Dallin, a third-year medical student at Des Moines University, used Firecracker throughout year two of medical school to accomplish a few goals simultaneously; retaining information learned in class, preparing for USMLE, and shoring up osteopathic manipulative medicine knowledge that is emphasized on COMLEX. The Firecracker DO program includes comprehensive content and practice questions for every concept and fact that is fair game to be tested on both COMLEX and USMLE combined. The content is all originally authored, and indexed neatly to leave no doubt which materials are relevant for which exam(s) and classes/Clerkships. Dallin accounts how supplementing coursework with Firecracker, Uworld, and Combank was the perfect recipe for two tremendous board scores in one week:

Through May 31st we're having a specific Summer Study Sale: 2 months free for Firecracker this summer.

Many medical students, including incoming medical students, will begin classes in late July or early August. Meaning there are roughly 8 weeks in the summer to use to catch up, or get ahead on the next school year.

On May 26th David Guertin hosted a demonstration for rising M2s, showing how to use Firecracker in a brief burst over the summer to improve retention of high yield topics for the Step 1.

The summer between MS1 and MS2 is a great opportunity to catch up on your Firecracker study plan and ensure that you enter MS2 with as much material from MS1 banked as possible. Right off the bat, I’d suggest that if you’re feeling burnt out/exhausted after MS1, take some time (whatever is necessary) to relax and recuperate. Perhaps the worst thing you could do is to enter MS2 feeling burnt out. That being said, if you find that you have some extra time this summer and are itching to review some of the material you’ve learned, this plan may help. This plan is going to assume that your goal is to consolidate the information you learned in MS1 for the purpose of STEP 1, that you have 6 weeks off for summer break, and that you are planning on taking 2 weeks as a true vacation (I highly recommend this).

Check out our latest webinar recording where our team explains how to best utilize Firecracker over the summer! Also, this blog lists the most relevant, high yield topics to cover over the summer leading up to your second year of medical school.

It’s summer time!  Congratulations on surviving your 1st year of medical school.  You are likely done with the smell of formaldehyde.  You’re ready for a well-deserved break.  It’s time to catch up on sleep, visit family and friends, travel, or maybe even do a research project.