Gunner Training?

[hope2bpaindoc]

---

Members do not see this ad.

A

 

[JDH37]

Most valuable player? No clue what you're saying.

He's saying it is their top priority now.

 

[DrWily]

are there still free 1 month trials going on? MS1 here thinking about using this as a supplement....

 

[Alvarez13]

are there still free 1 month trials going on? MS1 here thinking about using this as a supplement....

Despite all the growing pains, the content is still quite good. I sent you a link, check PM.

 

[JeffGarrett]

Can anyone answer my question about the migration process? Has everyone migrated successfully? I am STILL waiting on this "migration" to firecracker to take place.

thanks,
Jeff

 

[hrain]

I'm at about 80% banked, so I'll put an asterisk next to the approximated fields. (Basically the number of current questions divided by the percent banked for that field in terms of cards).

Pharmacology 200
Pathology 224
Embryology 334
Behavioral Science 174
Endocrinology 369
Immunology 417
Hematology 370
Cardiology 498
Biochemistry 646
Anatomy 758
Microbiology 1,055
*Dermatology 203
*Psychiatry 401
*Orthopedics 492
*Nephrology 467
*Neurology 572
*Reproductive 488
*Pulmonology 432
*Gastroenterology 808

Total projected: 8,908

n.b. For some of my completed subjects (Micro in particular) the question count moves around a bit. Some days its 1055, others it's 1054. It's obviously small potatoes, but it's something to note.

Thanks very much! I really appreciate it.

 

[withrye]

Can anyone answer my question about the migration process? Has everyone migrated successfully? I am STILL waiting on this "migration" to firecracker to take place.

thanks,
Jeff

Migrations are not happening right now. The way the migration process used to work is that you'd log into Firecracker (or GT, I don't remember) and enter your info into the complementary site and then the migration would occur. It's unclear whether migrations this time around will be optional or automatic, but be assured that it'll be obvious on either website that migrations are back online and at that time they'll walk you through it.

 

[jhamaican]

Would you guys please we willing look through the GT comments and add the highly rated comments to the future Firecracker cards? There are some terrific mnemonics and information in there that would really help your product. I think it would definitely be worth your time for not only your users, but also for your product and your bottom line in the long run!

👍

 

[piviti]

Would you guys please we willing look through the GT comments and add the highly rated comments to the future Firecracker cards? There are some terrific mnemonics and information in there that would really help your product. I think it would definitely be worth your time for not only your users, but also for your product and your bottom line in the long run!

👍

I agree, the comment section was helpful

 

[madchemist89]

I agree with the posters above about the comments section and mnemonics.

 

[doctorspeed]

.

 

[jhamaican]

Officially quitting GT. I was doing all 1058 micro questions and you crashed at 700. Was planning on looking at the report and doing the 1's and 2's. And no way of doing signaling out the other 300 or so without redoing the whole thing. Might seem like a minor thing but with all the downtime and problems in the last month, I can't keep taking the frustration of using the program. I used to recommend GT/Firecracker like crazy too. sad day.

Exact same thing happens to me often. It is really frustrating because one of the highlights of this program is that it allows you to hit your weak spots (i.e. rated 1 or 2) and when the quiz cancels in the middle you don't get to repeat what you need most!

They say they are working on large question quizzes in firecracker so this does not happen. Let us hope that they mean it!

 

[thawunandonly]

I agree that the comments have a lot of useful information in them.
As far as "migrations" are concerned, GT users will come over to
Firecracker in two phases.

Phase one: we create FC accounts for all GT users who don't already
have them. These accounts will include all subscription time and free
months.

Phase two: we migrate over GT review history, schedules, and notes for
users who want it. [We have heard from people that some want a clean
slate to start studying for step 2 etc.]

Transferring any of the above data from a GT account to Firecracker is
a very technically challenging process for a variety of reasons,
primarily because Firecracker and GT are built on very different
platforms. We can certainly do it and have a good plan to make it
happen, but we want to let each user choose what they want to
transfer.

In addition to your registration data, which of the following would you pick?

