How to get an A in medical terminology course? (Merced College)

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Hello, I was wondering if any of you have taken a medical terminology course and managed to get an A. My sister took it a few semesters ago and got a B. She said it was hard. I'm no straight-A student, but is it possible for me to get an A? Even if I don't, what tips and advice do you have for me? I will need all the help I can get.

IF you took it at Merced College, then my instructor is Provencio. I don't plan on purchasing the textbook. I will probably check it out at the library when I need to study and do homework. Based on the syllabus, homework and the exams are worth a lot of points. They are worth 20-50% of the grade.

Thank you!

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Specializes in Med/surg tele, home health, travel.

Anything is possible. It just depends on how bad you want it. If you want that A then you will do whatever it takes. Study hard and good luck.

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Med term is just pure memorization... I would look that teacher up on a rating website. If she's hard or has bad ratings, I would choose another teacher, to make the class easier.

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I will definitely try. The first exam is coming up in a few weeks.

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Yes I got an A in medical term, although not from your school. What helped me was breaking down the words and going from there; I think that's really the very basis of medical terminology though. :nurse:

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I had an A in my med terminology class. Granted it was an online class, and open book. I used flashcards from Barnes and Noble, although I can't recall the company who makes them.

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Making flashcards can be really helpful. I separated them by prefixes, suffixes, and word roots/combining forms. I also used different colors for each type - prefixes - blue, suffixes - pink, etc. Don't put a single prefix or suffix on one flashcard. You will have way too many flashcards. Use each line on a flashcard for a new term.

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I got an A....and I barely studied as I had my prioritized A&P course at the time. I literally would open the book 1-2 days before the test. It was 50% for midterm and 50% for final=100% of overall grade.

Not I'm saying it was an easy A, but it wasnt tremendously hard either. Granted some definition's in A&P 1 overlapped with med term.

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Specializes in ICU, Military.

I took medical terminology as an undergrad before I even considered nursing school. It was one of the easiest A's i've ever received (I took a state university, not an online school, this was back in 1996). I was majoring in Biology at the time and had taken quite a few Bio courses so the latin roots of words were already in my vocabulary so this made it extremely easy to decipher terms.

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Ours was combined with our A&P course. We watched Dean Vaughn videos on Friday, did the workbook and then took the test on Mondays. It was super easy. I think Dean Vaughn may be on youtube...the videos are ridiculous...they will have little cartoons with sayings like, "See the children say "Oh Ma! two more" Because Oma means tumor....haha...get it "Oh ma" "two more"??? It's so stupid but you remember it lol

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I got an A in mine, and I thought it was interesting. But as someone else commented, it's a lot of memorization, and you learn word PARTS as well as whole words. But it's important. Not every nursing program requires it, and neither did mine, but I'm glad I took it, because if you do well in it, you'll be much better able to recognize medical terms when you're out working. Get interested in it and it'll work out fine.

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I received an A in Med terminology. If you've never used med term in your life it can very well feel like you're learning an entire new language. It's a lot of memorization and depending on the class you will have to apply what you've learned to actual charting/real life documentation. My only tip is to buy some med term flashcards on amazon and study them daily. Eventually, you'll be able look at those terms and identify them right away without having to jog your memory. I wish you all the best with your class!

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