Should I take Biology Lab before Anatomy?

[mirandataylor]

I am entering my first year at Diablo Valley College this fall to fulfil my general education and pre-nursing requirements. I planned on taking Fundamentals of Biology with Lab this Fall and Human Anatomy this Spring. Taking this Biology class is recommended before taking Human Anatomy but it's not a requirement. Unfortunately, I can't take Biology this semester because all of the classes are full and the classes with waitlists can't fit into my schedule.

I am wondering how necessary it would be to take Biology before Anatomy. I really want to take Biology before Anatomy. Of course it would be ideal to take Biology before Anatomy, but I can't do that if I want to take Anatomy in the Spring. So my question is, should I wait until the Spring 2015 semester to take Biology and take Anatomy Fall 2015? My only hesitation for that is because I will have to take Chemistry in the Fall of 2015 which was very hard for me in high school and taking both classes together seems like it may be stressful. I know high school Anatomy is very different from college Anatomy (I am so lucky that my community college's anatomy department has real cadavers) but I completed Honors Anatomy and Physiology in high school my sophomore year with an A the first semester and a B the second so I have some familiarity with the subject. I am leaning towards taking Biology in the Spring and Anatomy in the Fall next year but if any of you have successfully taken Anatomy without Biology first, your insight would also be very helpful. Any advice or opinions on this are welcomed and will be extremely appreciated. Thank you so much!

[Heliantus]

Biology is extremely basic, it's pretty much stuff that you learn in high school. I wouldn't worry about it too much and just take anatomy. That's what I did anyway, and had an A+.

[mirandataylor]

Thank you Heliantus. I took Biology my Freshman year and I got a B and I completed Integrated Science with an A my senior year (We mostly did physical sciences but some biology and evolution work) Do you think I would need to take Bio before Physiology?

[applejackcrunch]

If biology isn't a required course you would probably be okay with skipping it, especially since you've had kind of an intro to A&P in high school. My school recommended taking bio before A&P, but since it wasn't a requirement for my program I decided to go for it. I hadn't had an actual biology class since freshman year in high school (and I never took A&P in high school, only chemistry and earth sciences) so I was rusty at best and I ended up retaking a couple semesters later to raise my grade from a C+ to a A-.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day, mirandataylor:

I took human biology last summer before AP1 in the fall followed by AP2, Microbiology, and Nutrition in spring. I found doing well in the human biology class really helped me do well in AP1, AP2, Microbiology, and Nutritional science.

Thank you.

[GoodnessFlows]

You should be fine! I just completed Anatomy (our class had cadavers too) and received an A. I still need to squeeze my bio class in sometime before I finish up my pre-reqs, which is soon. Somehow, I didn't do the two in order, but I don't feel I struggled as a result.

Go for whatever will work best with your schedule.

[dt70]

Physics is a foundation of chemistry, which is a foundation of biology, which is a foundation of human anatomy & physiology. Actually physics is probably a foundation of all sciences.

Strangely, chemistry & biology are usually pre-requiste's for A&P, but not physics.

I think you'll be fine taking biology later. While biology may or may not be easy, there is select topics addressed in A&P. The instructor will assume most students took biology while knowing all have not. When they get to a biology concept they will most likely give a very quick review. Students who already had biology will be thinking "not this again" and those who have not will be thinking "I need to look into this".

While taking biology prior to A&P rather than after would be ideal, I don't think it's a deal breaker.