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Gunner Training?
- Thread starter hope2bpaindoc
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FC is really best as a long term tool, in my opinion, and when started early on can be very helpful. How long do you have <i>total</i> before Step 1? They offer a free 1 month trial. If I was in your place I would probably sign up for the free trial and use it to work on my 1 or 2 weakest subjects. Then if you like it you can sign up for however much more time you want. Otherwise, you got 1 months worth of help in a subject that's hard for you.
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LOL They FINALLY make the option to take out Step 2 material from your study, and the progress bar reflects it.
Seems less satisfying than I thought, but still.
Seems less satisfying than I thought, but still.
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Does anyone else use ANKI to create questions from FC cards.. then master the ANKI questions first before attempting FC questions, treating them essentially, as a test (where your review was the mastering of the Anki questions)???
Just wondering. That's what I do, and I really get ideas down.. but it just takes sooo long
Just wondering. That's what I do, and I really get ideas down.. but it just takes sooo long
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Yes, but I use Supermemo 15. FC algorithm is dumb. And the way they test you isn't optimal. What you are doing if you can maintain is the best and most efficient manner. Then you can blitz through FC. As a result of doing what you do, I can go through 200 questions an hour and so the time commitment is significantly reduced
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Gunner/firecracker vs Usmlerx - any thoughts ? I was thinking doing both is superfluous as the purpose of both is essentially to take you through first aid but recently all the good reviews of Usmlerx have me thinking if rx is worth it ? It is not as If I have all of gunner banked or memorized but I have been using it a lot with class - and likewise its not like seeing a topic in rx necessarily = memorization .... Any opinions ?
would really appreciate any opinion thanks
would really appreciate any opinion
thanks
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Yes, but I use Supermemo 15. FC algorithm is dumb. And the way they test you isn't optimal. What you are doing if you can maintain is the best and most efficient manner. Then you can blitz through FC. As a result of doing what you do, I can go through 200 questions an hour and so the time commitment is significantly reduced
Could you give an example of how you do your conversions?
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I was thinking of using GT/FC or Anki to help me study along with my classes next year, with the hope that spaced repition learning will help me retain what I learn for Step 1. After reading some threads, it seems like the big pro for Anki is that making my own cards would help me learn the material as I go through my classes. Do you guys have a suggestion as to which would be more beneficial? My pre-clinical year is 1 year, not sure if that makes a difference.
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FC has a feature where you can add your own concepts and questions now. I've never tried it but...,maybe you guys should look into it rather than doubling up on review programs.
It works really well. I don't have to double up with Anki anymore. What I've been doing is flagging a topic, adding my own stuff (from Step 2 review books, class, tid bits picked up on rounds) and then perfect recalling all the questions on the card that are only relevant to Step I (i.e. MOA for antibiotics, gram staining, etc). Doing it this way, I get to keep the structure of FC while not losing the flexibility Anki gave me.
Right now I'm basically adding MTB to the FC cards (Step II CK/Step I) and perfect recalling all information that's relevant only to step I.
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I know many of you are doing GT/FC while still in school and have been doing them for a very long time. I'm an IMG with the next 6-7 mos off fully dedicated to studying for step 1. If I start GT now and supplement it with other sources, will 6-7 mos be enough time to master it?
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I am going to try and do that as well.
Quick question--what is the general consensus on this:
If I am a MS1 and have not been annotating FA or doing Gunner Training/Firecracker, is that something I definitely need to start doing this summer?
If you feel like it. I think on SDN there are a lot of neurotic people so they'll probably say 'of course!' but honestly my friends just took their Step 1 in February and of all the people that got a 245+, all but one started studying 3-4 months before test day.
If you are not taking classes, and all you are doing is studying for Step 1, then I think 6-7 months is more than enough time to get through all of FC. As always, just sign up for their free 1 month trial and have at it. You will figure out pretty quickly if you like it and if you think you have the time to use it effectively.
