Firecracker

[JackShephard MD]

med.firecracker.me

New medical education website rooted in an adaptive learning platform. Looks impressive, check it out.

Cheers.

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[Klimt]

Im also curious about that 01000101101 etc... Im still in first year and im trying to get a distinct plan. So far im just studying for classes but i dont think much is sticking. Strongly considering taking the jump and committing to FC for long term retention while sacrificing some of my grades.

Its interesting that the main problem in school these days is figuring out which of the many available resources are valid and or effective. 20 years ago it was all about finding any resource that helped more than your outrageously boring text.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Im also curious about that 01000101101 etc... Im still in first year and im trying to get a distinct plan. So far im just studying for classes but i dont think much is sticking. Strongly considering taking the jump and committing to FC for long term retention while sacrificing some of my grades.

Its interesting that the main problem in school these days is figuring out which of the many available resources are valid and or effective. 20 years ago it was all about finding any resource that helped more than your outrageously boring text.

Don't. Everyone needs to learn how to learn. Sure, do FC, but learning to do well in your classes and trying to understand the material is an important skill to acquire. For first year subjects, there are a great bunch of review series which can be used as a primary source if you're so inclined...BRS, RR, BP.

 

[Doctosanthewan]

Don't. Everyone needs to learn how to learn. Sure, do FC, but learning to do well in your classes and trying to understand the material is an important skill to acquire. For first year subjects, there are a great bunch of review series which can be used as a primary source if you're so inclined...BRS, RR, BP.

Absolutely.
Don't underestimate the great merit of the larger, less concise textbooks when you're first starting out.
Although, it may seem difficult, but understanding the greater picture first, will make running through those review books later on SO much easier (although it requires 10x more work... but more work should be the least of your worries if you're looking to really nail the boards)
Less memorization, more understanding.

 

[Shjanzey]

Less memorization, more understanding.

 

[SOML]

Most of the stuff we are tested on in class is stupid anyway.

So true. It really comes down to peer pressure and whether or not you care about how high your grades are relative to your classmates' (bragging rights... useless)

I'll prioritize boards

 

[Bancrofti]

So now that I'm past my major midterms for second year I just want to say WTF, there is NOOOO way to keep up with this during the year unless it is your dedicated study tool outside of class notes. I still think it's great, it actually got me a point or 2 on my last exam, but i.e. we're doing GI in Path now. How in the world am I supposed to flag a majority of the GI topics, answer the 100s of questions I'll get for it, study class notes, squeeze in Pathoma as well, and then doing qbank questions before the exam.

I'm thinking of cutting out Pathoma and just going through it over winter break, but he clarifies everything so well. I guess I could try to only do the Pathology section, but I feel that the anatomy portion of organ systems gives a good intro and the Physiology portion definitely helps understand things as well. FML I hate second year.


... and all my worrying stems from path, so much so that I forgot I'm still taking Micro too

 

[notbobtrustme]

I've pretty much given up on our path lectures in lieu of pathoma.

We are doing cardio/vascular this block and I might just skip class lectures entirely. There's always that nagging feeling that I'm going to get dicked on the tests by doing this but 3 exams in this year and pathoma was more than enough to pass each exam. I wouldn't have been the top score with pathoma only, but **** it, no one gives a **** about pre-clinical grades anyways.

 

[Shjanzey]

So now that I'm past my major midterms for second year I just want to say WTF, there is NOOOO way to keep up with this during the year unless it is your dedicated study tool outside of class notes. I still think it's great, it actually got me a point or 2 on my last exam, but i.e. we're doing GI in Path now. How in the world am I supposed to flag a majority of the GI topics, answer the 100s of questions I'll get for it, study class notes, squeeze in Pathoma as well, and then doing qbank questions before the exam.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am thinking that if you have already gone over it in class and reviewed it once, then flagging it in FC will just be a review. It shouldn't take very long for you to get through those topics, since you will be refreshing. Doing the questions is to make sure you really understand the topic and drive it into your brain.

 

[Modeselektor]

I've pretty much given up on our path lectures in lieu of pathoma.

We are doing cardio/vascular this block and I might just skip class lectures entirely. There's always that nagging feeling that I'm going to get dicked on the tests by doing this but 3 exams in this year and pathoma was more than enough to pass each exam. I wouldn't have been the top score with pathoma only, but **** it, no one gives a **** about pre-clinical grades anyways.

