Gunner Training?

[hope2bpaindoc]

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A

 

[doctorspeed]

Surprise surprise, GT is down.

Maybe the strategy is make GT slow and crash all the time so everyone "wants" to switch to firecracker

 

[operaman]

Down for me too 🙁

Sad to see what used to be such a great product going down the pooper...

 

[hockdocalot]

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.

Using it for surgery right now, guess we'll see how that works out.

 

[Transformers]

A method:...So guys, just wanted to check in with my progress as I have one more semester left...so im wrapping up path and heres my strategy with GT...im about 70% banked (should be near 82% by end of Jan) , 32% mastery....im using GT this way and i think its been helping me honestly....first off im an avid user of pathoma and BRS phys so right off the bat, those are my prime sources because im not a programmed robot who can just memorize stuff off of GT's interface without understanding/drawing etc...after learning pathoma + lecture notes (im trying to do robbins and kaplan qbank as I go along) Ive been banking the cards and taking the quizzes only on that particular testable subject for my upcoming exam and keep up with daily quizzes only on that subject...I basically ignore the other stuff in GT hence my mastery is so low...

the point being assuming you banked 1st year courses in the summer of M1, GT is struggle during 2nd year to review old stuff (point...id rather start with board questions from better qbanks on stuff I have learned previously but use GT on just stuff im currently learning) hence the tradeoff is I end up constantly pushing off 1000s of questions on old embryo, anatomy, micro, etc...every week to spread over 2 weeks...its a GREAT strategy honestly and after a winterbreak of reviewing 1st year stuff super quick...I'll probably religiously do GT for about two months in Jan-> Feb, should be able to hit that 4/5s and then hit up UWorld

Moral of the story: Correct me if im wrong, but there are many ways to get a 100%/100% (banked/mastery) on GT...my point is become a "master" when you need to (right before starting UWorld and a few months from your exam), if ur in a traditional curriculum like me GT is too time consuming but at the same time, all you need is a 4/5 one or two times I believe to count towards your mastery score so while my 32% looks low....after doing GT religiously (that is 2-300 probs) over two months i think is a BETTER PATH to mastery than rating the same card 4/5 multiple times

 

[sheepsie]

I'm using FC clinical section for my IM shelf right now. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[FIREitUP]

A method:...So guys, just wanted to check in with my progress as I have one more semester left...so im wrapping up path and heres my strategy with GT...im about 70% banked (should be near 82% by end of Jan) , 32% mastery....im using GT this way and i think its been helping me honestly....first off im an avid user of pathoma and BRS phys so right off the bat, those are my prime sources because im not a programmed robot who can just memorize stuff off of GT's interface without understanding/drawing etc...after learning pathoma + lecture notes (im trying to do robbins and kaplan qbank as I go along) Ive been banking the cards and taking the quizzes only on that particular testable subject for my upcoming exam and keep up with daily quizzes only on that subject...I basically ignore the other stuff in GT hence my mastery is so low...

the point being assuming you banked 1st year courses in the summer of M1, GT is struggle during 2nd year to review old stuff (point...id rather start with board questions from better qbanks on stuff I have learned previously but use GT on just stuff im currently learning) hence the tradeoff is I end up constantly pushing off 1000s of questions on old embryo, anatomy, micro, etc...every week to spread over 2 weeks...its a GREAT strategy honestly and after a winterbreak of reviewing 1st year stuff super quick...I'll probably religiously do GT for about two months in Jan-> Feb, should be able to hit that 4/5s and then hit up UWorld

Moral of the story: Correct me if im wrong, but there are many ways to get a 100%/100% (banked/mastery) on GT...my point is become a "master" when you need to (right before starting UWorld and a few months from your exam), if ur in a traditional curriculum like me GT is too time consuming but at the same time, all you need is a 4/5 one or two times I believe to count towards your mastery score so while my 32% looks low....after doing GT religiously (that is 2-300 probs) over two months i think is a BETTER PATH to mastery than rating the same card 4/5 multiple times

call be crazy, but I don't even do the questions. i use FC mainly for micro and as a reference because when I did the questions I found myself blindly memorizing cards that included information I didn't entirely understand. But this is coming from someone who never found flashcards to be useful.

