Accelerated A&P at PSU

deasiac · Apr 28, 2010

I have heard a lot of bad things about the teacher that teaches the class at PSU. Most of the people that I talked to had him for the regular 10 week class. If you took only one term in the summer and one in the fall you would probably still be able to apply to plenty of schools. But if the A & P was the only class you were going to take I bet you could probably do it.

2010_student · Apr 28, 2010

You could take one A&P over the summer, one in the Fall, and be accepted contingent upon your completion of the third A&P. I know several people who did this. You actually will still have time to take Micro in the spring. Just a thought! I have no experience w/ PSU, but took A&P one over the summer at PCC with ----- and can not recommend him enough. In fact several people I knew waited to take the other A&Ps so they could have him.

Kundera · Apr 30, 2010

I took A&P I at PSU during fall term and it was a very, very difficult class. You are learning the information at a higher level than the classes taught at the local community colleges. On the first day of class, the teacher basically told us that if we learned everything in the book, the we have learned everything we needed to know for his test. I liked him, though. He didn't pander to the students or dumb anything down. I would imagine that if you took the accelerated class during the summer, you would be doing absolutely NOTHING else. Nothing. Also, the require an insane amount of memorization, and you are pretty much on your own. When we were learning the muscles (which we got to do on real cadavers. They have their very own, which is pretty cool) they took the labeling key off of the wall after the first week. The muscles you had to know were flagged, but you had to use your textbook to make sure you knew which ones were which. I am taking the last two anatomy classes online at a local community college, and they are a breeze compared to the one at PSU. Good luck, whatever your choice!

AnonymousNurse45 · Apr 30, 2010

I took the summer A&P at PSU with ----.

I would say, if you don't have to work full time and fairly intelligent, than do it.

The hardest part for me was memorizing the muscles. At PSU, unlike at other schools, you have to memorize Insertion, Origin and Action for all the skeletal muscles. If you can get that sheet early and memorize the info ahead of time, it would really help you out.The lab is 30% or 40% of your grade. Even though you will register for lab and lecture separately, lab will be part of your total grade. There is a lot of things to memorize, and I had no problem with anything than the IOA of the skeletal muscles.

Just to emphasize, for the success in the summer sequence one has to be absolutely free of other commitments ( bad relationship with bf, kids, full-time job, etc.).

Good luck and will be happy to answer any additional questions.

CuriousMe · Apr 30, 2010

I took the summer A&P at PSU with ----.I would say, if you don't have to work full time and fairly intelligent, than do it.
The hardest part for me was memorizing the muscles. At PSU, unlike at other schools, you have to memorize Insertion, Origin and Action for all the skeletal muscles. If you can get that sheet early and memorize the info ahead of time, it would really help you out.The lab is 30% or 40% of your grade. Even though you will register for lab and lecture separately, lab will be part of your total grade. There is a lot of things to memorize, and I had no problem with anything than the IOA of the skeletal muscles.
Just to emphasize, for the success in the summer sequence one has to be absolutely free of other commitments ( bad relationship with bf, kids, full-time job, etc.).
Good luck and will be happy to answer any additional questions.

We did that at my CC as well.....I guess I assumed everyone did that in A&P?

Kundera · May 1, 2010

I wish that we didn't have to memorize the action, origin, and insertion in the community college course, but we do! :lol2:

RunnerGirl09 · May 1, 2010

Thanks to all that have responded. Registration is starting May 3rd and I have some serious thinking to do this weekend.

To the poster who took this class last summer, do you think that having the classes so close together and so condensed was helpful in that you didn't have time to forget anything in between terms?

While it would be great to be completely free of all obligations (for study purposes), I do have a family with 3 kiddos....maybe the class would be good practice for what life would be like if I make it to nursing school.:)

RunnerGirl09

AnonymousNurse45 · May 5, 2010

Be careful, runner Girl.

I got a B- for the first term, and you have to consider that some schools have limitations on how many times you can retake courses. My co-worker has total of 4 kids, and a perfect GPA because she took her pre-reqs over the period of 2 years.

