How do I use FireCracker?

[DrizzyDrake]

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So I just flagged pretty much all of the bacteria, and got around 300 cards it wants me to go through today. Will I have to do 300 cards the whole year? Because I really don't want to spend more than an hour a day using this program.

 

[JABWS]

lol I flag 3-5 cards per day, and currently review anywhere from 50-100 questions per day. Flagging entire sections is definitely not the best way to use the program, unless you're crunched for time.

Edit: Calculate how much time you have (in days), and divide that by the number of topics you want to get through. That should give you a good idea of what pace you need to move at. It may be tempting to knock out a huge bolus of information, but you're only going to make the program impractical for you in the short term.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

lol I flag 3-5 cards per day, and currently review anywhere from 50-100 questions per day. Flagging entire sections is definitely not the best way to use the program, unless you're crunched for time.

Haha, nah Im not crunched for time. I just want something I can consistently do in addition to reading and annotating FA, doing school work and Qbanks. Literally only want 1 hour a day, with like 2-3 misses every two weeks when tests get close.

What do you recommend doing starting out? I switched it to Lite mode since I really want it for high yield concepts I think, atleast for now. That knocked it down to 118 questions for today, which seems doable, and then I like your idea of adding 3-5 cards a day. How do you do that? Just flag a single topic and hope its 3-5 cards? Or do you pick and choose?

 

[JABWS]

Haha, nah Im not crunched for time. I just want something I can consistently do in addition to reading and annotating FA, doing school work and Qbanks. Literally only want 1 hour a day, with like 2-3 misses every two weeks when tests get close.

What do you recommend doing starting out? I switched it to Lite mode since I really want it for high yield concepts I think, atleast for now. That knocked it down to 118 questions for today, which seems doable, and then I like your idea of adding 3-5 cards a day. How do you do that? Just flag a single topic and hope its 3-5 cards? Or do you pick and choose?

Look at the top progress bar - that'll tell you the total number of topics, not questions. I flag 3-5 topics per day, which may be anywhere from 10 - 50 questions per day. At this pace, the total number of questions you will need to review per day will remain manageable. You only start getting large numbers of review questions when you flag too many topics in one day. Also, rank liberally. Don't be afraid to rate something a five or four if you know most of it. I don't aim for perfect recall, I just want to know that if I saw a similar question in multiple choice format I'd be able to answer it correctly. You'll never get anywhere if you're too harsh with your ranking system.

Honestly, it doesn't make much sense to use FC and FA, in my opinion. I'm about 25% complete with FC and have looked briefly at FA. Not only do I know what's in there, I know more! Trying to review both is probably overkill. I may abandon FC in March or April of next year and then read FA one or twice, but now I'm focusing on FC. Simply reading FA doesn't provide much in the way of retention, at least for me. I want to have the facts down by the time the study period rolls around so I can focus mostly on questions.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

Look at the top progress bar - that'll tell you the total number of topics, not questions. I flag 3-5 topics per day, which may be anywhere from 10 - 50 questions per day. At this pace, the total number of questions you will need to review per day will remain manageable. You only start getting large numbers of review questions when you flag too many topics in one day. Also, rank liberally. Don't be afraid to rate something a five or four if you know most of it. I don't aim for perfect recall, I just want to know that if I saw a similar question in multiple choice format I'd be able to answer it correctly. You'll never get anywhere if you're too harsh with your ranking system.

Honestly, it doesn't make much sense to use FC and FA, in my opinion. I'm about 25% complete with FC and have looked briefly at FA. Not only do I know what's in there, I know more! Trying to review both is probably overkill. I may abandon FC in March or April of next year and then read FA one or twice, but now I'm focusing on FC. Simply reading FA doesn't provide much in the way of retention, at least for me. I want to have the facts down by the time the study period rolls around so I can focus mostly on questions.