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The algorithm refers to how they determine the frequency of repetition of questions based on how you rank your recall. The whole driving force behind FC is the spaced repetition for long term memory.
Anki is another piece of software (free I think) that also uses spaced repetition, but you have to make your own flash cards.
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please don't waste your time and do USMLERx instead.
this is something I wished somebody had told me when I started with GT/FC; chances are, I wouldn't have listened anyway.
After more than a year of GT/FC, it is save to say that I have put at least 500-600 hours of work into it and I can tell you, it is a time-sink, it's frustrating, it's low-yield, particularly the MCQs and people have been complaining about this last point repeatedly on here, to at least take it out of the daily reviews and make it available as a separate option for people who want it. These MCQs are ridculous and badly worded.
you can make your own Anki-deck which will be high-yield and less frustrating.
a year ago, I laughed at somebody who suggested making your own Anki-decks on this thread, I would like to take this opportunity and apologize to that person today.
I would also like to apologize to everybody who bought into GT because of me.
Now if you are asking, whether GT/FC will help you overall, of course it will!
Anything would help you, if you invest 500-600 hours, and this is a conservative estimate.
And to all the GT-fans, I was one of them, I hope I'm not upsetting you guys, it is helpful overall and it will get you points on Qbanks, no doubt. but having used it extensively and moved to Qbanks I can tell you, you can study more efficiently.
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Who has taken the exam recently or is going to soon? It would be awesome if you guys could post your experience/scores when you get a chance.
I used FC pretty regularly. I took Step 1 last week, so I don't have my final score yet. My last 3 NBMEs were all 261, and I got 265 on both UWSAs. Anything can happen on test day, but I'm hoping it turned similar.
I personally love GT/FC, although I haven't had much time with FC since it is recent that I switched over. I always remind people that everyone has a different learning style. Not sure if you are using it or thinking of using it. I see no problem with trying it for a month and seeing for yourself if you like it. A lot of people who have used GT have scored extremely high, but a lot of people who haven't used GT have also scored high. It just depends on what you like.
A lot of negativity here, and I think at least some of it is undeserved. Firecracker/GT is not a perfect program. But it has its uses--many of them. It is a very useful product in preparing for step1. I like to use it as an all-encompassing reference in class to look up HY things that aren't always in FA, or things that are there but the context of which isn't fully explained in FA. I also like to use its questions to "fill in the gaps" that the qbanks don't always cover, but that test day may well. I further like that you can get through several FC/GT questions in the space of time it takes you to reason through one qbank question, getting "three concepts for the time of one" as it were. I'd definitely say that FC (particularly on lite mode) is a better use of my time than Kaplan QBank (though I recommend doing them both). RX and World are probably more useful than FC overall (but you should do them all). Interestingly, I haven't used the "adaptive spacing" feature of GT/FC (just do a pass through a subject before tests, and again now in prep for boards) and for that matter I prefer lite mode (but reading through all the concepts for a given question, even the ones not associated--the entire card). Again, FC is one important part of my step1 (and previously, preclinical classes) studying arsenal, and I think it should be viewed as that. Only when you set up expectations that it should be this one-stop-shop, and pour hours into it per day, is it IMO that you will find the program counterproductive. Admittedly, the company's marketing sort of encourages this thinking, but, well, it's your job to see past that. n=1
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I've been using it for some time. It's just that people have been very quiet lately, and there's been a lot of negativity. I just wanted to hear some positive experiences again. But it sounds like you probably crushed it and congrats on finally finishing it.
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Congratulations on finishing! I really hope you get a great score. Please keep us posted when you find out.
It'd be great to start hearing some FC/GT success stories again. There were quite a lot of them before the FC transition began and everyone started using this as a space to complain.
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Thanks! I'm hoping for a great score too. My first 2 blocks were pretty rough, last 5 were fairly easy. I'm crossing my fingers that the first 2 blocks were where they put all the experimental questions. Doubtful, but it's good to hope. I imagine some users, myself included, have been heavily immersed in classes/step 1 studying, and that's the reason for the quiet.
