Content updates

MLS exam retake plan and practice questions

Plan a retake from your ASCP score report, and see what makes a useful practice question with two examples.

• MLS exam retake plan
• Free MLS practice questions
• MLS exam study guide

MLS exam topics and study guides

Explore the ASCP BOC examination areas, then make a study plan using lessons, lab practice, daily review and exam practice.

• ASCP MLS exam topics
• MLS exam study guide
• Exam practice

The Gram stain bench shows the real technique

Each dropper bottle lifts off its stand, turns over the slide and drips its reagent from one control spot to the other. Forceps tilt the slide on its rack over the sink for every rinse and for the decolorizer. A wash bottle rinses from the frosted end, the decolorizer runoff fades as it clears, and absorbent paper blots the finished slide.

• Gram stain

Corrections to the six teaching scenes on the lab floor

Inside a CBC flags every result against the lab's adult intervals, gives the newborn specimen newborn values and draws the flow cell from above. The teaching slides flag every value outside its interval. Set up the microscope keeps the condenser's opening when the objective changes. Inside a result draws the photometer in its real order, and its gold-top tubes show clot, gel and serum. The specimen time machine releases potassium in step with the measured rise. In the Gram stain's thick-smear case, the control reads correctly.

• Inside a CBC
• Microscope
• Set up the microscope

Corrections to four lessons, the PT and APTT guide and three guided steps

Viridans-group streptococci are now described as oral flora that often contaminate blood cultures. The rarer mecC gene encodes PBP2c, which some PBP2a tests miss. The methicillin resistance lesson and guided step now give CLSI's mecA or PBP2a follow-up for other staphylococci with an oxacillin MIC of 1 or 2 µg/mL. The PT and APTT guide adds direct thrombin inhibitors to the causes of an isolated prolonged APTT. The citrate adjustment formula now says its total volume includes the citrate. The anion gap lesson adds propylene glycol and 5-oxoproline to the causes of a high gap.

• Blood Cultures and Gram-Positive Blood Isolates
• Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Resistance Mechanisms
• Hemostasis Disease States and Laboratory Determinations

Review remembers the mistakes you make in guided steps

When a wrong answer in a guided step matches a named mistake, Review brings it back three days later with another question that tests the same mistake. Progress lists the mistakes coming back and the ones you have stopped making.

• Review
• Progress

Inside a result becomes a guided tour of the chemistry analyzer

Inside a result now opens by explaining what an automated chemistry analyzer is and how it measures. You can turn and zoom a 3D model to see its 13 parts, follow a glucose or ALT test one step at a time, and see how absorbance at 340 nm becomes a result.

• Inside a result
• The lab

Microscope instructions stay on the screen

The Microscope keeps its instructions for each step, from the CBC to the verified report, on the screen. Walkthroughs open from How this works.

• Microscope

Separate urine photographs, plainer exam choices and fuller printed lab records

The urine microscopy lesson shows nineteen separately labeled photographs, each viewable at full size. Twenty-seven exam answer choices use shorter, plainer statements. Printed lab and exam records show readable tables, Name and Date fields, page numbers and every finding, and QC records include the Levey-Jennings chart. The quality control quick guide fits one Letter sheet.

• Urine Microscopy: Cells, Casts, Crystals, and Artifacts
• Exam practice
• The lab

A timed exam room with a calculator, and one step track at every lab station

A timed exam runs in a quiet room with a calculator and a scratchpad, and its results fill in the exam blueprint. Every lab station shows its steps on one track. Chemistry results appear on the lab screen, the antigram on a clipboard and the QC chart on the analyzer. Organism names in lessons are set in italics.

• Exam practice
• The lab
• Chemistry station

One finish for every lab case, and figures that open full size

Every lab station ends a case with the same finish, which names what you did and what comes next. A Dilution case sent back to the bench earns credit only after it is verified, and Dilution shows its steps on a track. Lesson figures and guide photographs open full size in one viewer, and the Microscope record prints on the shared record sheet.

• The lab
• Dilution station
• Microscope

Microscope counter keys laid out like a number pad, and lab finishes that show a safety miss first

The Microscope's counter keys sit like a number pad. A verified differential ends with a finish and prints its whole record. Every lab finish shows a missed safety-critical step first and keeps celebrations for clean work.

• Microscope
• The lab

Corrections to two Hematology steps, the Blood bank and the adaptive exam

Hematology Steps 1 and 2 now agree on how the analyzer reports the MCV, and Step 2 has a case of its own. In the Blood bank, units can no longer be tagged or a workup verified while a clinically significant antibody has not been ruled out. The adaptive exam leaves out questions from your recent exams, and its results name a weak area and a lesson for every miss. On a phone, each lab station offers 10 questions on its topic.

• Red-cell indices
• How analyzers count cells and measure hemoglobin
• Blood bank

LatticeMLS moves to its new site

The library, quick reference guides, Anki decks and five laboratory stations now share one site. The lab includes the Dilution station, the Microscope, the QC workstation, The phone and the Chemistry station. The Microscope brings individual cell photographs together with differential counting, case interpretation and a printable review of your work. A free account adds a study plan, guided steps and a daily review, and keeps your progress on any device. Lessons keep their reviewed text.

• Library
• Quick reference guides
• Study cards and Anki decks

Practice exam: timed mocks and practice sets

The practice exam opens with timed 100-question mocks and practice sets of 10, 25 or 50 questions in one area or all of them. Each answer shows its explanation and a lesson to read, and a timed mock ends with a readiness band.

• Exam practice

Clarified how chemistry explanations are shared

The chemistry simulator previously implied that written explanations were sent to an instructor. They appear in the printable practice record. Learners can share that record themselves through their instructor’s usual process.

• Chemistry station

More ways to move between reading and practice

Added related practice links and companion lessons for quick reference guides. Guide text is larger on screen, and a wide table shows that it scrolls sideways. Printed guides are unchanged.

• Library
• Quick reference guides
• Dilutions and dilution factors

A study space connected to the Library

Added flashcards for review, repeatable lesson self-checks, saved lessons, and an automatic study record in the current browser. Supporting lesson links let readers return to the explanation behind an answer.

• Study
• Dilution Math
• Quality Control, Method Evaluation, and Quality Management