Physiology is TOUGH. Help!

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I am in week 4 of physiology and it is killing me. I thought anatomy was tough, but now I see that it was a cakewalk. My professor, while amazing, does not make it easy either. His goal is to prepare his students for nursing school and he does that by giving the toughest tests that far surpass anything I've ever taken. He is preparing us to think critically and conceptually. I have tried his practice tests and every question is designed to make me think. Memorization does not cut it, I have to truly grasp the concept.

I am now starting to doubt myself. :( I feel extremely stressed and overwhelmed. I have put in many hours a day studying and I pray to God it pays off. Has anyone else struggled to find their way through physio?

Also, if you have suggestions for websites or other resources, that would be great.

I am an a determined A student, however I am afraid. Thank you for the support!

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Specializes in CVICU.

My physio teacher gave us about 100 vocab terms to memorize for each exam in which she would choose only 8-10 to write the correct definition out (no matching). This helped me a lot to understand the concepts because how are you going to understand if you don't know what half the words mean? I also drew things out like glycolysis, krebs, has exchange. Physio was hard but it was my favorite class. You'll find what works for you but you're right you can't just memorize and regurgitate info for an exam like you could for anatomy

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Specializes in CVICU.

Ps... Look at videos on YouTube!!!!!!!

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Hey goodnessflows,

I must agree that while physio was a somewhat challenging course I don't think it is extremely difficult. Do you own a good voice recorder? Please get one as it will help you a lot when reviewing your notes. I listened to the recording after class.I think it's great that your professor is trying to prepare his students for nursing school. I had a physio professor who made her test answers tricky by switching subtly how it is worded. It was the slight difference in wording that made the difference if you could catch it. I got tripped up on the exams because of that and it just shows you details are inportant. It's also good that youre studying, but do you study daily? This course requires a lot of reading and studying as you probably know. I'm not sure if others did this but in hs the night before or 2 days before the exam day I would quiz myself on what was being tested asking questions and saying answers and if I got a detail wrong I would repeat it again.. Sounds strange but I did in hs courses and it did serve me well. You must go over the material many times sometimes to understand something, that's how I felt.

Getbodysmart.com was a site I used during anatomy I didn't know about it till then. If anything I hope you do well in this course. Good luck!:bookworm::D

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I am going to get a recorder for sure and start using it pronto. Also, I am meeting with a tutor tomorrow. I study daily. :) I need to stop the negative self talk.

Thank you, guys!

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I am taking physio this semester, first quiz is tonight. As has been said by others, I have already noticed that the way I study and learn the material for this class is definitely different than my anatomy class this past summer. I have been recording my lectures and I review the recordings several times making additional notes of things that I might have missed during class. Tonight will be my evaluation of how well my study methods are working.

An analogy that came to me the other week while thinking of the difference between the two classes can be related to a car. Anatomy is similar to knowing the different parts of a car as a whole and the individual parts what makes up the engine, the parts of the suspension etc. Pysio is understanding how the car actually works, what it takes to make the engine run, what is needed, what takes place. How does the electrical system work, how can it effect the way the engine runs. It is two different ways of thinking and learning of each aspect can involve different methods. Not sure if it will be helpful to anyone, but I know for me it has helped in focusing more in what I need to be doing for this class.

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I am going to get a recorder for sure and start using it pronto. Also, I am meeting with a tutor tomorrow. I study daily. :) I need to stop the negative self talk.

Thank you, guys!

you can do this! give it your all and get it done right the first time.

I used a Sony recorder by the way. just transfer it into your computer :yes:

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