Frustrated with my A&P Professor

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Fair warning, this is a rant more than anything else.

I'm taking A&P I right now with 3 weeks left in the semester. I started off strong but my grade is on the decline. I work hard and study often, but I never feel like I'm studying the right things.

We took a quiz on Monday that I felt SO prepared for. Before the weekend, the professor gave us some guidelines on things to study. "Bone development, very important. Fracture repair, very important. Focus primarily on your notes." I knew my notes forward and backward and reinforced the concepts with notes from the book. Of course when the quiz landed on my desk, there were NO questions on fractures or bone development, and he lined up a bunch of bones from the models for us to identify. We've NEVER had to do that for a quiz, so of course I wasn't expecting it and only got a couple of them right. I understand that it's his class and he can do what he wants, but sometimes it feels like he's intentionally misleading us and I'm becoming very frustrated. Obviously he's not going to spoon feed us each and every question, but why tell us something is important when it obviously isn't?!

I have an exam on Monday to study for and I'm so overwhelmed trying to prepare for it. I know the obvious solution is "just know EVERYTHING" but there's not enough time in a day for that! We covered the entire skeletal system in 2 lectures. He gave us a packet outlining all of the bones we "need" to know but at this point I don't even believe that he'll stick to it! I've never had a problem like this. I've always been an A student, and I hate feeling like I'm putting "A effort" in but not getting the results to prove it. If I did as poorly as I think I did on that quiz, I'll have a B+ average with one exam and a final exam left to go. A B+ in this class would really hurt my chances of getting into my program. I NEED to pull off at least an A-.

Thanks for listening (reading). Any advice on how to study for a professor like this?

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Specializes in Hospice.

Don't freak out, A & P is hard. I got a C in A & P I (in a Maymester....... never again, not recommended) and an A in A & P II and I got in. It's impossible to know everything and study everything. When I was in A & P, I thought that was the biggest textbook I had ever seen in my life. Until my Nursing Fundamentals textbook. You can't possibly read all of these ginormous textbooks. Is he taking questions from your chapter reviews? That may be something to look at. If he is, you can probably figure you will see one or two of those on the test, and if you know them, there are some easy points for you. Good luck on your exam!

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Specializes in Maternal Child, Home Health, Med/Surg.

My Instructor does the same thing! She will tell you that something is important and it will be nonexistent. I'm busting my butt and barely holding onto my A-. I wish I had advice for you, but I'm a struggling as well. :(

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Have you discussed this with any classmates to see if they are having the same struggle? Why don't you just talk with the professor? They have office hours for this reason, just be prepared to specifically name your concerns and ask for help without sounding like you are whining. A lot of educators don't know there is a disconnect because students don't speak up.

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A&P I is much more difficult and brutal than A&P II in my experience.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

Try taking some online A&P quizzes. I found it very helpful to apply what I knew to a different professor's questions.

I highly recommend http://www.msjensen.cehd.umn.edu/webanatomy/

I used the online quizzes on this site to prep for my tests and I made it through with an A. Yes, you will be presented with bones and you'll be expected to know every bulge, divot, hole, bump, etc. (In your mind, you should be translating those words into their anatomical expressions)

It's not impossible to pull off an A if you have a B+. Take heart :) You'll get through this!

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Web address doesn't load up; can you post a revised address? Thank you.

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How often are you studying? Are you distracted while studying? There's a great app for Android called Speed Anatomy. I believe it's free, and if I recall you can quiz different systems. It's really only good for quizzing you after you've read and studied. There's also Anatomy Quiz Pro on the iTunes store for $1.99. Constantly quiz yourself.

Absolutely see if your classmates are having the same issue. See if you can find stats on pass/fail in this instructor's classes, see if you can find reviews for this person. If a lot of you are having the same problem, you can all absolutely go speak to this professor together.

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A&p is hard. I tried taking it once and the prof abd I just didn't mesh. I dropped it bc I didn't want a c and took it with another prof and got an a.

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Specializes in Med/surg.

http://lrn.org/Content/Quizzes/Quizlist.html

^That website helped me in A&P when my Prof. was doing the SAME thing! I found it the last 3 weeks and realized he had been using this site for his questions!! Of course after I found it he magically changed quiz format!! Perhaps this can help you a little. Also, the nice people here have told me about a game online called "whack-a-bone" to help with skeletal and a few other systems. Hope this helps, in the end I barely received a B.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.
Web address doesn't load up; can you post a revised address? Thank you.

msjensen.cehd.umn.edu/webanatomy/

Hope this one works. I'm doing it on my cell phone....sorry :)

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

OK, now that I'm back home on my PC, let's try this URL again!

Web Anatomy: Self Tests

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