Haha, I understand, but I have a few reservations about abandoning FA. I find that it helps me organize the material better than FC does. Also, I'm really just using FC to review stuff that isn't being tested in my current theme, while I'm using FA to study for my actual classes. I'm also only planning on using FC until February and then just going full FA and other Step 1 stuff.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JABWS]

Haha, I understand, but I have a few reservations about abandoning FA. I find that it helps me organize the material better than FC does. Also, I'm really just using FC to review stuff that isn't being tested in my current theme, while I'm using FA to study for my actual classes. I'm also only planning on using FC until February and then just going full FA and other Step 1 stuff.

Thanks for the help!

No problem. It sounds like you're trying to use FC in a very selective way. In that case, don't worry too much about the 300 cards. If you go through those once or twice they'll quickly dissipate into far less per day. The algorithm spaces them out according to your recall rankings. The questions will stack up initially, but over time you'll have very few if you only plan on using FC for specific topics.

 

[Brain Bucket]

So I just flagged pretty much all of the bacteria, and got around 300 cards it wants me to go through today. Will I have to do 300 cards the whole year? Because I really don't want to spend more than an hour a day using this program.

You mean 300 qs. That's nothing. You can't possibly mean 300 cards. Don't be shy about grading yourself liberally and go ahead and flag cards that you already know something about.


There's a giant thread just on fc. Skim it. The 'topic' you're flagging is what we call a card.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[uicman4eva]

Hello ,
I am a second year medical student and we just began our first system which is endocrine. I am lost as to how to use firecracker. From what Im understanding you flag 3 to 5 topics per day that you have covered in your classes and then do the questions associated with them in the same day ? What about the material that was covered in 1st year ? After flagging all of the first year material i had over a thousand questions so I decided to unflag those topics and have got the questions down to about 50 but those questions are related to endocrine and not first year material
1.) How should I use this program and integrate it into my second year studies, while also making sure I review 1st year material without it taking up too much of my time . I would like to devote 1 hour a day to this program at most for now and increase my time when i get closer to boards ..
Any suggestions will help thanks

 

[001100010010011]

You mean 300 qs. That's nothing. You can't possibly mean 300 cards. Don't be shy about grading yourself liberally and go ahead and flag cards that you already know something about.


There's a giant thread just on fc. Skim it. The 'topic' you're flagging is what we call a card.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

By liberally, do you mean 4's even if you're on the fence?

 

[001100010010011]

Hello ,
I am a second year medical student and we just began our first system which is endocrine. I am lost as to how to use firecracker. From what Im understanding you flag 3 to 5 topics per day that you have covered in your classes and then do the questions associated with them in the same day ? What about the material that was covered in 1st year ? After flagging all of the first year material i had over a thousand questions so I decided to unflag those topics and have got the questions down to about 50 but those questions are related to endocrine and not first year material
1.) How should I use this program and integrate it into my second year studies, while also making sure I review 1st year material without it taking up too much of my time . I would like to devote 1 hour a day to this program at most for now and increase my time when i get closer to boards ..
Any suggestions will help thanks

It seems like it's going to take a lot of time. You get more efficient, but I'm doing like 100-200 questions a day and flagging as many new topics as I can handle to cover old material like biochem and anatomy/embryology.

I find that as I flag M2 subjects doing the questions isn't painful because you know you're getting reinforcement/focus about what is really important for boards.

 

[Brain Bucket]

By liberally, do you mean 4's even if you're on the fence?

So long as your reasonings OK, absolutely, cause you'll see it again soon enough. Taking the time on understanding WHY your ans is right or wrong is the most important thing.

 

[Anastomoses]

I ******edly flagged all first year material...what a mess.

 

[001100010010011]

I got a little overzealous and tagged about 10 first year topics. I have so much material to cover throughout the year that I don't think I can get my question load down below 150/day.

 

[Bancrofti]

If you have a traditional second year load I'd say it would probably be extremely difficult to sustain more than 5 new flagged topics/day unless you first just pick every extremely simple topics and/or those that only have less than 5 questions associated with the topic.

 

[001100010010011]

Thanks for the tip. Is it pretty reasonable to flag items like microbes and pathology as you go along or will these pile up too?