Good luck on your shelf exams guys! hopefully FC works out well for you

 

[doctoritis]

Can anyone confirm that rating a 4 vs. a 5 will give you a different level of mastery? I avoid 5's ... as I never want to see something less than once every 2 months. Not really going to change my strategy but may change my mastery expectations and not feel so down on myself about it 😛.

 

[Suncrusher]

I thought mastery means your average rating for answering that question is 4 or above. So if you rate something as a 5 it has a greater effect on raising your average score. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[withrye]

Can anyone confirm that rating a 4 vs. a 5 will give you a different level of mastery? I avoid 5's ... as I never want to see something less than once every 2 months. Not really going to change my strategy but may change my mastery expectations and not feel so down on myself about it 😛.

I think a 5 is necessary for full mastery according to the GT algorithm. I've gained percentage points on reviews where all that's happened is some cards went from being rated 4s to being rated 5s. Functionally, the difference is 60 vs 90 days of time between seeing mastered cards.

 

[doctoritis]

I think a 5 is necessary for full mastery according to the GT algorithm. I've gained percentage points on reviews where all that's happened is some cards went from being rated 4s to being rated 5s. Functionally, the difference is 60 vs 90 days of time between seeing mastered cards.

Cool - I saw a similar pattern in terms of functionally, and to me seeing things a minimum of every 2 months is best - I didn't realize there was also a correlation to percent mastery, though. This makes sense now why my mastery is relatively low given other parameters. Thank you.

 

[Suncrusher]

I think a 5 is necessary for full mastery according to the GT algorithm. I've gained percentage points on reviews where all that's happened is some cards went from being rated 4s to being rated 5s. Functionally, the difference is 60 vs 90 days of time between seeing mastered cards.

What if you ranked it as a 2 or 3 one time and then, after ranking it 4 a bunch of times in a row, you're average still wouldnt be above a 4 and count as mastered...But then you rank it as a 5 and suddenly your average finally counts as "mastered" because it finally is greater than or equal to 4? Thoughts?

Maybe I'm just passing around the same misinformation that someone else on SDN told to me : D

 

[doctoritis]

I did not realize that it was the average score ... lets say you're stuck on a card for a long time giving it 2's... wow, that would take A LOT of repetition of the card before getting it above a 4 - you'd probably be seeing it every 2-3 months before you even have the average above the 4 😉 ! I thought it was just bumping something into the 4/5 level for a few consecutive times - just because all it really says next to mastery is "review score greater than or equal to 4"! I wonder!

Maybe you are right Suncrusher - that is an interesting point.

 

[Suncrusher]

Honestly I can't remember who told me it was an average. It's been forever since I went through the tutorial and their demonstration video on youtube says it's an "algorithm," so I'm probably wrong.

 

[loveoforganic2]

I think a 5 is necessary for full mastery according to the GT algorithm. I've gained percentage points on reviews where all that's happened is some cards went from being rated 4s to being rated 5s. Functionally, the difference is 60 vs 90 days of time between seeing mastered cards.

Right

What if you ranked it as a 2 or 3 one time and then, after ranking it 4 a bunch of times in a row, you're average still wouldnt be above a 4 and count as mastered...But then you rank it as a 5 and suddenly your average finally counts as "mastered" because it finally is greater than or equal to 4? Thoughts?

Maybe I'm just passing around the same misinformation that someone else on SDN told to me : D

It isn't the average as far as I remember, just the most recent rating

 

[frezz219]

Hey has anyone else noticed that you cant add notes to individual cards in firecracker??

Any notes you add to an individual card show up on every card in that section.

This needs to be fixed ASAP!!!

 

[Wheatbread]

I got an email about Firecracker being 50% off until Dec 15th. I've been using Anki, but it takes way too much time to load everything in there and with classes I haven't been diligent lately putting stuff in.

