A&P in first year nursing school. OMG

fUsi0n86 · Oct 3, 2008

Exactly what in the book are you having difficulties with? Just read the book and use the internet to supplement your studies. Youtube has plenty of videos with people explaining different A&P concepts and there are a lot of other good websites you can use, so don't give up. A&P is not bad at all it's just real time consuming. Bottom line is that you just have to study. After all you will be dealing with people so you have to know your stuff. I'm taking the course now and doing well so if there is anything I can help you with let me know.

missjennmb · Oct 3, 2008

I'm in 1st semester nsg school and taking AP1 as well and it really is TOUGH. I know you said your teacher is tough, but the class is tough everywhere, I promise. I'm barely scraping by, but admittedly I have been hyperfocused on my nursing class, because of the high failure rate (half the class was gone at the end of the first 9 weeks last year)

Something I just stumbled across in regards to AP though is the book's website. I knew it was there before, but now that we're at the point of labeling body structures it REALLY is helping me a lot. There are little matching games and memory type ins and practice quizzes and vocabulary reviews and all sorts of things that help solidify the concepts.

Does your instructor give any kind of direction as far as what will be on tests? Ours has us highlight a lot in the book, which starts to narrow down what we need to know, as well as gives us a dozen or so questions that we should be able to answer for each chapter, and the day before the exam, at the end of lecture, he always gives a bit more information about a few things that we "definitely" need to know. Its still a huge mountanous amount of information, but really there's nothing to do but repeated exposure to the material. So far I've gotten an 84 and a 77 (yet in nursing I have 90+ on 6/7 tests/quizzes).

Definitely check out your teacher independent resources. I hope you can find your niche in AP. Its still early enough in the semester that you can turn this around.

justme1972 · Oct 3, 2008

A&P is very, very difficult no matter where you take it. So far I haven't had anything in nursing school anywhere near as difficult as A&P was.

Can you be more specific about the problems you are having? That way maybe we can guide you?

FA to CRNA2b · Oct 3, 2008

A&P, microbiology, and also chemistry if it's in your program, are weed-out classes. They are hard science classes but are absolutely necessary for you to learn patho and pharm. It's expected that you will know this stuff before touching patients. You can do it, good-luck.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 3, 2008

the last thing you need to be doing is saying things like if i dont pass a&p1 (which i probally will not). stop that right now!

everything you are learning is new to you, probably the first time you have been exposed to it. did you tie a perfect shoelace the first time you put on a pair of shoes by yourself? i don't think so. did you ride in perfect balance the first time you sat on a 2-wheeler bike and tried to peddle? i'm sure you didn't. your brain can only assimilate so much information at a time. anatomy is primarily memorization; physiology is primarily organization. both involve memorization which is a skill (like tying your shoes or riding a bike). skills require practice to perfect, you get better at them as you go along.

here are some things that might help. exposure to other authors that say the same information in a different way sometimes turns on a few light bulbs upstairs in your brain for you. here are where the links to anatomy websites for students are located on allnurses:

https://allnurses.com/forums/2422268-post45.html

and, memory techniques:

and just for giggles, check out the information on this thread. grades are dependent on how you do on tests. what is being thrown at you on this instructor's tests? are his questions odd or is he asking things he's not lecturing over or that aren't in the textbook? if so, then you have to second guess him and be ready for these curve balls. in healthcare we would call them "complications". you will be learning to do that as an rn. you can do that as a student too. you have to learn to be a good test taker to get passing grades.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/looking-test-taking-stratagies-224581.html - looking for test taking strategies

justme1972 · Oct 3, 2008

One tip will give you on memorizing the different parts for practicals and labeling exercises, is to copy the image out of your book, white out the names, then make several copies of that image.

Because these are mostly latin terms, the only way to do it is to write it over and over and over again each term until it flows from your hand.

