Did you make an A in A&P? Help me finish mine too?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I swear I am going to lose my mind cry.gif

This is the last two weeks of class. We have two more exams left, a lab practical, two more quizes and one more lab report due. We are now on BOTH bones and muscles at the same time. We skinned a cat last night. I am so overwhelmed by the volume of information I have to have memorized! Name, location, function, types of joints, points of origin, insertion and action, the fetal skeleton, types of cartilage, types of joint movements, which joints move which way...barf.gif I feel ill just looking at that list. How will I ever know all of this? He says "just memorize the major things". ***** We are first year A&P! How the hell do WE know what is major? And he doesn't teach in lab, says he is only there to answer questions, which basically means we are teaching ourselves.

I could NOT sleep last night...was tossing around well after midnight. Took 1/4 of a sleeping pill at 12:30 AM, STILL had a hard time drifting off, woke every hour and was up by 5:30 feeling like hung snot.

How the hell do I do this in time? Next exam is Monday, next lab practical a week from Monday. Oh, and there is also an optional comprehensive final in there on the 14th, the last day of the semester.

I have an A, but its only a 92.7, which means if I get a B on more than one of these exams I am going to fall to a B in the class. cry.gif I don't even know where to START to study.

I realize I am psyching myself out a bit here. How did you manage to memorize all of this stuff? I would very much appreciate some tips. Thanks! In these parts, anything less than an A in A&P pretty much means your nursing application gets tossed immediately on the reject pile!

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Specializes in SNU/SNF/MedSurg, SPCU Ortho/Neuro/Spine.

you have to tackle one subject at the time, so you can learn it and flash card it!

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It sounds like you are already doing a great job, having maintained an A so far. You are obviously capable, but I understand your fears of slipping into a B.

The instructor sounds unhelpful. Is there tutoring available on campus? You have time to schedule some help. Maybe ask people who have had this professor in the past, and see what advice they can give you. Would the professor be willing to share some student names with you of those that did well in the class? Otherwise, I guess you could just mass email all your school contacts and see if anyone has any help.

I am sorry you are stressing out. Try to get some help on campus. I think you need someone to help prioritize the material. Right now you are so overwhelmed, which is clouding your thinking.

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though i'm not in ns yet, i have had teachers like yours (my bio teacher flat out told the class he wanted us to fail) so when i have a teacher that sucks and there is a crapload of info, i read the text book and make my own study guide about the things i think are most important (i.e. bold words and such) sometimes i even draw pictures...this helps me out alot.

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Specializes in Psych..

The thing that most helped me get A's in A&P while memorizing all the info was making flashcards with PICTURES. I took pictures in lab, and I also printed out many pictures using google images. I then labeled the pictures. It wasn't so much having the flashcards, but it was the process of making them that helped me.

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Specializes in 0 as RN, 3 in ICU and Tele as Tech.

To help myself memorize, I used to tape the lectures, record them on a CD and listen to them while driving to class. During the labs I took pictures of what was happening, made reference notes on the back of my notecards and studied them. Maybe see if there are other students in your class that would like to get together for a study group. HTH and good luck in the rest of your class. Breathe, it's almost over and you have already proven to be capable of making an A, just see your A at the end, and it will happen. Be confident and not stress out, most of the time we do our best with a cool head and confident brain:p

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

What worked so well for me to memorize the bones and muscles is by teaching it to someone else. I would stay after in the study lab with some of the girls from class and we would take turns teaching it to one another. It really makes you have to learn it to teach it. I also taught my 9 year old the structure of the eye.

Flashcards was another savior in A&P 1

Good luck. You will survive.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

flash cards really helped in A&P.

and this sounds weird, but it works. i did this from a suggestion on here actually. i took huge construction paper and put my notes all over it with big pictures and little acronyms and stuff and posted them ALL over my house so i could see them even from far away. i saw them everywhere i looked. i could even study while i vaccumed or made dinner!

and if your instructor allows, a digital camera in lab. i took pictures of all the things we dissected and then scanned them and printed out the pictures so i could label them over and over again.

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My way to an A? PODCASTS! COLORING BOOKS! TIME! Dr. Kerry from some AZ college uploads the BEST!!! podcasts that really break everything down in super easy to understand nuggets (free from iTunes). I listened to them all the time, in the car, cooking dinner, doing laundry over and over again. For the coloring books I would do something like this- color the deltoid orange (I actually remember I really did color it orange!) then I made the flashcard with "deltoid" written in orange. On the back I wrote action, insertion and origin info. While I was coloring I would talk out loud to myself repeating the A,O, & I. It really "burned" the image in my mind to keep the colors consistent between the coloring book and flashcards. To this day I can tell you with almost 100% accuracy what color I colored all of the muscles and bones. BTW, prismacolor pencil are the best and worth the investment for all of the tedious coloring in this class. I got a 100% in the class. I am not the smartest person I was just super dedicated. It was the first class that I took after a 10 year hiatus and I wanted to do really well. I spent a minimum of 20 hours per week outside of class studying. A&P isn't hard, it's time-consuming. But I loved it! Good Luck.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Thank you for your help everyone. I finished up with an A in the course. :) Whew.

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Specializes in Certified Nurse-Midwife.

Congratulations! :up:

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