Firecracker

[JackShephard MD]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

med.firecracker.me

New medical education website rooted in an adaptive learning platform. Looks impressive, check it out.

Cheers.

 

[ulikedaggers]

It is back up to $399

Weak. I'm waiting for another sale and I anticipate a pretty good one in the coming months.

 

[notbobtrustme]

what the ****, why is "never see again" hidden away under the Save button? ugh, just adds more clicks for no reason.

is there a fast way to do this in order to file away cards quickly? Each update seems to take more away while putting less in.

 

[bucks900]

what the ****, why is "never see again" hidden away under the Save button? ugh, just adds more clicks for no reason.

is there a fast way to do this in order to file away cards quickly? Each update seems to take more away while putting less in.

I totally agree.

 

[Renaissance Man]

what the ****, why is "never see again" hidden away under the Save button? ugh, just adds more clicks for no reason.

is there a fast way to do this in order to file away cards quickly? Each update seems to take more away while putting less in.

Write in and tell them this. I did that today and I am hoping they listen!

 

[Bancrofti]

Agreed. I don't think they're listening to anyone though. Maybe mass emails would get the trick? There aren't that many people that even post in this thread though. Between the updates that serve no purpose, the lack of notification about changes, and the apparent disabling of the ability to rate questions, I've definitely been left scratching my head.

 

[Bancrofti]

It would be nice to know what the question load for questions is without having to enter each specific topic. On days like today where I left flagging new topics for the end of the day and all I want to do is sleep, it would be nice to know which topics are more lazy-friendly vs. the 20+ question monsters that I need to do first thing in the morning.

 

[deep122]

So long-time reader first time poster---I'm coming up on end of M1 and some of my classmates are using Firecracker. But reading here I don't know when I should buy it, if I should wait for a sale, how much should I pay?

Am I hurting myself waiting until "the right sale" by not using FC yet? How much should I pay? How much i it worth? And how often do they run these deals?

I got it early before they raised they prices dramatically. But it looks like they're running two sales currently that I found on their blog and facebook page. You'll need an account to access them as far as I know. Looks like the sales range from the 20-25 dollars per month (the regular is 33 dollars a month or so).

https://med.firecracker.me/purchase/treasure_savings
https://med.firecracker.me/purchase/boardprep

 

[Brain Bucket]

So long-time reader first time poster---I'm coming up on end of M1 and some of my classmates are using Firecracker. But reading here I don't know when I should buy it, if I should wait for a sale, how much should I pay?

Am I hurting myself waiting until "the right sale" by not using FC yet? How much should I pay? How much i it worth? And how often do they run these deals?

After your one month trial you'll know whether you want to shell out what they're asking. Most people (now) are spending ~230 a year after the discounts, which is about what they're asking right now.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Write in and tell them this. I did that today and I am hoping they listen!

yea, I've already sent them feedback about this, hopefully it'll get changed quickly.

 

[BoneMD]

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker first time poster here. I have a question about using Firecracker that I've searched for everywhere and can't seem to find a good answer for and was hoping someone could shed some light for me. I'm currently an MS-I and my school has an integrated curriculum. I'm trying to flag topics that I've hit upon in class but I'm finding the topics often contain more detail or information than what my class has covered, mostly in non-organ specific topics. This gets frustrating because I might know 80% of the items in a topic but then I get cards on things I haven't covered (and won't cover until I get into the specific system later in the curriculum; For example we had an intro to immuno and covered a variety of diseases but some of the details won't be taught until subsequent organ modules) and therefore my card review becomes pretty inefficient fairly quickly. We're just getting into organ systems now (Finishing heme and starting GI)and I'm hoping this will become less of an issue as we move away from the Fundamental classes. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how they've gone about this? Do you just try to learn to extra material or maybe would it help to go into lite mode? Thanks in advance!

