# Firecracker MD & DO — user reviews > 50 indexed App Store user reviews of Firecracker MD & DO by Firecracker Inc., rated 4.48/5 from 586 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/firecracker-md-and-do/id1063844682/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/firecracker-md-and-do/id1063844682.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 424 · 4★ 99 · 3★ 16 · 2★ 14 · 1★ 33 ## What do users think of Firecracker MD & DO? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Convenient integration with Apple's interface - 👍 Excellent review material with concise, detailed topics - 👍 Effective spaced repetition and rating system - 👍 User-friendly interface and navigation - 👍 Helpful for medical school exams and board prep - 👍 Syncs progress across devices - 👍 Comprehensive Q-bank and study tool **Cons** - 🐛 Buggy app with syncing issues - 🐛 Lack of highlighting functionality in the app - 🐛 Inconsistent image quality and correlation to questions - 🐛 Overwhelming number of questions can be difficult to keep up with - 💩 Occasional customer service issues and lack of responsiveness **Commonly reported bugs** - App freezing and crashing issues - Syncing problems between app and web version - Inconsistent tracking of completed questions **Most requested features** - Improved UI with better placement of controls - Offline mode to download questions ahead of time - Keyboard support for faster question answering - More visual aids and diagrams, especially for anatomy - Ability to customize study sessions and question types ## Newest reviews (16 of 50) ### 5/5 — So far so good *2019-07-26, version 4.9.4* I’m an MS1, and this app is easy to use and presents the material in a memorable format, with cases/pathological examples of what you’re learning. Example: learning about the anatomy of the spine, they’ll give you an example of what can happen to the spine in a case of whiplash. ### 4/5 — M1 *2018-10-16, version 4.8.9* Hey, new M1 here this app is greatttt 9/10. Been using this to study my integrated curriculum. My only request is that they add more pictures especially when it comes to anatomy like blood vessels in the colon during chronic ischemia. Very much more efficient & helpful. With more pictures this app would be a 10/10. Visual stimuli would only make this app more impactful for medical students studying hard for NBME exams. ### 5/5 — It has it all *2018-10-13, version 4.8.9* I’ve been very happy studying with Firecracker! The app and the desktop version seem to have better communication these days, and the developers are always making things better. ### 4/5 — Great resource for board studying *2018-09-15, version 4.8.8* I have used this nearly everyday since I started med school and I feel more prepared for my block exams as well as boards. I don’t find discrepancies or misinformation hardly ever. The only thing I would change is a max amount of questions per day. If you don’t stay on top of it, it can get overwhelming with the number of questions it wants you to do. ### 5/5 — Excellent extra resource *2018-08-22, version 4.8.6* I initially wasn’t a fan, but I have grown to appreciate it. Finding out about being able to narrow the questions to a particular field only also helped. Def an app worth looking at it, you can tell a lot of work has been put into it. ### 5/5 — Overall good app *2018-07-19, version 4.8.5* I definitely appreciate this app and it works pretty well. A little glitchy sometimes but not too bad. An offline mode would be nice so I could download the questions ahead of time with WiFi. ### 5/5 — RossMedStudent *2018-07-07, version 4.8.5* It was great for shelf study, after 2 shelf’s and using this and recommended shelf books, I switched to only FireCracker and U-World questions only and did quite well on my other 4 remaining shelves! Used it for a big chunk of Step 2 study too! ### 4/5 — Buggy *2018-06-20, version 4.8.5* I love firecracker, but the app is really buggy and doesn’t sync well with the main version. I will complete a bunch of things on the app, quit out of it then see nothing will be logged later. It’s frustrating. I will switch from computer to phone a lot and it’s like starting over for the day. ### 5/5 — Quick-Effective Study Tool *2018-06-14, version 4.8.5* As a medstudent FireCracker is an amazing GoTo for a quick grasp of High yield concepts. It gives you the EXACT page and edition in the StepBook(the bible). Review while watching tv, eating lunch, taking with friends, and of course while getting rid of your stercobiliruben! Quick,On the Go, Effective Study Tool. ### 5/5 — Must have for every medical student *2018-06-01, version 4.8.5* I’m so happy and grateful I found this program and have been using it non stop. It’s organized, methodical, integrative, didactical, illustrative...it’s everything I needed in a study system ### 5/5 — Effective *2018-06-01, version 4.8.5* Doesn't spend too much data or battery, is easy to use and they respond to questions super fast. ### 5/5 — Amazing study tool, worth the price *2018-05-30, version 4.8.5* Firecracker is a study tool that can truly be used anywhere, even if you only have a few spare seconds. The UI is beautiful, and the team is very quick to respond to questions/comments. I've seen several requests that I made actually implemented in the app (pretty quickly too). Do you like Anki? Firecracker is like a fully-automated, much much smarter Anki (with an active support team). Do you like First Aid? Firecracker provides the page number for every bit of its information that can be found in First Aid. The point is this: Firecracker is an easy to use, comprehensive, regularly-updated step study tool. ### 5/5 — Great Step 1 prep *2018-05-18, version 4.8.4* Everything you can do online you can also do on the app. You can study specific subjects or study everything. Great explanations and cross-references to First Aid and other online resources are provided for almost every answer choice. ### 5/5 — Please add keyboard support *2018-05-06, version 4.8.4* The way the Anki app does it is great and I would suggest similar. Space bar for show answer, then number keys for the numbers. Used FC for Step 1 which I took recently, looking forward to using for clerkships and Step 2. Keyboard support on iPad would help me rapid fire those questions!!! 