Yea, new app is the worst. I'm really glad I'm locked into this product for the next 6 months. So much potential ....
New app is awful.
I won't have a problem as long as they don't change the desktop site.
It's super slow, freezes constantly, randomly quits, and doesn't autosync. Beyond that I can't say much because everytime I've tried to use it something goes wrong; it is unusable.Well this isn't a helpful comment. How about some more details?
You might have a problem then. But the website won't lose features like search (coming to mobile soon), USMLE questions, adding content, etc. Just the algo change and allowing for quizzes to be started at any level like the app.
It's super slow, freezes constantly, randomly quits, and doesn't autosync. Beyond that I can't say much because everytime I've tried to use it something goes wrong; it is unusable.
You've already got my money so I guess that's the attitude I should expect.
I haven't taken step 1 yet, but from what I hear if you want to do it right, you should not unflag anything. How can you possibly have that many review questions so far? Im also an M1 and only have about 180 topics flagged (granted I havent flagged EVERYTHING I should have yet) I'm sitting anywhere between 80-110 review cards per day, then I flag a few more things. I try to do 130-160 questions/day.Hi all,
M1 here who has been using FC since beginning school basically. For the people who have taken Step 1, did you all keep all the topics flagged still? I'm wondering how this is possible because I'm having so many review questions a day from previous topics (biochemistry for example). I'm utterly tempted to just unflag material from my previous block.
AND WORST: YOU CAN'T SKIP QUESTIONS. This puts a major jam in how I used firecracker (skipped questions I didn't know so that I would see them several times throughout the day). Considering how slow they are at making changes, I would avoid updating this if I could
I may have been a little to haste in judging the new FC app...after messing around with it I actually like it quite a bit. I feel like it gives me more control to do a focused review of a topic than the web system. Its nice that you can choose to questions based on different levels within a topic (for example, pulmonolgy vs. pulm path vs. just emphysema). It's also nice that you don't feel like questions are piling up on you if you skip a day. I'm still getting used to the whole not flagging topics, but rather just going straight to answering questions on the topic.
Change is scary, especially when it comes out of no where and isn't properly explained to you. But I think I'll be sticking with the app over the web version.
In light of some of your other comments, I really appreciate this one 🙂 We strive to continually improve the app and sometimes that means trying out new things. You've done a great job capturing the motivations behind some of those changes. We found that many users were stressed out by flagging topics and accumulating too many questions. Med school is stressful enough without Firecracker adding to that.
As a point of comparison to some of the other negative comments in this thread. We've had over 500,000 recalls recorded from the app in the past 10 days. Building a mobile app that we can release on both Android and iOS with ~30000 questions, offline capabilities, and a bunch of soon-to-be released features while pleasing every user is not an easy task! We take all these comments to heart and will continue to improve both the experience in the app and the way in which we release updates.
Do you plan to keep the calendar approach as an option for current users?
Any interest in addressing the unflag/reflag issue for cards that get edited?
I'm not understanding the dedication to the calendar. You will still have a similar number of questions each day; the 80 is a suggestion. I'd love to have a discussion on why this is important to you versus the new system.
This is fantastic news. Thanks so much for getting this figured out. 👍The flag/unflag issue is fixed in mobile, and will be in the web revamp.
Except firecracker is a voluntary complement to med school. I did not buy firecracker to reduce my daily amount of stress.In light of some of your other comments, I really appreciate this one 🙂 We strive to continually improve the app and sometimes that means trying out new things. You've done a great job capturing the motivations behind some of those changes. We found that many users were stressed out by flagging topics and accumulating too many questions. Med school is stressful enough without Firecracker adding to that.
The benefit of the calendar system is that it forces you to keep up with a pace that you would not maintain if you were to pick an arbitrary amount of questions everyday. I like that. I honestly don't understand why firecracker would try to change a system that is demonstrably fine.I'm not understanding the dedication to the calendar. You will still have a similar number of questions each day; the 80 is a suggestion. I'd love to have a discussion on why this is important to you versus the new system.
Except firecracker is a voluntary complement to med school. I did not buy firecracker to reduce my daily amount of stress.
The benefit of the calendar system is that it forces you to keep up with a pace that you would not maintain if you were to pick an arbitrary amount of questions everyday. I like that. I honestly don't understand why firecracker would try to change a system that is demonstrably fine.
Can you guys give me a timeframe for when the new implementations will reach the website, so that I can discontinue my subscription in a timely fashion?
More or less, yes. The calendar has proven to be a good way for me to measure how fast I can progress with adding questions while keeping a sufficient retention of the questions already included in my routine. Knowing the daily load of questions helps me estimate how much content I should be adding. If not for that, I might as well flag all topics at once, which is not how I want to use this resource. There is already an option to reschedule your questions. I don't see the need to fundamentally change the way the algorithm works just because some user are too lazy to use the product as it is intended.You do realize that by saying this you are admitting that you don't have enough discipline to keep up with the questions without a number on a calendar telling you to do so. There are some days during which there's just not enough time to do FC questions. For example, in the days leading up to a test, I don't want to be answering questions on some random biochemical pathway from first year. In the calendar system, my unanswered questions would build up over those couple of days, in addition to test day (because who the hell wants to do FC after a test!), so by the time the day after the test comes, I have 400+ questions built up which is very stressful.
I think there has been a serious misconception. We are not changing the number of questions you get per day or cutting them to 80. If you're getting 200 a day now, you'll still be getting 200 prioritized questions, they'll just be ordered differently.
The 80 is a suggestion, a goal the average user can hit and feel accomplished. But after you complete 80, there is an option to keep going. If you keep going you continue to get prioritized questions.