Do you guys have class capture?
You can just play those at high speed and be on the look out for "this will be on the test" stuff.

 

[docburg]

I am so irritated that he comments on every topic despite the fact that he is still not in med school. Can I have the option to delete his posts from my view or something? This forum is for people to help each other from their experiences. What he is sharing with the forum here can actually be harmful as it is not based on any experience.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I am so irritated that he comments on every topic despite the fact that he is still not in med school. Can I have the option to delete his posts from my view or something? This forum is for people to help each other from their experiences. What he is sharing with the forum here can actually be harmful as it is not based on any experience.

You have the option to ignore any User's posts. Click on the user's handle and select ignore. This particular thread discusses Firecracker and I don't welcome your off-topic ignorant slander. If you wish to pick a fight, this is a good place to do it: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=25 I will, of course, be happy to oblige.

 

[SOML]

Anyway just to share something I think is funny..

So up until now I've been holding off on doing the questions due, in firecracker, and I've been painstakingly creating cards (with images and all) on ANKI. Of course I study the cards I make, which are way more than the FC questions. I usually take a "card" from FC and attack it from every angle with questions (on ANKI). This took so much time and effort that.. I gave up (since I recently decided to start on a Qbank).

Now I have 1,956 questions due and hundreds of topics to "review" on FC =) since I haven't touched an FC question for quite some time (I've been doing all my ANKI questions all along)

 

[Bancrofti]

I changed up my method to instead of reviewing class sides during the week the day of, I use FK as my general review and will do the lecture, qbank, and maybe pathoma on the weekend. There was a lot going on the last 2 weeks so I guess I just need to better manage my time.

I've pretty much given up on our path lectures in lieu of pathoma.

We are doing cardio/vascular this block and I might just skip class lectures entirely. There's always that nagging feeling that I'm going to get dicked on the tests by doing this but 3 exams in this year and pathoma was more than enough to pass each exam. I wouldn't have been the top score with pathoma only, but **** it, no one gives a **** about pre-clinical grades anyways.

I wish I was that ballsy. I know someone that does the same and actually did very well on our first path exam. I just always feel like I'm going to miss something in class. But then again, it isn't college anymore, I can probably count on my hand how many times a lecturer has actually pointed out that something would specifically be a question or elaborated on a topic in a way that I would never have understood by just reading the lecture slides.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am thinking that if you have already gone over it in class and reviewed it once, then flagging it in FC will just be a review. It shouldn't take very long for you to get through those topics, since you will be refreshing. Doing the questions is to make sure you really understand the topic and drive it into your brain.

Yes and no. It's the same reason why there isn't only 1 textbook for every subject. Different people/sources at times stress different information. I find that Firecracker usually hits all the main buzzwords and covers etiology well, but sometimes presents other information that I don't need to know for class, nor was it covered in class, and at times likely won't even be on the Step. Further, I'm in a non-systems based school, so typically treatments and such are covered for Path in FK, but drugs are only peripherally covered in my course as we have a Pharmacology course next term.

In the same respect there are often many details that are covered in class that aren't in FK. At times relevant values are different from what was presented in lecture. And Firecracker seems to not really go into the epidemiology of things as much, unless maybe that's something that have for flagged topics in another section outside of systems.

 

[notbobtrustme]

Do you guys have class capture?
You can just play those at high speed and be on the look out for "this will be on the test" stuff.

yea, that was what I was contemplating on doing.

 

[Shjanzey]

Further, I'm in a non-systems based school, so typically treatments and such are covered for Path in FK, but drugs are only peripherally covered in my course as we have a Pharmacology course next term.

In the same respect there are often many details that are covered in class that aren't in FK. At times relevant values are different from what was presented in lecture. And Firecracker seems to not really go into the epidemiology of things as much, unless maybe that's something that have for flagged topics in another section outside of systems.

I find it interesting that you mention this. I will be matriculating to a systems based school, so I am curious if FC will be more or less useful? Your post seems to imply that it may be tailored more towards systems based.

Thanks for the comments on the difference between what you have encountered in lecture vs. studying through FC. That made a lot of sense and really confirmed a similar thought I was having. I have taken some Anatomy and Biochem courses in undergrad, so after going through some of the FC material I thought some stuff was glossed over while others are way more detailed than I remembered.

