flash facts for USMLERx

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
A

AllUpOnYoMama

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
150
Reaction score
0
Has anyone tried these flash cards? They seem legit and actually allow me to go through first aid 3X faster. My only complaint is that the flash cards nor the qbank have been updated to correlate with the 2009 first aid version. What the f$#k? Actually, that really pisses me off now that I think about it. I bought the qbank and flash cards in december with the 2009 first aid book and assumed that the website would update their ****. Anyways, why isn't there a big craze for these flash cards??? Im I missing something? First aid is everyones bible and I would think that everyone would benefit from the flash cards. So why dont I hear about them on here? Cool. Appreciate the responses. Peace.
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
AllUpOnYoMama said:
Has anyone tried these flash cards? They seem legit and actually allow me to go through first aid 3X faster. My only complaint is that the flash cards nor the qbank have been updated to correlate with the 2009 first aid version. What the f$#k? Actually, that really pisses me off now that I think about it. I bought the qbank and flash cards in december with the 2009 first aid book and assumed that the website would update their ****. Anyways, why isn't there a big craze for these flash cards??? Im I missing something? First aid is everyones bible and I would think that everyone would benefit from the flash cards. So why dont I hear about them on here? Cool. Appreciate the responses. Peace.
Click to expand...


I thought of using these but after reading all the posts about all these errata in FA editions I decided against using any other First Aid material than FA2008. I dont want to be learning material incorrectly. That happened to me once before and I started avoiding student-edited material after that. My $0.02.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
Flash Flacks are amazing for learning some of the more nitpicky points in FA that you would normally just skim over. I've been recommending it for all my friends, especially the people who have trouble with pharm and biochem.

The errata of flash facts are corrected within 48 hours if you contact the editorial board. They used to give $10 for each mistake but I think I broke the bank and they stopped the policy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
One big source of irritation for me is the inability to shuffle the cards. If you do a set of them one after the other, you start getting into pattern mode.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dingleberry007 said:
would you guys recommend the flash cards over getting the USMLERx qbank?
Click to expand...
Abso-friggin-lutely not.

the flash cards aren't great. Since you can't shuffle them, they're only slightly better than worthless.

Example: if you go to the Biochemistry --> Nutrition section, they go through the alternate names of the B vitamins. You have a string of a bunch of cards that say, "what is another name for thaimine/riboflavin/niacin/etc." and the answers for each are obviously B1/B2/B3/etc. So you pattern recognition kicks in.

Also, USMLERx flash cards are all information retrieval. There is absolutely no substitute for doing USMLE-style questions a la USMLE World and Kaplan Qbank.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Have to agree with the above poster, the flash cards are more of an adjunct rather than a replacement for doing questions, just like everyone here at SDN says just keep doing questions to be ready for the real thing, with that being said I find it useful for mainly memorization minutia and details, just my 2 cents
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
There is no substitute for doing questions, the flash facts are just an adjunct, and of course the facts are just for retrieval that is the sole point. Recall over recognition. Active over passive.

I recommend them mainly for classmates who are aiming for passing the test and not destroying it. Or for a solid first time FA run through, read five facts and then do the flash cards for them. The program has a serious place for the student who complains that they have read the chapters several times and are still unable to handle the admittedly easy USMLERX questions. Crawl before walking.

So many posters in the experience thread have noted that every single damn word in the FA can be used as a test question. Facts can help you learn this book COLD.

It would be much better if they could shuffle, but hey they are free with USMLERx and cheap without. There are silly repitions at times where they do ask about vitamins in order or ask about side effects with the same drug as answer five times in a row, but at least it is slowing you down and reinforcing the nit pick stuff.

And dingleberry, if you only have one month left or so, don't get USMLERX, the questions are just not up to snuff. Go USMLEWORLD.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
But do you find the flash cards to be very similar to what's in first aid or is it different material?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Exactly the same material (word for word in most cases) with some insignificant fleshing of the occasional abbreviation or chart.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I ordered them. Went through cardio last night, same EXACT as I remember from the first aid chapter. Not complaining though.
I did notice some errors in the flash card mode
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm going through teh flash cards as I'm looking through FA. They're good for remembering the details. However, they tend to ask you about every *word* in FA and not necessarily only the important things, and can get to be a pain in the butt. I wish I could tag certain cards to "remove" in teh cycle, so you can only use hte ones you have trouble with, or do a random mode, or make a test of random flash cards, like you can with real physical flash cards, but that may be asking too much.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
My gosh...these flashcards ROCK!! But beware, they have some serious errors in them.....also keep your FA open when using these cards the first time. I also wish it was possible to reshuffle them.