I think what we're seeing here is that an option needs to exist to continue telling power users the exact number of questions they receive each day.
Does that solve the misconception?
Ok that's it then -- opting into a daily count.
The intention of the priority is for people that don't follow the daily recommendation, so they always get the most important questions first. The priority reshuffles daily.
Before if you didn't do questions for several days, you'd be stuck playing catchup.
I think there has been a serious misconception. We are not changing the number of questions you get per day or cutting them to 80. If you're getting 200 a day now, you'll still be getting 200 prioritized questions, they'll just be ordered differently.
The 80 is a suggestion, a goal the average user can hit and feel accomplished. But after you complete 80, there is an option to keep going. If you keep going you continue to get prioritized questions.
I think what we're seeing here is that an option needs to exist to continue telling power users the exact number of questions they receive each day.
Does that solve the misconception?
Here I am, sitting in a Doctor's office waiting on my appointment. I would be doing Firecracker, but the app is all crazy and not synced up with the website. Jk @firecracker you know I love you, but really fix it so my bathroom/standing in line at grocery store/waiting on doctor/bored during OMM time is more productive.
I think there has been a serious misconception. We are not changing the number of questions you get per day or cutting them to 80. If you're getting 200 a day now, you'll still be getting 200 prioritized questions, they'll just be ordered differently.
Prioritizing the questions you know the least well has its drawbacks.
With this in mind... Would Firecracker consider an option where I can review my cards without regard for each card's priority, or where I can review the easiest questions first? (Easiest questions, in this context, means cards that I have seen multiple times and tend to do well on.) If Firecracker made this option available, no customer could say "I paid for A and then you changed it to B and I want a refund!"
Just use the app. The two will integrate soon, but in the meantime the app will be the platform receiving the most attention. If you want to do more than 80 questions, do the 80, and you'll have the option to keep going!
One thing that would be nice is for it to sync across my devices. Right now it seems like when I switch from my iPad to my phone, the phone app remembers which questions I've done (b/c I've never been asked the same question in the same day after switching devices), but the number of questions I've answered that day doesn't transfer over. Also, the FC app always crashes on iPad when loaded in landscape orientation.
In the app, you can start quizzes by card rating. Click questions on the bottom menu bar, then at each level of the content tree you can click the Avg Score button, and you can take a quiz based off rating.
So you can take a quiz of all 1s, or only Basic Sciences 1s, or only Anatomy, or only Upper Limb, or only Brachial Plexus. You can do this from anywhere within the tree. Wherever you start is the starting point for the questions you get.
Yeah, but that's only helpful if the app actually worked correctly across platforms. I am having the same issue as ChEMD, my phone will show that I did questions but when I load it up on my iPad, either it doesn't work at all and I got a blank screen or it simply shows zero questions done. I've really enjoyed using Firecracker on the website so far, but the app needs to work and be accessible if you're going to push this new algorithm on us.
Just use the app. The two will integrate soon, but in the meantime the app will be the platform receiving the most attention. If you want to do more than 80 questions, do the 80, and you'll have the option to keep going!
For the record, I do like the idea of front loading the 80 most important questions as long as it doesn't mess with the current overall format. Just curious, what is the ETA (just ballpark figure) of about when we can expect the changes to go to the website format as well?
I don't know why the heck this wasn't made Explicitly clear somewhere in the process. We pay a significant amount of money when there's a ton of other resources to use and are left in the dark . I like firecracker, but this has turned into a serious customer support nightmare and it's disappointing
I agree. There should be at least the option to keep the daily goal calendar format, and the first 80 could just be the highly prioritized ones. I don't think that would be hard to implement. Is that a possibility @jwfirecracks ?Used firecracker a bit for mcat prep and I've just been playing around with the new app trying to decide if I want to use it for the next 2 years.
I think a big problem with the "just do more than 80" mentality is that there is no concrete goal. I like achieving some set goal when I study and when you hit 80, yes you can do more than 80, but in the corner it just stays at 80. I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything. Where as, when I did questions in the past, I could see my card count gradually go down.
Also, before on the old algorithm it seemed to be approx. 70:30 review:new. Now it seems like it's more like 10:90 with only a few review questions spiced throughout.
I think this echos some people's concerns here. Firecracker advertises as a long term retention tool and not a primary learning tool.
Just my 2 cents. I could be totally wrong.
Also, before on the old algorithm it seemed to be approx. 70:30 review:new. Now it seems like it's more like 10:90 with only a few review questions spiced throughout.
I agree. There should be at least the option to keep the daily goal calendar format, and the first 80 could just be the highly prioritized ones. I don't think that would be hard to implement. Is that a possibility @jwfirecracks ?
Ok, if I'm understanding this correctly, this is basically what I was looking for. Sounds great! Thanks!The new questions are for topics you've preciously answered questions within/flagged. So it's not asking you to really learn new questions as you've already opened that door. Let me know if you're seeing something different.
The goal feature will provide users what they are looking for. One of the goals will be USMLE, with your test date. From there you'll get an exact recommendation of daily questions. For the hardcore users, if you want to stay on top for your USMLE date, you'll do those questions. But the casual users can do 80.
I think it is, I am only about 25% as well (I started in August). I plan on taking both Comlex and usmle in June as well. If I flag 4 topics a day I will be at 100% by test time. That is definitely doable in my opinion.Is firecracker worth it if you are at this point not even 25% flagged and intend to take Step this coming June?
Is firecracker worth it if you are at this point not even 25% flagged and intend to take Step this coming June?
Is firecracker worth it if you are at this point not even 25% flagged and intend to take Step this coming June?