- Transfer only my notes
- Transfer only my notes & comments
- Transfer only my notes, comments & review schedule
- Transfer only my notes, comments, review schedule, & recall score
history for all questions
- Transfer everything; my notes, comments, review schedule, recall
score history for all questions, & all banked/flagged topics
- A different combination (please describe)

We want to give you these options and we want to make it happen as
soon as possible. This survey (or some variation) will be going out
soon, so watch out for it.

This may or may not seem like common sense, and I don't want to speak on behalf of everyone else, but pleeeeease do not force a migration unless Firecracker is at least the SAME as GunnerTraining.

If it's missing the comments section, I don't want to transfer. If it's missing my progress and history, I don't want to transfer. If it's missing any of the other pictures, diagrams, or cards, I don't want to transfer. You can ADD on, but don't take away features or material from GT, call it Firecracker, and then assume people would prefer the latter. I'll deal with not having a daily cap or whatever if it maintains the progress and resources I have access to now.

That goes without saying, but I'm sure everyone would love to keep all of their current records (i.e. the last option on your list).

...............maybe it's just me that feels this way, but I'm in the zone in my review patterns. I'm in a certain rhythm and don't want that disturbed.

 

[withrye]

This may or may not seem like common sense, and I don't want to speak on behalf of everyone else, but pleeeeease do not force a migration unless Firecracker is at least the SAME as GunnerTraining.

If it's missing the comments section, I don't want to transfer. If it's missing my progress and history, I don't want to transfer. If it's missing any of the other pictures, diagrams, or cards, I don't want to transfer. You can ADD on, but don't take away features or material from GT, call it Firecracker, and then assume people would prefer the latter. I'll deal with not having a daily cap or whatever if it maintains the progress and resources I have access to now.

That goes without saying, but I'm sure everyone would love to keep all of their current records (i.e. the last option on your list).

...............maybe it's just me that feels this way, but I'm in the zone in my review patterns. I'm in a certain rhythm and don't want that disturbed.

I am also uninterested in migrating unless I'm sure everything will be preserved from GT. For me, this also includes a total count of the cards as well as the total amount I currently have flagged (i.e. I want to know my % banked and mastered). I'd also love a subject-by-subject % mastered, but that's less important. I currently used the %banked and %mastered to keep track of my pace and make sure I don't get too far ahead/behind. I know I could probably count up the cards by hand, but that's a PITA I'd like to avoid.

 

[Chirurg]

I'm not interested in notes, comments etc
just where I am, %mastered and %banked, that will do me.

 

[JDH37]

It is essential to me that the review schedule and all banked/flagged topics be transferred over to FC.

 

[Thing1]

If I am forced to transfer over to FC from GT, banked cards, recall history, and review schedule are an absolute minimum and absolute must.

Have been happily using GT, and recommending it to others, for a while now despite many negative comments on this thread. All this changes if I lose all the data from my painstaking work in GT. Seriously, I've probably sacrificed a few points on my grades in classes, and if I lose all my GT history, it will not have been worth it.

 

[DopaDO]

Will we have to migrate? I'm taking USMLE in June and am in a pretty nice groove. I don't want to transfer at all and have to learn a new system. I'm about 60% banked and plan on finishing it over Christmas. Is there any way you guys can wait til june to start transferring over?

 

[burningheat]

GT down all day erryday. zzzz

 

[JeffGarrett]

I've been hearing crazy stories on this board and also from some of my peers on facebook. Im getting nervous about this switch and I totally agree with you DapoDO. Can there be a voluntary option for patrons to POSTPONE the migration; at least till their respective boards?

Thanks.
Jeff

 

[nopo18]

I AGREE. I fail to see what is so hard about maintaining a website your customers pay to access online. What gives with the nightly down time?? This doesn't happen with ANY of the Qbanks and you guys aren't any cheaper than them.

 

[burningheat]

If they are planned downtimes, I wish we could just get advanced notice? I understand you may need to take it down etc. but it really messes with my study schedule when questions get stacked to next day...

 

[Mednomad]

Im using GT as a final run through before a couple shelfs next week. Please get this up and working guys!

 

[ebolainfected]

I AGREE. I fail to see what is so hard about maintaining a website your customers pay to access online. What gives with the nightly down time?? This doesn't happen with ANY of the Qbanks and you guys aren't any cheaper than them.

