Firecracker

[JackShephard MD]

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med.firecracker.me

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

Cheers.

 

[jwfirecracks]

When will the syncing problem with doing offline questions be fixed?

Will look into this week.

To continue with the syncing problem. When ever I do questions on mobile, stop, and come back at a latter time, the app asks questions that I answered earlier but they don't count at all towards my 80. Is it supposed to do this?

Ah ha! This is an example of a card being seen again in one session. Cards only count to your daily goal once, so seeing multiple times does not count towards the daily goal.




In other news, on the web beta you can now change your daily goal. Click "daily goal" and choose the number of questions you'd like to answer a day. Coming soon to the apps.

 

[seminoma]

On web beta if you click to the left or right of the answer the site still registers it as if you clicked on the answer itself. I can click roughly 2.5" away from the answer and still get it to register.

Also typing the letter of the answer would be nice (instead of having to click with the mouse).

 

[surely]

In other news, on the web beta you can now change your daily goal. Click "daily goal" and choose the number of questions you'd like to answer a day. Coming soon to the apps.

I cranked my goal way up to 250, and then it said that the next questions I would see would be from seemingly random topics I've never explored or flagged:

Is this really the intended Firecracker behavior?

 

[mcloaf]

Will look into this week.

Ah ha! This is an example of a card being seen again in one session. Cards only count to your daily goal once, so seeing multiple times does not count towards the daily goal.




In other news, on the web beta you can now change your daily goal. Click "daily goal" and choose the number of questions you'd like to answer a day. Coming soon to the apps.

Did you guys just decide to not fix the flag/reflag issue with disappearing/hidden questions...?

 

[seminoma]

Did you guys just decide to not fix the flag/reflag issue with disappearing/hidden questions...?

Also what about not having cards with similar concepts show up on the same day?

 

[jwfirecracks]

On web beta if you click to the left or right of the answer the site still registers it as if you clicked on the answer itself. I can click roughly 2.5" away from the answer and still get it to register.

Also typing the letter of the answer would be nice (instead of having to click with the mouse).

You can use Command+letter for multiple choice.

I cranked my goal way up to 250, and then it said that the next questions I would see would be from seemingly random topics I've never explored or flagged:

View attachment 188249

Is this really the intended Firecracker behavior?

Do you have at least 250 unique questions started in the past? If your goal is more than the number of questions you have to answer, it will pull from new topics.

Did you guys just decide to not fix the flag/reflag issue with disappearing/hidden questions...?

The flag / reflag issue has not been fixed in classic web.

Also what about not having cards with similar concepts show up on the same day?

What do you mean?

 

[mcloaf]

The flag / reflag issue has not been fixed in classic web.

Clearly. My question was if this is something that's going to be addressed or just ignored until the forced change in the summer.

 

[jwfirecracks]

Clearly. My question was if this is something that's going to be addressed or just ignored until the forced change in the summer.

Forced change is not dated / not planned at this time. Can't answer this question, other than it's in the list of planned work. I will bring up again this week.

 

[DrEnderW]

Is there anyway to get multiple choice questions removed from the beta site and mobile apps ASAP?

I have about 15% less content banked on the app/beta compared to what I have on the old site and the vast bulk (usually approaching 100% in most sections) is multiple choice questions that didn't use to appear. I think it's safe to say most students have a qbank, if not multiple qbanks, as well as the Firecracker qbank to to multiple choice questions. This seriously slows down the pace and makes it very difficult to discern my actual progress. It would take weeks to bank these questions I don't want. I'm a year+ daily user that does over 100qs/hour and it took me multiple hours to just do Endo multiple choice questions today when I've been 100% banked for months on the site.

I've made the switch and love the app/beta besides this feature.

 

[surely]

Do you have at least 250 unique questions started in the past? If your goal is more than the number of questions you have to answer, it will pull from new topics.

Not sure... how can I see how many unique questions I've started in the past?