I've seen there's been some issues with FC and was wondering everyone's thoughts on whether I should jump on board w/ the 50% off deal.

I'm just about to finish my 1st semester, and think it would help with classes. Thanks.

 

[WarriorMD]

Ahhh there's just so much frustration in this thread and it sucks.

I love the GT program, I'm using it as my most IMP source for review before Uworld and FA, but it just sucks that there's always some kind of problem. It's helped me a lot, but the fact that they said firecracker would release sooo long ago it has also halted my progress by a HUGE HUGE amount because I've been waiting like an idiot.

I honestly do not want to be forced over to firecracker if it does not have the CUSTOM review date feature or NEVER SHOW THIS AGAIN feature simply because I use both of those features very often and I paid for a program which includes those features.

USMLE in itself is so stressful and time is so diffficult and important to manage, we really don't need all this extra stress and heartache. People were pretty okay with GT before the whole Firecracker bonanza came around. You guys should just be upfront and admit the release of FC failed and it's not ready and we should continue to use GT. This way no one is frustrated or clinging onto false promises and when you're ready drop FC.

 

[SOML]

I don't know.. I can see that most people see that obviously, they could have included feature x or y into firecracker, but for some reason insist that FC is gonna be much better without them..
Don't mean to be a stinker but maaaaybe they have some sort of internal conflict going on?! Just throwing it out there.

I use GT and love it, not looking forward to FC

 

[Isradoc16]

I got an email about Firecracker being 50% off until Dec 15th. I've been using Anki, but it takes way too much time to load everything in there and with classes I haven't been diligent lately putting stuff in.

I've seen there's been some issues with FC and was wondering everyone's thoughts on whether I should jump on board w/ the 50% off deal.

I'm just about to finish my 1st semester, and think it would help with classes. Thanks.

You can still try FC for a few days in trial before the discount runs out. IMO, a lot of the complaints are from people who have a lot invested in GT and are worried about the transition/are used to working in a certain way that might change.

I think if you just use FC from the beginning there'll be a lot less to worry about. All the material is already there and it can only get better from here, even if it takes a while to see those changes. It's the daily repetition that really matters.

 

[hchang9]

How do we get the 50% off? is there a discount code or something? Or is the price already marked down?

 

[fleshwound]

I got an email about Firecracker being 50% off until Dec 15th. I've been using Anki, but it takes way too much time to load everything in there and with classes I haven't been diligent lately putting stuff in.

I've seen there's been some issues with FC and was wondering everyone's thoughts on whether I should jump on board w/ the 50% off deal.

I'm just about to finish my 1st semester, and think it would help with classes. Thanks.

do as you will, but they're trying to get enough people hooked on FC to justify phasing out GT, which so far, is the better product in terms of functionality

 

[withrye]

do as you will, but they're trying to get enough people hooked on FC to justify phasing out GT, which so far, is the better product in terms of functionality

That's silly because they're phasing out GT no matter what. Making a GT account right now just forces you through rolling blackouts and a migration in the near future. Not worth it.

 

[Kalyx]

*sigh*. I'm 20% banked in GT right now and will have a chance to maybe bring it up to 30 or 35% over winter break. Just can't decide whether it's worth it to continue given the imminent forced migration to Firecracker (I also have Kaplan Qbank and will have access to UWorld starting in April).

🙁

 

[withrye]

*sigh*. I'm 20% banked in GT right now and will have a chance to maybe bring it up to 30 or 35% over winter break. Just can't decide whether it's worth it to continue given the imminent forced migration to Firecracker (I also have Kaplan Qbank and will have access to UWorld starting in April).

🙁

It's going to be totally free to move over to FC and use up your remaining purchased months from GT. There isn't a WHOLE lot in GT that isn't already known to be in FC, so I see no reason not to try it out for a while. It's a faster, more stable platform, based on what normal FC users are telling me.

 

[thawunandonly]

Is there a date for the move? Warning would be good.