This. I don't normally bitch about things like this but this whole situation is getting ridiculous. You guys don't seem to realize that many of your users use GT as their primary resource. GT, not First Aid is what they choose to spend most of their time reviewing.

Why is it that I cannot access GT (a site I reference for all of my classes and where I have stashed all my notes and mnemonic) from 1-2am PST every single day??? Even with this, I was able to adjust and work around it. But in the past couple of months I there have been periods when GT has been down for extended hours before midnight and throughout the day unannounced. You have to understand that many students have to stick to a daily schedule in order to bank all the cards in GT. For me, thats 150 daily questions a day and 6 cards. Now, tomorrow I'll have 300 questions and 10 cards to bank, which will be difficult to manage given the loaded class schedule and other commitments.

Personally, as a paying customer of GT, I do not care for any of the new features that will come with firecracker. All of that is superfluous. All I want is to be able to access the program I sampled 8 months ago when I first tried GT for a month - in a consistent, reliable manner. The reason I am apprehensive about moving to FC is not because I do not want these features; rather it is because I feel that (given past stories seen here and on facebook) the transition period will result in many days when I cannot access my quiz, cannot add new cards, etc. due to technical issues, and as a result, fall even further behind. You guys should really get back to the basics (aka being able to log onto the site) before trying add new features.

 

[Suncrusher]

GT is always up when I'm busy with classes and always down when I'm ready to use it.

I don't want another apology and another gift of a month's subscription (GT would probably be inaccessible for that whole month anyway). I want the service I've already paid for, and I want it before my test date in 4 months.

 

[thawunandonly]

It only makes sense for GT to go down... I have exams next week and was DEEEEEEP in learning some Path.

 

[withrye]

You could make the case that all of this unexpected downtime on GT is exactly the reason why they're trying to push us all to FC. I'm sure they've put in dozens of hours future proofing FC and are having trouble seeing the cost-benefit to overhauling GT to make it more stable for the legacy users. This kind of thing happens all the time in other maturing platforms, and legacy users always complain, but legacy users always still get left behind. (Win XP being an exception).

 

[Goober11]

The worst part is the status page says everything is good to go...

So much for transparency

 

[Suncrusher]

The down time isn't "unexpected;" GT worked just fine with comparatively little down time a year ago. The asses running GT clearly aren't honorable enough to continue providing the service I paid them for first and make changes that will expand their services and customer base second. I take step1 in 4 months, and I've probably accumulated about 5-6 months of free subscriptions because of how much GT has been down. It's great that my subscription will now last 5-6 months beyond my test date, but if I haven't had reliable access to it for several months and I don't have reliable access to it leading up to my test date, what's the point? I paid for access and I'm not getting it. One more period of down time before my test date and I will actively start campaigning against GT. School's facebook group, bulletin board, word-of-mouth, internet sites...whatever it takes to make the people running GT actually give a s**t about their obligation to provide their customers a service once the customer has paid. Or they can refund my remaining subscription and let me peacefully take my money to a company that will actually help me prep for step1.

 

[withrye]

The down time isn't "unexpected;" GT worked just fine with comparatively little down time a year ago. The asses running GT clearly aren't honorable enough to continue providing the service I paid them for first and make changes that will expand their services and customer base second. I take step1 in 4 months, and I've probably accumulated about 5-6 months of free subscriptions because of how much GT has been down. It's great that my subscription will now last 5-6 months beyond my test date, but if I haven't had reliable access to it for several months and I don't have reliable access to it leading up to my test date, what's the point? I paid for access and I'm not getting it. One more period of down time before my test date and I will actively start campaigning against GT. School's facebook group, bulletin board, word-of-mouth, internet sites...whatever it takes to make the people running GT actually give a s**t about their obligation to provide their customers a service once the customer has paid. Or they can refund my remaining subscription and let me peacefully take my money to a company that will actually help me prep for step1.

On that note, it's back up. Get it while it's hot.

 

[Suncrusher]

On that note, it's back up. Get it while it's hot.

haha :] okay I'd better do all 1100 questions that backed up during the downtime a week ago in the next 5 minutes before it breaks again. Apparently it actually was unexpected this time >.>

 

[withrye]

The downtime log is pretty funny too:

09:36AM EST
Gunner training is down, we are investigating.