300 CLUB LETS GO ### 5/5 — Love it!!!! *2018-04-22, version 4.8.4* I just started 2nd year of med school so I havent take Step 1 yet but I have been using firecracker on and off since the beginning of first year and I have loved it. As a second year student now I especially love how it has a sketchy and pathoma companion!!! The questions for each of these companions is also SUPER useful. I highly recommend Firecracker. ### 5/5 — Best app for medical school *2018-04-12, version 4.8.4* I highly recommend starting firecracker from day one of medical school and on. You will be shocked at how much material you retain compared to your classmates form spending less than an hour a day ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Ok product. Awful customer service. *2020-08-07, version 5.1* Firecracker as a product contains good, relevant information, but as they themselves admit, it is information you can easily find at other sources. They believe that their flash cards are what makes the app most useful. Well, the flash cards are overly detailed, and don’t have the same ability to space repetition that other flash card apps offer. Their learning experience is very text based, so if you are a visual learner look elsewhere. Finally, their customer service is absolutely awful. Once they have your money it appears that they don’t care to respond to messages or emails. I’ve been trying to get a very simple issue sorted for 2 weeks now (change email address and school associated with the account), and they have not responded to any communication I’ve sent them for well over a week. Given the plethora of resources available today, I’d say save your money and spend it on something else. **Developer response:** Thank you for your honest feedback, and sorry for any inconvenience or frustration you may have experienced recently. Please feel free to send me an email directly when you get a chance (to david.guertin@wolterskluwer.com) including your school, the login email address associated with your Firecracker account, and the email you'd like it changed to. I will be happy to help you out with these updates ASAP, and to answer any other questions you might have. Sincerely, David Guertin Firecracker ### 1/5 — Unstable Platform/App & Ineffective Customer Support *2018-04-02, version 4.8.4* Good content, however... In recent weeks the desktop & mobile platforms have become increasingly unstable. They do not sync properly at all, frequently causing loss of hours of work. In addition, core features such as "Refresh Task" have become completely dysfunctional. I messaged Firecracker support several times over a period of weeks requesting help, and after one team member initially offered to investigate in a 'few days' - there has been no visible sign that they followed through and have since stopped responding to messages. Trust is hard to repair, and they have their work cut out for themselves. ### 1/5 — Used to be a great app *2018-01-27, version 4.4* What happened to this app? Lately it’s been freezing up, taking a while to reload the page. I’m also having trouble scrolling down the screen to read the entire thing because it gets stuck and then sends me to the Study Topics page and I need to start all over again. It would also be nice to start where I left off and not start all over again from the topics page when I return to it. Please fix. ### 3/5 — Tough rating to give *2018-04-12, version 4.8.4* This is a hard one for me because I love firecracker and its content. But I’ve just had so many issues with how it runs. I’ve tried contacting them and no one gets back to me. There’s nothing more stressful when your study schedule get detailed right before an exam because the app isn’t working right. ### 3/5 — Decent, but not sure it’s as good as other resources *2018-03-28, version 4.8.4* Overall, Firecracker is a good resource, but it comes off like someone who just graduated medical school and threw something together. It does have a lot of bugs and the sources aren’t always the best. While the customer service is quick to respond, they always respond with the same advice. They site Wikipedia which is a good resource for students sometimes, but I feel like when studying for a national test, they could and should have better more reliable sources. As a side note, they do put first aid references, but for the flash cards I have found they show Wikipedia/Google more than first aid graphics and diagrams. I do like having access on my phone and iPad, but the bugs are making those difficult. Regarding the flash cards, they often include pictures, but often the pictures included are not entirely related to the answer. Ex) a foreign body is lodged in the piriform recess. This can cause damage to what nerve? A: internal laryngeal nerve. But the diagram shows only muscles of the neck