Fuming Mad

[AmyLiz]

OMG. I just got home from taking my A&P I lab exam. I hope to heaven that I passed. I really don't know how I did, but I know that I didn't do nearly as great as I have done on the lecture exams (I got 2 A's and a B with only one more lecture exam to go).

It was multiple choice, sort of. I thought...GREAT! Multiple Choice! Awesome! I can do that! The exam covered IDing tissue cell types (name, location, function) via microscope, IDing bones and their different parts, and articulations. Ok. I know the bones pretty well. I have a great booklet that came with my A&P text that has fantastic labeled pictures of the bones. I know the tissue cell types and the articulations. BUT THIS TEST WAS AWFUL! I swear they asked me everything that I didn't know.

Multiple choice...I'm thinking a, b, c, d, e...something like that, since that was what our lecture exams consisted of. But Noooooo! They just listed ALL OF THE BONES/BONE PARTS and we had to pick from the list. I am talking a list of 30-50 bones at a time. Give me a break! And they would just have a bone sitting there & the question would be...what is the name of what is marked (it would have a piece of blue tape on part of the bone or something along those lines). Ok. I know the bones. Put a skeleton in front of me and I could label them and probably get 95% of all the bones and their parts correct. Put a bone by itself & I am lost. Ok, not completely lost, I can pretty well figure out a femur from a humerus, but...gimme a break! When are any of us just going to see a femur sitting around by itself. "Oh...sorry miss so-and-so...is this your femurI just found lying in the hallway?" :angryfire

Ok...I'm just venting. I really shouldn't cry over it...it's over. Nothing I can do about it now. Just hope I passed it & move on.

[iliel]

When we had any type of lab test in A&P I it was just a bone, skull, muscle, etc... just sitting there, we didn't even have a list to pick from. I would pick the thing up and stare at it for 30 seconds (cause that's how much time we were allowed for each question) and go blank! Drove me crazy. I did ok, but I could have done better.

I bet you did better than you think! Sometimes you just need to cry over a test. I hope you feel better.

[AmyLiz]

I hope I did better than I think.

I know that this is the type of test most people get in lab...but it still irritates me. Like I said...give me a skeleton & I can rattle off most of the bones & parts...but this was nuts.

The other thing was...we weren't allowed to move or pick up anything. It had to be left on the table. That was highly irritating! Only thing we could do was with the tissue slides, we could move the eyepieces of the microscope or adjust the focus. But that was it.

[rnnurse2be]

Ours was a bone sitting on a table, you COULD NOT TOUCH it, and a blank line on your sheet. Where ever the arrow pointed on the bone is what you were to answer. For the cadaver, we had pins, again, no touching.... Same with the slides. Or questions like where does a drop of blood go from the ...ventricle...ect...

We never ever had multile choice, only fill in the blank. The test would take 2.5 hours each practicle. I can not tell you how many many many hours I had to study to pass, and pass well.

We never once had an entire skeleton in front of us. She had the lab open from 7am to 9pm, and weekends. It was up to us to come up, learn each part... and get things memorized.

Wait till you see the skull and all the bones of the nose! Again, each piece was seperate, no touching....

Talk about HARD, it was BY FAR the toughest class I have EVER had in my life. The practicles were EASY compaired to the lecture exams!

EXTREMELY DIFFICULT tests!

[rnnurse2be]

Amyliz: Another thing, learn from this one, most likely this is how all your practicals will be. Try to get more time in on individual bones. The skeleton wont help out much.

We got several of us together and quizzed, quizzed, quizzed over each part. Tossed M&M's to those who answered correctly. Then who ever was the "teacher" got switched to help with the questions and answers. If you have to teach it, you have to know it type of theory. Another thing we did was try to "Think" like our teacher. That helped too!

[Nurse2bSandy]

Yea, we had the bone, by itself, with a pin in a spot... or the cat with a pin in a muscle or body part. I spent lots of time individually in the lab with the bones, and then my cat. I even videotaped my cat parts so that I could go over them before the practical... I made A's, but I usually knew my stuff. Now, some of my memorization from the book I wasn't as strong on. Good luck... I'm glad that part's over for me!