 

[stronghold]

Where to find physiology or pathophysiology section? I am weak in that area and wanna do just those from firecrakcer.

 

[Bancrofti]

Thanks for the tip. Is it pretty reasonable to flag items like microbes and pathology as you go along or will these pile up too?

I've been trying to slowly. Micro started last week for me and path this week. Everything is general, and I don't think we are going to get into systems for another month, so at this point the topics I have to flag aren't bad at all. Still trying to figure out how to budget my time between FK, Pathoma, and classes. Also going to start doing review questions as well this weekend. I'm glad 2nd year is so much fun

 

[thawunandonly]

Hey guys just wanted to share my FC experience, since I just got my Step I results back, and it went well.

I used GT/FC from the summer between MS1 and MS2 and onward up until test day. My first priority was to flag physiology (is/will be relevant through all other subjects, so IMO probably the most important to know), biochemistry (heavy memorization will gain the most from long term, repeated review), and microbiology/immunology (same reason).

I would have aimed for Anatomy too but there were a looooooooooooot of those and MS2 already started by this time. Looking back though if you are fresh with Anatomy then do those. They should be easy because a lot of them are really redundant (a million cards asking for actions and innervations of muscles) and you can get rid of them via perfect recall.

Anyways, by the time I was done with MS2 and in dedicated prep time, I flagged about 67% of the total load. Most people will tell you to drop FC by this time, but I'm a bit OCD about these things so I just kept using it. This is very risky, because I spent hours just going through my daily review. I flagged massive amounts of topics as I went through reviews of subjects at this time, with the peak of one day having a question load of about 500-600 questions. The majority of which I could fly through because it was the hundredth time I've seen them, but still...that's a huge time sink. And many people will tell you to just stick to FA and UW. For me it was more like FC and UW (see below).

The reason I took this risk is because I felt like I was retaining information throughout the year, it showed well in my grades, I did well on a school-administered NBME when the majority of the class did not (since it was pre-dedicated study time for most people), and I was already averaging well on UW from the beginning (78-80%). Basically, it seemed to be working. So I put my faith in it and it paid off. If you count time spent on it, FC was actually my primary source, above FA and UW, even though I was cross-referencing across all three, and placing emphasis and new findings on UW. Technically, when I flag cards I annotate them into FA too so I was kind of looking FA over at the same time, but I never read it cover to cover. FC has the majority of good points from a mix of sources, including lots of stuff straight out of FA, often with better mnemonics (seriously, "Copper is Hella Bad" in FA for Wilson's disease is probably the worst mnemonic ever). The only things missing that I found to come up on UW were tiny details in FA (e.g. pertechnetate used to detect ectopic gastric mucosa, for Meckel's diverticulum). But FC has come a long way since I started it, and you can make your own cards and topics now (I never used this feature, even when it was implemented).

I guess the take-home point and advice for using FC is firstly to try with all your might to finish flagging before study time, that way you don't have to sacrifice other things like I did and still have a small daily review each day. This was actually my goal from the beginning, but FC was just too time consuming and I am too obsessive haha. e.g. I planned during dedicated study time to go over each system in FA again but I actually did not (besides Cardiology, GIT, Repro, or other HY/weak areas). This is obviously a bad idea, but it turns out 1.) I was already strong in that area, as evidenced by class performance and UW stats 2.) I still remembered those systems because I've been through FC so diligently.

good luck guys

 

[ztang007]

Hey guys just wanted to share my FC experience, since I just got my Step I results back, and it went well.

I used GT/FC from the summer between MS1 and MS2 and onward up until test day. My first priority was to flag physiology (is/will be relevant through all other subjects, so IMO probably the most important to know), biochemistry (heavy memorization will gain the most from long term, repeated review), and microbiology/immunology (same reason).

I would have aimed for Anatomy too but there were a looooooooooooot of those and MS2 already started by this time. Looking back though if you are fresh with Anatomy then do those. They should be easy because a lot of them are really redundant (a million cards asking for actions and innervations of muscles) and you can get rid of them via perfect recall.

