Firecracker

Your USMLE Scores Increased, Guaranteed!
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
JackShephard MD

JackShephard MD

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
895
Reaction score
15
Points
4,641
Location
New York
  1. Medical Student
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.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
nabilesmail said:
Its not the fix we need, but for the meantime you can click "J" which will skip the card and either at it to the end (if you continue the session to the end) or if you take a break and restart later it will be at the beginning of that new session. I suppose you could skip with J and make an effort to refresh the FC website and start your review again every 20-30 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

I tried hard to get used to that but it just seems like a gimmick especially for a company who constantly hammers me with emails about adding more months to my subscription and other various "deals". Instead of focusing on improving their core product via the bounty of advice of current med students/users, they focus on less important things like developing their own "qbank" which in the long run is more of a plan to paint a target on UWorld and Qmax (and all the money that comes with this) rather than to help their users.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
nabilesmail said:
Its not the fix we need, but for the meantime you can click "J" which will skip the card and either at it to the end (if you continue the session to the end) or if you take a break and restart later it will be at the beginning of that new session. I suppose you could skip with J and make an effort to refresh the FC website and start your review again every 20-30 minutes or so.
Click to expand...


That's not a bad bandaid. I wish I would've thought of that when I was copying and pasting all the cards I didn't know, would've saved me some time. I'll probably just wait to see if they implement the '0' button and let us modify/erase cards from our own set to go back. Anki's slower, but ultimately I remember more and there are some pre-made decks for it as well. If those of us who want these features are just a vocal minority and firecracker MD/DO is seeing more and more usage on the daily, then they've probably got better things to do.

Then again, if they're seeing less usage, I bet a '0' and the ability to personally edit or remove cards (to add context to specific details and lists for example) would help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
justabanana said:
That's not a bad bandaid. I wish I would've thought of that when I was copying and pasting all the cards I didn't know, would've saved me some time. I'll probably just wait to see if they implement the '0' button and let us modify/erase cards from our own set to go back. Anki's slower, but ultimately I remember more and there are some pre-made decks for it as well. If those of us who want these features are just a vocal minority and firecracker MD/DO is seeing more and more usage on the daily, then they've probably got better things to do.

Then again, if they're seeing less usage, I bet a '0' and the ability to personally edit or remove cards (to add context to specific details and lists for example) would help.
Click to expand...

Yeah I really wish I could edit cards. Sometimes they mention procedures/Words that they forget to explain and I have to look it up and add it to the notes. But the notes don't show up unless I specifically go into the topic which kind of stops the flashcard marathon ;/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hemorrage said:
I tried hard to get used to that but it just seems like a gimmick especially for a company who constantly hammers me with emails about adding more months to my subscription and other various "deals". Instead of focusing on improving their core product via the bounty of advice of current med students/users, they focus on less important things like developing their own "qbank" which in the long run is more of a plan to paint a target on UWorld and Qmax (and all the money that comes with this) rather than to help their users.
Click to expand...

Yeah I understand, I'm sure they're doing everything with good intentions, but they really should try and up the experience of the main platform before expanding to Qbanks etc. Right now FC is like 98% there, but that 2% improvement is HUGE in terms of what it would provide (0 button, edit cards etc)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Can any FC veteran explain their personal system of how they rate cards? I'm still trying to figure that out. Perhaps in depth from how you first flag a topic.

Right now I flag topics, do the cards and rate them a 1. I generally do not rate a card higher than a 3 until after I've had an exam on it. How many of you use Urgent? Also, a bit confused with how the Past category works. I set my minimum to 300 over break but only get about 10-15 cards (out of >3000 Past) per day. This may be likely due to the fact that 70% of my current cards are in the High Risk to forget category lol. I'm wondering how to approach moving last semester information into the Past category for the upcoming semester, but i'm afraid to do this. I definitely don't know the material well enough to not see them for >1 month at a time, yet the only way second semester FC use will work for school exams is if the "new material" gets a very high proportion of the cards. Meh.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ayyy...from Nate from FC:

" Regarding the "0" option, this should be implemented in the next month or two for a future updated version of Firecracker's quizzing interface. You'll be the first to know when we have a major update on this feature's development. Thanks for your keen attention to detail as always. I hope you're having a stupendous start to the New Year!"
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
nabilesmail said:
Can any FC veteran explain their personal system of how they rate cards? I'm still trying to figure that out. Perhaps in depth from how you first flag a topic.