My pathology final is over, so I don't have any gripes now that vacation is starting soon. I'm still going over material for daily reviews but if the switch is inevitable, I suppose this would be a good time for me to start getting used to it. I just want access to my progress and history, etc. before playing around.

 

[cage92]

hey plz dont oblogate migration until firecraker at least has the sammme feature of firecraker like costumize review shedule(not waiting 3 days )....

 

[jhamaican]

hey plz dont oblogate migration until firecraker at least has the sammme feature of firecraker like costumize review shedule(not waiting 3 days )....

This is your future doctor....

 

[WarriorMD]

GT/FC Staff:

Please provide warning in advance if you guys decide to automatically migrate GT accounts over to FC so that we can be prepared for the change.

It would be GREATLY appreciated, thank you.

 

[Brasco888]

Not sure how one can prepare for that...

Taking USMLE in 1 month, would love to be able to hold on to GT format until then...

 

[Transformers]

Two quick quesitons:

1.) It looks like we can extend GT and FC...I like GT> FC so plan on paying the 1 year for GT at least for now but I'm assuming down the road if the transfer occurs, I'll be set right?

2.) If you do ALL the review questions form a particular subject (say micro) now instead of doing it in a spaced repetition format and rate them 4s/5s, will that add to your mastery of the subject? I'd like to basically review all of micro in a few days and then just do a cumulative GT review as a final examination but at the same time I would love if this progress can be counted towards my GT mastery as it normally would when you do the questions spaced out.

 

[Transformers]

Lastly, for shelf exams during 3rd year, let's be real, what would be a better use of your time...gunner training or shelf-oriented books...I'm actually debating whether to it is worth it to pay the extra year

 

[iCY]

guys when the f are you going to learn. GT and FC are just an amateur attempt at making a quick buck in medical education. Stick with what works you're going to get ****ed.

THE END

 

[MCAT guy]

guys when the f are you going to learn. GT and FC are just an amateur attempt at making a quick buck in medical education. Stick with what works you're going to get ****ed.

THE END

Agreed. I used this and its super low yield for the time investment. I've seen great posts explaining why on this thread like 6 or 12 months ago but they are forgotten each year. New people come in and convince themselves they can do whatever 2-3 hours everyday but it robs time from school. In the end I've only seen a few people actually do the entire program, and yeah, they do well but so do people who study 500 less hours than they do over 2 years. Do a search or read this thread over before investing in this. And I think most people won't realize how inefficient this is until mid second year when school is actually hard. I don't follow this thread but I bet less than 10% of the users are above 80% banked. Yes there are weird dudes who bank 90% during M1 but believe me their existence is hell.

Good luck. Don't do it, trust me. I know everyone needs to learn for themselves and thinks they are an exception ... good luck with that.

 

[MCAT guy]

Lastly, for shelf exams during 3rd year, let's be real, what would be a better use of your time...gunner training or shelf-oriented books...I'm actually debating whether to it is worth it to pay the extra year

Can't be serious.... shelf books and world. Questions will always be better than doing flashcards unless those cards are super high yield and only 20% of your study time.

 

[Brasco888]

Agreed. I used this and its super low yield for the time investment. I've seen great posts explaining why on this thread like 6 or 12 months ago but they are forgotten each year. New people come in and convince themselves they can do whatever 2-3 hours everyday but it robs time from school. In the end I've only seen a few people actually do the entire program, and yeah, they do well but so do people who study 500 less hours than they do over 2 years. Do a search or read this thread over before investing in this. And I think most people won't realize how inefficient this is until mid second year when school is actually hard. I don't follow this thread but I bet less than 10% of the users are above 80% banked. Yes there are weird dudes who bank 90% during M1 but believe me their existence is hell.

Good luck. Don't do it, trust me. I know everyone needs to learn for themselves and thinks they are an exception ... good luck with that.

I respectfully disagree. It depends on your learning style, and everyone is different. I've always been a big 'notecard-learner', and did not have time to do it once I got to med school. As soon as I started GT, my grades got a little better at school, but my performance on the NBME portions skyrocketed.