EFreyer · May 11, 2010

Hi there,

I took the accelerated last summer from ------ and thought it was great. The lab was awesome. The lecture could be a bit tedious and sometimes difficult or confusing, but I would definitely do it again. I agree with everyone else though in that you have to have pretty much NO outside commitments. The first term (when lab was the hardest for me) I got home from class and studied for at least four hours every day.

Cinquefoil · Dec 19, 2010

This reply is less for the Original Poster (though what did you end up deciding, runnergirl? and how did it work out?) and more for future students with the same question who read this post.

I took A&P at PSU with ------ 1 term. I didn't take the summer accelerated course HOWEVER I did take the summer accelerated Biology-for-majors, which I've heard is comparable but slightly easier (!).

I had a study group of people who were usually "A" students and not only were they NOT working and NOT taking any other classes and DIDN'T have families but most had to struggle to even get a high B. One very smart lady was getting an "A" but then her parent ended up dying during term, she took one-two weeks to concentrate on that, and "poof" down to a B. Accelerated classes allow no room for anything but the class. Most people in couples found that their life as a couple got kinda rocky. I didn't but I have a very low maintenance partner. That's the plus. The minus is that now he's used to playing video games instead of finding things to do out together!

I got an A and it was the hardest A I've ever gotten. My back was in spasm the whole last week of the term. And I'd never had a back spasm before. $25 massage at the student clinic at East West School of Massage made it better, but I was just drenched in stress.

But then again one lady got married AND worked PT during the class and managed to pull that off with an A. So it can be done.

With ------ .....he'd actually be the most challenging of the three A&P profs I had at PSU to take the class with, especially accelerated, and here's why:

1) Lecture style is kinda dry, and about 3-5% of test questions may be taken from a sentence or a few sentences of his lecture. And then he speaks LOUDLY and SLOWLY when discussing simple topics but mumbles/and/speeds/up when going over the advanced Physiology sections.

2) Forget trying to take comprehensive notes during lecture. --- is great at going at note-taking speed, ----- is great at providing powerpoints to print, ------ does not provide written outlines nor does he slow down enough for notes to be taken.

That said, he knows his stuff, can be very helpful if you present your questions to him in person, and makes very funny comments about his liquor of choice....scotch? bourbon? and he could be great help during the extensive histology section of the third term's lab, since that's his area of expertise.

Need to succeed? Want to take this course w/this professor? Here's what worked for me:

1) I recorded ALL lectures

2) Took notes during class, leaving big spaces where he went fast that I could fill in later

3) Listened to lecture at home, filling in blanks as I did

4) Made notecards of key concepts of the lecture. Made front of notecards first, then filled in the backs w/ the help of my textbook/notes. Turned on great music while this was going on.

5) Met with study group, went over notecards together, laughed, argued, mostly stayed on track.

6) Met w/professor once I'd done all this, so questions I asked were informed questions....I hear ------ can be kinda short if he considers a question the "easily answered if you look at book" kind.

By that time the information had soaked in pretty well. All the people I knew who did all this got "A"'s.

But accelerated....man, I don't know. You wouldn't have time for this whole process, unless you don't need sleep. You wouldn't have any days off. I'm Type A for sure but even I went off chanterelle hunting/ hot spring dipping sometimes. And you'd be half the day in lecture with someone whose style is very dry.....

My 2 cents? Do it up if you have 1) high personal energy combined with a strong work ethic 2) a strong motivation to power through your pre-reqs 3) no other major life commitments OR a pride in your ability to manage time and multitask 4) very understanding friends/significant other 5) a relatively easy time memorizing information 6) an awareness of which study methods really work for you in intense learning environments 7) good test-taking skills w/multiple choice, and 8) good health. It will be tough and you will probably do well.

You may even be able to do well with one or more of these circumstances lacking, though it may take more determination and help.

Otherwise you're risking your GPA, which you really can't do if you're trying for W coast nursing schools. And I hear A&P is an especially important class to do well in from the admissions perspective.

Good luck fellow pre-nurses!:redpinkhe:heartbeat:redpinkhe:heartbeat:yeah::heartbeat:redpinkhe:heartbeat:redpinkhe

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