Right now I flag topics, do the cards and rate them a 1. I generally do not rate a card higher than a 3 until after I've had an exam on it. How many of you use Urgent? Also, a bit confused with how the Past category works. I set my minimum to 300 over break but only get about 10-15 cards (out of >3000 Past) per day. This may be likely due to the fact that 70% of my current cards are in the High Risk to forget category lol. I'm wondering how to approach moving last semester information into the Past category for the upcoming semester, but i'm afraid to do this. I definitely don't know the material well enough to not see them for >1 month at a time, yet the only way second semester FC use will work for school exams is if the "new material" gets a very high proportion of the cards. Meh.
Click to expand...
Yep, this is a frustrating issue that I also experienced. I've banked about 70%, so naturally most of my cards are in the past category. The way I solved it is to keep current content to an absolute minimum. I don't use the urgent feature at all. This way I get 200 daily quesions with 100 from my current category (which I try to keep at 500) and 100 questions from my past category (which at this point is around 10000 questions). While not optimal, this works decently for me. I guess what I would really like is for there to be an option to do questions based on my risk of forgetting them as indicated in the "prioritization" section. Most of my questions are at a 1 risk of forgetting, while almost half of my daily review comes from questions I'm at a 0.3 risk of forgetting. Seems broken to me.

As for ratings this is how I usually do it:
1. If I was not able to recall any of the information. (~50qs)
2. If I was able to recall some, but not all of the information. Or if I failed to recall the information, but I had previously rated it a two.(~400qs)
3. I know most or all of the information presented, but will likely forget it if don't see it any soon. (~1500qs)
4. I know it, but may want to see it again before step 1. (~4000qs)
5. Please bring back the option to remove questions from the deck. (~4500qs)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
premed2000 said:
is it just me or are there like no cards for parasites and fungi?
Click to expand...

Interestingly, FC has less material than even Sketchymicro for some parasites and fungi (which is usually the opposite for all other micro topics). But honestly, the parasite/fungi section only accounts for a very small amount of Micro and is VERY buzzwordy. I felt that FC/Sketchymicro combination was more than adequate for the NBME exams.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
nabilesmail said:
Interestingly, FC has less material than even Sketchymicro for some parasites and fungi (which is usually the opposite for all other micro topics). But honestly, the parasite/fungi section only accounts for a very small amount of Micro and is VERY buzzwordy. I felt that FC/Sketchymicro combination was more than adequate for the NBME exams.
Click to expand...

Wait.....Is there some issues w/ firecracker? I have like almost no cards for repro physiology (5 cards) or repro pharm (1 card) or repro anatomy (17 cards)

EDIT: Weird. It's totally fine on my FC app on my phone, a lot of cards for repro, micro, and etc. But if I access it on my laptop, there are like no cards.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
I will be starting med school in the fall, and was planning on starting FC from day one. Would anyone recommend this? The reason I want to use FC is because I have trouble w/ long term-retention if I don't re-quiz or test myself and I feel FC will do that for me. Any recommendations would be amazing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DNC127 said:
I will be starting med school in the fall, and was planning on starting FC from day one. Would anyone recommend this? The reason I want to use FC is because I have trouble w/ long term-retention if I don't re-quiz or test myself and I feel FC will do that for me. Any recommendations would be amazing.
Click to expand...
I would wait for a month or two before adding extra resources such as FC. I started midway through M1 which I think is more than sufficient.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DNC127 said:
I will be starting med school in the fall, and was planning on starting FC from day one. Would anyone recommend this? The reason I want to use FC is because I have trouble w/ long term-retention if I don't re-quiz or test myself and I feel FC will do that for me. Any recommendations would be amazing.
Click to expand...
I'd start it day 1. Use the free trial and use it religiously with classes and see if it works for you. When first starting out it'll probably only take you an hour, not even every day.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DNC127 said:
Do you feel like FC has helped you retain information?
Click to expand...
Most certainly. I've put almost 1000 hours in total into FC, so I suppose the real question is whether I would have been better off had I done something else with those hours. I honestly don't know. However, FC is so ingrained in my everyday life I hardly think of it as studying anymore. I doubt I would have made the effort to lets say read 1 hour of FA everyday instead.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I highly recommend starting early as possible because really, at the beginning, it's easier to flag and keep up with the deck, and somedays it will even seem overwheli
AnalisCanalis said:
Most certainly. I've put almost 1000 hours in total into FC, so I suppose the real question is whether I would have been better off had I done something else with those hours. I honestly don't know. However, FC is so ingrained in my everyday life I hardly think of it as studying anymore. I doubt I would have made the effort to lets say read 1 hour of FA everyday instead.
Click to expand...