 

[Druggernaut]

Has anyone had any response to their feedback lately or seen changes come from it? I used the program for Step 1, and now am using it for Step 2, and I've been really disappointed. They formerly seemed very responsive to feedback, sometimes even going as far as providing citations for why what was on a card was correct or going into a discussion about conflicting information, but now I'm still seeing information that's either outdated or just flat out wrong when I had sent them feedback and sources months ago. It's awfully concerning, since I'm probably not recognizing all their errors and learning wrong information.

I guess they've decided that burying the "adjust schedule" option in a dropdown menu or eliminating the "never see again" option (which was helpful for cutting out the cards that were erroneous or irrelevant to the question) is a better use of their time, at least for the Step 2 product.

 

[mcloaf]

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker first time poster here. I have a question about using Firecracker that I've searched for everywhere and can't seem to find a good answer for and was hoping someone could shed some light for me. I'm currently an MS-I and my school has an integrated curriculum. I'm trying to flag topics that I've hit upon in class but I'm finding the topics often contain more detail or information than what my class has covered, mostly in non-organ specific topics. This gets frustrating because I might know 80% of the items in a topic but then I get cards on things I haven't covered (and won't cover until I get into the specific system later in the curriculum; For example we had an intro to immuno and covered a variety of diseases but some of the details won't be taught until subsequent organ modules) and therefore my card review becomes pretty inefficient fairly quickly. We're just getting into organ systems now (Finishing heme and starting GI)and I'm hoping this will become less of an issue as we move away from the Fundamental classes. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how they've gone about this? Do you just try to learn to extra material or maybe would it help to go into lite mode? Thanks in advance!

I just suck it up and learn the extra stuff. I figure the more work I put in now when I have the time, the less stressed I'll be next year when we're covering more material and I'm trying to do qbanks along with class, etc. Plus it makes a lot of my exam questions easier (for example, on our last test we had covered basic endocrine and our professor tried to throw us a curveball question about sheehan's syndrome, it would have been reasonably doable without knowing the stuff ahead of time but having covered it in FC basically made it free points).

 

[Apoplexy__]

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how they've gone about this? Do you just try to learn to extra material or maybe would it help to go into lite mode? Thanks in advance!

I agree with mcloaf. I just learned the extra stuff, and it actually was a big advantage later on in Semester 3 for me. There were actually multiple times in small-group where our facilitators tried pimping us with stuff we hadn't learned, that I had picked up "accidentally". You'll find that doing so will help you start memorizing the highest-yield correlations and relationships early, so that when you can truly appreciate them, they'll fall right into place.

If you can, try and just briefly Google stuff that you have absolutely no clue about. I did this and yes, it became a bit painstaking, but the extra 15 min to get a background on 10% of a card you have zero knowledge on ends up being >15 min you save by memorizing it quickly and not mindlessly trying endlessly to force-memorize it without logic.

 

[Dires]

I was really considering getting FC, but 39$ a month is ridiculous. Seems like the ideal review for M1-M2 summer...

 

[ulikedaggers]

I was really considering getting FC, but 39$ a month is ridiculous. Seems like the ideal review for M1-M2 summer...

IMO it's a waste of money to use it just for the summer. Save the cash and just read through FA.

 

[Isradoc16]

Has anyone had any response to their feedback lately or seen changes come from it? I used the program for Step 1, and now am using it for Step 2, and I've been really disappointed. They formerly seemed very responsive to feedback, sometimes even going as far as providing citations for why what was on a card was correct or going into a discussion about conflicting information, but now I'm still seeing information that's either outdated or just flat out wrong when I had sent them feedback and sources months ago. It's awfully concerning, since I'm probably not recognizing all their errors and learning wrong information.

For the record, I submitted feedback through the pop-up option in the lower right corner of the page on FC and got an email followup within a day. It was general feedback so I don't yet know if anything will change but they claim to have expanded both engineering and content editing staff, so we'll see if things improve.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Brain Bucket]

Yeah, I get emails when they edit the content of cards I submitted feedback for, I just wish it'd be more transparent.

 

[mtu620]

For those sitting the exam this year and have been using Firecracker regularly/extensively, have you noticed an increase in your Qbank or practice exam scores? And could you say your score improvement is due to Firecracker?