 

[Isradoc16]

I'm at a systems based school, and it definitely makes it a little easier to go through the topics on FC, but as everyone has been saying there are some minor differences in values and in the things that get emphasized.

When I use it right, I definitely feel like I do fine in class, if not get ahead. I just find I fall off track a little too often. I also do get that nagging doubt in my mind of "what if I miss something big from class"... But it hasn't happened yet.

 

[loltopsy]

What happens when you decide to take a break from FC for exam weeks:

FML.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Outch. you know you can reschedule them, right? It's not too bad, though, a little more than double what I do every day

 

[loltopsy]

Outch. you know you can reschedule them, right? It's not too bad, though, a little more than double what I do every day

Seriously? Jesus. I normally do 20-100 a day. I've got about 15% of FC flagged with an 85% mastery.

 

[mcloaf]

Seriously? Jesus. I normally do 20-100 a day. I've got about 15% of FC flagged with an 85% mastery.

**** son, I've only banked like 7% so far this year. Though we just started the actual systems based blocks which have a lot more to flag. My mastery got ****ed when I added all the sympathomimetics and alpha and beta blockers that weren't explained that clearly in class...

Not really looking forward to what's going to happen when I flag all the cholinergics and anticholinergics next week.

 

[notbobtrustme]

What happens when you decide to take a break from FC for exam weeks:

FML.

good lord.

 

[bucks900]

What percent banked are you? Im at 67% and do roughly 350 a day...

 

[Brain Bucket]

I'm also banking Step 2 as I go along. I am now a little stricter with grading myself. If I don't recall the relevant section of the card verbatim, it's not a 5.

i.e. little over 700, so probably about the same as you.

 

[SOML]

I just started Rx and I have to say, in terms of knowledge synthesis and making those important connections, nothing beats a Qbank!

I still have over 1,800+ questions due in FC (I've been inputting that info into ANKI) but I've decided to do those casually as they are basically straight recall things, while the rationales (of both wrong and right) answers on Rx encourages you to go back and forth with concepts in FA, annotating them.

Right now, I'm using Rx as a learning tool (not taking the scoring too seriously) as I will hunker down later and do Uworld. FC questions I do after and in between everything else.

Btw, has anyone tried out FC's "exam sim" ??

 

[QualityProcess]

Firecracker is supposed to be a condensed version, right? A lot of the stuff Ive seen on FC wasn't even covered in the relevant lecture (referring to Biochem). Frustrating. Takes forever to cover the material because I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time. I have no idea how y'all manage to do 300 in a day because it takes me forever to do 30-50. I'm getting Bs and As but I feel like I'm learning nothing.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Firecracker is supposed to be a condensed version, right? A lot of the stuff Ive seen on FC wasn't even covered in the relevant lecture (referring to Biochem). Frustrating. Takes forever to cover the material because I feel like I'm seeing it for the first time. I have no idea how y'all manage to do 300 in a day because it takes me forever to do 30-50. I'm getting Bs and As but I feel like I'm learning nothing.

Don't treat it like a qbank. You'll inevitably see the stuff again. Set yourself a time limit to answer a Q (10-15 seconds) and spend ~30 seconds reading the answer and move on. At this point each q is taking me ~5-15 seconds to answer correctly.

As far as content goes, for us it is the opposite, our classes are ridic. detailed, so we've pretty much seen it all with the exception of 1-2 minor things which seemed oriented toward step 2 rather than 1.

 

[QualityProcess]

I'm going to try that. Just read and roll through. Then when I study for lecture I'll leave the FC text open for cross referencing, see whats missing, whats extra, etc. thanks.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I don't mean you shouldn't take it seriously. Just emphasizing the ability to recall the info within the span of a few seconds. It's something that I suspect should prove quite useful on test day,

 

[Shjanzey]

I don't mean you shouldn't take it seriously. Just emphasizing the ability to recall the info within the span of a few seconds. It's something that I suspect should prove quite useful on test day,

I do what you said Brainbucket with one caveat. I find that some subjects I fail to remember even after seeing the questions 4 or 5 times. I have learned to recognize that in those cases I need to go back and do another in-depth review of the slide.

So far every time I have had to do that, I generally don't have problems again.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I haven't had that problem yet, but, yeah it would make sense to do that. I try to get the card down pat the first time.

