A&P I Lab Help!!!

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

Ok, as a quick background - here's how our lab grades are determined:

10 question quizzes at the beginning of class (10 points/class)

3 lab assignments (3 points/class)

Final lab practical (60 points)

Quizzes - 110 points

Assignments - 36 points

Practical - 60 points

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Total - 206 points

The problem I'm having is I'm not doing so well on the quizzes. Matter of fact, no one is! It's a lab, and the quizzes are worth more than the lab assignments and practical combined. She said the quizzes are theory and this is a hands-on class, and she doesn't have enough time to have both lab assignments and a review or lecture, but that all the material is in the book and we just need to "study harder". They're there because she can't give labs more points because she doesn't know if we understand what's happening or what we're looking at, or if we're just going through the steps.

But if this isn't a theory class, why is our grade being determined on theory more than our labs?? I've killed every exam this semester in the A&P I lecture component (I have a 99% average - I clearly know the material), and I get all three points for the assignments every lab, so why are we mostly being quizzed on what we're tested on in A&P lecture? Isn't that why there's two separate components? Some of these questions are ridiculous - like "what's the total magnification when using your objective lens?"...are you kidding me? I know how to get it (ocular lens X objective lens), but I she didn't say a damn thing about memorizing the powers of our lenses! The rest are poorly worded (she's Spanish - that might have a lot to do with it) and makes the quizzes that much worse and confusing.

Sorry for the long post, but does anybody have any suggestions? Maybe ideas on how their instructors graded their classes? Someone suggested lab reports, but I don't know what those are, so if anyone could flesh out that idea it'd be awesome. She's a new teacher and speaking with her directly has done nothing and I'm getting frustrated, so I'm going to the dean of student affairs on Monday. I'd like to approach him with my concerns and hopefully some suggestions.

[Mommaof3]

I never had an A&P lab like what you're describing. I'm now taking Cadaver Anatomy though and the set up sounds much the same (however our practicals way outweigh our quiz grades) and the first couple I bombed (like 5 and 6 points) but my prof does it the same way everytime and now I've got the hang of it and am scoring 9's and 10's (we have a quiz every lab so twice a week). Although I can't tell you how to get the hang of what she's looking for with her quizzes my recommendation for you is to go to the CHAIR of the biology department prior to chatting with the Dean (chain of command and all that) the issues that I have had to escalate in that manner went over much better by following that chain and they seemed to be much more receptive to what I had to say (like I wasn't trying to jump over everyone's head and not giving them a chance to resolve their own departments issues) make sense?? JMO. Hope you get some clarification soon that would be extremely frustrating!

[UnicornRN]

I used the book Anatamy & Physiology for Dummies, it helped some. The book I really liked is the Cliff's Notes book on Anatomy & Physiology. It helped deciper all the important topics since the class I took was basically a self-taught online class.

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

Mommaof3, great idea about the department chair, I'm sure they'd appreciate it me going to them first. I like the idea of the practical outweighing quizzes - if she's worried about us just blankly following steps, the practical is an incredibly relevant way to prove you know what you're doing.

AZ911, it's not A&P that's throwing me off - it's just her badly-worded and confusing quizzes that are outweighing anything remotely "lab" about this class.