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??
Everything is important to a degree, but what I found was understand the process and how things are related and interact and affect/effect each other. Hormones, factors, chemistry, cell biology and the parts and their function will help you understand in more advanced A&P levels the effect/affect on the body. I was really glad I did as well as I did in each of my earlier science classes because it ended up making concepts easier to grasp and understand each subsequent class.
IE: ions (Na+, Cl-) in chemistry is really important to understanding action potentials, and of course understanding how that might be out of balance in a patient will help you understand what care is needed and what to watch for...but that's later.
I hope that makes sense. Really understanding from the basics and applying it is the best advice I can offer. Good luck to you.
Take actual photographs w/ a digital camera of all the models, slides, or whatever else during lab. Label the photos w/ a thin black sharpie. Well, number points of interest on the picture on the front and put the answers on the back to quiz yourself. The items in lab never look like the book or the fancy flash cards that yes, I purchased and NEVER used.
yea .. umm .. make songs .. u know the song of Hanna Montana about the bones .. helped me lot so that a session with lot if terms or memorizing matters I just make songs and sing it many times ..
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One more thing ,, imagine ..
draw the anatomy of a something in ur mind ... it would be easy too ..
I bought those quarter sized poster boards. They usually come in packs of 4. I used those to make "flash cards", but it was more like highly detailed drawings, labeled and listed characteristics under the drawings. I hung those all over my bedroom and bathroom. As I lay in bed at night, or got dressed in the morning, when I was on my treadmill, or brushing my teeth, they were always in my eye shot. It helped me a LOT. I still have those pictures in my head.
I agree with the note cards, your own will be more beneficial.
I also recommend that you do the reading before class and then again after lecture. Reading before will help you when your prof uses words that you have never heard of before, then reading after will make more sense.
Check with your school about mentor groups. At my school they are students that have previously taken the course and received an A. Not only can they help describe things, more importantly they can tell you how your tests will be.
If you can record the lecture, listen for things that your instructor repeats, those are the items that usually appear on the test.
Finally, use Youtube. I know it sounds weird, but there are many lectures on there and sometimes hearing the material from a different source helps.
Purposegames dot com is your friend. Let me qualify that....It's not just your friend, it's your BEST friend.
Google search for anatomical images (like an image of human skull) or upload them from your textbook. Label each of the bones on your image with a letter or a number. Use your image to create a labeling game on purposegames dot com and then use the game to quiz yourself.
Once you are able to get 100% 3 times in a row on the purposegame, get out a few sheets of paper and a pen. Letter or number your paper according to the labeled image you made for the quiz game. Then, quiz yourself again by writing down the name of the corresponding bone on your paper. Make yourself a cheat sheet with all the answers on it to refer to at first. Go through and write down the structures as many times as you need to until you are able to just look at your labeled image and write out the names for every bone completely from memory - without looking at your cheat sheet. Not only does this process completely solidify the information in your memory, but it forces you to focus on spelling. In my class, spelling counted. If sternocleidomastoid was misspelled on an exam, even though the structure was labeled correctly, the answer was marked incorrect.
You will most likely learn your body regions (cervical, brachial, inguinal, etc.) in the first week. Make sure you know them backward and forward. Do this, and veins and arteries will be a cakewalk.
Purposegames dot com is your friend. Let me qualify that....It's not just your friend, it's your BEST friend.
Google search for anatomical images (like an image of human skull) or upload them from your textbook. Label each of the bones on your image with a letter or a number. Use your image to create a labeling game on purposegames dot com and then use the game to quiz yourself.
Once you are able to get 100% 3 times in a row on the purposegame, get out a few sheets of paper and a pen. Letter or number your paper according to the labeled image you made for the quiz game. Then, quiz yourself again by writing down the name of the corresponding bone on your paper. Make yourself a cheat sheet with all the answers on it to refer to at first. Go through and write down the structures as many times as you need to until you are able to just look at your labeled image and write out the names for every bone completely from memory - without looking at your cheat sheet. Not only does this process completely solidify the information in your memory, but it forces you to focus on spelling. In my class, spelling counted. If sternocleidomastoid was misspelled on an exam, even though the structure was labeled correctly, the answer was marked incorrect.
You will most likely learn your body regions (cervical, brachial, inguinal, etc.) in the first week. Make sure you know them backward and forward. Do this, and veins and arteries will be a cakewalk.
Anatomy is 99% memorization. I took it a few years ago in high school. The main part I had trouble with was when we had to look at microscope slides and identify the cells on them. To me, everything looked the exact same.
<3_RN
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Everything is important to a degree, but what I found was understand the process and how things are related and interact and affect/effect each other. Hormones, factors, chemistry, cell biology and the parts and their function will help you understand in more advanced A&P levels the effect/affect on the body. I was really glad I did as well as I did in each of my earlier science classes because it ended up making concepts easier to grasp and understand each subsequent class.
IE: ions (Na+, Cl-) in chemistry is really important to understanding action potentials, and of course understanding how that might be out of balance in a patient will help you understand what care is needed and what to watch for...but that's later.
I hope that makes sense. Really understanding from the basics and applying it is the best advice I can offer. Good luck to you.