Anatomy

MStilly: It has been a long time since I was a nursing student. However, when I took 8 week courses they were paced much faster and were very concentrated. Anatomy I is a basic course and you need to do well in it to understand Anatomy II. If you feel you can devote more time to it in the faster paced course, then take it. If there are other issues that are going to interfere with your studies such as child care, then perhaps it is the better choice for you. Just be prepared that if you get to a point where you are not understanding something you need to get help right away, do not fall behind in this course!!! I recommend to everyone taking Anatomy that they find a visual book that displays the body and all the systems a good reference for this can be found from Anatomical Chart Company, they are available on line.

I took the accelerated version and it was fairly difficult because of the sheer amount of work in such a short time span. My anatomy course was a&p 1 and 2 over 8 weeks. It was doable but it was very time consuming.

There's a lot of straight up memorization involved with A&P (bones, muscles, arteries, veins, etc.), along with understanding how everything works together which can prove to be a challenge. I took both of mine during regular 16-week semesters with other courses, but I enjoyed it a lot and did well in them.

What is the specific time of the 8-week course? I was going to say that, if it's from, say 9 AM to 3 PM (or similar time frame), that might work to your advantage, as your kids would be in school during this time. So you could spend the day just focusing on class (and maybe a few hours before/after to study) and still have ample time to spend with family. To me, it sounds like the 8-week course could be doable, and maybe more so, than the 16-week course. The only real advantage I see is that you'd be getting a ton of information piled into that 6 hour time frame you mentioned, so those Wednesdays would be more stressful than the rest of the week.

Either way you'll end up studying and reading a lot most of the time. You'll have to keep up with the pace of the book and lecture notes. it is a doable course most certainly when you put in the time and great effort. In 8 weeks you will have to double up your efforts and hard work since it's a faster pace than normal 16 week course which may seem long. you will cover more than a chapter sometimes in one class period so you can expect to put in more work. That's not to say that it's more relaxing in 16 weeks but you may have more time to soak the info compared to 8 weeks. you want to get the best grade possible! Do whatever works for you.

As the other posters are saying, it's really an information-heavy class. However, the knowledge from A&P will be necessary going into nursing school. I took A&P this semester with a full time job and and I still managed an A. If you're committed to this, you can do it.

I took A&P II over a period of 6 weeks. It can be done but requires great sacrifice. I love biology hence had a strong biology background. I have a three year old daughter whose mum works and schools just like me so it was hard from the word go. However I had to find a way to make it work and I did. Came up top of the class with an award. All I am trying to say is you can do it if you want it that bad. Just dedicate your time, lose a little bit of that time for outing and vacation or party and you will be amazed at how well you will do in that sjort period of time.