ARGONAUTUSMLE

Editorial policy · updated 11 October 2026

How Argonaut questions are written and reviewed

Every question is drafted with AI from reference notes, written to the NBME Item-Writing Guide, and reviewed and approved by a clinician before it goes live. This page explains each step, how we use AI, and how to report a problem.

The standard

Written to the NBME Item-Writing Guide

The NBME publishes the rules its own question writers follow. Ours follow the same rules:

  • 01A clinical or experimental vignette you have to interpret, not an isolated fact.
  • 02A lead-in that is one complete question, answerable before you read the choices. No EXCEPT, NOT or LEAST questions.
  • 03Answer choices of the same kind and similar length, with exactly one best answer and plausible alternatives.
  • 04No cues: the right answer isn't the longest, the only one echoing the stem, or the only hedged option.
  • 05Usually two steps: recognize what's going on, then answer about mechanism, treatment, complication or next step.
  • 06US conventional units, with each vital sign and lab value on its own line.

The process

How a question is made

  1. 01

    Drafting

    AI drafts each question from licensed reference notes, following the item-writing rules below: a full clinical vignette, one best answer, an explanation for every choice and an educational objective. Drafts are written in our own words: never copied from references, and never based on real or recalled exam questions or on other question banks.

  2. 02

    Clinical review

    A qualified clinician (MD or DO) checks the medical facts against current US practice, confirms the keyed answer is the single best answer, checks every explanation, and approves the question before it goes live. Questions that don't pass are fixed or dropped.

  3. 03

    Placement

    Each question is placed in the USMLE content outline: exam, organ system, discipline, physician task and topic. That decides which blocks, Library chapters and ARGO analytics it feeds.

  4. 04

    Duplicate check

    New questions are compared with the whole bank by meaning. One that tests the same point on the same exam as an existing question is set aside, so the bank doesn't pad its count with near-copies.

  5. 05

    Monitoring

    Students can flag any question from its explanation as an error, unclear or outdated, and every report is read and resolved. Item statistics are tracked too: once enough students have answered, a question that looks miskeyed, or that weaker students get right more often than stronger ones, is flagged for another review.

Transparency

How we use AI

We use AI where it helps us write and check faster, and we say so:

  • Bank questions are drafted with AI and then reviewed and approved by a clinician. We never describe an AI-drafted question as physician-written.
  • Importing can use AI to suggest where a question belongs in the content outline. It doesn't rewrite medical content.
  • ARGO question writing, the optional add-on, writes new questions for one student's weak spots. Each is answered blind by an independent AI solver and audited against its key before the student sees it; failures are discarded. These questions are private to that student: they are never published, never indexed and never added to the public bank.

Explanations

Explanations, the Library and Nuggets

Every question explains why the right answer is right and why each other choice is wrong for that patient, and states the educational objective: the rule worth remembering.

Library chapters collect the educational objectives of every question on one topic, so they carry the same review. When new questions on a topic go live, its chapter is rebuilt.

Nuggets mark questions that test a classic, frequently examined fact. They are found by comparing each question's tested concept with a private index of high-yield facts; borderline matches are checked by an editor, and every Nugget card is written in our own words.

Corrections

Found a problem? Tell us.

Medicine changes and mistakes happen. In the app, flag the question from its explanation. On the public site, every question page has a "Report a problem" link, or email support@argonautusmle.com with the question code (such as AQ-1053).

Every report is read. We correct the question, retire it, or confirm it and explain why. The date on each question is the last time its record changed.

Independence

Sources, conflicts and limits

Sources. Reference notes are licensed material used while drafting; we don't reproduce them. We never use real exam questions, recalled items or questions from other banks.

Conflicts. We sell Argonaut, so pages that compare us with other question banks are written by us and say so. We don't take payment for placements, and we don't use affiliate links.

Not affiliated. Argonaut is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FSMB, the NBME or the USMLE program. Our questions are original practice material.

Not medical advice. Argonaut is for exam preparation only and must never be used to diagnose or treat a patient.

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