09:37AM EST
Gunner Training is back online.

Quick work guys.

 

[Suncrusher]

the revisionist history is strong at GT headquarters...

 

[doctoritis]

LOL, what an e-mail they just sent. I hope it is not a surprise to you that I paid for GT - and until, at a minimum, GT's features are offered on Firecracker - I am not interested in anything but GT.


Firecracker is "out of beta" guys... and yet it doesn't appear to have many of the essential features on GT, nor anything that we have requested on this board. I'm not really surprised though as you guys often take this path of throwing incomplete and subpar projects out for public use. And now you e-mail me that our subscription to GT is automatically being transferred to Firecracker.. ??? Do you guys over at the headquarters understand clearly that we are not interested in Firecracker as it stands today ?? Our $ was paid to GUNNER, and Firecracker not only doesn't have any new improvements that we want, but also lacks a lot of the features that make GT what it is!!

** KEY** Points in Case:
- The performance bar on FC does not substitute for having your specific % banked and % mastered listed on GT.
- When doing cards on FC, you don't have the "C" option where you can select and modify the date you will next see a card. ** THIS IS HUGE.
- As I mentioned previously, the algorithm is *too* lenient - you don't see a card you give a 1 the first time around until 3/4 days later! Do you think I'm going to recall even banking it?
- You don't have the option to do anything but that days questions. Say, in GT - you can do all questions for a section, do the next days questions, etc - still far from on demand quizzes but the closest there is to that...
- Notes feature - both our personal notes and the helpful user left notes.
- Search.

I'm not even talking about everything we've been asking for on this board for 1 year now - I'm talking about the bare minimum of what makes GT better than FC at this point. Nor am I talking about that it is assumed that we can bring over our entire recall history and banked cards over to FC ... But the above are minimal features that are still lacking on FC for you guys to consider forcing any transfers. I'm not saying GT is perfect, I have plenty of suggestions ... but I'd expect at least the same platform on FC before being asked to switch over beyond my personal choice.

Moreover, and I mean this as a point of advice and not criticism - but you guys have had very little success implementing big changes and keeping your program functional. That being said, to avoid any potential disasters, I think it would be wise to make the forthcoming changes in Firecracker prior to having any mass migrations ... I'm just being real here - whether or not you guys can accept it is up to you, but you have a decent track record of this that I would hope should make you weary that it will go over smoothly, if it's not a trend you see yourself then here you go: I'm letting you know as blatantly as possible. Please avoid any potential huge problems by avoiding migrations until you have a better product that is not awaiting MANY changes - of course it is normal to always be working on your product and making it better, but make sure all the many big things you speak of are functioning before migrating anyone! Why make us migrate and suffer through it until you have it worked out? You merely are calling your program no longer Beta so you can justify charging for it, but to be fair, it is still very very Beta - and that is not fair to us as users. Please do not jump the gun as you have been known to do, it is not such a hard concept - your eagerness really takes away from the quality of your program.

 

[Kip]

GT user here. Is there an option to add your own flashcards for Firecracker? If not, will there be?

 

[jdj16]

I'm an M1 and am at a school with a systems based curriculum. We've finished our foundational model and are just about done with hematology/immunology and I'm running at a pretty good spot as far as my grades, but I'm also getting frustrated because the only time I ever see questions that actually affirm whether or not I'm learning the material is on our tests. After reading some of the latter pages of this thread, I'm kinda unsure of what's going on with GT and the changeup to firecracker? But either way, would this be something worthwhile to use as a means of organizing my study time and checking my understanding of the material?

 

[Dr Ypaint]

I decided to respond to the email they sent out today. Got kind of a dismissive response from them and I had to respond:


1. I do not hate change. I registered for gunnertraining only after doing the free month trial and deciding I liked the interface and features. I have tried Firecracker during what you called "beta." Most of the GT features that I expected to be ported were not available to test (ie. search; the ability to do questions that arent just that day's questions). I expected these features to be progressively implemented over the beta period. The fact that they haven't, together with your history of delays and affinity for suffering technical problems, makes me question if you can actually deliver on your promise of a finished product when it launches.

