Taking Anatomy and Physiology 1 in the summer?

[Skylarslaughter]

I've heard quite a bit that this course is very demanding and you have to do tons of work [obviously ]

I'm starting my college courses this summer hopefully and really want to take A&PI so that in the fall I can do A&PII and Microbiology.

I'm also going to take one of the other 'easier' prerequisites on my list...either Computer Applications, Nutrition, or Psychology.

Now I know that summer semester is much shorter, and in a normal semester A&P would be 3 credits and then for Lab 1 credit, and which ever other prereq I choose to take would be 3 credits [Ex. Nutrition] so thats 7 credits.

How many hours a week would I be attending class and about how many hours a week should I be studying [at minimum] in a summer semester for 7 credits?

[stefanyjoy]

Since it's an 8 week session, I would suggest taking something like Computer Applications that wouldn't require papers, intense studying, difficult homework, etc. The general rule is allow 2 hours of study time per credit, so if it is a 4 credit course = 8 hours study time per week. For a shortened 8 week semester however you want to double that, since it is the same amount of material in half the time.

Not sure how many in-class hours you'll have, but for my a&p II summer course I will be in class/lab 8 hours per week (if we use all the time alotted for lab). So for summer A&P, I would estimate you allow 24 hours a week for that course alone.

[Saysfaa]

I looked up your school. I was suprised that they don't have the summer classes out yet and that I couldn't find a way to look at last year's summer classes. I did find a calendar and confirmed that your Spring term is 16 weeks. Your Summer term 8 weeks. But the class schedule for spring term shows A&P I with 2 1/2 hours of lecture per week (I expected 3). I didn't know why, then I looked at the course description and found where they say "45 class hours." Oh, now I know why.

So, with the 8 week summer term, you will be in class 10 hours for the 6 non-lab credits and 3 hrs and 20 min for the one lab credit.

The rule of thumb is 2 hours study time per hour in the class room but it is only a rule of thumb for all people/all classes. I think it is a good one, but it only gives a place to start in figuring how much time any particular person needs. There is really no way for me to tell you how much study time you will need.

There are things to ask yourself to help determine how much you might need. Do you know your strengths and weaknesses as far as school is concerned? Do you know if you learn best through hearing, seeing or doing? Do you know how to use mostly your strongest route but mix in some of each of the other two? Do you know what you need to study most effectively (back ground noise or dead quiet? time of day?) Do you know how to figure out how much time/energy to spend on which things? How to pace yourself? How to turn on a study mode? Do you take good notes (even in these days of powerpoints, :))?

Another thing that will be a big factor in how much study time you need for A&P is how much chemistry and biology background you have. Your school recommends but does not require chemistry and/or biology before A&P but if you don't have much you'll need a lot more study time. Not only for figuring out the concepts but also for training yourself how to study hard sciences effectively. It can be quite different than effectively studying soft sciences (soc/psy) or English or math classes.

[BabyCatchr, ADN, ASN, RN]

I took A&P I and II in 8 week sessions along with an easier class. It was a good amount of work and lots of memorization and going to lab extra to review the models. I have children and a home to care for on my own and did it and got all A's but it was a lot of work. So it definitely can be done, but you'll need to make sure you have time to study for a few hours every day. Also, you should take Chemistry first so you'll understand it much better.