Have you taken step 1 yet? Would you mind sharing your score/experience afterwards?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
I'd start it day 1. Use the free trial and use it religiously with classes and see if it works for you. When first starting out it'll probably only take you an hour, not even every day.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much! Should I start after I finish my first class (I only ask cause it asks us to select the classes we have finished) or should I just start first day? Say my first class was biochem, should I just start that day with the biochem section
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DNC127 said:
Thank you so much! Should I start after I finish my first class (I only ask cause it asks us to select the classes we have finished) or should I just start first day? Say my first class was biochem, should I just start that day with the biochem section
Click to expand...
First day, flag what you learn. If you can flag even 50 questions/day you will have a lot done by the time winter break rolls around. Then you can use your breaks to get ahead essentially. If you learn about brachial plexus, flag brachial plexus and upper limb muscles. When you do biochem, flag glycolysis, krebs cycle, electron transport, etc. Your classes might not cover everything so make sure you try to keep up and get ahead when you can. Use the search function to find topics that might be hiding in other organ system etc.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
First day, flag what you learn. If you can flag even 50 questions/day you will have a lot done by the time winter break rolls around. Then you can use your breaks to get ahead essentially. If you learn about brachial plexus, flag brachial plexus and upper limb muscles. When you do biochem, flag glycolysis, krebs cycle, electron transport, etc. Your classes might not cover everything so make sure you try to keep up and get ahead when you can. Use the search function to find topics that might be hiding in other organ system etc.
Click to expand...

To add on, if your school doesn't coordinate well with FC (Internal Exams very different than board review material, Grades [and you care]), then be discerning with what you FLAG into FC. Don't try to Flag everything and then skip FC every other day, you would do MUCH better to Flag higher yield material and maintain consistency.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StevensBibi said:
That's the magic question. I would like to know as well. Honestly, I feel like it wouldn't since FC is so first order?
Click to expand...
I know this wasn't directed at me but I feel like most medical students have the capability to think through a problem if they know all the first order info. All it takes to answer a third order question are three pieces of first order info.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StevensBibi said:
That's the magic question. I would like to know as well. Honestly, I feel like it wouldn't since FC is so first order?
Click to expand...
Oddly enough I felt like it helped me a lot with boards questions just because as I read a question stem, all these buzzwords would have all these firecracker questions popping up in my head and I usually knew the answer before looking at the answer choices. A lot of it though is just relative to knowing the material well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
I know this wasn't directed at me but I feel like most medical students have the capability to think through a problem if they know all the first order info. All it takes to answer a third order question are three pieces of first order info.
Click to expand...
This will be quoted exclusively due to the truthful nature of what is stated.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
I know this wasn't directed at me but I feel like most medical students have the capability to think through a problem if they know all the first order info. All it takes to answer a third order question are three pieces of first order info.
Click to expand...

I'm realizing this as I slowly work through UWorld questions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So I'm finally almost to that point in Firecracker where I've flagged all material that I've done in class. After this this block (which ends in early February) we will just have Skin, GI, Neuro, Psych, and a handful of bugs left. Do you guys think it's better to go ahead and flag ahead (probably could finish by mid-to-late-February) or just follow along with lectures once I catch-up? If it makes a difference I'm taking the test in mid June.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CyberMaxx said:
So I'm finally almost to that point in Firecracker where I've flagged all material that I've done in class. After this this block (which ends in early February) we will just have Skin, GI, Neuro, Psych, and a handful of bugs left. Do you guys think it's better to go ahead and flag ahead (probably could finish by mid-to-late-February) or just follow along with lectures once I catch-up? If it makes a difference I'm taking the test in mid June.
Click to expand...
Flagging ahead is always better if you can do it. I've flagged a decent bit ahead, I have 88% banked, hoping to finish up in the next 2-3 weeks. Having more time for pure review will be precious. Plus, when you have everything marked as past, you'll finally start seeing a lot of the older questions you haven't seen in awhile.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
justAstudent said:
Sorry for derailing the current topic, but how often do you all add to the topic and make your own questions?
Click to expand...
I did this regularly for things from qbanks and first aid. Kind of annoying but not that time consuming.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
If you do it regularly and from an early time it shouldn't take more than 2-2.5 hours/day. If you're cram-flagging late in the course than yeah, it's gonna take awhile.
Click to expand...
You realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "just 2 hours per day."

That's huge.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
KarmaIsTruth said:
You realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "just 2 hours per day."

That's huge.
Click to expand...
That 2 hours a day replaced a lot of my normal studying for school, and kept me up on old material. If you find it ineffective and a waste of time, no one is forcing you to use it. I found it very useful for school as well as boards. The time spent feels like a small sacrifice now as I approach applying for residencies and know I don't need to worry about "overcoming" my board scores. Friends of mine said the same things and now are saying "wow I wish I had put in more time studying for boards." (actual words said to me by multiple people just over christmas break). Figure out what study method works for you and run with it!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
KarmaIsTruth said:
You realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "just 2 hours per day."