 

[DYT]

I have a question. Does anybody notice that the mobile site is very unstable? If I hit refresh, the questions I do would surprisingly reset, and I'd start from question 1.

One more thing, I feel that the mobile site is painfully slow. When I click save and next, it takes a good second or two to switch to the next question. Sometimes, it is up to 5 secs.

I actually use the desktop site on my nexus 5.

 

[Brain Bucket]

For those sitting the exam this year and have been using Firecracker regularly/extensively, have you noticed an increase in your Qbank or practice exam scores? And could you say your score improvement is due to Firecracker?

If you use any resource well, your score is gonna go up, be it robbins, pathoma, goljan, etc; the operative word being USE. If you think you aren't going to use FC, it's useless, if you think it suits your learning style, it'll help.

I have a question. Does anybody notice that the mobile site is very unstable? If I hit refresh, the questions I do would surprisingly reset, and I'd start from question 1.


One more thing, I feel that the mobile site is painfully slow. When I click save and next, it takes a good second or two to switch to the next question. Sometimes, it is up to 5 secs.


I actually use the desktop site on my nexus 5.

I've always used the desktop version because I like to fiddle with when I'll see qs again. Get in touch with support, and if they don't respond, shoot them a tweet or pm them on facebook.

So long-time reader first time poster---I'm coming up on end of M1 and some of my classmates are using Firecracker. But reading here I don't know when I should buy it, if I should wait for a sale, how much should I pay?

Am I hurting myself waiting until "the right sale" by not using FC yet? How much should I pay? How much i it worth? And how often do they run these deals?

I don't think it's going to get much better than this: https://med.firecracker.me/purchase/webinar_rate

 

[ulikedaggers]

Just cracked open the endocrine flags... I guess M1 is started to transition into M2.

I don't think it's going to get much better than this: https://med.firecracker.me/purchase/webinar_rate

Oh man.. $239 for 12 months. Actually, 2x6 months is $1 cheaper (hah). How do you keep finding these deals?

Can I get more opinions about how realistic it is to do FC and a Qbank during MS2? I am really getting a lot out of FC, but I definitely want to prioritize doing Kaplan Qbank throughout MS2, then UWorld towards the end and during dedicated prep time.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Can I get more opinions about how realistic it is to do FC and a Qbank during MS2? I am really getting a lot out of FC, but I definitely want to prioritize doing Kaplan Qbank throughout MS2, then UWorld towards the end and during dedicated prep time.

Very doable. I've done all of the fc that was relevant to the blocks thus far along with UW and RX. I'm leaving kaplan and a second run of UW for last.

 

[Bancrofti]

Second it being doable, but tough. In the weeks that I've been buckled down, I've gotten through flagging 40-50 topics per week, with a 100-250 question daily load, while doing 1-6 kaplan blocks per week, and reading relevant first aid sections.

It is a little difficult at times as my school makes us go to an inane amount of mandatory small groups and other sessions that take up valuable time. But as long as I don't go out heavy drinking and waste half a day recovering afterwards, it hasn't been an issue.

 

[DYT]

When are you guys doing your exam? Can everybody post their scores, in this thread?

 

[mcloaf]

I have a question. Does anybody notice that the mobile site is very unstable? If I hit refresh, the questions I do would surprisingly reset, and I'd start from question 1.

One more thing, I feel that the mobile site is painfully slow. When I click save and next, it takes a good second or two to switch to the next question. Sometimes, it is up to 5 secs.

I actually use the desktop site on my nexus 5.

Yeah the mobile site is pretty crappy. It is slow/unstable on both android and iphone. I'm hoping they'll develop an app sometime soon.

 

[Bancrofti]

I have a question. Does anybody notice that the mobile site is very unstable? If I hit refresh, the questions I do would surprisingly reset, and I'd start from question 1.

One more thing, I feel that the mobile site is painfully slow. When I click save and next, it takes a good second or two to switch to the next question. Sometimes, it is up to 5 secs.

