Physiology

Our school requires a full year of anatomy and physiology and before you can take that, you have to take a class in cell biology that includes some very basic chemistry. I hope you are taking or have already taken the anatomy portion before beginning the physiology class. Our instructors at our school put together a study guide and put in some test questions that were similar to the questions asked on exams. While you can memorize anatomy fairly quickly, physiology requires critical thinking skills and being able to completely understand how each body system works. If your instructor doesn't mention a particular study guide, most textbooks and lab manuals have practice and test sections. Use them. If you just try to read your textbook "dry" you won't absorb the info that is really important. By taking notes during lectures and practicing that information with study questions, you should be fine and find physiology really fascinating. If you have absolutely no science background, try to use this time to get up to speed.

There shouldn't be a difference. A&P is just anatomy and physiology combined into one course. Having the separated shouldn't make them more difficult, it may actually be easier since you will be able to simply focus on how the body works instead of learning the anatomy of the body and how it works at once.

Our school only offered them separately as well. I'm finishing up Phys right now and it has not been that difficult. A lot of fun, actually. But since you are taking it over the summer, I recommend beginning to look at your book before the class even starts, to kind of get a leg up on the material.

I took them separate. I found physiology to be no problem - I actually thought it was quite a bit easier than anatomy. My finals is on Monday, and I could get a 0/100 on it and still have an A in the class.

I just went to class, paid attention to lecture, tried to keep up with the reading, and did all the assignments. It wasn't an issue for me. Try YouTube for animations of mechanisms. Good luck!

All good stuff, guys. Thank you so much. Let me know if anyone finds good online tutorials. YouTube is pretty helpful I've found...