It's kind of weird to be done. Everything for the last 2 years has centered on Step 1 and it's easy to get so focused on it that I forget the bigger picture. Now that it's over I have to remember that I still have 2 years in medical school, plus residency, and what I have learned so far is an extremely small part of what I need to know to be a successful physician.
It's kind of weird to be done. Everything for the last 2 years has centered on Step 1 and it's easy to get so focused on it that I forget the bigger picture. Now that it's over I have to remember that I still have 2 years in medical school, plus residency, and what I have learned so far is an extremely small part of what I need to know to be a successful physician.
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FC & FA conflict: Can someone clarify this please
FC says Desipramine has lowest seizure threshold, FA says higher seizure threshold
EPS symptoms: FC says Bradykinesia comes before Akathisa, FA says Akathisia before bradykinesia
FC says Desipramine has lowest seizure threshold, FA says higher seizure threshold
EPS symptoms: FC says Bradykinesia comes before Akathisa, FA says Akathisia before bradykinesia
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What's the best way to annotate? Annotating other sources (pathoma, kaplan, uworld) into First Aid (and abandon GT after mastering) or annotating First Aid and all other sources into GT and use GT as main study source?
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I agree. I have a love/hate relationship with FC. As I've started to do UWORLD there are a lot of questions that I get right because of FC, and while shadowing ect I've been able to answer some pimp questions b/c of FC. But it just takes so much time; I really, really wish they would drop all the MC and 'USMLE' type questions. It's such a huge negative in an otherwise great product.
If I had spent my GT/FC time on other studying would I have been better off? Yes. The real kicker, though, is that I never would have spent this much time studying and reviewing past info throughout the year without the structure of FC.
As someone above was saying, sitting down to do 200+ Qs every day is just melts your brain. My best advice is break it into many small chunks. When I wake up I do 10Qs while in bed. Every time I sit at the computer to do something I do 10Qs. Before lunch 10Qs. After lunch 10Qs. When I sit down to watch a lecture I do 10Qs. That was the only way I was able to get through it.
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Caught this on their FB page:
"Firecracker
New Adaptive Algorithm in Firecracker: We just released a new adaptive algorithm based on the historical performance of tens-of-thousands of medical students (a total of 26m data points). We will write a blog post explaining what we did soon! Let us know what you think!"
So...........is this the algorithm change you guys were noticing a few weeks ago? If so how has it been so far (I'm still set on Fixed spacing because I didn't like how the Adaptive algorithm of FC was working, and have been debating switching back... I'm almost 90 days from my test date)
"Firecracker
New Adaptive Algorithm in Firecracker: We just released a new adaptive algorithm based on the historical performance of tens-of-thousands of medical students (a total of 26m data points). We will write a blog post explaining what we did soon! Let us know what you think!"
So...........is this the algorithm change you guys were noticing a few weeks ago? If so how has it been so far (I'm still set on Fixed spacing because I didn't like how the Adaptive algorithm of FC was working, and have been debating switching back... I'm almost 90 days from my test date)
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This is my experience pretty much to a T
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How long did you use it for?
I just signed up and am having trouble figuring out what exactly is going on.
I just signed up and am having trouble figuring out what exactly is going on.
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I'm about 90 days from my test date.
Does anybody here have study schedules or samples/examples of what they are planning to do? Granted, I have about a month or so left until the end of classes, but I'd like to see what you guys are planning, how you are incorporating your GT/FC into the mix whether you are in dedicated study time now or not.
I have 60% banked, and I plan to finish in about 40 days time, maybe (I have not banked ANY anatomy, so the 10 cards on each system + 100 anatomy topics on their own comprise a huge chunk of what I didn't do yet...those should go fast though once I review). And I was thinking roughly of something like Qbanks in the morning, study during most of the day, and my daily FC review at night.
