MD Firecracker...as a q-bank?

[Foot Fetish]

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So basically I am unexpectedly 2 weeks ahead of schedule in my Step 1 studying, and I'm trying to decide how to take advantage of that. I will have already done Zanki, Rx, Kaplan, UW x2, all NBMEs, and FA.

One idea I had is doing Firecracker. I looked it up, and apparently they have ~2,300 boards-style questions. I realize it's not really meant to be used as a question bank in this manner, but hey, why not? To people who have used Firecracker, how do these questions compare to the Big 3 (UW, Rx, Kaplan)?

Thanks 🙂

 

[DNC127]

True Learn's USMLE bank is $$ IMO. Of the banks I have done / almost completed I would rank them Uworld>>True learn USMLE > Rx >>>kaplan (quit kaplan at like 600 qs because it was much easier than the other ones IMO). I like that Rx has the first aide page, but I think TL's bank is slightly more challenging than Rx. I have used FC and the questions were decent.

 

[Aerus]

You're literally going to kill Step 1, third year pimp questions, and the Shelf exams. I'm excited to hear how you do!

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

just take your damn test and enjoy your time off

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Firecrackers q bank is trash in my opinion.

They repeat stems with slight variation, making it almost cookbook. Mostly first order, and stuffed with buzzwords.

I was hitting 90% on blocks, while in the 50-60% range on Uworld.

 

[Newyawk]

what were your nbme practice scores?

 

[libertyyne]

 

[kb1900]

Be the first person to do three passes of uw and fa

 

[Goro]

So basically I am unexpectedly 2 weeks ahead of schedule in my Step 1 studying, and I'm trying to decide how to take advantage of that. I will have already done Zanki, Rx, Kaplan, UW x2, all NBMEs, and FA.

One idea I had is doing Firecracker. I looked it up, and apparently they have ~2,300 boards-style questions. I realize it's not really meant to be used as a question bank in this manner, but hey, why not? To people who have used Firecracker, how do these questions compare to the Big 3 (UW, Rx, Kaplan)?

Thanks 🙂

As Q-banks go, I'm not that crazy about Firecracker. Too many first order questions or pseudoquestions. But I'm big fan of the idea that the more questions you can do, the better.

 

[kb1900]

No pressure or anything (most of us are only expecting a ~280 or so) but plz don’t ghost us after u get your scores back like failedatlife did

 

[libertyyne]

No pressure or anything (most of us are only expecting a ~280 or so) but plz don’t ghost us after u get your scores back like failedatlife did

This. 280 or bust.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

So you *have* already done all those or you anticipate finishing 2 weeks ahead of schedule? Assuming a May/June test date, that's a lot of time for life stuff to happen and slow you down.

 

[libertyyne]

Do the pre-test books series have anything to contribute to the regimen?

 

[sharkbyte]

When are you taking your test? The only thing I'd be curious about is the idea of diminishing returns. Based on your other posts, if you've already finished all of Zanki, all of Kaplan, all of Rx, and all of UW and you got >80% on a full first pass of UW then you already know your stuff really well it seems like. I'm not sure what would be the purpose of doing more questions or anything else. I think you should just take all the NBMEs, and that will give you a good idea of where you stand.

 

[libertyyne]

Are you planning on doing all the old NBMEs?

 

[Foot Fetish]

what were your nbme practice scores?

So you *have* already done all those or you anticipate finishing 2 weeks ahead of schedule? Assuming a May/June test date, that's a lot of time for life stuff to happen and slow you down.

Are you planning on doing all the old NBMEs?

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my first post. My test is in June. I HAVE completed Kaplan (80%), UW first pass (83%), Rx (90%), and Zanki/FA.

Over the next month I will complete all of the NBMEs (including the "old" ones), and then I will start my second pass of UWorld.

What I meant in my OP is that if I stick to my very fast-paced schedule, which I fully intend to, then there will be a 2-week surplus of "unscheduled" time for me to play around with.

Currently I am leaning towards biting the bullet and doing Pathoma (even though I think it's just a First Aid clone)...because it would be really dumb if I missed easy points by not using one of the most popular resources. I am also considering doing a page-by-page read-through of First Aid 2018. If I did both of these things, it would basically fill that 2 week gap.

The other, more unorthodox option would be to go digging for esoteric minutiae in Goljan, Robbins, BRS/HY, and/or a 4th question bank...So, I guess it comes down to - do i want to play it safe and try to truly master the conventional resources so that I don't miss a single UFAP entity, or do I take a gamble and try to prepare for the 5% of so-called "wtf questions" that invariably crop up on every test...

 

[DubbiDoctor]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my first post. My test is in June. I HAVE completed Kaplan (80%), UW first pass (83%), Rx (90%), and Zanki/FA.

Over the next month I will complete all of the NBMEs (including the "old" ones), and then I will start my second pass of UWorld.

What I meant in my OP is that if I stick to my very fast-paced schedule, which I fully intend to, then there will be a 2-week surplus of "unscheduled" time for me to play around with.

