Old guides focused on Dopamine, Serotonin, Acetylcholine, etc. The patched exam now asks about less common neuromodulators (e.g., Agouti-related peptide, Orexin, and Endocannabinoids) in the context of sleep and appetite.

This article serves as your comprehensive guide to understanding what changed, why the old guides no longer work, and how to build a bulletproof study strategy for the 2025-2026 competition season. In the context of the Brain Bee, a “patch” refers to a major update to the official reading list and question database.

But here is the good news: Students who only had access to outdated PDFs now lose their advantage. If you invest in the real materials— Brain Facts , the Bear textbook, and current neuroscience news—you will outperform 90% of competitors who are still trying to run the old “study guide” software on the new exam hardware.