ULTRON

AllUpOnYoMama said:
Has anyone tried these flash cards? They seem legit and actually allow me to go through first aid 3X faster. My only complaint is that the flash cards nor the qbank have been updated to correlate with the 2009 first aid version. What the f$#k? Actually, that really pisses me off now that I think about it. I bought the qbank and flash cards in december with the 2009 first aid book and assumed that the website would update their ****. Anyways, why isn't there a big craze for these flash cards??? Im I missing something? First aid is everyones bible and I would think that everyone would benefit from the flash cards. So why dont I hear about them on here? Cool. Appreciate the responses. Peace.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Have these been updated to the 09 version? Can you set it to quiz you on random things also? I really need something that quizzes me to memorize the facts besides learning the big concepts from usmleworld and review books.

Is 2 months enough time to run through this, like in the evening for an hour? Or would the usmlerx question bank be a better tool to help memorize first aid? I wish I had time to do 5000 questions in a couple months but I'm not sure if it's feasible. 😕

I'm not asking this as a substitute for understanding the material from first aid - I need something for repetitive fact recall so that I can apply those to test questions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Gently bumping my previous post to see if these are updated to 09 and some other questions I had 👍 - Anyone accessing this via a mobile smartphone/PDA? Somebody's gotta be using 'em 🙄
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
pepotonoto said:
Gently bumping my previous post to see if these are updated to 09 and some other questions I had 👍 - Anyone accessing this via a mobile smartphone/PDA? Somebody's gotta be using 'em 🙄
Click to expand...

So far VERY close to 09. Ive had 3-5 additional facts pop up in the cards but they dont seem to be missing anything.

Ran it on my iphone. It works but not great. I would only use it if I absolutely could not find a computer.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sweet - this is exactly what I was looking for 🙂 I just signed up to give it a whirl 😎 The flash fact part which shows the actual first aid page is ok, but I think I'll have my book out for that.

I really really like the flash card mode - when they said every line is covered, that was the darn truth! It looks like it will be hard to overlook things.

It does seem a bit time consuming but looks like it'll make the first aid book somewhat more interesting to go through!

I think the others were right, just to keep an eye out for any of the errata pages. It appears as if they actually correct those at the bottom of the respected slide from what I've seen so far.

I didn't see a shuffle mode. The flash cards look like they ask almost everything! I like how it covers it all. I I needed something to help guide me to get the facts down to hit up the more challenging questions.

I totally agree with what redrox has posted a few lines below. 👍
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Looks like they have an iPhone app out now too... it's free to get just the Path part of the set, then you have to buy the other sections as an in-app purchase.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Is Flashfacts and the iPhone app (which allows you to get the general path stuff for free) the same thing?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The qbank has updated all of the FA references to the 2010 edition. I sent them an email a few days ago and they said Flash Facts would be updated within the next couple of weeks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So, what's the conclusion then? I was thinking about getting this and using it next year from January to mid-April or so to memorize First Aid. Would this be a good resource? I'm going to do the whole Taus and USMLE World, but I am also trying to plan out what I'll do to make things easier in the months leading up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
strongboy2005 said:
So, what's the conclusion then? I was thinking about getting this and using it next year from January to mid-April or so to memorize First Aid. Would this be a good resource? I'm going to do the whole Taus and USMLE World, but I am also trying to plan out what I'll do to make things easier in the months leading up.
Click to expand...
the flashcards are ok, but personally i preferred the rx qbank to the cards in memorizing first aid, plus you get the cards for free with the qbank.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I got flashfacts and I really liked using it while studying. It takes a bit of time though to get through but I think it's worthwhile. It helps you see the little things mentioned in the text that you may not otherwise have paid attention to or have seen. I haven't tried USMLERx so I can't say in terms of usefulness which one is more so but I liked FlashFacts for the service it offered.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Is it still based on 2009?