I am now in my dedicated study time (taking USMLE next month), and FA is very familiar to me after having used GT since Feb '12. Yes, GT can be improved upon, but it has had an incredible value for me. To each his/her own~

 

[sheepsie]

Completely disagree. But hey, everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

I did GT from the beginning of my second year through my step 1 exam. I had 75% banked (which was almost everything except anatomy and some basic science cards - I didn't bank any anatomy cards). Not only did doing GT help me honors every one of my classes second year but I also did very well on step 1. The best part is, I actually remember the material - so third year has been that much better for it.

The true power of GT isn't just randomly memorizing facts - that's what people see it as and they tend to blow it off. The thing that makes the program great is that it helps you retain what you learn. The key to understanding medicine is to be able to make connections. Everything you learn has relevance to everything else. For example, if you can remember renal phys when you come across cardio, everything makes that much more sense. But if you've already forgotten your renal, then your SOL. If you can remember your immuno when you start getting to the organ system modules, you'll see that every single organ system has diseases in it that you can relate back to your immunology phys. Etc, etc...

I want to emphasize this too. Yes, it takes time to do questions every day. I probably did 2-3 hours a day. But if you do your GT alongside your class notes, it just reinforces what your learning and helps it stick. And you will remember it. I did well first year, but I also had a lot of rough nights before tests cramming. I never felt like that second year. I always felt on top of whatever it was we were studying and I always felt like I knew the material cold. It was a great feeling.

I also still had a lot of free time. It's very doable. You just have to be diligent and stay on top of things.

Edit
260+. Those 2-3 hours were total time per day (GT + school). <--- I take this back, that's not reasonable. I probably put in about 4-5 hours total work on average each day. Some days (leading up to a test) I studied more, and some days I studied a lot less. Some days I took off completely and just spread my questions over the next 14 days. Anyways, this is just my honest opinion about my experiences with the program. Is it perfect? Of course not. Can you get an amazing score and do less work? Of course. All I'm saying is that I enjoyed it, and it worked for me. And if it did anything for my grades during M2, it only helped me to do better in all my classes. If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to answer.

 

[MCAT guy]

Nm. Heard these old arguments. Please post your step scores if you already took and for the guy 1 month out, I'll be watching for your performance. This program is very average but I think you can't understand until you're 50% banked. Yes, there's always a few nuts who like it but they spend 3 hours on it daily outside of school. I know people at my school who do nothing but study so I'm never surprised at what the guys who use GT do... hence the name.

I bet reading first aid and Wikipedia 3 hours a day would yield BETTER results, even though you all are convinced it wouldn't. Lol whatever, live and learn.

 

[MCAT guy]

Lol nm.... good luck!

 

[JeffGarrett]

I recently received an email about the recent plans for migration to FC and I wanted to get an idea as to how smooth the transition turned out for most of you. I was told I had until the 19th of December to swap my files (50% banked) over to FC from GT.

Has anyone on this board received this same email and/or made the switch yet? If so, was the RECENT transition smooth?

In the same email we were told the switch was gonna come whether we liked it or not. I would like to opt to make the transition now if it will save my data, but I just wanna make sure all the cards I have banked now (roughly 50%) follow...

thoughts anyone?
Jeff

 

[thawunandonly]

.

 

[jhamaican]

Nm. Heard these old arguments. Please post your step scores if you already took and for the guy 1 month out, I'll be watching for your performance. This program is very average but I think you can't understand until you're 50% banked. Yes, there's always a few nuts who like it but they spend 3 hours on it daily outside of school. I know people at my school who do nothing but study so I'm never surprised at what the guys who use GT do... hence the name.

I bet reading first aid and Wikipedia 3 hours a day would yield BETTER results, even though you all are convinced it wouldn't. Lol whatever, live and learn.

I feel you. I am still doing the program though because I am too far in. I am at about 60/50 and have my final exam today before winter break.