If it's going to pull from new topics, it should pull from topics related to those I've already touched on. Jumping straight to renal papillary necrosis when I've done 0 renal questions (hell, 0 organ systems questions!) is silly.

 

[DrEnderW]

Not sure... how can I see how many unique questions I've started in the past?

If it's going to pull from new topics, it should pull from topics related to those I've already touched on. Jumping straight to renal papillary necrosis when I've done 0 renal questions (hell, 0 organ systems questions!) is silly.

That's just because you have extremely minimal content flagged, correct? Essentially you're getting a preview of what FC is like because there's nothing else to give you yet.

 

[olecranon4]

Is there anyway to get multiple choice questions removed from the beta site and mobile apps ASAP?

I have about 15% less content banked on the app/beta compared to what I have on the old site and the vast bulk (usually approaching 100% in most sections) is multiple choice questions that didn't use to appear. I think it's safe to say most students have a qbank, if not multiple qbanks, as well as the Firecracker qbank to to multiple choice questions. This seriously slows down the pace and makes it very difficult to discern my actual progress. It would take weeks to bank these questions I don't want. I'm a year+ daily user that does over 100qs/hour and it took me multiple hours to just do Endo multiple choice questions today when I've been 100% banked for months on the site.

I've made the switch and love the app/beta besides this feature.

Definitely agree with this. The only thing keeping me from using the beta is the fact that I'm already doing 300+ questions a day to keep track for step 1, I don't need more. As you said, I use FC to brute memorize information - I have 3 good qbanks I can use if I want clinical vignettes

 

[GrabSlamBoot]

Not to mention the multiple choice questions are God awful

 

[surely]

That's just because you have extremely minimal content flagged, correct? Essentially you're getting a preview of what FC is like because there's nothing else to give you yet.

Possibly - Not sure how to see how many topics I have studied. But shouldn't the preview come from questions related to topics I've studied? Isn't that a more reasonable behavior than picking topics at random?

 

[abolt18]

Possibly - Not sure how to see how many topics I have studied. But shouldn't the preview come from questions related to topics I've studied? Isn't that a more reasonable behavior than picking topics at random?

I don't think they even considered that. Simply put once you have a lot of material flagged, and if you flag a lot of material each day, you will find you are never getting questions that you haven't flagged because you'll have enough things that are "high priority". I'd say if you're getting new stuff, maybe go flag a handful of topics because it means you're already on top of it.

 

[jwfirecracks]

Is there anyway to get multiple choice questions removed from the beta site and mobile apps ASAP?

I have about 15% less content banked on the app/beta compared to what I have on the old site and the vast bulk (usually approaching 100% in most sections) is multiple choice questions that didn't use to appear. I think it's safe to say most students have a qbank, if not multiple qbanks, as well as the Firecracker qbank to to multiple choice questions. This seriously slows down the pace and makes it very difficult to discern my actual progress. It would take weeks to bank these questions I don't want. I'm a year+ daily user that does over 100qs/hour and it took me multiple hours to just do Endo multiple choice questions today when I've been 100% banked for months on the site.

I've made the switch and love the app/beta besides this feature.

Multiple choice questions have always been a part of Firecracker -- nearly 20% of all questions are multiple choice. They've just primarily legendary mode type questions.

However, there are no clinical vignettes in the app currently. We will be bringing them over at some point, but they won't be dropped randomly in your study queue.

We're discussing a way to turn MCQ flashcards on and off.

Not to mention the multiple choice questions are God awful

Why?

 

[jwfirecracks]

Also, hotkeys in the beta for previous and next now -- j is previous and k is next.

 

[seminoma]

I prefer the FC MCQs. Faster to go through and they are better at making associations compared to "what does soap brainmd stand for?"

 

[abolt18]

I've been in legendary mode for a long time and when I switched to the new app I had a LOT of new multiple choice questions @jwfirecracks just so you know. There are definitely more questions in the app. I like the MCQ's except that the app doesn't include explanations so sometimes I'm totally lost as to why the answer is what it is.

