I studied for about 7 weeks, with about 6 weeks of actual study (when I minus out holidays and family events) and passed with a B!! Very excited!
I used the StudyGuide 101 guide, VangoNotes audio study material (awesome!), Mosby's Anatomy & Physiology Study and Review Cards, Excelsior practice exams, and good old Google for info I didn't understand via the other methods!
I must say, I thought the test was tough. I test well and was counting on that helping me out with my shortened study time but that test was definitely to be respected. Lots of deductive reasoning involved. But, for only 6 weeks of study, I'm thrilled with my score.
I thought the SG101 stuff was great, especially for the money. The guides are great. In my opinion most of the other supplemental stuff they give you is worthless. Links that don't work, missing info. I even found quite a few incorrect answers on some of the practice exams they give you. But, that's okay. That's not what I bought it for. The study guides themselves were great.
I used the study guides as the basis for my study. I would record myself reading them out loud using a high quality voice recorder and then listen to them while I was on my way to and from work. I found that to be very effective at helping me retain the info. For some reason, I think hearing your OWN voice is much more effective than having someone else read them for you.
The VangoNotes were GREAT for learning some of the more difficult topics. They used great analogies and explained things in a very simple method. Definitely would recommend them.
The Excelsior practice exams, as others have stated, were priceless in terms of the knowledge you can gleen from them!
I picked up the Mosby's cards from Barnes and Noble. I was looking for some kind of flash cards that were pre-made. I really did NOT want to make my own, even though I realize the benefits of the kinesthetic learning from righting things down. These cards were great because they were so much MORE than flash cards. They are full out review cards! They have great illustrations and can test you on an entire system (e.g. cell organelles, bones of the scull) on one card. So each card is like 20 flash cards and there's 320 cards in the set. A LOT of info. The illustrations are beautiful and very helpful. Really helped me with the visual learning.
So, all in all, a pretty good experience. I absolutely LOVED studying for this. Anat and Phys is fascinating to me! I honestly could not get home quick enough some days to get studying! (except for the urinary system... I hated that one! Remind me to never go into Urology! Ha! :) )
