Taking A&P in Spring 2013....HELP?

I would get a copy of the book your school uses for the course and start going through each system. Make sure you learn respiratory, cardiac (especially flow of blood and where blood is oxygenated and where it's not), integumentary (learn the basic functions of each part of the system and be able to identify the different parts in a microscopic image, muscular (learn all of the different muscles and what they move and how the move it), nervous system (learn about action potentials!!! They can be confusing at first, but maybe look up some youtube videos), skeletal (learn all the different major and minor bones of the body. Know what microscopic bone looks like), digestive(which organs perform which necessary functions in digestion), reproductive (know what the cells look like under a microscope and be able to identify the basic parts of the repro system.)

A&P is NOT difficult. In fact it's quite interesting. If you can learn the very BASIC elements that I listed here you should be more than fine for the course. Make sure you know what all the different tissue types are, where they are located in the body, and what they look like under a microscope. The parts that I noticed people struggled with the most and which I would review the most prior to the course:

1) action potentials (nervous system)

2) identification of tissue types under a microscope

3) knowing the different types of epithelial cells

4) bones of the skull (know them inside and out, and what all the different holes and fossas are)

5) flow through the heart and parts of the heart

Good luck! This is not the best list in fact I'll probably amend it tomorrow because I'm tired right now and there's no much more to say about the best things to know to be prepared for the course. :)

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll check to see if my schools has added the list of required books and, if they have, I will order them ASAP and get a head start on A&P before I actually start the class.

I would contact your instructor and ask! In my school, the instructors are very forthcoming and willing to help with things like that. They may even be willing to share the syllabus with you. For me, the toughest parts of A&P I were memorizing the muscles and bones. I always tell people in my school to get the bone and muscle lists from our lab manual and get started memorizing.

Try to get a syllabus from the same professor so you can start studying whatever they will want you to know for the semester.

Thanks! I'll contact my professor and see if they can give me a copy of our class syllabus in advance so I can start going over things on my own.

Hello there!

I'm actually on my first semester of A&P! Let me tell you that you are doing yourself a favor by being prepared early! I wish I would have done the same!

Anyways...like the posters above me, I definitely recommend you getting the textbook for your class ahead of time and start reading it! I find that the tests in A&P are more based off the textbook than actual lecture.

For the lab portion...definitely start studying the tissue (histology) and bones....ah bones! Muscle you can't really get into just yet without having a foundation of the other two!

I hope it helps and good luck next semester!!!! I'll be going for second semester of A&P and I hear that's just...well...LOL!

Anyways, best of luck!!!

Drill yourself on tissue types, bones, joints, muscles and you will have a great start. PP's advice is great ... definitely helpful to do a detailed review of action potentials as well.

Thanks everyone. I've contacted my professors to see if they could provide me with the syllabus in advance but they have yet to reply. It is a bit early I would assume but hopefully they send it to me as soon as they have it available.

Does anyone know if CliffNotes is any good? I just ordered the A&P book from them.