If you could study before A & P I, what would you have done to get ahead before it??

A pre-med Biology class suggested before A&PI helped a lot. I just audited the course because I was going to get LPN if could have gotten in. But I studied hard and sailed through A&P I with a 100 average (actually about 95 w/o xtra credit). It was almost all of the first test, and that was enough to gage a solid A in planning for the rest of the semester (not easy though, especially the practicals).

I would have liked to have a better hold on all the bones, bone features and muscles. That was a lot of memorization in such a short period of time for me. Also reviewing the immune system would have made that chapter a lot smoother for me. Our prof. crammed it in at the very end. Before I took A&P II I went ahead and did the chapter reviews from the book and read through the lab book and that prepared me tremendously. Perhaps to introduce you to the anatomy side of things you could watch the Dr. Diamond anatomy lectures online. I adore her!

I would have gone through and memorized all the general stuff. For example, the major organs and where they are located, the major bones, major skull bones, orientation, scientific names of body parts, tissues but only to get used to looking at them. I would have found this to help me. I wouldn't try and get into the details of it all but just the general stuff. That way you can focus on all the details in class and get and A. Hope this helps.:)

Any books to recommend?

definately all the bones, muscles and muscle attatchments. They go through that part SOO quickly its hard to retain anything after the class is over.

i used fundamentals of A&P by frederic h. martini for a&p 1 and 2 and really liked it. Its updated with great pics and lots of extras. It came with an interactive CD, and an extra 8x11 book of detailed pics from real specimens for all the muscles, bones etc. I would def. recommend this book!

The bones are easy to learn.

I agree with a lot of the people here, I would start getting very familiar with the bones and the muscles. It is a lot of memorizing. For our lab exams we were handed a sheet of paper with lines from 1 to 100 then we went around the room and had to identify everything he labeled including areas of bone where the muscle attaches and other important sites on the bones. Also, don't forget the tissue types. I had a hard time memorizing so much stuff especially after we had the hurricane and we had both the lecture and lab exams in the same week because the school was closed for a week. I count myself lucky I ended up with a B in A&P I. I hope to do better in A&P II and hopefully without a natural disaster to interfere with the semester. Good luck, and study hard.

I took several Biology classes before A&P1. The first part of A&P1 was all mitosis, meiosis, cells, and anatomical direction. All of those but anatomical direction terms were review for me because of those other Biology classes. It helped a lot because I was able to focus more on the new stuff and get ahead compared to my other classmates, many of whom struggled with understanding mitosis and meiosis.

Grab a Netter's Anatomy and start learning. Netter's will have way more than you need to know but has everything. Once you get the structures (bones, muscles, origins/insertions, organs, etc.) down everything else makes sense and is easy to digest. I recommend learning the microstructures of the kidney as well.

Good luck.

Are the coloring books are worth the time and effort?

Those coloring books don't cover much. I wouldn't waste my time.

I never used any of the coloring diagrams either. A good book to read is "Get Ready for A&P"... a lot of schools include it in the bundle of books. Good luck!