 

[seminoma]

I've been in legendary mode for a long time and when I switched to the new app I had a LOT of new multiple choice questions @jwfirecracks just so you know. There are definitely more questions in the app. I like the MCQ's except that the app doesn't include explanations so sometimes I'm totally lost as to why the answer is what it is.

Yeah, for example there's a question about what nitroglycerin will do to the cardiac function and venous return curves. The explanation talks about the effects of changes in blood volume and venous compliance, but it doesn't mention the mechanism by which nitroglycerin affects venous compliance.. which is pretty crucial to actually answering the question correctly.

 

[Whiskers09]

Agreed. Say what you want, but the app/beta definitely has more and different questions than the old website version.

 

[Whiskers09]

Is there any chance that old questions that were once discarded from the main website still exist in the new beta version?

 

[midweststudent1]

I'd be interested to know how many people that tried the beta keep using the beta. Most people like it studying for class specific questions, but not for board questions (it's main purpose) from what I've gathered.

I think they tried to be the best of both worlds with the beta (long term rote memorization and a sleek question bank) and did a crappy job in the process.

If the success stories from the original platform from their blogs are true, why in the world mess with a good thing? Improve questions, improve content, and fix errors..... but don't switch algorithms! Geez

That's why I'm sticking with the original platform

 

[abolt18]

Perhaps a nice feature on mobile would be able to long-touch on the 5 and have 'never see it again' pop up so I can get rid of questions when I don't want to see them anymore but still want questions from that subject.

 

[ATypicalLymphocyte]

Perhaps a nice feature on mobile would be able to long-touch on the 5 and have 'never see it again' pop up so I can get rid of questions when I don't want to see them anymore but still want questions from that subject.

That's a nice idea, but make it long enough so that accidents don't happen! And since we can't see the list of "Never see again" questions, it's an accident waiting to happen.

 

[mcloaf]

Forced change is not dated / not planned at this time. Can't answer this question, other than it's in the list of planned work. I will bring up again this week.

I'm really approaching the breaking point with your engineering team clearly not giving a **** about this problem. It's been brought up multiple times and nothing has ever been done about it. I just unflagged/reflagged endocrine and I have 94 new study questions. If I don't reflag regularly I run the risk of missing out on a lot of content that's either new or been lost due to editing to the cards since I flagged them. I paid for the full product, should I get my money back if your engineering team isn't willing to make sure I can reasonably have access to it? I shudder to think how many undone/hidden questions are out there for users who have been using the program a long time and never unflag/reflag. Unacceptable.

 

[abolt18]

That's a nice idea, but make it long enough so that accidents don't happen! And since we can't see the list of "Never see again" questions, it's an accident waiting to happen.

Oh certainly! And I don't mean just long touch to get rid of it. I mean long touch creates a separate button that you can select (not in the exact same spot so as to avoid accidents), and if you didn't want to get rid of it, just hit 5 again instead of the never see again button.

 

[surely]

So... This is a thing:

(I got to it by using the topic search on m.firecracker.me and searching for Abdomen.)

 

[seminoma]

About the order that topics are listed on the web beta/mobile.. Can you change it so they are listed either in alphabetical order or in ascending order of score and/or percentage completed? It doesn't make sense to me why the topics I've done the most of/know the best show up at the top of the list.

It seems better to put the weakest topics at the top rather than the bottom so you are reminded to do questions from that topic. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing.

 

[seminoma]

There's a question that asks how much calcium is used to treat osteomalacia/rickets (answer is 1.5-2g). I know we don't need to know dosing for drugs, but do we need to know them for vitamins/minerals?

I tried to leave a comment, but the app froze

 

[jwfirecracks]

I've been in legendary mode for a long time and when I switched to the new app I had a LOT of new multiple choice questions @jwfirecracks just so you know. There are definitely more questions in the app. I like the MCQ's except that the app doesn't include explanations so sometimes I'm totally lost as to why the answer is what it is.