Does anybody here have study schedules or samples/examples of what they are planning to do? Granted, I have about a month or so left until the end of classes, but I'd like to see what you guys are planning, how you are incorporating your GT/FC into the mix whether you are in dedicated study time now or not.
I have 60% banked, and I plan to finish in about 40 days time, maybe (I have not banked ANY anatomy, so the 10 cards on each system + 100 anatomy topics on their own comprise a huge chunk of what I didn't do yet...those should go fast though once I review). And I was thinking roughly of something like Qbanks in the morning, study during most of the day, and my daily FC review at night.
My review schedule is a little bit different than most I think. I was pretty much fully banked and mastered well before any dedicated study time, so my daily reviews were really quick (I don't get super hung up on the little things in GT, so "mastery" is used loosely here). I did about 100 Rx questions per day until those were gone, and now I'm doing UWorld. I also did an offline NBME every few weeks to see how things were going. I recently wiped my review history in FC and am in the process of reflagging everything, and only keeping the handful of cards that are still high yield rote memorization. All the rest I flag at 5, which puts them 90 days away (well past my test date).
P.S. There are only 684 anatomy questions at the time of this writing, so it's not a huge deal.
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I'm 3 weeks into dedicated study time and 17 days out from the real thing. I started banking really heavily during the last two blocks of classes in a push to not only finish GT but to get my daily question count low <150. I ended up entering dedicated study time with about 50 cards left to bank and daily question counts around 400. The first week I tried to keep going with the program. I would whittle away at some questions throughout the day and finish the rest late at night when I was winding down. This proved much too difficult. When your question count is that high, you don't really care what you're reading you just sort of fly through it. I figured it wasn't really worth the brain power/time so I've completely scrapped it for my dedicated study time and just read through first aid now. I figured it has done its part since I've used it for >1year. I think ideally you enter into dedicated study time with GT completely on the back burner and spend less than an hour a day on it. Since I wasn't able to do that it wasn't worth it for me to continue.
I will say so far I'm glad I stuck with it throughout the entire year as I can read through first aid faster, and it is helping me on qbanks. I had a question about an individual with alcoholic liver disease and the etiology of a spider angioma appearing on his skin. I recalled a GT card that said telangiectasia is associated with hyperestrogenism and was able to put two and two together. I had no idea that alcoholic liver disease could cause telangiectasia.. but I did know estradiol levels could increase, and I had seen that card before in GT. It is that sort of indirect way that GT has been of use.
GT will NOT help integrate material for you, that is completely up to you.
However, it will gve you the base line of information you need. Learning how to integrate and think how step1 test writers want you to think is what dedicated study time is for. Therefore GT during this time is very low yield imo.
I will say so far I'm glad I stuck with it throughout the entire year as I can read through first aid faster, and it is helping me on qbanks. I had a question about an individual with alcoholic liver disease and the etiology of a spider angioma appearing on his skin. I recalled a GT card that said telangiectasia is associated with hyperestrogenism and was able to put two and two together. I had no idea that alcoholic liver disease could cause telangiectasia.. but I did know estradiol levels could increase, and I had seen that card before in GT. It is that sort of indirect way that GT has been of use.
GT will NOT help integrate material for you, that is completely up to you.
However, it will gve you the base line of information you need. Learning how to integrate and think how step1 test writers want you to think is what dedicated study time is for. Therefore GT during this time is very low yield imo.
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What are everyones plans for using GT in third year? When I see 200+ cards in IM and I only have 8 weeks it seems a bit unrealistic. I'm not going to want to spend that much time going through it only to have IM end and be stuck with a massive card load of IM information for my psych rotation. Maybe IM was a bad example cause it rather encompasses everything, but you get my point... I just don't see it being sustainable for 3rd year
I've been planning on using it, but I really haven't thought much about it one way or another. I have done close to nothing with FC, I mostly used GT and didn't migrate until the very end. So I haven't used all their features. I think that you can flag topics and study them, for example IM. Then when you are done with your IM rotation you can unflag those topics and they don't show up in your review. Then when it comes time to study for Step 2 you can re-flag all those topics, and it remembers your previous review schedule and performance. At least I think that's how it's supposed to work. But if not, you can also do just your psych review questions in a day, or your psych and neuro but not IM, or whatever combination you want. So it is fairly flexible. Granted this is coming from someone who has done zero studying of step 2 material.
