Yessiree. The website is awesome (if we do say so ourselves). The site is designed (by our crack web team) to be continuously upgraded and improved. We change content constantly throughout the month. We add new bonus material, we switch out lower rated lectures (if they exist), we update current medical theory and practice… the site is changing all the time. This is a big piece of what sets Hippo Education apart from all others.

Yes! If, after working through the course, you do not pass your exam we will refund your purchase price or extend your access to the site if you need it. Even if your arms fall off during the exam and your failing has nothing to do with us we’ll still hook you up. Just let us know if you don’t pass and keep your records and we’ll tell you how to go about it… but, guess what… it’s not gonna happen. This is a pretty fun course as far as goes, just commit to working at your own pace through the material and you’re going to do great!

If you think about how much effort really goes into reviewing for your it’s pretty obvious that Hippo is the best choice. If you take a live course you’ve got travel, inflexibility, someone else’s pace, no rewind or pause, hotel costs, outdated material, a gamble on the quality of the educators, meeting halls, the guy in the front who can’t stop asking questions… the list goes on. And an online course? We encourage you to check out the other few options and compare us. It’s not even close. Hippo gives you an entire year of access for one price… with all the hassles and money of the other options taken into account, we think you’ll agree that Hippo is quite cost-effective.

Yes! If you have an internet connection on your device you are good to go. Just visit the site on your device, sign in and go for it. Our site is mobile compatible so you can get your learning via streaming anywhere you have an internet connection.

Good question. Live courses may seem up to date but they’re often way behind. A basic curriculum that is written by the company gets handed out to teachers across the country. It can be years between updates. Changes to the exam model may not be reflected in the course materials until the changes pile up and it makes it worth their while to write a new version. Hippo is constantly updated by us. We can change a tiny 3 second piece of video or an entire organ system immediately as things change. That’s a huge advantage to doing things the way we do. Sign up for the Hippo mailing list to stay informed about what new stuff we’re working on.

Absolutely! You are doing this course at your own pace but we are always a digital stone’s throw away. Every lecture has a space for you to ask questions about anything. For the most part they’re just between you and us. You may see some of the best questions and answers from fellow students show up for you to see if they’re particularly helpful. But keep in mind, your questions go right to our educators to be answered. They choose the top questions each week and you’ll see your personal questions and answers all in one place. It’s pretty cool.

No. Not at all. The key to Hippo’s course is that it’s self-paced yet not lonely. What we mean by that is that all of the topics and content is there for you right now. You can learn anything you want in any order. The website actually has an awesome feature that keeps track of your progress and allows you to bookmark things to come back to. At the same time we are constantly on the site ourselves working in the background to make improvements and answering questions. If you have a question about a concept just type it out and we’ll get it pronto… the “Questions” field is right there under every video lecture.

Yes! You know you can do a free trial right? No? Well, you can. Each product includes a free trial, so when you have uninterrupted time, sign up for a free trial and you’ll have a few hours from signup to use the site for free. Unlike some other courses we want to show you what you’re getting not hide it.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law AB 1195 (eff. 7/1/06) requiring local CME providers, such as Hippo Education, to assist in enhancing the cultural and linguistic competency of California’s physicians (researchers and doctors without patient contact are exempt). This mandate follows the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 13166 (2000) and the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (1973), all of which recognize, as confirmed by the US Census Bureau, that substantial numbers of patients possess limited English proficiency (LEP).

California Business & Professions Code §2190.1(c)(3) requires a review and explanation of the laws identified above so as to fulfill Hippo Education’s obligations pursuant to California law. Read Hippo Education’s AB 1195 Guidance.

If you click on your username on the site you’ll be able to “Edit My Account Details”. Here you can add an Avatar to customize your account. An Avatar is a graphic representation of you so others can see who you are (or who you want them to think you are) when commenting or leaving feedback on the Hippo Education website. Mostly it is just plain fun. We want Hippo to be a community of learners who interact with us and one another to enjoy what could otherwise be an overwhelming process (studying for exams, that is). Gravatar is a separate web service that allows you to choose an avatar once, then apply it to many sites on the internet. So sign up at Gravatar and add a picture of yourself or a cute bunny or whatever you want (within reason) and when you post a comment or give us feedback we will see your image next to your name!

If you are part of a group or want to gather a group together to subscribe to Hippo you can all get a good discount. Please contact us to let us know and we’ll get back to you right away!

Hm. Good question. I assume you’ve been watching our videos and thought to yourself “Do these guys intend to be so ridiculous”? Yes. Yes we do. We are what people around these parts call “Ding dongs.” We hope you have fun not taking us too seriously. If we do cross the line please drop us an email anytime! We are goofy but there is nothing we take more seriously than making sure this is the best education possible, anywhere!

Let's face it, sometimes we "kind of know" an answer when we're studying but that's not the kind of confidence we need on exam day. Hippo's confidence rating asks you to rate how well you think you know an answer and uses that information to show you an accurate score as well as get you more questions in your less confident areas-- so you can turn that guess into an "absolutely"!

Adaptive means that every question you answer gives our algorithm information about your unique strengths and weaknesses. Combined with our confidence rating feature, each incorrect answer lets our system know that you need more similar questions and likewise, correct answers mean you'll see less of that organ system or dimension for a while. You can control how long it takes to see answered questions again in the gear settings menu.

Test Mode simulates the experience of your exam by withholding answers or score information until you complete your final question. You can still review it all at the end. Learning Mode will help you go deeper, giving you immediate feedback about your answers and how you compare to similar test takers. In both modes, you can bookmark or make notes on questions as you go.

The Hippo Selected algorithm uses your test scores to show you more questions in your weak areas and fewer in your strong, giving you the most efficient study time. However, sometimes you just want to drill Nephrology, we get it. That's what "Pick Topics" is for.

The progress score is the total number of correctly answered question items divided by your total number of answer attempts, averaged over time.

Our formula factors in your number of attempts to give you a more accurate picture of your performance by organ system.

They are the average scores of clinicians who have taken the same question sets from Hippo. Their practice levels are self reported.