That's huge.
Click to expand...
I mean, yeah it's a decent chunk, but it's med school lol. Considering most medical students are awake 16+ hours, 2 isn't that much with the benefits. Yeah I could read First Aid for 2 hours a day instead or do something else for boards, but the reality is I probably wouldn't.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Is there any way to see how many cards you've done over time? Right now with the FC beta, you can see the past week's numbers, but I'd really like to be able to have like a full calendar so I can keep track of my streaks. I've made do with setting up a spreadsheet myself a week ago, but I would be nice to see my numbers from the past two months too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
polylux said:
Is there any way to see how many cards you've done over time? Right now with the FC beta, you can see the past week's numbers, but I'd really like to be able to have like a full calendar so I can keep track of my streaks. I've made do with setting up a spreadsheet myself a week ago, but I would be nice to see my numbers from the past two months too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think there is. I also keep a spreadsheet to track my daily progress. I wanted to track my total cards done as well and I just messaged them through Firecracker and asked them for my current total, which they gave me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CyberMaxx said:
Yeah, I don't think there is. I also keep a spreadsheet to track my daily progress. I wanted to track my total cards done as well and I just messaged them through Firecracker and asked them for my current total, which they gave me.
Click to expand...
I'll do that, thank you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
After poking around, it looks like that some of that functionality is in FC legacy and they haven't moved it over to FC MD/DO yet... unfortunate, but at least you can find some of it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
polylux said:
Is there any way to see how many cards you've done over time? Right now with the FC beta, you can see the past week's numbers, but I'd really like to be able to have like a full calendar so I can keep track of my streaks. I've made do with setting up a spreadsheet myself a week ago, but I would be nice to see my numbers from the past two months too.
Click to expand...
I remember one time they emailed me telling me how many reviews I've done, so I'm sure they know. You can probably email them. It would be helpful if it was visible though
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
Also, how's everyone doing on banking progress??
Click to expand...


M1 started from day 1, 48% banked (we go by organ systems);

Do you have any advice for banking more? Sometimes I'll feel 'guilty' if I try to learn stuff not in our unit because I feel that it'll distract my inclass exam stuff; wuddyathink.

My goal is to hit 70% by the end of M1, and 90+% by the end of summer
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Daitong said:
M1 started from day 1, 48% banked (we go by organ systems);

Do you have any advice for banking more? Sometimes I'll feel 'guilty' if I try to learn stuff not in our unit because I feel that it'll distract my inclass exam stuff; wuddyathink.

My goal is to hit 70% by the end of M1, and 90+% by the end of summer
Click to expand...
You're doing really well! I started early m1 but I wasn't do diligent back then. Ended M1 at 35% and didn't bank much over summer (got to maybe 40). I think the biggest thing is to keep at it. If you flag even a couple topics per day during summer you will be way ahead of the game. make sure you know the stuff you're doing in class, and if you're doing well on exams, it should be fine. If you're doing worse on exams, don't bank so fast. 48% is already on a good track. Even if you got to 70% by early summer, you'd be great. The more the better, just make sure to keep up with your review or it's all for nothing.

Currently at 94%! I see the light
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
You're doing really well! I started early m1 but I wasn't do diligent back then. Ended M1 at 35% and didn't bank much over summer (got to maybe 40). I think the biggest thing is to keep at it. If you flag even a couple topics per day during summer you will be way ahead of the game. make sure you know the stuff you're doing in class, and if you're doing well on exams, it should be fine. If you're doing worse on exams, don't bank so fast. 48% is already on a good track. Even if you got to 70% by early summer, you'd be great. The more the better, just make sure to keep up with your review or it's all for nothing.

Currently at 94%! I see the light
Click to expand...

My god! You are a beast. I ended M1 at about 25% and didn't bank too much over the summer too. I'm sitting at about 65% right now 🙁
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ophthoseidon said:
Also, how's everyone doing on banking progress??
Click to expand...

Woefully behind, but I'm still planning on sticking with it.

Daitong said:
M1 started from day 1, 48% banked (we go by organ systems);

Do you have any advice for banking more? Sometimes I'll feel 'guilty' if I try to learn stuff not in our unit because I feel that it'll distract my inclass exam stuff; wuddyathink.

My goal is to hit 70% by the end of M1, and 90+% by the end of summer
Click to expand...

That's really impressive! Even if you just hit your 70% goal, life as an M2 will be significantly easier. Keep up the good work!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

WeedForLunch
  • Question Question
FIRECRACKER - Anticholinergic agents contraindicated in ?
Replies
2
Views
835
studentdocftw
S
The Knife & Gun Club
  • Question Question
FireCracker Full Length Exams
Replies
0
Views
1K
The Knife & Gun Club
The Knife & Gun Club
S
  • Question Question
Firecracker Practice Tests
Replies
1
Views
2K
srs33
S
F
  • Question Question
firecracker
Replies
0
Views
2K
firecrackertrain
F
R
  • Question Question
looking for a firecracker study buddy
Replies
1
Views
1K
siena
S
Top Bottom