MD Osmosis vs firecracker?

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Doctor Brk

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Since Firecracker got recently purchased by that company and osmosis is on the rise, what do you guys think about them? I love how osmosis is trying to put everything together , from flashcards to videos to ur notes, and firecracker is nice too.Anybody tried them ? How are their interfaces alike or different? Just wanna make the right investment . any input will be appreciated
 
Anki is the best resources for flashcards and is free.
 
I don't love the Osmosis flashcards (although they are by no means bad), but their quiz questions are great, and their videos are wonderful. They also have some really nice high-yield material study sheets if you're not a video kind of person. Highly recommend.
 
I don't love the Osmosis flashcards (although they are by no means bad), but their quiz questions are great, and their videos are wonderful. They also have some really nice high-yield material study sheets if you're not a video kind of person. Highly recommend.
Is osmosis only for step1 prep/lectures? Or do they have step2/rotations resources aswell? I am leaning towards it atm. It has everything in one place and i find it very time efficient and the material is good
 
It depends what kind of learner you are.

Osmosis seems to work well for people who like little khan academy style, cartoonish videos. They personify the cells, organs etc, and use little memory hooks to help you remember things. It also has this cool function where you can import your class powerpoints and it will automatically link buzz-words it finds to helpful videos on the subject.

Firecracker is geared towards the more brute force style of learner. Their Anki-Style QA system is great for spaced repetition, you don’t have to make your own cards, and it contains all the info from first aid and then some. A major con is that the amount of info on firecracker is almost insurmountable, which means you could miss high yield facts buried in all low yield junk. Their explanations are generally more bare-bones - just bullet points on a page - although sometimes they link out to osmosis or khan academy’s videos on a topic.

Overall I tried both and liked ‘cracker way more, but neither is perfect.
 
It depends what kind of learner you are.

Osmosis seems to work well for people who like little khan academy style, cartoonish videos. They personify the cells, organs etc, and use little memory hooks to help you remember things. It also has this cool function where you can import your class powerpoints and it will automatically link buzz-words it finds to helpful videos on the subject.

Firecracker is geared towards the more brute force style of learner. Their Anki-Style QA system is great for spaced repetition, you don’t have to make your own cards, and it contains all the info from first aid and then some. A major con is that the amount of info on firecracker is almost insurmountable, which means you could miss high yield facts buried in all low yield junk. Their explanations are generally more bare-bones - just bullet points on a page - although sometimes they link out to osmosis or khan academy’s videos on a topic.

Overall I tried both and liked ‘cracker way more, but neither is perfect.
Ah thanks for the reply, How would u rate the osmosis flashcards(i think they have an updated complete version of bros ) and qbank compared to lets say kaplan or smthn like that? Are they good?
 
Is osmosis only for step1 prep/lectures? Or do they have step2/rotations resources aswell? I am leaning towards it atm. It has everything in one place and i find it very time efficient and the material is good

Since I'm an M1, I can't really speak for its use beyond preclinical/Step 1 stuff.
 
Ah thanks for the reply, How would u rate the osmosis flashcards(i think they have an updated complete version of bros ) and qbank compared to lets say kaplan or smthn like that? Are they good?
So Kaplans step 1 practice questions are pretty useless FYI - you want to use UWorld or USMLE-RX. Both osmosis and firecracker have a q-bank, and firecracker even comes with 2 full length Step1 practice tests.

However both of these q-banks are remarkably inferior to UW or RX. Their explanations are subpar and the questions are not similar to the real test. The utility of cracker or osmosis for questions really ends at preparing for in class exams during M1 & M2


Is osmosis only for step1 prep/lectures? Or do they have step2/rotations resources aswell? I am leaning towards it atm. It has everything in one place and i find it very time efficient and the material is good

I know firecracker has a Rotation/Step2 portion, not sure about osmosis.

At least where I go to school this would be massive overkill. (However) For us shelf has really minimal effect on our final grade...we just have to get above the 5th percentile. A couple days of cramming at the end of the block is more than sufficient to pass for most. I have no interest in wasting what little time I have running up the score on a meaningless test.
 
So Kaplans step 1 practice questions are pretty useless FYI - you want to use UWorld or USMLE-RX. Both osmosis and firecracker have a q-bank, and firecracker even comes with 2 full length Step1 practice tests.

However both of these q-banks are remarkably inferior to UW or RX. Their explanations are subpar and the questions are not similar to the real test. The utility of cracker or osmosis for questions really ends at preparing for in class exams during M1 & M2




I know firecracker has a Rotation/Step2 portion, not sure about osmosis.

At least where I go to school this would be massive overkill. (However) For us shelf has really minimal effect on our final grade...we just have to get above the 5th percentile. A couple days of cramming at the end of the block is more than sufficient to pass for most. I have no interest in wasting what little time I have running up the score on a meaningless test.
Yeah i wanted to use the qbank of osmosis/firecracker to test myself bout class stuff, i already plan on getting USMLE rx for step1 and uworld later on
 
Yeah i wanted to use the qbank of osmosis/firecracker to test myself bout class stuff, i already plan on getting USMLE rx for step1 and uworld later on

In that case go for it - I thought their practice questions were decently useful for inclass exams.
 
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