Anyways, by the time I was done with MS2 and in dedicated prep time, I flagged about 67% of the total load. Most people will tell you to drop FC by this time, but I'm a bit OCD about these things so I just kept using it. This is very risky, because I spent hours just going through my daily review. I flagged massive amounts of topics as I went through reviews of subjects at this time, with the peak of one day having a question load of about 500-600 questions. The majority of which I could fly through because it was the hundredth time I've seen them, but still...that's a huge time sink. And many people will tell you to just stick to FA and UW. For me it was more like FC and UW (see below).

The reason I took this risk is because I felt like I was retaining information throughout the year, it showed well in my grades, I did well on a school-administered NBME when the majority of the class did not (since it was pre-dedicated study time for most people), and I was already averaging well on UW from the beginning (78-80%). Basically, it seemed to be working. So I put my faith in it and it paid off. If you count time spent on it, FC was actually my primary source, above FA and UW, even though I was cross-referencing across all three, and placing emphasis and new findings on UW. Technically, when I flag cards I annotate them into FA too so I was kind of looking FA over at the same time, but I never read it cover to cover. FC has the majority of good points from a mix of sources, including lots of stuff straight out of FA, often with better mnemonics (seriously, "Copper is Hella Bad" in FA for Wilson's disease is probably the worst mnemonic ever). The only things missing that I found to come up on UW were tiny details in FA (e.g. pertechnetate used to detect ectopic gastric mucosa, for Meckel's diverticulum). But FC has come a long way since I started it, and you can make your own cards and topics now (I never used this feature, even when it was implemented).

I guess the take-home point and advice for using FC is firstly to try with all your might to finish flagging before study time, that way you don't have to sacrifice other things like I did and still have a small daily review each day. This was actually my goal from the beginning, but FC was just too time consuming and I am too obsessive haha. e.g. I planned during dedicated study time to go over each system in FA again but I actually did not (besides Cardiology, GIT, Repro, or other HY/weak areas). This is obviously a bad idea, but it turns out 1.) I was already strong in that area, as evidenced by class performance and UW stats 2.) I still remembered those systems because I've been through FC so diligently.

good luck guys

thawunandonly, I am curious to know how you scored on the actual test. I will be taking the test in 2014 and am currently finding FC very time consuming. I want to know by your score if all this work is really worth it in the end. Thanks

 

[bucks900]

I'm in the same boat 300+ cards a day (this with a little over half done). How did you end up doing if you don't mind?

 

[001100010010011]

Yeah, my cards are at 350. Before classes pick up I am just trying to get everything in.

 

[thawunandonly]

Walked out of the test like everyone else - feeling crappy, but I did end up breaking 240. FYI: dig up the original gunnertraining thread for lots of experiences... it's still 2013 because that's when GT->FC, but the majority of GT/FC users broke 250 I think)

In retrospect (of course I can say this after the fact, lol), I feel like I could have broken 250 too but I always end up misreading questions a lot for DUUUUUMB reasons (once I read "amniotic fluid" as "alpha fetaprotein" for some reason... -_____-) and making stupid mistakes.

But again take note of the "risks" I took by using FC. This is not a magic bullet. Everyone says the same: you could achieve the same thing if you read bits of First Aid or another resource for like 4 hours each day...but IMO that is boooooring. I actually could run through FC reviews for "fun." Plus, FC catered to my learning style. I need a bit of flashcard action because while I can listen and understand well, concepts will just leak out of my head if I don't review it constantly.

Bottom line: You WILL put in 2-3 times as much time as everyone else studying. But that's what the program was known as, right....? "gunner training" Will it be worth it? Many people will say no, because of the time investment, but I did well so I can't possibly regret it.

It IS a cool feeling though, when you're sitting in a small group discussion or whatever and you can answer the most obscure question like it was a reflex. ;-)

 

[addy]

I have a question---

What do you guys do when you've covered a topic in class but have yet to learn some things that are in the topic? Do you just go ahead and learn it and flag it or do you wait until you cover it in class and THEN flag it?

Thanks!