This is a result of the missing feature in classic web app @mcloaf has spoken about. There are not questions that are unique to the beta, but you must unflag and reflag topics in classic web app to get updated content.

I think they tried to be the best of both worlds with the beta (long term rote memorization and a sleek question bank) and did a crappy job in the process.

If the success stories from the original platform from their blogs are true, why in the world mess with a good thing? Improve questions, improve content, and fix errors..... but don't switch algorithms! Geez

Couple things here. Why has the job been crappy? Rollout has not been smooth but iterating quickly (far more quickly than past fixes to classic web app in my opinion).

As for the algorithm, I support the new algorithm wholeheartedly -- but I didn't always. It took quite a while for me to wrap my head around the difference between a calendar model and a priority model -- but prioritized questions makes much more sense to me. We'll be posting a lengthy discussion on the algorithm next week on the blog.

Perhaps a nice feature on mobile would be able to long-touch on the 5 and have 'never see it again' pop up so I can get rid of questions when I don't want to see them anymore but still want questions from that subject.

Never see again is coming back to the mobile / beta very very very soon. Firecracker is actively investigating ways to incorporate it to minimize clicks -- as we're doing for all clicks, not just new features.

That's a nice idea, but make it long enough so that accidents don't happen! And since we can't see the list of "Never see again" questions, it's an accident waiting to happen.

When 'Never see again' comes back there will be a way to find and retrieve them.

So... This is a thing:

View attachment 188314

(I got to it by using the topic search on m.firecracker.me and searching for Abdomen.)

Yeah, really funny story there.

About the order that topics are listed on the web beta/mobile.. Can you change it so they are listed either in alphabetical order or in ascending order of score and/or percentage completed? It doesn't make sense to me why the topics I've done the most of/know the best show up at the top of the list.

It seems better to put the weakest topics at the top rather than the bottom so you are reminded to do questions from that topic. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing.

Alphabetical makes more sense to me, but you have no idea how big of a project this is -- it's incredibly not simple, so it's not a priority right now. Apologies.

I'm really approaching the breaking point with your engineering team clearly not giving a **** about this problem. It's been brought up multiple times and nothing has ever been done about it. I just unflagged/reflagged endocrine and I have 94 new study questions. If I don't reflag regularly I run the risk of missing out on a lot of content that's either new or been lost due to editing to the cards since I flagged them. I paid for the full product, should I get my money back if your engineering team isn't willing to make sure I can reasonably have access to it? I shudder to think how many undone/hidden questions are out there for users who have been using the program a long time and never unflag/reflag. Unacceptable.

I encourage you to go to the beta (which you've indicated reticence to use), use the messaging feature and tell the developers this. The messages in the beta (and Android app, iOS coming upon approval) go directly to developers.

 

[surely]

... you must unflag and reflag topics in classic web app to get updated content.

Do you have to unflag and reflag topics in the beta web app to get updated content?

Yeah, really funny story there.

Well, don't leave us hanging... Spill!

 

[jwfirecracks]

Do you have to unflag and reflag topics in the beta web app to get updated content?

No, in the beta / mobile, every time you open the app the content is refreshed.

 

[seminoma]

Alphabetical makes more sense to me, but you have no idea how big of a project this is -- it's incredibly not simple, so it's not a priority right now. Apologies.

What about just reversing the order from descending to ascending?

 

[jwfirecracks]

What about just reversing the order from descending to ascending?

Will take into consideration, but it's not an engineering priority right now over the dozen other features requested by users.

 

[DrEnderW]

No, in the beta / mobile, every time you open the app the content is refreshed.

Thanks for the explanation about the updated content and flagging/re-flagging - it is much appreciated and things make a lot more sense now.

 

[ATypicalLymphocyte]

I'm not so sure the discrepancy in the number of questions is because of the flag/re-flag situation. On the beta I get I've completed 75% of the Cri-du-chat topic questions. I flagged and re-flagged on the classic version and I get no new questions. I also get new questions periodically from the topics I've already flagged without having to re-flag them, so not very sure what's going on.