2a. The technical issues of your product should not the concern of your paying customers. Using it as a reason to justify forcing a huge change in platform that will adversely affects many users who are in late stages of test preparation, frankly is irresponsible. One of my friends migrated GT to FC and he was shut out from doing his regular review quizzes for the 2 weeks right before a final. Make your product work before you market it.

2b. Given the prices you are charging and the number of GT subscribers, you should be able to afford an upgrade or some other workaround. A comparable website like Kaplan has infinitely higher bandwidth expenses due all the multimedia they host. They charge their customers a similar amount, yet I've never heard of them being offline for days.

I'm sure many other users share my sentiment. If you read the GT thread on SDN, there is an overwhelmingly negative reception to the way you are handling your technical issues and your plan to abolish GT.




On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 7:45 PM, Ben Williams <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Dr Ypaint,

Why would you want to stick with GT?

We understand that people hate change and we know that it will be frustrating to learn a new system but consider a few points here:

1) The core of Firecracker is the same at GT; you find a topic, bank/flag it, then do questions. Then you do questions that are recommended based on how you did. Learning how to use it shouldn't be challenging if you give it a day or two. The speed of the website itself will make up for any lost time in short order (not to mention the lack of bugs like the fact that on GT you get kicked out of quizzes frequently and lose your work!).

2) Gunner Training is a legacy system that we cannot support for a variety of reasons and it's causing many of our awesome users a lot of frustration. We realize the details may not be clear so we are planning a blog post or two to better explain why GT is a burning ship from a technical perspective.

3) If your concern is that there are features like search or the ability to do questions without having to flag/bank a topic, don't worry. Those are coming very soon.

We'd love to hear why you would like to stick with GT; it will help us better understand any potential frustration associated with switching to Firecracker. Then we can do everything in our power to eliminate those issues.

Hope you had a great day and thank you for being so candid with us.

- Ben

(w) about.me/bcwill

Helpful? Click to give Ben Williams thanks!




On Dec 4, 2012 at 8:55 p.m. Dr Ypaint <[email protected]> wrote:

Please do not force me to migrate to Firecracker... I tried it and I really
want to stick with GT....... Forcing this switch upon me will make me very
upset.

 

[SOML]

on dec 4, 2012 at 8:55 p.m. Dr ypaint <[email protected]> wrote:

Please do not force me to migrate to firecracker... I tried it and i really
want to stick with gt....... Forcing this switch upon me will make me very
upset.

+1

 

[thawunandonly]

Just going to reiterate my previous point for emphasis:

So AT ITS CORE you have to make GT's features ALL posted over to Firecracker. That way people will just be seeing the same and MORE without losing anything, and would worry less about transferring over to FC...since it'd essentially be the same thing.

Is it that hard?

Search function is vital, manually adjusting dates is vital. I literally manually adjust all dates for all questions I bank until I see it almost every day for about a week or two, then I let it ride out on its own, but VERY RARELY let it go to a full 90 days out.

The comments section is incredibly useful for tips and explanations between each other. An alternative would be a forum type of option. Comments wouldn't be half the problem if you guys updated the cards more frequently. We point out errors and sometimes they are corrected, but sometimes they aren't.

 

[StephenMaturin]

Soooo, how do I make a quiz of the subject I want in firecracker. I banked a lot of a subject yesterday and want to do the questions again today to get ready for a test. I was able to redo the questions yesterday by clicking on the "Today's Quiz Summary", but I can't seem to find a way to get access to those questions again now.

 

[doctoritis]

Soooo, how do I make a quiz of the subject I want in firecracker. I banked a lot of a subject yesterday and want to do the questions again today to get ready for a test. I was able to redo the questions yesterday by clicking on the "Today's Quiz Summary", but I can't seem to find a way to get access to those questions again now.

Cuzzzz... it doesn't exist.

 

[Suncrusher]

...

Ben Williams is a douche who can't seem to comprehend that he should withdraw updates/whatever from GT while leaving it up and running for another year so that his desire to start up Firecracker at all costs and despite all its f***ups doesn't screw over all his customers who are taking step 1 in a few months and just want the uninterrupted access to GT that they paid for.

 

[Work]

.

 

[crazyozone]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to force a switch over to what isn't the same program. Upgrades (firecracker) should be optional; you paid for GT not firecracker. If I had step1 coming up soon I wouldn't want to switch over right now either.