I would be very suspicious for positive GT posts of people 2012 registration dates with 3 posts. I am not saying they are not real but there have been many instances of companies posting on these forums.

 

[islandCrazy]

Was debating on using GT for clinical however I wasn't impressed by the clinical section but was still going to buy it. However I decided that even at 50% off for 6 six months, I'm probably better off buying review books and using Anki for Step 2CK.

Anyone using it for clinicals?

 

[Kbkilla]

After reading through some of this thread I just wanted to hear some people's opinions. I'm an M2 and used GT alongside class notes while studying last semester. I didn't use the notecards or anything but was very impressed with it and heard good things about it from classmates.

My question is this: are people not liking the merge or are people not liking Firecracker itself. I was planning on using GT heavily for board studies and am not sure about doing so after hearing all of this negative feedback.

 

[withrye]

After reading through some of this thread I just wanted to hear some people's opinions. I'm an M2 and used GT alongside class notes while studying last semester. I didn't use the notecards or anything but was very impressed with it and heard good things about it from classmates.

My question is this: are people not liking the merge or are people not liking Firecracker itself. I was planning on using GT heavily for board studies and am not sure about doing so after hearing all of this negative feedback.

The merge last time was a mess, and people are still sore about how it was handled. FC itself is faster and more stable, but admittedly lacks some of the features that GT currently has. Notably, it won't keep the community comments from GT and it doesn't have the option to individually tweak the date a question is due to come back up. Other than that, it seems like a better system all around.

That being said, I'm at around 85/80 on GT and the last thing I want to do is go through another migration debacle as I'm nearing 100% banked. I'm personally fine with riding out a legacy system until my test date. The devil you know and all that.

 

[bbaggins]

Can anyone who has been using firecracker's step 2 material comment on how good or bad it is? Is it useful for wards themselves, for shelf exam, step 2, or all of the above? Have any of you taken an exam and found that using firecracker helped you perform well? I'm wondering because the 50% off special ends tomorrow, and I'm wondering if it would be worth it to buy more to last through 3rd year.

 

[MCAT guy]

I feel you. I am still doing the program though because I am too far in. I am at about 60/50 and have my final exam today before winter break.

I would be very suspicious for positive GT posts of people 2012 registration dates with 3 posts. I am not saying they are not real but there have been many instances of companies posting on these forums.

Yeah, I nearly hit 50% before quitting during M2. You can't really understand how busy M2 is if you're an M1, so the GT users won't understand if they are M1s.... especially if your school has lots of group and clinical activites (which most schools do). I can't see post counts on my phone but if the people posting are under 6 months active AND have less than 50 posts that are all in GT thread then that's an issue (cant see from my phone).

Anyway, does doing 4-5 hours of daily work on GT for like 1 year or more AND doing banks and doing class work and doing clinical stuff work? Hell yeah.

I literally think you could do anything relevant for 4-5 hour everyday for a year on top of everything else and "it would work". Can you imagine? That's like 30 hrs a week for a year that is above and beyond doing world. So you could literally do world like 5 times in the same amount of time. Overkill? Sure but GT isn't overkill, right? You could probably finish every qbank twice (rx world Kaplan) in the same time it takes to do GT. Overkill? Sure. Look, there are lots of ways to score high and I'm sure that people who put time into GT could do well with any strategy.

Its time consuming to read 300 qs and recall answers on a daily basis. And its helpful but low yield. Uworld is high yield and so is first aid.

I'm done. 98% of med students in the know will tell you what in saying. But people who use Goljan will always think it was a must even with pathoma now. People with GT will always be convinced that GT is a must. The true only musts are FA and world, thinking GT gets stuff in your memory ahead of time isn't an advantage because most med students can memorize FA in their dedicated time. If GT was higher yield or designed really well then maybe it would be good, but I think bits average. I went through this last year and the site has been terrible. Down, I couldn't log in for like a month. Crashes etc. Not exactly great.

It works. It just takes 3-4 times longer and CAN make grades harder. My school in particular crossed over poorly with GT material. Yeah half is high yield, its the other half that's the problem.