I actually use the desktop site on my nexus 5.

I noticed that as well, but when it glitches out and resets, if you just wait until you go to your desktop you'll see that your answers were saved. It's just a pain if you have a lot of time to kill without access to the desktop as yeah you will have to start over.

 

[Darkskies]

Hi guys,

I only have about 2 full systems of FC completed on comprehensive mode. As my exam is in the middle of June, I've been thinking about switching the setting to light mode. Is this not recommended? What are people's opinions on the use of FC on light mode vis a vis other resources? Please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Polymyxin]

Hi guys,

I only have about 2 full systems of FC completed on comprehensive mode. As my exam is in the middle of June, I've been thinking about switching the setting to light mode. Is this not recommended? What are people's opinions on the use of FC on light mode vis a vis other resources? Please let me know. Thanks!

I'm also thinking about switching to light-mode or abandoning FC altogether. The light-mode varies a lot by topic. Sometimes light-mode is good, but many times it seems very superficial. On the whole, I feel that light-mode is the very obvious stuff. The real meat is in the subtopics, the nitty-gritty details that help me memorize the difficult to remember first-aid material.

I'm at 30% flagged, with exam date of late May/early June. I will not be able to bank everything in time. (side note: I still highly recommend FC to ppl, I just started using it too late. I will likely use it for step 2)

Question for FC users who are taking the exam this "2014 season (like April-June)":
(1) What percent of the database have you banked?
(2) how many questions do you typically do per day (including review + study [ie: newly flagged topics]) ?
(3) How much time per day does FC take for you?

My answers:
30%
300-400
about 3 hrs

Maybe those 3 hrs per day are better spent carefully going over a block of questions in UWorld. What do you think?

 

[Apoplexy__]

Hi guys,

I only have about 2 full systems of FC completed on comprehensive mode. As my exam is in the middle of June, I've been thinking about switching the setting to light mode. Is this not recommended? What are people's opinions on the use of FC on light mode vis a vis other resources? Please let me know. Thanks!

I wouldn't recommend light mode. I've never tried it, but my opinion is exactly the same as Polymyxin's. The real benefit of FC is in the details they go into. I already find that the majority (75%) of FC is pretty much just regular old details that you can find in any review source (some would argue much more). Now that's all well and good, but if you're using another review source, you're already getting that 75% from that other review source. Couple that with reducing FC down to the bare minimum (upping that percentage of replicated material to more like 95%) and you're just wasting your time. Again, just my opinion from someone who hasn't tried light mode.

Question for FC users who are taking the exam this "2014 season (like April-June)":
(1) What percent of the database have you banked?
(2) how many questions do you typically do per day (including review + study [ie: newly flagged topics]) ?
(3) How much time per day does FC take for you?

Maybe those 3 hrs per day are better spent carefully going over a block of questions in UWorld. What do you think?

My answers:
1. 62%
2. I stopped as of January 1 of this year, after using it since May 2013. I was averaging about 150 Q/day for the majority of my use.
3. I clocked myself for 15 weeks and averaged 1.9 hours/day (averaging fluctuations between low usage before tests and days with abnormally high FC usage)

I switched to UWorld+FC, so my answer to your question would be yes. I know several people who want to maintain FC usage along with QBanks. I've heard multiple success stories of high scores when people use FC until the end. Just give yourself an honest assessment of what would benefit your study needs better: gaining a deeper understanding of material vs. hammering down must-knows -- or a compromise of both.

 

[Darkskies]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I really appreciate it. I think I might cut down my FC usage to just Micro and Pharm. Is that a good idea? Does everyone agree that it's too late for me to continue using FC on comprehensive mode for all of the topics? I think I've been wasting some time as I review the First Aid chapters and go through BRS physiology as well. Is it true that FC has everything in BRS physio as well as First Aid? This is a real bummer. How do people study for the boards/retain information without using Firecracker?