You'll discover very quickly that there are parts that you can easily remember and parts that will forever stump you. I would use the areas that I remembered easily as points on a map....to give me direction on where to go next.

You can apply that principle to anything...the bones, vessels, muscles, ligaments, or any way they teach it.

Another thing that was CRITICAL to my learning, is for example, I was having trouble understanding different "pump" systems that occur in cells, such as the sodium-potassium pump. I couldn't get a visual in my head of how it works.

So I found out very quickly, that if I did a google search typed in like this:

"sodium-potassium pump" animation

That would bring up several animations that gave me a cartoon-like visual to where I understood the process exactly. Once I saw one work, it was easy to see how the rest of them worked, especially other concepts such as receptor cells, membranes, how things pass through a cell.

Keep in mind, that b/c of my age, that this was a very mind-blowing concept for me, because when I was young, they didn't even know that much was even inside the cell b/c the electron microscope was newly invented.

You at least have more of this background in your age group than older students b/c some of the basics should have been taught to you in biology.

Daytonite is always EXCELLENT at giving incredible resources. I think she's a human encyclopedia :).

polka-dot, RN · Oct 3, 2008

I feel your pain...I got through A&P with high As, but that's only because I made it MY LIFE and did not have nursing classes along with it! I started a thread a while back in the pre-nursing forum that might help you review some concepts...it's titled "A&P Help...From My Brain to Yours"...sorry I don't know how to link.

Do you have the Interactive Physiology CD? I think it also comes as part of the website materials...it is essentially animations explaining physiology concepts...it was extremely helpful for me. Here is a link, looks like you can buy web access if it didn't come with your text: http://www.interactivephysiology.com/login/index.html

The others here have posted some very good advice...good luck! YOU CAN PASS THIS CLASS!!!!

phuture_rn · Oct 3, 2008

Thank you all so much. Today in class the teacher formally apoligized for making the class so hard and will drop our lowest test score. He is also started giving extra credit assignments and weekly quizes from old tests. It will be hard but I will make it through. We are starting to go into the skelaton system so it's a bit easier than cells and stuff. Today was so much better than yesterday, I can't even begin to explain. Although it's small I can see a light at the end of this semester (lol). Thank you all for the encouraging words, it really brought my spirits up.

kalley · Oct 3, 2008

One thing that is truly helping me, as little as it may sound, is coming to class fully prepared. I make sure to take notes for the entire chapter before coming to class. I type them and then highlight the information that he goes over as important and write down any other notes that I might not have thought were important. I found that doing that I can really listen to what he is saying and get all of the information down. We are doing a chapter a class, so we are really going fast and it is a lot to take in.

He doesn't pick and choose parts of the chapter, he goes over the whole thing. The powerpoint that he uses is the one that he gets with the book so nothing is left out. I find that if I don't do the notes I am scrambling to get it all down and not really listening. Taking notes ahead of time has helped me 100%.

Also, I do all the questions at the end of the chapter and use any online resources/practice tests I can find online. When I get them wrong I go over them and really understand why I got them wrong, not just accept that I got them wrong. And sometimes I do them several times.

These things are all time consuming, but I need an A in this class so that I can get into my nursing program. I got a 95% on our first test, 4 chapters, while more than half our class failed. I have chemistry, human development, and wellness also, but A&P by far gets most of my attention. I hope you find your learning style in A&P, it really needs lots of time set aside just for it.

missjennmb · Oct 4, 2008

just wanted to say that I agree on coming fully prepared! It makes a huge difference in my comprehension level having already had exposure to the chapter before class.

BellasMommyOBRN · Oct 4, 2008

i had a girl in my a&p 1 class that was taking it while in the nursing program. honestly, i have no idea how she did it. i agree with everyone else on here, it's tough. like a previous poster had said, try exposing yourself to the chapters before lecturing on it. my professor always told us that the more we expose ourselves to the chapters, the easier it would be to understand it.

don't give up on yourself you are obviously a very smart student!