[JennyRN2B]

oh, I can relate, rnnurse2be, We had the no touching thing in A&P II also. It was not like that for me in A&P I so it kind of freaked me out. I managed with an A, but I studied my tail off. I lived, ate and breathed A&P II for those 4 weeks. whew, I am glad it is over.

I also tried to keep in mind that as far as our school was concerned, the major Sciences are considered the "weed out" classes. I kept this in mind and was determined they were not going to "weed" me out! I think it made me push myself harder.

Best wishes to you! You can do it!!

Jenny

[AmyLiz]

Yeah, we weren't allowed to touch the bones either. I knew most of this going into the exam...not to touch anything, etc. And I knew that they wouldn't have a skeleton ... just bones laying here & there. (I still don't get the reasoning behind that)

I worked my patootie off memorizing all those things & it just stinks that the exam went that poorly. The instructor called it multiple choice, and I guess he was kind of right, but I usually think of multiple choice as being: a, b, c, d, etc...not a big ol' list of bones. By the time I read through the list, I forgot what the question was!

I will definately be better prepared for the lab exams I will have in subsequent classes. I just hope he grades on the curve! If I don't get a C on the lab, I'll have to take the class over again...which really STINKS because I've got an A in lecture.

[rnnurse2be]

Jenny:

Oh yes... I smelled of new perfume for that entire year of A&P 1 and 2! It was called "eue de formadehide" :roll

We ate in there... drake many cups of coffee, lattes, pop...

Had bowls of candy at halloween and right before practicals...

I litterly would go straight there in the morning, afternoon, and right after supper. I agree.. I knew they were trying to "weed" us out, and I was NOT going to be one of them. I knew I had to study my butt off to get it, and I did! I felt PROUD when I got it all down too!

I remember going home the very first week, laying my head on my Dh's sholder, and to the point of tears saying "Im just NOT smart enough, do you realize all they want us to memorize in just 2 weeks?" "I cant do it". He replied "They are trying to get rid of you..." I said "OK... you challenged me, I will do it" and I did.

You can to...

[geekgolightly, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by rnnurse2be

Ours was a bone sitting on a table, you COULD NOT TOUCH it, and a blank line on your sheet. Where ever the arrow pointed on the bone is what you were to answer. For the cadaver, we had pins, again, no touching.... Same with the slides. Or questions like where does a drop of blood go from the ...ventricle...ect...

We never ever had multile choice, only fill in the blank. The test would take 2.5 hours each practicle. I can not tell you how many many many hours I had to study to pass, and pass well.

thats what my tests were like as well. i remember the horror of looking at some bone trying like hell to see in my mind where it could possibly go on the body.

what was even worse was when they would use slides of different tissues other than the ones we were used to viewing in labs. like if youre used to looking at this:

and you can say OH YEAH that pseudostratified columnar epithelium, but she gives another slide weve never seen of another TISSUE with the same type of cell. drove me BONKERS trying to figure those out. i was never good at that.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Yes formaldehyde, the smells of royalty

Ever get a bag of something that wasn't packed right and turned bad in formaldehyde? It reeked. And don't ever burn incense to try and cover it up, that smell was so bad we ran screaming, literaly, out of the lab and weren't able to return to that room for a week.

[Nightcrawler, BSN, RN]

When I was in anatomy, we were allowed to pick up the bones, but we would have to name the bone, whether it came from the right or the left side of the body, as well as various geographical bumps on the bone. What tended to throw me about that test was that I had worked on one set of bones for the entire section, and when it came time for the test some of the bones were drastically smaller or larger. I almost confused a fibula with a ulna because of this! Other than size, those two bones can be really simular! I didn't mind the bone test, because we were able to deal with actual bones, the test that I hates was the one on muscles. Origins, insertions and actions, OH MY! (to be sung to the tune of "lions and tigers and bears" from the wizard of OZ,) lol and good luck. I am sure that you did fine