 

[withrye]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to force a switch over to what isn't the same program.

lmao

 

[cage92]

really its frustrating i am getting every day at 5 am to do some of the day review question (like doing 130 from 300 or 400) and when i come from my classes i continue the rest and doing some card alllll this beside my studying to my classes really i am tired this firecraker it bull**** it hass nothing why you dont upgrade gunner instead of making new firecraker and plz make the new feature veryy fast bcz if you migrate us(obligatory) to firecrake i am going to switch to kaplan and anki (try to insert options like:1-costumize review shedulde 2- where is the theory of memory applicated in firecraker? doing the review after 3 days😡😡😡😡 try to limit the nbr of review question by number like doing 150 of the alll review question

 

[non trad]

It doesn't matter how good they think Firecracker is. If they can't keep GT running (or make Firecracker have GT functionality), they need to refund all their subscribers' money. It's that simple.

Now, I don't want my money back. What I want is GT with the features that they keep promising, such as high-yield mode and customizable quizzes. But I'll settle for the system that I paid for.

 

[sheepsie]

Okay.

A lot of negative responses here so I figured I'd make an account and give my take on things. Currently, I'm a third year student halfway through my clinical rotations. I've used GT religiously since the beginning of my second year of medical school through my Step 1 exam and now I'm using FC for my shelf exams. I attribute my success on the boards and in my classes completely to GT (had ~75% banked at the end). So I have a lot of experience with the program.

I've used FC now for most of my third year. In the beginning it was very shaky, that I can easily admit. With the new update, though, it's actually become incredibly smooth. Your personal notes now automatically appear while doing daily quizzes which is so, so helpful. The program runs much faster than GT and I haven't had a problem with any quiz crashes or down time recently. In terms of information, every card that is on GT is also on FC. The only things from GT that are absent (so far - they have said these things will be added) are the search feature, the ability to review certain topics at your whim, and the ability to adjust the timing of when you see certain questions. So let me address those in tandem.

1. Search feature: This thing was a piece of crap in GT. Seriously. Half the time, I would search for something, it wouldn't be found by the search engine, and then I'd find the card myself manually. Pretty much useless. Anyways, after you use the program enough, you end up knowing where everything is just intuitively, so really not that big a loss IMHO. In any case, the creators have said they'll add this feature back to FC anyways.

2. The ability to review every question in a certain topic whenever you want. I agree. This should be added back. It's analogous to the "cram" feature of Anki and is certainly useful when it's the day before a second year exam and you just want to run through every question in Cardio, for instance. Really, though, didn't use this feature that much. And again, they will probably add this back.

3. The ability to adjust when you see cards again. Some people use this, but honestly, it defeats the entire purpose of the program. Go read the Anki website and they'll say the same thing. You should NOT be micromanaging your cards. That's what the program is for. Let the algorithm do its job. Again, on that regard, people have been complaining about the new algorithm. I really haven't had any issues. It's more lenient up front, but I've come to realize that its harsher once you already have the questions flagged. For instance, if I rank something a 5 multiple times, it won't appear for awhile, but if I then see it a fourth time and can't remember it (give it a 2, e.g.) then I actually end up seeing that question sooner than I would have with the GT algorithm. This is something that I actually like. I've been using FC for awhile now, and I have no real complaints about the algorithm.

Lastly, people have been upset about the user comments not transferring. That I can't really say much about because I never used them all that much.

Overall, FC is a better platform. It's more stable, it runs faster and smoother, and there are a few things (your notes appearing automatically, and the quiz breakdowns) that are great (and absent from GT). The information is the SAME. I'll repeat that. Every card that is on GT, is also on FC (+ more). And the creators have already said they will be adding back the features that people have been upset about (search feature, random quizzes, etc).

Also, FC is incredibly simple to use as its the exact same concept as GT. They just call it flagging now instead of banking. So, complaints of "having to get used to using the program" are really pretty lame.

So, I understand that people are upset about what's happened so far, but I honestly think that FC is definitely a step in the right direction and that it will be a great platform for this company. Anyways, just wanted to post my thoughts. This thread has been nothing but negative for the last few pages and I wanted to share my experience with FC so far.

