How to practise for the PM&R oral boards without a study partner

By The MockOral.ai team. Updated October 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026.

The ABPMR recommends practising vignettes with a mentor or study partner, taking each case through all five domains. That is good advice and hard to arrange. Here is every practical way to get repetitions, what each does well, and how to combine them. We sell one of these options; we have tried to be fair to the rest.

What good practice looks like for Part II

Part II is two 50-minute sessions of four vignettes each, every vignette moving through domains A to E with an examiner leading. Practice should give you:

1. A vignette delivered domain by domain, with the information for each domain given at the start of that domain.
2. Someone asking "why", because examiners will.
3. Out-loud answers, at a moderate pace, specific and systematic.
4. Feedback on what you missed in each domain.

The ABPMR's own prep tips suggest exactly this: identify patient cases, take them through domains A to E with the reasoning behind your decisions, and evaluate each other on completeness and accuracy.

The options compared

Virtual study groups

The ABPMR's prep tips suggest connecting with your residency cohort to form a virtual study group. Because the exam itself is virtual, practising over video is realistic. To make it work:

• Rotate roles: candidate, examiner, observer. The observer scores each domain.
• Give the examiner a script for each domain, including the information to reveal at the start of each.
• Keep a timer: roughly 12 minutes per vignette.
• Practise on camera, with headphones, in the room you plan to use.

The ABPMR videos

The ABPMR lists ten Part II videos, including two vignette examples where you pause, answer, then hear ABPMR volunteers break down what examiners look for, plus a mock oral exam and FAQs about Domain A and common misconceptions. Watch the vignette examples early, and again a few weeks before the exam.

Books and case collections

Useful for case variety across the ABPMR outline's diagnostic categories (cerebrovascular disease, other CNS disorders, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, spine disorders and radiculopathy, neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal and sports injuries, amputation, cancer and other medical conditions) and its areas of focus, such as acute and chronic pain management and pediatric rehabilitation. Read the case, close the book, and answer out loud domain by domain before you look at the answer.

General chatbots

A prompt you can adapt:

Use voice mode if available, and check every clinical fact against a trusted reference. Chatbots are good at asking questions and weaker at judging answers.

AI voice examiners

Several companies offer voice AI examiners for oral boards, and PMR Boards is one of them: it runs ABPMR-style vignettes aloud through all five domains, keeps time, and reports what you covered after each run. The honest limits: it is not an ABPMR examiner, it can be wrong, and it covers only the vignettes in its library. It works best for repetitions between sessions with people, not instead of them.

A combined weekly rhythm

• Two or three solo vignettes (AI examiner, chatbot, or a book case answered aloud and recorded).
• One study group session with at least two vignettes per person.
• Every few weeks: a session with a mentor, or a full 50-minute block of four vignettes.
• Always: one recording a week replayed, listening for vague answers ("I'd get a full history") and for Domain E answers that describe instead of speak.

For what each domain measures, read the five domains explained. For communication practice, see Domain E in depth.