What Is Ora

Ora is an all-in-one, AI-powered medical education platform that has you covered from M1 to MD. It combines a spaced-repetition QBank, flashcards, videos, an AI copilot, a medical knowledge library, and adaptive study planning into a single integrated resource. The platform covers USMLE Step 1 and Step 2, all eight NBME Shelf exams, COMLEX Level I and II, and school-specific preclinical exams.

Ora began as our CEO Ryan's personal study system at UCSF, built after he watched classmates drown in scattered resources and waste time cobbling together their own. His method worked — he scored in the 100th percentile on the USMLE — and he wanted to help others do the same. Ryan teamed up with his childhood best friends Kevin, a former Square engineer, and Jake, a healthcare UX designer, to build Ora. Meet the team →

Since launching in 2024, Ora has helped over 37,000 med students score higher on their exams and is now used at more than 75% of US medical schools. An advisory board of 25+ medical students and physicians actively informs product decisions and upholds content quality, and the team runs weekly interviews with med students to stay aligned with their needs and with any changes to the USMLE. Ora is backed by top investors including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Zeno Partners, and Pioneer Fund.

In a recent RCT, Ora delivered 3x the USMLE score increase of UWorld over a two-week study period (peer-reviewed publication coming soon).

Behind all of it is one goal: to create a unified gold standard for medical education.

Here's what's inside the platform.

QBank

Over 12,000 questions spanning Step 1, Step 2, Shelf, COMLEX, and foundational topics — continuously reviewed by physicians and AI for accuracy and alignment with the latest exam content.

The only spaced-repetition QBank. When you miss a question, Ora automatically schedules a follow-up variant: a different vignette testing the same learning objective. Your weakest areas get the most reps without you having to track anything.

Auto-linked flashcards. Missed questions automatically assign the relevant flashcards to your review deck. No hunting or manual unsuspending. This is one of the features students give us the most positive feedback on.

Flexible study modes. Run blocks timed or untimed (i.e. tutor-mode), and use try-again mode to keep attempting a question until you get it right.

A real test-day environment. The QBank mirrors the NBME interface with everything you'd expect on exam day: question navigator, flagging, notes, highlights, answer cross-outs, calculator, lab values, text zoom, and time accommodations.

Flashcards

Spaced-repetition flashcards powered by FSRS, the most advanced spaced-repetition algorithm available.

Linked to the QBank. Flashcards are automatically scheduled when you miss a QBank question, so your review is driven by your actual weak areas.

Customizable. Supports two-button and four-button rating, adjustable intervals, keyboard shortcuts, and Anki remote/controller input.

Actively maintained. Unlike large community decks that accumulate duplicates and outdated content over time, Ora's library is reviewed by physicians and AI to stay lean and current.

AI copilot on every card. Every flashcard has a built-in AI copilot for follow-up questions on the spot.

Anki Sync

If you already have significant Anki progress, you don't have to leave it behind. Import your .apkg decks and Ora transfers your existing scheduling history, matches your cards to its own library, merges duplicates, and corrects known errors — so you can pick up in Ora without losing your progress.

Videos

Over 300 interactive videos covering the fundamentals of medicine, with the library constantly expanding. Includes both Ora-produced content and Osmosis videos.

Interactive question overlays. Videos auto-pause for embedded recall questions, so you're actively engaging with the material instead of watching passively.

AI Copilot

A context-aware AI companion available inside QBank questions, flashcards, and videos. When an explanation doesn't fully click, ask a follow-up right there without losing your place. The copilot also works as a general chat for any medical education topic.

Articles & Topic Browser

A comprehensive knowledge library of over 1,400 articles covering the full USMLE content outline, linked directly to the QBank and flashcards — so you can go from a missed question to the relevant article and back seamlessly.

Browse by topic. Navigate by organ system, subject, specialty, or COMLEX topic, and toggle between exam-specific and global views. Drill down from broad topics into specific concepts and articles.

Study any topic on demand. From any topic in the tree, launch videos, QBank questions, or flashcards directly, allowing for easy targeted studying.

Daily Study Sessions

Set your exam date and goal, and Ora generates a personalized daily session that adapts to your performance and timeline. Content is taught from highest to lowest yield, so if you skip a day or fall behind, you're always covering the most important material first. If your exam date changes, the workload rebalances automatically.

Five workload levels control the scope and depth of your study plan:

• Cram: only the highest-yield content, for last-minute review
• High Yield: the most important topics, with lower-yield material skippedl
• Standard: broad coverage with only the lowest-yield material trimmed; the default for solid exam prep
• Advanced: deeper coverage into lower-yield material for broader mastery
• Gunner: the full content library with nothing cut, for complete coverage and top scores

You can also customize your daily session size — how many new flashcards, QBank questions, and videos you see each day — or let Ora recommend a daily load based on your goal and exam date.

Preclinical Workspace

Ora is a full preclinical resource. Build custom exam blocks for your school's curriculum and connect your own material to the rest of the platform.

Content mapping. Upload your lecture slides, PDFs, or articles and Ora maps them to related QBank questions, flashcards, videos, and library articles, instantly connecting your school-specific material to real practice content.

Custom blocks and exams. Create custom blocks and exams that mirror your school's curriculum. Organize uploads by lecture within each block, rename or reorder them as needed, and study multiple lectures together as you build toward exam day.

Shared and school-verified blocks. Access shared blocks from classmates at your school, or use Ora-verified blocks at schools where we've curated them directly.

Granular control. Turn specific content types (questions, flashcards, videos, articles) on or off for any lecture or block to match how you want to study.

Performance Tracking

A dashboard surfacing topic-level strengths and weaknesses across QBank and flashcard progress, with filtering by exam and subject. The adaptive study engine uses this data to shape your daily sessions, but you can also use it directly to identify where you need targeted review.

Games

A fun way to learn or take a study break. Games include Question of the Day, Doctordle (medical Wordle), Buzzwords (timed keyword recall), and DDx Doc (differential diagnosis practice). All games are playable for free without an account.

Pricing

Ora is available on web, iOS, and Android.

Free: Limited daily study content, access to all 1,400+ library articles, limited AI interactions, and one lecture upload.

Pro: Full access to everything. $20/month or $200/year.

For context, a typical resource stack runs well over $1,000 per year across multiple subscriptions. Ora replaces or supplements most of it at a fraction of the cost. See plans →