Anatomy........Anatomy.........Anatomy.........Adv ice, please? :)

[ruddergrl]

I am a student in Austin at ACC. I am registered, this fall, for Anatomy. From what I understand ACC has a reputation for super tough anatomy courses. I am hoping for ANYONE who has taken anatomy anywhere...........what advice can you give for sucess in this class???

I'm good at studying...........but is there anything else.....specific methods, materials, WHATEVER you did that helped you out in doing well in Anatomy??

Thanks so much!

[Mom2GraciePie]

Start learning the bones and muscles now. break it down to a few a week and you will have a much easier time when it comes to that unit. I also started learning the basic vocabulary terms in the weeks before class started to help me get familiarized with them. Some people find the anatomy coloring books helpful. Some make their own flashcards, etc. You have a few weeks to get a head start on it and you won't be sorry!

Good Luck!

[ruddergrl]

Thank you so much for replying. I am taking a summer course......Biology for Pre-Health Professionals.......and my final is next Monday. After that's over with I'll be sure and start trying to absorb info ahead of time!

[criticalRN10]

Just make sure you concentrate on the class 100% from day one, the worst thing you can do is play catch-up. Get mentally prepared to consume yourself in it and just be curious, it helps you WANT to understand it and learn it. Don't try to memorize it's useless. Take the concepts and just try to go over until the processes just make sense to you. My class didn't put too much emphasis on muscles or bones (we ran out of time basically). OH! I used to make copies of the figures in the book and white out all of the names of things and then make like 5-10 more copies with them blank and just sit there and try to fill them out then check them over and over until I knew what was what. I loved that it worked very well for me

[iPink, BSN, RN]

For me, A&P 1 seemed to be all memorization (bones, muscles, etc). A&P 2 was more physiology (how things function). Yes, it is possible to get A's in these classes. Get flash cards to help. I had to spend a lot hours outside of class to be on top of things.

[Saysfaa]

Spend time in the lab handling the models and take pictures of the models your school uses. Not only are you focused on the exact things used in the class but handling the models utilizes different brain pathways.

Use Kapit's anatomy coloring book. It also uses different brain pathways (with the kinetics of moving your hand, coordinating hand/eye, and color). I found it helped with the details of how parts fit together. Before I got the coloring book, I saw "frontal bone is front of the skull" but when I colored it, I saw "frontal bone is the front of the skull, making up the top half of the eye sockets."

Do something that incorporates sound. Some people record the lectures. There are other ways: make up chants or simply study outloud.

In most classes, a little more often is more effective than a lot less often. It is especially true for anatomy.

[microwow]

Know where it's found and what it does! I suggest you don't study just the night before the test! Man that's really not going to work!

[microwow]

and also take pictures of models and video rec your professor!

[Mom2GraciePie]

OH! I used to make copies of the figures in the book and white out all of the names of things and then make like 5-10 more copies with them blank and just sit there and try to fill them out then check them over and over until I knew what was what. I loved that it worked very well for me

I did that too for the bones! VERY helpful! I also used the picture book that came with my books and cut up black strips of paper to tape over the labeled parts so I could quiz myself then lift up the tab to check my answers. Sometimes I would just write #'s on the tabs, and write all the "answers" down on a sheet of paper to go back and check them. It was a great way to spend study time while waiting in parent pick up lines etc.

[Mom2GraciePie]

I thought of another thing that was helpful for me... google online tips on how to remember things. For instance, the bones in the skull were very easy for me when I found a site online that explained to place your hand on your head with palm on your head with fingers facing forehead. Palm -parietal, Thumb - temporal, Fingers - frontal, writs (OTHER) - occipital

Little tips like that made all the information easier to "sink" in and retain. Of course I probably looked like an idiot with my hand on my head in lab.. but I ended up with an A!

[escapebigd]

I'm taking an online Anatomy class this fall and started out at the library. I got A&P for Dummies, and it was great, it took about two weeks to read it cover to cover, but it really helped me break it down and learn the material. I just started on the Chemistry one because I'm taking that too this upcoming semester. When my books come in next week I'm going to start reading that as well. Something that helped for me was making it fun. Asking my husband do you know where the Hyoid bone is? Things like that or what peyers patches are. It makes it like a game.

[OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN]

I agree with all the posts above its definately not a course you can cram for..but one thing that helped me was I went to Catholic school and I learned a lot of basic latin and it actually helped a lot for learning they anatomy. Many of the words are latin based and actually describe the part so if you know the latin meaning then you can actually figure out what it is even if you don't know it. It was helpful is all...