Studying Anatomy and Physiology

ShelbyaStar · Mar 22, 2015

A dry erase board or something similar will be your best friend. Draw charts and diagrams and flow charts over and over until you get it for general processes like blood flow through the heart, kidneys and homeostasis, etc. Youtube channels like Khan academy are extremely helpful for getting the gist.

Similarly I used to put the anatomy diagrams in a pocket protector and used a dry erase marker to label them over and over.

waiting4ivpush · Mar 22, 2015

First and foremost, identify what type of learner you are. That will go a long way in helping you study and retain information. I'm a tactile learner, so taking prodigious notes and making study guides helps me more than listening to a lecturer recite information on slides.
Another key thing about A&P is too often people get caught up in the anatomy. Once you understand the why and how of what something does, it makes it a lot easier to understand what it is, why it is located where it is, and what problems can arise from damage/illness. HouTx described this in better detail than I, but you get the drift.
As someone else suggested, no matter what type of learner you are, the Khan Academy videos rock. Good luck!

i took a self assessment quiz and found out i'm a tactile learner as well. aside from study guides, what else would you recommend? and +1 on khan academy videos, whoever is behind them probably saved millions of student's grades.

HarleyGrandma, RN, EMT-B · Mar 26, 2015

Khan Academy was started by Sal Kahn, he does a lot of the science videos himself. His story is really cool, he started all of that wonderful resource for the love of learning. The world needs more folks like him! :yes:

euisme, BSN · Mar 26, 2015

You've received lots of great tips! At my school, they have Anatomy and Physiology separate, and I just passed Anatomy with an A for the Winter quarter. I started this class in the Fall, but dropped it days before the first Exam because I knew I wasn't prepared. This quarter I prepared and I was one of the top in my class. Here's what I did, but it may vary depending on how A&P is run, and how the class is structured:

First of all, there is a lecture and lab portion, and 4 exams -- the fourth being the final which was mostly new material, with some cumulative review. The exams were divided into 2 parts: Lecture (40 points) & Lab (30 points). The final was Lecture 75, Lab 50.

#1 Ace the Lab. I felt like this was the easiest spot to master because it is just memorization.

Step 1 - Write down all the terms on a sheet of paper.

Step 2 - Take a photo with your phone of the models and the cat where applicable.

Step 3 - Start writing down the terms. Memorize the terms and rewrite them (without looking) until you spell them right.

Step 4 - Look at the photo, write down the term. Repeat in sections.

Step 5 - Quiz yourself on the photo, mark what you spelled wrong or mislabeled, create a new set of photos from the ones you missed (I would just screenshot my screen)

Step 6 - Repeat Step 5 till you get no more wrong.

For my final, my son was showing me Quizlet for his class, and I realized I could pretty much setup that same system online and it worked beautifully. I could finally show my lab partners my method and they LOVED it! Infact, they did better than ME on the final :) Totally worth the $15/year to load my own photos. Remember, not everyone online is accurate, or what your teacher is teaching (spelling for one).

#2 Record the Lecture. Sit and listen to the lecture, take some notes but really watch the lecture like the first time you watch a movie. Observe the information, look at the slides, take some notes if it is worth noting... I bring my laptop to class, and I have a program that records audio and records the time in the recording I type notes... so what I did (early on i realized I wasn't listening when I was typing) was leave a note at which slide the professor was at when she changed it on screen. Then, at home, I would relisten again, but this time I would take notes as she's discussing the slide. The app I use is AudioNote on the Mac. Notability is good, too. Both are available on OS X and iOS)

#3 Relisten. Repetition makes items familiar. You'll retain more information every time you listen, just like watching a movie and catching more details because you are familiar with some of the stimulus already.

#4 Review your list from #1 Step 5 EVERYDAY! You don't have to do the ENTIRE list the first day, or even week, but by the days before the exam/mid-term/final... you should be able to go through your entire list in one sitting.

If you'd like to see an example of my Quizlet for my last lab practical, shoot me a message and I'll send the link. Again, I recommend you do your own, and I recommend you WRITE IT DOWN... you want to be connected to the information... someone else's photos, or just naming off after you look at the answer is not retention.

Nurseworks, ASN, RN · Apr 5, 2015

i took a self assessment quiz and found out i'm a tactile learner as well. aside from study guides, what else would you recommend? and +1 on khan academy videos, whoever is behind them probably saved millions of student's grades.

I've found watching videos that show physiology "in action" kind of work, which is why I recommended Khan Academy. Watching the renal videos helped me more than the textbook and 3 hour lectures did combined.