The Gauntlet
The Gauntlet is the final stress test before the real exam. It is not a study session. It is an assessment.
When it unlocks
The Gauntlet is locked until your readiness score reaches 80%.
Below 80%, the Study tab shows it with a lock icon. At 80% it unlocks — and a gauntlet_unlock notification fires the moment you cross the line. Once unlocked, it stays unlocked.
80% is the threshold because below it, the Gauntlet's question difficulty would mostly expose gaps you already know about. At 80% the gaps are more subtle, the misconceptions more sophisticated — and the Gauntlet is calibrated to find them.
What runs when you launch it
When you tap Start the Gauntlet, I generate 30 questions in gauntlet mode. These aren't the same questions as a demo test — they're drawn from the hardest, most complex tier of the syllabus:
- Edge cases.
- Trick scenarios.
- Exception conditions.
- Multi-step reasoning where two of the four options are plausible.
The system prompt for the chat-based gauntlet variant runs on this contract:
GAUNTLET MODE. The candidate has reached 80%+ readiness. This is the final stress test before the real exam. Ask only the hardest, most complex questions in the syllabus. No gentle follow-ups. If wrong: "Incorrect. Rethink." Edge cases, trick scenarios, exception conditions — lead with these. No encouragement during session. Pure assessment.
That's the rule. No encouragement. No partial credit for "good thinking but wrong answer." No Socratic hints. Wrong is wrong; correct is correct.
The visual difference
The Gauntlet runs on a dark theme — #1A1A18 background, off-white text, #1D9E75 accent. This is intentional. The lighter Gauntlet UI of the rest of the app conveys "we're working together." The Gauntlet's UI conveys "you're being assessed."
There's no flagging mid-Gauntlet on the chat-based variant, no flagged-review pass at the end. You answer each question, you live with it, you move on. Same UX a real proctor wouldn't break for you.
The MCQ-batch Gauntlet variant (the version that runs on the demo-test-style screen) keeps the timer on for time-taken telemetry but doesn't pressure you with a wall clock — the pressure is the question difficulty itself.
What you'll see at the end
A Gauntlet results screen with:
- Pass/fail verdict. The Gauntlet has a higher passing bar than a normal mock test.
- Time taken.
- Domain breakdown — same as a demo test.
- Cognitive errors for every wrong answer, classified and written to your error log.
- Gauntlet Cleared badge on a pass — surfaces on your profile and is one of the five conditions for the pass guarantee. Specifically: at least one Gauntlet completed at 80%+ accuracy.
Clearing the Gauntlet doesn't end your roadmap. There may still be milestones, phase exams, and exam-day prep ahead. But it's a meaningful checkpoint — most users who pass the Gauntlet pass the real exam shortly after.
How often you should run one
Once. Maybe twice. The Gauntlet is the calibration of last resort — running it back-to-back doesn't reveal new information unless you've changed something in your prep between attempts.
A reasonable cadence is one Gauntlet attempt at the 80% unlock, then a second attempt right before exam day if the first one was below the pass bar.
Pricing
The Gauntlet is the most expensive single action in the app, on a credits-per-hour-of-content basis. Question generation costs more (the difficulty filter narrows the pool considerably), and the closing report is more detailed.
The exact cost is on the Pricing page. If your balance is too low, the paywall blocks launch before generation runs.
Don't launch the Gauntlet for warm-up. It's not a warm-up. If you fail it badly, that's useful — it tells you readiness has overestimated where you are. But you can also burn 30 minutes and a chunk of credits to learn what a focus session would have told you.
Gauntlet vs. Demo Test
| Demo test | Gauntlet | |
|---|---|---|
| Unlock | 60% readiness | 80% readiness |
| Question count | Real exam count (60–90) | 30 |
| Difficulty | Real exam mix | Hardest tier only |
| Wall-clock pressure | Real exam duration | Time taken recorded, no hard cap |
| Theme | Light | Dark |
| Flagging | Yes | No |
| Encouragement | Standard | None |
| Use case | Calibration | Final assessment |
If you're not at 80%, run focus sessions and demo tests until you are. There is no shortcut into the Gauntlet.