rather than the pathway of the nerve. ### 3/5 — Good, Not Great *2018-03-03, version 4.8.2* Too difficult to build a custom study session by bridging different types of questions. Lacks the customization feature of Kaplan, but the trade off is doing more specific questions compared to their competitors. If you’re stuck between Firecracker and Kaplan, go with Kaplan. If you’re stuck between Boards & Beyond and this, go with Boards. ### 3/5 — Great content, not great app/website *2018-02-08, version 4.5.1* The content from FA and Pathoma + other resources is all there and awesome for review. Biggest frustration is the app and website. Website is incredibly slow to load. IPad app is ok but, can be fairly buggy when in flash card review mode (especially when using the “snooze” feature). ### 3/5 — It can't keep track of questions *2017-10-12, version 4.0* If I don't full finish a day of questions, the question total for the next day is all jacked up. The day will start with like 20/80 questions finished even tho I haven't done a single one yet. And if you do questions but leave a card open past midnight it will add all the cards you did in that session to the next day's total rather than the previous. It's also annoying that you can't highlight words in the answers if you need to look something up ### 4/5 — Highlight *2020-05-13, version 5.0.4* Would be better if I could highlight easier. It’s not that interesting to open each paragraph in another page to highlight and then come back and select another paragraph.... needs to improve so we can highlight in the main page. ### 4/5 — Only if the app supported highlighting... *2019-07-20, version 4.9.3* I really like the app, but I REALLY wish I was able to highlight and have it sync to my account. I feel like I can’t use Firecracker how I normally do via the browser app since I am unable to highlight. Overall the app works great, but I wish they would add this feature! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Convenient! *2022-10-28, version 6.2* I love how it's integrated into apple's new interface! I can review without having to have my laptop around. Highly recommend ### 5/5 — Love the app - modern UI update please? *2021-04-06, version 5.6* This app is obviously a must for learners...just wondering if the developer team is ever planning to update the UI so that controls in the top left corner aren’t so high up? It will literally be blended in with the toggle for switching to the previous app you used and you have to press it in a very specific way to return to the previous screen or the menu. It’s been like that for years now and I’m wondering if that can be update - small but definitely makes it tough when trying to review things quickly! ### 5/5 — Excellent Review Material *2021-01-16, version 5.4* For me, this app has the perfect formatting for a concise, yet detailed review of important clinical and basic science topics. I really enjoy the ability to not only practice with flash cards, but to have the option to refresh my understanding by reading the respective paragraphs provided for individual topics. For me, it boils a lot of information down to “need to know” blips, which is a great way to remind myself of important things when I haven’t looked at it in a while! Thanks, Firecracker for making studying enjoyable! ### 5/5 — Good product *2020-12-12, version 5.4* I love the daily case question. Firecracker is a great companion for my coursework and provides an additional angle on everything we are learning. It is clean and organized and has a lot of supplementary material. Sometimes the pictures don’t correlate perfectly to the flash card. The web version is better in my opinion, but the app is great for the convenience. ### 5/5 — Best board study tool *2020-07-03, version 5.0.8* Firecracker is the most comprehensive Q-bank I’ve encountered in board study materials. The spaced repetition and rating system are incredibly efficient and effective for getting those details into your brain. Worth every penny 👌🏻 ### 5/5 — The best flashcards content for both step 1 and 2 *2020-02-28, version 5.0.1* Love this app. Repetitive stores into long term memory and that is what I need for a great score. Been using since 1st sem of med school. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — User friendly *2019-10-11, version 4.9.7* Easy to navigate. Syncs progress well when using on multiple devices (something it was lacking before). Great app overall! ### 5/5 — Really effective studying *2019-09-11, version 4.9.5* I'll read the textbook through once, and then spend the rest of my time working through questions on firecracker. I've been feeling more prepared for class, and I definitely have a better command of the material. ### 5/5 — First year Med student *2019-08-22, version 4.9.5* I’m a first year med student and my university purchased this for the whole class. The Firecracker rep tailors the quiz information with what we are learning. Additionally, we can select topics to work through with the spaced repetition flash cards that make Anki so popular. I will be using this consistently, along with Anki, and update the review after Step 1. ### 5/5 — Medical students best friend *2019-08-14, version 4.9.5* Current M3. I've been using firecracker since day 0 of medical school. It's been my go to resource throughout. I will admit that I fell short and didn't keep up with it for a few months during first and second yearbut that is one of biggest regrets. 10:10 recommend to all incoming first years --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*