 

[jwfirecracks]

Alright folks, I'm all about transparency and admitting wrongs --

And I was wrong.

There are "new" questions in the app that are not on the website. But they are not new. They are not old -- legacy remnants from Gunner Training.

Will get on this ASAP and weed out questions.

Thank you all for knocking this into my brain until we listened.

 

[Jah UT13]

Also what about not having cards with similar concepts show up on the same day?

What do you mean?

He means that when you "Do Today's Questions" from the main screen without going into a subset organ system or topic, topics are not shuffled. Instead, you find yourself doing all the flashcards from a certain topic back to back. In fact, I've found myself having to do all the flagged topic flashcards for an entire organ system (e.g. cardiology) before I get flashcards for another organ system (e.g. renal).

 

[jwfirecracks]

He means that when you "Do Today's Questions" from the main screen without going into a subset organ system or topic, topics are not shuffled. Instead, you find yourself doing all the flashcards from a certain topic back to back. In fact, I've found myself having to do all the flagged topic flashcards for an entire organ system (e.g. cardiology) before I get flashcards for another organ system (e.g. renal).

Is it this way on the beta? The beta has the most up to date version, that hasn't been approved for iOS yet and I was told this was fixed.

Can you check?

 

[seminoma]

Is it this way on the beta? The beta has the most up to date version, that hasn't been approved for iOS yet and I was told this was fixed.

Can you check?

It's that way on the Android app. Don't know about web beta though.

 

[Jah UT13]

Is it this way on the beta? The beta has the most up to date version, that hasn't been approved for iOS yet and I was told this was fixed.

Can you check?

Yep, I just did 10 questions all on embryonic germ layer derivatives. I also made use to "Update App" beforehand. Then again, I haven't done those flashcards in a long time as I usually do flashcards per the "Browse" function so maybe someone else should confirm.

 

[andrewsmack05]

I thought the reason why we are seeing things for an entire organ system is that when we switched over, there were questions that we had not completed so since those topics were flagged those questions became priority in order to complete. If this is untrue, then I have no idea why it wouldn't randomized.

 

[Dr Dazzle]

Is it this way on the beta? The beta has the most up to date version, that hasn't been approved for iOS yet and I was told this was fixed.

Can you check?

The app also crashes when you try to click on a link to another FC topic.

 

[seminoma]

Also can every version of FC just be made to never log me out? The only things I ever have to login to these days are my checking/savings, credit cards, and FC.. and FC need not be as secure as the first 2.

Edit: Just got 80 consecutive derm questions.

 

[TheBob]

Excellent job by FC execs in shifting the FC discussion from how to use it to supplement your board study to 10,000,000 ways FC is now f*ked up. Kudos.

 

[olecranon4]

Excellent job by FC execs in shifting the FC discussion from how to use it to supplement your board study to 10,000,000 ways FC is now f*ked up. Kudos.

On that note, does anyone plan on continuing to use FC during dedicated? I wonder if I should build it into my schedule to do at night when I'm too tired to do any more qbank

 

[seminoma]

On that note, does anyone plan on continuing to use FC during dedicated? I wonder if I should build it into my schedule to do at night when I'm too tired to do any more qbank

If I do I will only be doing Micro/Pharm. The nice thing about the new system is that it's easier to do questions only from one system or one topic. So if I realize I'm really weak on herpes viruses, for example, I might spend 45 minutes running through the HSV questions in FC.

For me FC is useful in reviewing old material while I am focusing on new material throughout school. Dedicated will be all about reviewing old material (a la UWorld) and I probably won't have the time to devote to FC.

 

[mcloaf]

On that note, does anyone plan on continuing to use FC during dedicated? I wonder if I should build it into my schedule to do at night when I'm too tired to do any more qbank

On the fence, probably going to be a game-time decision based on how I feel with my progress and what is paying dividends for me. Obviously it will be a low priority.

 

[Whiskers09]

Is there any way to reset the answer history for questions that have been unflagged? If not, can this feature be added?