 

[mcloaf]

Man, nothing like a new, redundant biochem card to start the week off right.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I really appreciate it. I think I might cut down my FC usage to just Micro and Pharm. Is that a good idea? Does everyone agree that it's too late for me to continue using FC on comprehensive mode for all of the topics? I think I've been wasting some time as I review the First Aid chapters and go through BRS physiology as well. Is it true that FC has everything in BRS physio as well as First Aid? This is a real bummer. How do people study for the boards/retain information without using Firecracker?

Can't say for sure about BRS physio, but FC does have quite a bit of stuff from Costanzo physio. So I'd imagine an even greater percentage of BRS Physio (written by Costanzo) is in FC.

As far as how do people study/retain without FC? The same way we do with FC. If you do Qbanks on random you will basically get a good dose of all the information spread out over several days/weeks. FC just has more structure and takes less time.

 

[Darkskies]

Can't say for sure about BRS physio, but FC does have quite a bit of stuff from Costanzo physio. So I'd imagine an even greater percentage of BRS Physio (written by Costanzo) is in FC.

As far as how do people study/retain without FC? The same way we do with FC. If you do Qbanks on random you will basically get a good dose of all the information spread out over several days/weeks. FC just has more structure and takes less time.

Thanks for the reply. Do you think it's too late for me to continue using FC on comprehensive mode for all of the topics(only have 2 systems or so completed)? Is it a good idea if I solely reserve FC for the Micro and Pharm sections? Also, would you say that FC has everything First Aid covers?

 

[ulikedaggers]

Thanks for the reply. Do you think it's too late for me to continue using FC on comprehensive mode for all of the topics(only have 2 systems or so completed)? Is it a good idea if I solely reserve FC for the Micro and Pharm sections? Also, would you say that FC has everything First Aid covers?

I'm an MS1 and have no idea what the MS2 load is, so I can't say if it's too late. I also haven't looked at the micro or pharm sections so I can't comment on their utility either. As far as FA.. yes, so far everything in FA has shown up in the corresponding FC section. I only have 15% of FC banked though.

 

[Polymyxin]

IMO:
- Yes, I think it is way too late to continue FC on comprehensive mode. I just decided to halt FC-comprehensive for myself. FC is designed to be a long term tool.
- I just switched to light-mode. So far, I do find it helpful. It is slightly superficial in some areas; great in others. I've cut my question load from 300-400 to about 100-200 per day. This will allow me to focus more on getting through Question banks.
- Not sure about FC for Micro and Pharm alone. I haven't started those topics yet.
- I read every single word of BRS Physio twice. FC definitely doesn't cover all of BRS physio. FC does a good job of covering the important stuff. You don't need to know all of BRS Physio for sure.
- Does FC cover all of FA? My answer so far is yes. Does FA cover all of FC? No. As an example, I've banked all of Cardio. I read all of cardio in FA then did all Cardio on Rx. My impression is that FC covers A LOT more than FA. Likely, FC has too much info.
- How do people study/retain without FC? Ha ha, I have the same question my friend. I started my board studying with FC almost from day 1 and now I don't know any other way to memorize. I'm trying to remind myself that most people don't use FC and somehow do it. Also, all the people I know personally who scored >240, never used FC. The key to memorizing with or without FC is repetition, repetition, repetition. Also, the key to doing well is doing question banks. The people who I know scored >240 did 2-3 question banks completely. I'm going to significantly increase my question bank and hope things will stick.

My overall impression is that FC is an amazing product. It is the best way to memorize. But, for the boards you don't need to have everything memorized (yes, a lot needs to be memorized). Much of the information is floating in your head and when you see a question you will put together the needed facts. The question stems will always have more than 1 clue to nudge your brain to the right area.

A lot of effort goes into memorizing the nuanced differences in FC (not to mention all of the extra non-FA material), but if you are confronted with a clinical scenario on exam / Qbank, you don't need to be able to spit out those fine details. The question stem will give more than 1 clue. Also, the exam is multiple choice, and being able to recognize something is a lot easier than memorizing/regurgitating something. (as an analogy: I can't speak my parents' language very well, but I can understand everything in that language).