Also, would it be worth getting during my study period? Would using the flash cards be better than reading through FA 2x-3x... Seems like it would be since it is more active learning and forces you to recall.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I actually think they recently updated to 2010. I bought it back in March when it was still 2009 but now it may be 2010. You have to check their website. I think it's good to use it to get through FA. Read it once, then do the Flashfacts that evening or a few hours apart to see how much you remember. It takes longer than reading FA but like you said, active learning is better than passively sitting there and reading. It's more interesting than reading FA IMHO.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kryptik said:
the flashcards are ok, but personally i preferred the rx qbank to the cards in memorizing first aid, plus you get the cards for free with the qbank.
Click to expand...

Is this still true? I don't see anywhere on their site that says they're both included.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
strongboy2005 said:
Is this still true? I don't see anywhere on their site that says they're both included.
Click to expand...
I got the flashcards with the qbank, maybe it was a package deal dont remember, give them a quick call to double check 877.814.6104
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The flash facts + Qmax was a package deal offered only in January of this year.

They e-mailed this back to me:
Thank you for your email. No, I am sorry your sources are incorrect. We were offering a special promotion in January that included the Flash Facts, but it expired at the end of January.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So my plan right now is to use flash facts and the first aid Q&A book to supplement my readings of first aid (I want to know that book cold). I'll do this in the months leading up to the exam before I start my heavy boards studying, which will be the UWORLD/first aid plan.

Would anyone recommend that I NOT do the flash facts + first aid qbook and instead start early with usmlerx qmax? I had never planned to do any other online-based questions other than UWORLD, instead opting for paper question sources in my "pre-studying" (kaplan qbook, first aid q&a, and robbins review of path). Do you think flash facts + reading first aid + first aid Q&A will pound those facts into my mind well enough, or do I really need to go with the usmlerx qmax?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the Q&A book contains a 1000 questions from rx q bank so yeh it should be good in reinforcing first aid together with the flashcards
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Flash facts firstaid does not have a feature to remove easy questions, so you will have to click through every question again if you want to do it again the second time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am using the flash facts and the approach is really good. But I am having problems choosing a specific deck, eg just the physio section in cardio, instead it shows everything in cardio ( patho, ana, pharm, physio). Or calculating the number of cards doesn't get updated switching from eg cardio to renal.
do you have the same problem? or could it be my firefox causing this problem.
If it would work properly it would a super great tool learning FA.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
LinaLike said:
I am using the flash facts and the approach is really good. But I am having problems choosing a specific deck, eg just the physio section in cardio, instead it shows everything in cardio ( patho, ana, pharm, physio). Or calculating the number of cards doesn't get updated switching from eg cardio to renal.
do you have the same problem? or could it be my firefox causing this problem.
If it would work properly it would a super great tool learning FA.
Click to expand...

Having the same problem. I'm using chrome though. And yes it is great for going through weak spots well worth the 65$.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
There's a great app for iphone and ipad out there. USMLE WIZ, available for step 1 and 2, design is kinda blueish, looks a bit simple and that's why I (falsely) thought it must be a weak/dumb/simple app. But it absolutely rocks, contains basically FA. Less than 5$. In € I think it was 1,79 or so...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
wanderluste said:
Anyone have updates on if FlashFacts is worth it?
Click to expand...

Some dude made flash cards of first aid 2012 and you can download them free on anki...i dunno if anki is your thing or not but free vs however much for flash facts seemed like a good deal to me
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I used USMLErx flashfacts and USMLErx qbank. I though the flashfacts were actually pretty good. Like others said, it's more of a supplement to the FA book. I would go though a section in FA then do that sections of flashfacts. This helped me id what i glossed over in FA and burn it to memory. I attribute this and path-oma, kap videos, and handwritten tutorials to my success on usmle and comlex.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Need 25 people for Sketchy Discount code
Replies
0
Views
344
doconstandby
D
C
Good baseline NBME for Step 1?
Replies
1
Views
2K
DOcSto
D
C
Thoughts on bootcamp for step 1 prep?
Replies
3
Views
5K
coconutlover
C
M
Am I ready for COMLEX 1?
Replies
2
Views
2K
FarmerToDoctor
F
F
3-digit to equated percent correct for NBMEs
Replies
0
Views
1K
Freddy1
F
Top