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Ahh thanks i understand how thats supposed to work. Still not sure if I want to use it. That might depend on my step1 score 
I guess since my membership goes until June I'll at least give it a go my first rotation.
I guess since my membership goes until June I'll at least give it a go my first rotation.
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GT/FC has been my crutch for all of 2nd year. Whether I actually learned/understood material or not (i.e. if I only answer questions correctly because facts are just engraved into my mind after seeing it over and over and over), it's allowed me to score well in classes this whole time. So I grew fond of it.
But I don't want to rely on it moving into the future. I would like to learn in other ways than looking at 300 flashcards each day from here on out. I really don't know... plus the Step 2 material on FC is relatively new. I'm not sure how high-yield it is or whatever.
But I don't want to rely on it moving into the future. I would like to learn in other ways than looking at 300 flashcards each day from here on out. I really don't know... plus the Step 2 material on FC is relatively new. I'm not sure how high-yield it is or whatever.
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That's exactly how I do it. Don't use the review component / do use the content aspect...
Anyone know if FC MCAT is any good? Giving MCAT study advice to folks...don't know what's good these days.
Anyone know if FC MCAT is any good? Giving MCAT study advice to folks...don't know what's good these days.
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Just generally throughout the year, or specifically dedicated time?
both. Do like 3 passes through a given subject for any given subject test, and now, come step1 time, doing like 1 pass through every subject in addition to UW/RX and some other resources.
Lately I've gone as far as only activating one card at a time in order to really bunch the same Qs/concepts together on FC and in my mind...completely opposite the idea of the spaced learning algorithm...but, I think the tradeoff is worth it (I will "trick" myself with the qbank Qs, not FC, which I use for content prep/review)
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I haven't posted in a long while but I'll give my 2 cents. I was 100 complete in gunner at the end of march (and still lingering around 82% mastery). I started gt the summer between ms1 and 2 and initially focused on banking all my strengths (anatomy, immuno, etc). I was literally in gunner mode for 6 months. It was my primary resource 80% of the time since I wasnt planning to use first aid anytime soon. Then I started banking organ systems at least three weeks to a month before the module exam so that I'd have enough exposure. Some were banked 2 months in advance and I hardly needed to study before the module exams. I added pathoma, DIT, goljan audio and Robbins questions along the way, and it was beautiful. They made gunner stick better. My exam is in mid July. I feel like I don't really understand biochemistry or pharm so I'm trying to focus on getting thru Kaplan videos in the meantime. Nowadays, I only do about 150 gunner questions a day and then I just clear everything else. If its module week, I focus on only questions related to that module and clear everything else. Some of you are probably saying wtf, but i just Dont have time to get thru 350-500 Questions a day when i could be doing Higher yield things. I've noticed that my mastery of gt gets better the more I do q banks and use other resources. There are so many facts we blindly memorize without actually understanding why. It's usually when I get the question wrong in Kaplan that I realize it's importance (even though I had memorized it cold in gt). So I'm flying through Kaplan and hoping to start uworld in the next few weeks. I'll be done Kaplan by then or at least over 90% done. I'd say gunner helped me overall but I'll post results in a couple of months. Thanks.
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Completely agree with doing firecracker along with question banks. Many times on UW I would get a question wrong, even though I had all of the necessary facts memorized. FC puts the facts in my head, then question banks help me apply them. I think that's why FC is trying to add their "usmle style" questions. I haven't done them so I don't know if they're any good.
