Medical Center
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute
National Institute of Health
National Naval Medical Center
Nova Southeastern University

The authors hold positions representing the diverse needs and opportunities in the field of medicine today. These include:


Medical Director
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Assistant Associate and Full Professors Researchers
Practicing Physicians
We believe that in bringing together their varied backgrounds and areas of professional expertise, we ensure full coverage of the diversity of knowledge and learning that is characteristic of medicine today. For a complete list please go to: http://exammaster.com/Exam-Master-Authors.htm

The EM OnLine database of questions is a compiled work resulting from the efforts of over 100 MDs and PhDs, who have contributed to the EXAM MASTER® data archives. We believe that providing several points of view on a single topic will aid in your understanding. Since each person comprehends and expresses knowledge in his/her own unique way, we left intact each author's individual style of writing to enhance your learning experience. As compared with textbooks which can quickly become boring, we believe this "unique flavor" will prove to be more stimulating, and should reduce the mental fatigue normally associated with study and "cramming" for exams.

Help files are available throughout EM OnLine on each page as well as in a search menu. Hopefully the built in “Help Menus” will answer most questions. You can also call EXAM MASTER Customer Service, send an Email to Customer Service, or send an Email to EM-OnLine if additional help is required. Please be sure to check the EXAM MASTER support hours posted on the EXAM MASTER website if additional help is required.

Some questions include information that covers multiple medical areas, and these questions may be included in pool of questions for all of those medical areas. A question may have been randomly selected for an exam early on, or there may not be enough questions in the Topic, Subject, Category, or Sub Category, selected for a specific exam. Therefore, EM OnLine may not be able to create an exam of 50 questions to fill the selected exam creation criteria. You will not see repeated questions based on user feedback that very strongly emphasized that the users wanted to see a question only once across all exams that are created.

The program allows three passes through the same exam. The recommended procedure is to:
take and score Test 1.
Then go to the Study mode and review the questions and explanations.
Go back to the Test mode. Take and score Test 2 to see if you have improved.
The program will change the order in which the answer choices appear from Test #1 to Test #2 to Test #3 so that you must once again read the answer choices.

You can take Test #2 and / or Test #3 if you feel you have not fully grasped the material. It is recommended that you wait several days before taking the Test a second or third time. This will help to ensure that you are not merely memorizing the answers. In the meantime, you can click on Select Exams to build additional exams with new questions for review.

The clock will continue to run and time will expire if you either do not pause the Study session, or if you use the “x” in your browser to exit the program. Please be sure to always use the Pause/Exit button any time you discontinue use of the program. In case your ISP has disconnected your session, or there was power failure that terminated the session, when you reenter the Test or Study Mode it should open at the same question that your were on when the interruption occurred.

EXAM MASTER - EM OnLine is an exam preparation program. It is not intended to replace what is learned in Medical School courses or programs. The default Study time is 3.6 minutes per Q. If a person has taken a Test in an area where they have had the required courses, it would be expected that they would normally pass the exam. For a 50 Q exam, even if the score was only 50%, that would leave 180 minutes to review 25 missed questions or 7.2 minutes per question – which should be more than enough for review by the registered user. If, however a person skips the Test and goes directly to Study mode, they are to unnecessarily using study minutes on their first pass through the exam. In addition, if you go directly to Study mode you are defeating the real purpose of taking and scoring a real-time simulated computer exams similar to the real USMLE or other exams that you are required to take.

Yes, an individual user can pause any exam that they have created. For an exam assigned by a faculty member in EM OnLine Academic, the Exam Administrator controls the “No Pause” feature. If the “No Pause” feature is enabled, an examinee will not be able to pause an exam once the exam has been started. The exam automatically closes after the time set by the Exam Administrator when the exam was assigned. Once an examinee completes and scores an exam, any additional access is denied, even if all time allowed has not been used.

EM OnLine has a feature that allows you to send feedback directly from the question screen to our office via email. All information in this form is greatly appreciated. We are always concerned with keeping our content up to date and accurate. There is a feedback button at the top right corner of every question presentation screen. The timer will be turned off during the time you spend providing feedback. The information is reviewed by our editors, authors, or other medical professionals as required. Note: if you are taking a timed exam assigned by an Exam Administrator, we suggest that you provide any feedback during the follow-on Study session, rather than take the time during the actual exam.

The correct answer is viewable in the Study mode. When you select an answer in the Study mode, the program will show a red X if the answer is correct. A yellow check mark in a green circle indicates a correct answer choice. In the Study mode, you can continue to select answers until the correct answer is displayed. Before you enter the study mode you can check the box that will tell EM OnLine to automatically display the correct answer when a question appears.

After you score an exam and click exit, you will be taken back to the Main Menu. On the Main Menu you can study the exam that you just completed. You can select a box labeled "Reveal correct answer/explanation button at first view of each question". You also have the ability to study showing your answers from the “Previous Test”. When the exam opens to the first question you will then select “Review/Options” and then select "Wrong Answers". The program will now only display those Qs that were marked wrong during the previous test session for that exam. The wrong answer that was selected will be marked with a Red X; and the correct answer will be marked with a green circle and yellow checkmark. Note: If you neglected to select any answer to a specific question during the exam, that question will not be included when you select "Wrong Answers" – suggest that you “Mark” any questions that you do not answer and then review the “Marked”

Explanations are viewable for each question by selecting the Explain button in the Study mode. Just as in a real exam where explanations are not available, explanations are not available in the Test mode.

You cannot delete individual exams from your Main Menu. However, in the lower left hand corner of the Main Menu, there is a drop down menu which will allow you to hide any exams that are more than 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days old. The exams will not be deleted, but they will no longer appear on the Main Menu. You can change this setting at any time and access other exams at a later date if desired.

No, printing exams is not allowed by an EM OnLine individual user.

Rebooting should resolve this problem. Simply shut down the computer and then restart.

If you have a program installed that prevents pop-up ads while browsing the Internet, it can also prevent you from viewing the images available while using EM OnLine. Disabling the program should resolve the problem.

If you are using a browser other than Internet Explorer but your email is Outlook, and click on an email link, the Browser will probably not know how to jump over to Outlook to locally process the email going out. With most browsers, you should have the ability to deselect the option selecting it as the default mail application. For example, in Netscape you can go to Edit/Preferences/Mail & Newsgroups/Use Netscape Mail as the Default Mail Application and uncheck this square if it is checked.

Yes. You can purchase EM OnLine Monthly for 1 month, 2 months, or 12months. The cost for 2 months is approximately 1.8 x the cost of 1 month, and the cost of 12 months is approximately 2.5 x the cost of 1 month. There are a pull down menus on the Monthly Order page within EM OnLine that allow you to select the desired product and either 1, 2, or 12 months.