Currently I am leaning towards biting the bullet and doing Pathoma (even though I think it's just a First Aid clone)...because it would be really dumb if I missed easy points by not using one of the most popular resources. I am also considering doing a page-by-page read-through of First Aid 2018. If I did both of these things, it would basically fill that 2 week gap.

The other, more unorthodox option would be to go digging for esoteric minutiae in Goljan, Robbins, BRS/HY, and/or a 4th question bank...So, I guess it comes down to - do i want to play it safe and try to truly master the conventional resources so that I don't miss a single UFAP entity, or do I take a gamble and try to prepare for the 5% of so-called "wtf questions" that invariably crop up on every test...

Are you at the top of your class, besides for Step 1 prep?

 

[Foot Fetish]

Are you at the top of your class, besides for Step 1 prep?

We're P/F. I definitely used to get top marks during M1 when I studied only class material. Now that I'm focusing almost exclusively on Step 1, I'm scoring around the class average.

 

[Fission Chips]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my first post. My test is in June. I HAVE completed Kaplan (80%), UW first pass (83%), Rx (90%), and Zanki/FA.

Over the next month I will complete all of the NBMEs (including the "old" ones), and then I will start my second pass of UWorld.

What I meant in my OP is that if I stick to my very fast-paced schedule, which I fully intend to, then there will be a 2-week surplus of "unscheduled" time for me to play around with.

Currently I am leaning towards biting the bullet and doing Pathoma (even though I think it's just a First Aid clone)...because it would be really dumb if I missed easy points by not using one of the most popular resources. I am also considering doing a page-by-page read-through of First Aid 2018. If I did both of these things, it would basically fill that 2 week gap.

The other, more unorthodox option would be to go digging for esoteric minutiae in Goljan, Robbins, BRS/HY, and/or a 4th question bank...So, I guess it comes down to - do i want to play it safe and try to truly master the conventional resources so that I don't miss a single UFAP entity, or do I take a gamble and try to prepare for the 5% of so-called "wtf questions" that invariably crop up on every test...

From what I've noticed with my own prep and NBME scores, it isn't the WTF questions that separate the REALLY high scores from high scores. It's about not making a single dumb mistake throughout the entire test. Not one. That's a lot more difficult than it sounds. If your test is composed of 5% WTF questions, you randomly guess 1% correct, and don't make any other mistakes, you just pulled a 96% on Step 1. A 96% on NBME 18 is in the 270s... a 96% on Step 1 (which is a more difficult exam)... hard to see it being less than a 270.

Additionally, I think you're missing the point of the WTF questions... you CAN'T prepare for them. You're not going to find them in things like Goljan or another question bank... The minutiae in Goljan is low yield, not WTF. If you really think those two weeks are going to be best spent preparing for something you can't prepare for, I would start at https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/browse-by-first-letter/ and go through disease by disease, learning the (literally) thousands of diseases that don't show up in Robbins. Maybe you'll get one question from those on your test... maybe not.

 

[001002154]

What was your study schedule to knock out all of that?

 

[Ho0v-man]

If this guy fails step 1, I’ll just drop out.

 

[IslandStyle808]

As Q-banks go, I'm not that crazy about Firecracker. Too many first order questions or pseudoquestions. But I'm big fan of the idea that the more questions you can do, the better.

They do have a lot of 2nd order vignettes (a few 3rd order), but they have to be selected separately. Otherwise, you will just be seeing the first order and pseudo-vingettes.



To answer the question, I think what is good about it is that you can select specific topics and then pound through the first order questions. If you do anki, you do have all the high yield material, but you cannot select for topics you are weak on unlike firecracker. So I think this is where its strength is at, but it can be cumbersome to use since the space repetition is not as good as anki. You can sleep the cards (you see them after a few questions), but you cannot set the length of the repetition. So it has its strengths and weaknesses.

 

[deferment baby]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my first post. My test is in June. I HAVE completed Kaplan (80%), UW first pass (83%), Rx (90%), and Zanki/FA.

Over the next month I will complete all of the NBMEs (including the "old" ones), and then I will start my second pass of UWorld.

What I meant in my OP is that if I stick to my very fast-paced schedule, which I fully intend to, then there will be a 2-week surplus of "unscheduled" time for me to play around with.

Currently I am leaning towards biting the bullet and doing Pathoma (even though I think it's just a First Aid clone)...because it would be really dumb if I missed easy points by not using one of the most popular resources. I am also considering doing a page-by-page read-through of First Aid 2018. If I did both of these things, it would basically fill that 2 week gap.

The other, more unorthodox option would be to go digging for esoteric minutiae in Goljan, Robbins, BRS/HY, and/or a 4th question bank...So, I guess it comes down to - do i want to play it safe and try to truly master the conventional resources so that I don't miss a single UFAP entity, or do I take a gamble and try to prepare for the 5% of so-called "wtf questions" that invariably crop up on every test...

What was your study schedule to complete all three Q banks before dedicated?

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

Pathoma is not just a first aid clone. Many times there are discrepancies between the information on Pathoma compared to First Aid, sometimes more or less information. Many times it even covers more topics. So +1 for investing into the first aid “clone”..