 

[Transformers]

guys as somone at 75/35 GT is good if you use it right....by right i mean, this is what i did
1.) did all of 1st year GT in the summer...got me to like 50%
2.) i only do GT for stuff im gonna be tested on...its so much nicer doing flashcards on a blockunit daily than reviewing ALL of the material (i dont do any questions on a preious block or 1st year....just push those questions)
3.) At the end of the day, all it comes down to how recently you've reviewed the material, GT sucks doing it longterm, daily...GT is great if you do it in the summer spurt and with path/pharm 2nd year on only those selected topics...the amount of master will be low...SURE but i think personally for me, being close to done with path, after my Jan-Feb GRIND of doing GT daily (note this will be my only multi-hour period of GT aside from the summer)...I will master GT (hence mastered FA) and be fresh with solely doing UWorld once from March-study time and then during study time ( I mean you ARE gonna review all the stuff AGAIN during study time + I will do UWorld for a second time)...the point is get that BASELINE mastery of all the stuff floating in your head so you can do timed UWorld early...

Point: If you take the practical path of using GT, you can get the 90+% mastery and banked by stopping soon and then focusing on high yield form say around March-on out!

 

[withrye]

I'm in MS2 with 85/80 and I don't feel like I've slacked in class at all. I have roughly 150 questions per day and it certainly doesn't take me 3 hours a day to get through what I plan to do each day. I guess it depends on your school or whatever.

 

[MCAT guy]

Lol. Holy ****! Just noticed the guy that rec'd GT with a 260+ has only 3 posts! Lol. You never ever ever listen to a rec to buy a 200+ program from a guy with less than 50-100 posts and all in the step 1 forum. Real gunners with 260s actually have opinions and thoughts about many things on sdn, so they will post in multiple forums and have at least 6-12 months and 50 posts. Be very skeptical when people are 100% positive and have these sandy accounts.

Btw, saying something isn't perfect is not a critical or thoughtful review of the program. Very few people use this because time is limited and there are so many BETTeR options, like rx Kaplan and world.

I could see the benefit if you are in a block school and only do the block of GT alongside your blocks. Then it wouldn't be so time consuming. Yet this only works at block schools. In the end if you're serious then do questions. There's some gug named pholston who literally used all resources and did like all the qbanks twice. With unlimited time he still didn't use Gt. He used the qbanks and FA. Questions are better than repeating the same concept 100 times only to run out of time to do real questions.

 

[SOML]

Lol. Holy ****! Just noticed the guy that rec'd GT with a 260+ has only 3 posts! Lol. You never ever ever listen to a rec to buy a 200+ program from a guy with less than 50-100 posts and all in the step 1 forum. Real gunners with 260s actually have opinions and thoughts about many things on sdn, so they will post in multiple forums and have at least 6-12 months and 50 posts. Be very skeptical when people are 100% positive and have these sandy accounts.

Btw, saying something isn't perfect is not a critical or thoughtful review of the program. Very few people use this because time is limited and there are so many BETTeR options, like rx Kaplan and world.

I could see the benefit if you are in a block school and only do the block of GT alongside your blocks. Then it wouldn't be so time consuming. Yet this only works at block schools. In the end if you're serious then do questions. There's some gug named pholston who literally used all resources and did like all the qbanks twice. With unlimited time he still didn't use Gt. He used the qbanks and FA. Questions are better than repeating the same concept 100 times only to run out of time to do real questions.

I read that guy's post.. Phloston. He got a 279 I think. I said it in the "review materials" thread and I'll echo it here, his post was the best, most comprehensive study plan I've ever seen hands down, the dude's a real inspiration..

But I'm still happy with what I'm getting out of GT.. though at times it seems like some of the material I'm memorizing are just isolated facts that I'm never going to be tested on, I just do a little research through google/wiki (have a dedicated tab opened where I just type in the search/address box at top) about those information tidbits and it sticks and helps with the overall picture.