Published Jul 30, 2015
jennmonte076
33 Posts
Hello everyone I'm thankful for reading all your posts and have learned alot. I am taking Chemistry and A&P 1 this fall semester....any advice or anything I can do to prepare myself. Thank you everyone
WellThatsOod
897 Posts
For A&P I'd recommend the coloring books they have on amazon or at book stores. Maybe do some reviews on quizlet. Do you have your book already? Read the chapter reviews.
For chemistry I don't know. I haven't had to take it yet.
Good luck next semester!
goddess9
190 Posts
For Chem, I'd recommend getting used to accurately rounding off and significant figures. Learning how to convert between metric and imperial. Understanding your periodic table and it's layout.
For A&P, take pictures of your lab materials and then you can label them later. Or print out diagrams from your textbook and white out the labels and redo them. This helps with bone markings and pretty much everything else, at least for me.
Miss Infermiera2b, BSN, RN
380 Posts
I aced both A&P I and II thanks to Quizlet. I created flash card sets for every unit and I used the app on my phone whenever I couldn't study at home.
Oops, you meant before? AP coloring book saved my life.
s2bLuluRN
55 Posts
For chemistry, goddess9 gave great advice on significant numbers and rounding. I would like to also add that being familiar with the periodic table will be to your advantage. My class was given the periodic table so we didn't have to memorize it, but we were responsible to know which were metal, metalloid, nonmetals, and the noble gases. Also, practicing what each element is from the symbol and vice versa will be helpful. I was nervous before I started the chemisry class but I actually ended up loving the class. Good luck!
Thank you!! I just looked at Amazon there a few any particular one you recommend. Also any apps are appreciated. I'm a mother of 4 so anything I can do to prepare myself beforehand I am sure will help me alot.
Purple_roses
1,763 Posts
Do all of your homework. Seriously, you'd think this would be a no brainer, but my fellow classmates who did not do their homework (simply because it wasn't worth many points, if any) continually got significantly lower scores than those of us who did the homework. And if your instructor doesn't assign those chapter reviews or section reviews throughout the book, do them anyway. Doing them was an effective way of studying for me.
All the PPs above gave excellent advice as well. Look into Quizlet now, if you haven't already. I loved that website/app and I'm still using it!
Visual Body Atlas allows you to tap any area on a virtual skeleton to get all the information on it. This was very helpful for me while learning the bones and muscles. It also goes through every organ system. I also liked the Evernote app. I would retype my notes after class into the Evernote website, which automatically synced with the app. This was helpful because I had all my class notes in my pocket and could study them at any time.
V_Winnie
2 Posts
I agree with the posts above. If the course already gave out the specific book you need for the class, you could get it right now and go over it before the semester starts. I took Intro to Chem(Not sure what Chemistry class you're taking) and A&P I, along with two other classes, in the spring term. Chemistry wasn't as stressful as A&P I, in my opinion. Whenever I had A&P 1 and Chemistry test on the same day, I would study Chemistry first just to get it out of the way and then put all my studying time into A&P. Beforehand, you should get a general knowledge of the organs and their functions. As well as the muscles and their functions! I put them on flashcards which helped a bunch.
ThatOneDude822
150 Posts
If you have an iPad or iPhone, I recommend getting the You Doodle app for the anatomy part of A&P. It lets you draw on top of pictures. Take pictures of your lab models, use some sort of resource (book, Google, etc) as a guide to label one as a key, and then save the key to your pictures. Starting over on the same picture, try to label as much as you can without looking at the key that you created. As far as what you can do BEFORE classes start, I would suggest learning anatomical position, as well as anatomical terms of location. In anatomy, it is never appropriate to say "x is over y" or "y is behind z." Instead you would say "x is superior to y" and "y is posterior to z." A list of terms I would suggest being familiar with are: inferior, superior, anterior, posterior, lateral, medial, distal, proximal, deep, superficial, afferent, efferent, cardinal, cephalic, ipsilateral, contralateral, peripheral, and central.
For the physiology part, just look up videos on YouTube and watch as many as you can tolerate. For example, if you're discussing neuromuscular junctions, just type that into the youtube search bar. Watch the simple 1 minutes videos, watch the long 10 minutes detailed videos. The short ones will give you a good idea of WHAT is going on, and the longer ones will explain HOW that's happening. There really isn't much you can do to prepare for physiology before classes start.
As far as chem, brush up on your math and familiarize yourself with the periodic table. No need to memorize it, just be familiar with where metals/nonmetals/metalloids are, remember the general location of more common atoms (you'll need to find carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, calcium, potassium, sodium, hydrogen, and helium a lot. Also, if your class touches on nuclear chem, knowing the general location of uranium and radium will help too). Knowing the general location of those will save a lot of time so you aren't hunting for them during an exam.
Kirbiea
88 Posts
For chem I would recommend starting to learn the periodic table and memorize your polyatomic ions now. I would recommend buying those A&P coloring books on amazon and brushing up on some basic biology (krebs cycle, sodium potassium pump, etc.)