I don't like using the word overkill, but FC is in fact a bit overkill. Is that a bad thing - N0. Overkill is precisely what gets you a top score. I will try to use FC for step 2, just earlier 😉

 

[triathlete107]

Finally hit 100% banked today after 11 months (minus 6 weeks last summer when I got lazy). Hoping to hold on to doing daily reviews up to my dedicated study period.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Finally hit 100% banked today after 11 months (minus 6 weeks last summer when I got lazy). Hoping to hold on to doing daily reviews up to my dedicated study period.

Nice. How many questions per day?

 

[triathlete107]

My daily review tends to be between 250 and 400, averaging a little over 300. I usually banked 5 cards a day, so I expect the daily flashcards to stabilize at ~250-275 as my mastery for the latest subjects catches up over the next few weeks (overall mastery at 90.1%)

 

[ulikedaggers]

My daily review tends to be between 250 and 400, averaging a little over 300. I usually banked 5 cards a day, so I expect the daily flashcards to stabilize at ~250-275 as my mastery for the latest subjects catches up over the next few weeks (overall mastery at 90.1%)

Does it take you long to do all of them? And are you planning on abandoning FC once dedicated time starts? Sorry for the questions. If you already answered these just let me know and I'll search.

 

[triathlete107]

Depending on how well caffeinated I am, I've been breaking the 300 q/hr barrier pretty regularly for the past few months. The key for me is not dwelling on any one question; within a second or two I should be able to recall the answer and if not, a quick glance at the real answer is all that I need before moving on. Even the MCQs tend to be 1st order questions that after a few times I don't even have to look at the choices. Our school is one of the weird ones that takes Step I at the end of 3rd year, so I really haven't figured out my full study schedule yet and can't answer your second question.

 

[Bancrofti]

That's great advice. I haven't been able to keep that focus at times to be consistent with how long it takes me to do the questions.

I noticed something similar to what you said though, what really increases the time is when I get caught up on something I don't know. I find when I get to a question and I don't know the answer I start thinking of what it is. Then for some reason I zone out and start thinking about something else and 3 minutes later I realize I'm wasting time... when that happens 4 or 5 times while you have 200+ questions it eats up a lot of time. I try to do my questions in blocks of 50 with a 3 minute break in between to listen to a song to keep focused.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Depending on how well caffeinated I am, I've been breaking the 300 q/hr barrier pretty regularly for the past few months. The key for me is not dwelling on any one question; within a second or two I should be able to recall the answer and if not, a quick glance at the real answer is all that I need before moving on. Even the MCQs tend to be 1st order questions that after a few times I don't even have to look at the choices. Our school is one of the weird ones that takes Step I at the end of 3rd year, so I really haven't figured out my full study schedule yet and can't answer your second question.

Wow that's incredible.. I'm only at 15% banked and the ~70 daily review questions I have still takes me about 30 minutes. Mastery is 75%.

 

[Polymyxin]

Finally hit 100% banked today after 11 months (minus 6 weeks last summer when I got lazy). Hoping to hold on to doing daily reviews up to my dedicated study period.

Congrats! Nice knowing it is possible to hit 100% flagged.

I timed myself and average about 15-20 seconds per question (some are 1-2 secs, a couple might take a minute). Using the keyboard shortcuts saves A LOT of time.

 

[bcrocker]

My trial period ended today but they offered me a deal on a subscription that expires at the end of the day. I can't decide between FC and/or picmonic or neither... which one do you guys find more helpful? There's one question on FC where vein was spelt "vain" and that sort of **** makes them lose a lot of credibility but their style of quizzing to learn/memorize is exactly what works for me (flash cards got me through undergrad and this far in med school) but it doesn't matter if I'm learning incorrect info

 

[ulikedaggers]

My trial period ended today but they offered me a deal on a subscription that expires at the end of the day. I can't decide between FC and/or picmonic or neither... which one do you guys find more helpful? There's one question on FC where vein was spelt "vain" and that sort of **** makes them lose a lot of credibility but their style of quizzing to learn/memorize is exactly what works for me (flash cards got me through undergrad and this far in med school) but it doesn't matter if I'm learning incorrect info

I tried picmonic, but I think its utility is dependent on you being able to recall the picture and what the specific picture is associated with (disease, drug, whatever). And to me, recalling the picture and its association(s) takes more brain power than it is worth. I went with FC over picmonic for that reason.