 

[docterspaceman]

Anyone else have a hard time distinguishing a 4 from a 5? The jump from 30 to 120 days seems pretty huge. I had ~100 "4" cards today out of maybe 200..and so..exactly 30 days from now, I'm going to have to hit most these exact 100 cards again. Do you guys do anything to mess with the spacing adaptation? It's almost always a 30 day for 4 and 120 day for 5 for me, at least for my review cards. There doesn't seem to be any kind of middle ground.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Anyone else have a hard time distinguishing a 4 from a 5? The jump from 30 to 120 days seems pretty huge. I had ~100 "4" cards today out of maybe 200..and so..exactly 30 days from now, I'm going to have to hit most these exact 100 cards again. Do you guys do anything to mess with the spacing adaptation? It's almost always a 30 day for 4 and 120 day for 5 for me, at least for my review cards. There doesn't seem to be any kind of middle ground.

Yeah I change the timing all the time, especially in the 4-5 range depending on when my block test is, but I usually do it for specific questions which I'd like to see sooner/later.

 

[notbobtrustme]

If I get over 80% of a card, I'll mark it a 5 and move on. That's enough to get the right answer on a MCT.

 

[THH]

I'm also banking Step 2 as I go along. I am now a little stricter with grading myself. If I don't recall the relevant section of the card verbatim, it's not a 5.

i.e. little over 700, so probably about the same as you.

Banking Step 2 already? Damn, lol.

Isn't Firecracker's Step 2 material famously godawful?

 

[Brain Bucket]

Some of the cards are the same, so it's not a huge imposition. I'm only doing IM right now along with the blocks.

While it's not SUTM, I figure it can't be all bad. I dig this style of learning, so, meh. We'll see what comes of it.

 

[olecranon4]

Hey guys sorry if this was asked before

Is the adaptive spacing option sort of the standard with you guys? I've been doing fixed and it's working great but I'm thinking of switching to adaptive to reduce daily card count. Thanks!

 

[THH]

Hey guys sorry if this was asked before

Is the adaptive spacing option sort of the standard with you guys? I've been doing fixed and it's working great but I'm thinking of switching to adaptive to reduce daily card count. Thanks!

I personally don't simply cause it seems like its too much effort to do each individual question. There's no option for adjusting the overalls I think?

EDIT: Haha, never mind, I misunderstood the question. Yes, I use adaptive and it seems to work well enough.

 

[Apoplexy__]

So what's everyone looking at with their daily questions? I'm getting around 120 a day and it's pretty rough. Especially since I average around 1 min/question.

41% banked right now: 1, 3, 7, 21, 45 day spacing for 1-5 ratings respectively.

 

[001100010010011]

So what's everyone looking at with their daily questions? I'm getting around 120 a day and it's pretty rough. Especially since I average around 1 min/question.

41% banked right now: 1, 3, 7, 21, 45 day spacing for 1-5 ratings respectively.

It shouldn't be taking you about a minute per question after you've read it a few times. The point is repetition and plugging gaps in your knowledge.

 

[GrabSlamBoot]

Is there an "optimal" fixed spacing people use? I've just been using adaptive

 

[mcloaf]

I average around 1 min/question.

IMO that's way too slow to be able to use FC as an effective tool.

 

[Apoplexy__]

It shouldn't be taking you about a minute per question after you've read it a few times. The point is repetition and plugging gaps in your knowledge.

IMO that's way too slow to be able to use FC as an effective tool.

I took this advice and just crashed through a couple hundred questions at 1.9 Q's/min -- seems around the low end of average of everyone's speed looking at previous pages of this thread. I see what you guys mean though...it's much more important to get a refresher on all the most high-yield stuff than to stop and take the time to master that last 10% of fine details in the topic that I keep getting wrong.

Is there an "optimal" fixed spacing people use?

Curious what everyone's doing too.

 

[THH]

I took this advice and just crashed through a couple hundred questions at 1.9 Q's/min -- seems around the low end of average of everyone's speed looking at previous pages of this thread. I see what you guys mean though...it's much more important to get a refresher on all the most high-yield stuff than to stop and take the time to master that last 10% of fine details in the topic that I keep getting wrong.



Curious what everyone's doing too.

I stop and read slower if its a question/concept that I have seemed to consistently struggle with, otherwise 3Q/min+. I would strongly recommend using the AutoHotkey script if you aren't already because it will speed you up quite a bit.