 

[doctoritis]

3. The ability to adjust when you see cards again. Some people use this, but honestly, it defeats the entire purpose of the program. Go read the Anki website and they'll say the same thing. You should NOT be micromanaging your cards. That's what the program is for. Let the algorithm do its job. Again, on that regard, people have been complaining about the new algorithm. I really haven't had any issues. It's more lenient up front, but I've come to realize that its harsher once you already have the questions flagged. For instance, if I rank something a 5 multiple times, it won't appear for awhile, but if I then see it a fourth time and can't remember it (give it a 2, e.g.) then I actually end up seeing that question sooner than I would have with the GT algorithm. This is something that I actually like. I've been using FC for awhile now, and I have no real complaints about the algorithm.

I disagree with you here. For me personally, I know that I inherently have a few cards that I tend to forget with time, so I like to make them appear sooner on my review schedule. I never use the system to make something later (except, note my second point). And if I just rank it low and then see it for many days in a row, I get sick and tired of it, and 2 months later I'm still struggling with parts of it. Bottom line is that this isn't something that should be abused, but some of us feel that it is a helpful tool in our studies that we utilize all the time.

On another note - I'm sure this will be moot once on demand quizzes are available, but if I want to make sure I see a certain card immediately prior to an exam I will make sure to arrange it as such, and if I don't want to worry about a random card until after an upcoming exam, I might put it on my schedule the day after the exam so in the days before my exam I'm staying more focused to exam material and not bogged down with things that I'm not going to take the time to learn anyways.


I think it is an important tool that some of us use strategically, and for those that don't like it, it absolutely doesn't effect you by being there - but for those of us that use it frequently - it's important, bottom line.

I agree that 95% of the time, the system is not meant to be micromanaged, but you know yourself better than any computer or algorithm, and for a program that is best tailored to your personal learning style, it is only logical for you to have control over things like this. That's the essence of a program like Gunner - personalized, tailored learning. Yes there is a proven method of madness behind it all that is the crux of the entire system, but I think the whole long term goal of Firecracker is to give you more, not less, ability to personalize. And this is a critical feature in that direction.


As far as your point about the search feature - I agree that it can certainly use a lot of work. Your experience is the same as mine - I will search for something that I know for a fact is in a card, and the search won't be sensitive to it and I need to go find it manually - so this is a great goal for them to improve the search functionality - but in the mean time, Gunner's mediocre search is still superior to Firecracker's complete lack there of.

I think we all agree and respect that Firecracker is inherently set on a better platform that for the long term will prove to be better - and we are looking forward to those days. But for those of who have found a groove in Gunner and a way to utilize the system to optimize our studies - a mandated switch over to Firecracker without the essential features that we speak of would be a big change of rhythm. I don't think anyone is opposed to the promised Firecracker that is coming - we are all excited about it - but we want to see some of the promised changes, and at a minimum, the features on Gunner that we utilize religiously before being forced to migrate - that's all there is to it, and I think it is a fair point.

Note: nobody was actually criticizing Firecracker on this board until we got an e-mail letting us know of a mandatory migration - now we are judging the product as it doesn't appear ready for use and we will be forced to use it - so of course we have a lot invested in this and we care. Prior to this our complaints were that GUNNER was constantly down, etc - and we were becoming frustrated that there was no functional Firecracker, and due to neglect, Gunner, what we paid for, was also becoming non-functional.

 

[thawunandonly]

Agreed. Ultimately I don't mind a move over, but implement those "we promised to add in the search features, etc." first before talk of "hey we plan to make FC accounts for everyone." Like whoa... slow it down.

And I understand that we should probably be trusting the algorithm and whatnot, but I don't have the same memory as others. I also rate my banked cards to correct for short-term memory. Uh, obviously if I just read a question 30 seconds ago I'll probably know what it means, rate it a 3-5... but does that mean I should see it within 6-14 days? No. I have trouble remember class lecture an hour ago. I usually give things 1-3s and plan to see it nearly every day or every other day until it sticks, then let it run free.

Maybe it's just me...

 

[FIREitUP]

has anyone in clerkships tried the clerkship portion of firecracker? I'm just debating whether or not I should pay $ to have it for when I'm doing clerkships.