If you get thrown off by typos or think that typos like "vain" make FC less credible.. well, that's kind of ridiculous, but at the end of the day you have to feel good about the resources you're choosing to use.

 

[Bancrofti]

ha... I chuckled a little...

Alcohol Metabolism card in Pharm:

Ethylene glycol (found in atifreeze...)
Methanol (found in industrial solvents)
...

Ethanol (found in college)

 

[001100010010011]

ha... I chuckled a little...

Alcohol Metabolism card in Pharm:

Ethylene glycol (found in atifreeze...)
Methanol (found in industrial solvents)
...

Ethanol (found in college)

Classic.

 

[Apoplexy__]

My trial period ended today but they offered me a deal on a subscription that expires at the end of the day. I can't decide between FC and/or picmonic or neither... which one do you guys find more helpful? There's one question on FC where vein was spelt "vain" and that sort of **** makes them lose a lot of credibility but their style of quizzing to learn/memorize is exactly what works for me (flash cards got me through undergrad and this far in med school) but it doesn't matter if I'm learning incorrect info

I could never personally use picmonic. The few cards I tried reminded me of those awful Q's in FC where they say "Name 9 causes of a Type II hypersensitivity reaction" and stuff. As in, yeah, I could try and come up with 9 Type II hypersensitivity reactions, or I could completely and fully understand the mechanism of a Type II hypersensitivity reaction and completely understand every disease I learn, then know by extension of logic that that disease is T2HS. Similarly, yeah, I could try and remember all 15 details of a picture about a disease, or I could just deeply understand the disease -- deducing 90% of details from logic and putting in minimal effort to memorize the other 10%. Your learning of concepts in a picmonic is dependent on all of the following:
-Remembering every part of the picture (not just the ones that stick out to you)
-Translating images to logical detail (sometimes more difficult than just memorizing it otherwise IMO)
-Not mixing up one picture with another
And, as hinted at above, the approach of picmonic de-emphasizes the use of logic which is of course absolutely key to doing well on QBanks + boards (especially for the questions that you don't know but can reason out). In fact, one of my biggest criticisms of FC is that they sometimes remove logic in their cards in favor of (sometimes awful) mnemonics. But picmonic takes this even further.

Yeah, the typos on FC are embarrassing, and some of the content and Q's are poorly written. But IMO FC >>> picmonic. (who would have thought, in the FC thread?)

 

[pampiniformplex]

I need some advice on whether to finish firecracker or not.

I am currently 712 topics (out of 1109) in with 70% performance. Firecracker has been great for lots of detail-heavy things (drugs, bugs, some high yield associations), but my goal is to finish the remaining 400 firecracker topics by April 1st. I know it is a lot, but I think I can do it (I add 10-15 topics/day right now). My question is- Im currently getting 5-600 cards per day, which takes me 6-8 hours to go through depending on the day & feels like it is becoming more of a burden.

Should I:

1) drop firecracker & focus on questions only (Ive done ~1500, plan to have done ~8000 by my test in mid June)
2) finish firecracker & suck it up because it's working (which admittedly, despite the soul-sucking nature of all these daily 600 cards, it is working..)
3) cut back to lite mode
4) start focusing on bugs, drugs, & biochem (or any other brute-force memorization topics), start flagging the rest '5 never see again' & use pathoma for path
5) profit?

But really, I am at a crossroad and could use the advice.

Thanks.

 

[Bancrofti]

Why are your question loads so high? Did you start recently or are you just being very strict with how you rate questions?