I feel like adaptive actually goes a pretty good job and I don't have to worry about the settings at all.

 

[docterspaceman]

Hey guys, I'm loving FC but does anyone have any advice on how to handle drug side effects? They trip me up so badly. For example, a lot of the AntiHTN cards in the cardiovascular section will ask for side effects, and even if I try to find a trend, one card will have (flushing and edema) and another card will have (headache, flushing, dizziness), etc. such that the SE's are very similar.

Another example would be the sympatholytics topic, which asks for these side effects:
Clonidine/methyldopa: sedation, dry mouth, rebound hypertension
Hexamethonium: urinary retention, glaucoma, dry mouth, blurry vision, orthostatic hypotension
Reserpine: depression, nasal congestion, nausea, hypotension, bradycardia
Prazosin: orthostatic hypotension, reflex tachy, headache, dizziness

Sometimes I try to reverse-engineer the answer based on the mechanism of the drug, and I'll get maybe two side effects right out of 5 or 6, and I just have no idea how to score the questions. It's driving me crazy. I'm not sure if other people are able to see these 3 or 4 times and have them memorized cold, but I'm definitely having trouble doing so. How do you guys handle this?

 

[Modeselektor]

For things like lists, its useful to use a mnemonic. Even if its a complete crap one, in conjunction with the spaced recall.
It will order the list, making it easier for you brain to recall all members of the sequence as well as "soften" the load of memorization (you have to initially recall a single thing, which facilitates the recall of the other members in an ordered sequence).

IMO this thing you are doing by reverse engineering the mechanism may seem odd, but building this habit will definitely yield you a lot of points come step time.

 

[Apoplexy__]

Hey guys, I'm loving FC but does anyone have any advice on how to handle drug side effects? Sometimes I try to reverse-engineer the answer based on the mechanism of the drug, and I'll get maybe two side effects right out of 5 or 6, and I just have no idea how to score the questions.

Agreed, stick with the logic-based approach of reasoning out the toxicities. You look at almost all of those side effects and you can understand how blocking sympathetics (relative parasympathetic excess) can cause them. As for matching similar groups of side effects to similar drugs, try and find a pattern. For example, hexamethonium has a lot of visceral stuff (bladder, eye, exocrine). Clonidine and reserpine stick out with their central CNS side effects (sedation and depression). And it also really helps me when I try to picture the side effects happening to me, or observing them in a patient. I've felt all 4 of prazosin's side effects (transiently) when I'm dehydrated and get up after laying down for a long time.

In the end, you don't have to aim for perfection. Remembering the most important few, especially the ones unique to that drug/class or with special consequences, will be enough to put the pieces together in a MCQ.

 

[mcloaf]

Anybody else having issues with FC saving their recall scores tonight?

 

[Mattinthehat250]

MS1 here just started using firecracker. We have an NBME shelf at the end of the year for biochem and I was just wondering how helpful firecracker would be for that? It seems like firecracker leaves out a lot of details. Would it be better to just study the class powerpoints from previous units throughout the semester? How about for step 1, is the content included in firecracker enough or do I need to study something with more detail?

 

[001100010010011]

MS1 here just started using firecracker. We have an NBME shelf at the end of the year for biochem and I was just wondering how helpful firecracker would be for that? It seems like firecracker leaves out a lot of details. Would it be better to just study the class powerpoints from previous units throughout the semester? How about for step 1, is the content included in firecracker enough or do I need to study something with more detail?

FC is always going to have more details than FA but less than your class notes. It's good for reviewing high yield subjects. If you want to learn, use a textbook.

 

[madchemist89]

I have been using FC for about a year now (I'm an M2), and I have banked about ~70% (I'm not sure of the exact number because I don't have everything flagged right now.). Since the beginning of M2, I haven't been able to keep up with my daily reviews. My classes are going at such a pace that I have over 300 questions due per day just on the current six week block we are on (well over 1000 questions). The same thing happened for GI. As I'm trying to live a more balanced life this year, I go the gym and get 6-7 hrs sleep per night (last year more like 4-5 hrs per night). What I'm trying to say is that I could go back to sleeping very little to get through my daily reviews. I was thinking that I could take this more intense approach after Christmas break (6 months to test date) and catch up on everything before my dedicated period. Do any of the experienced users think this plan is possible?


By the way, I have also been working Kaplan Qbank and Rx along with classes.