To take the final or not? Have you done your bone practical yet?

ItsThatJenGirl, CNA · Nov 21, 2016

So all your work throughout the semester can be thrown out in favor of one test? Yikes.

I did complete my bone practical. I got a C - my worst grade in the entire class. I couldn't find a good way to study.

My final is December 7th and it's comprehensive, but it's lecture only. My final lab exam isn't comprehensive and it's next week over the nervous system/eyes/ears.

WCSU1987 · Nov 22, 2016

Only have 2 lab exams and 7 lecture exams.

Yeah I couldn't find a good way to study. Tried taking several quizzes online and fiddled with animated skeleton systems online. Tried pictures. Day be free the exam found one way that worked I thought I had to pay to put images on Quizlet. However, you can add images to quizzes limited selection but worked. So I built a study set of the 175 or 180 terms just kept studying and studying.

6 questions that I did get wrong on the exam didn't understand the question. Then the spine I blanked I focused more on the skull and apendicular skekton system. Again messed up with the axillary skekton with the bones of the sternum outside of the manbrium, body, or xyphoid.

If I can get a 90 or higher on this last lecture exam can bring my grade to a 78 overall and skip the final.

Have a chemistry final the same day.

jess.mont, ADN, RN · Nov 26, 2016

Personally, I think it would be very stressful to have one grade be the entire course grade. My class is five hours once a week - 2 hours of lab followed 3 hours lecture. We have four lab practicals (general anatomical landmarks, skeletal, muscle, and respiratory/urinary) and four lecture exams in my class, plus weekly quizzes in lab and lecture. The lowest lab and lecture quiz grades are dropped, and we've had two "bonus" quizzes that added points onto our practicals. I'm surprised that your skeletal practical was so close to the end of the semester, as I found the skeletal information invaluable to learning the muscles. For example, who cares that the deltoid tuberosity exists if you don't understand that it's the deltoid's insertion and that it builds up because of Wolff's law of bone remodeling? That's why I love anatomy AND physiology. :)

As far as studying for practicals, what has helped me is to divide the number of terms I have to study by the number of study days I have until the practical. I study five days a week for at least two hours, and I split that time between lecture and lab studies. For example, for skeletal, I had 192 terms to learn and about a month in which to do it. I broke the terms up into functional groups - skull, axial, etc. - of a varying number of terms. Some sets had more, some had fewer, but each usually had at least 15. I worked on each set over three days. The first day was generally spent memorizing the words and identifying them on a picture or a model. I would make up mnemonics, if necessary. I made Quizlet sets, too. When I would start on my new set, I would continue to review my old sets every single day. I'll be honest - this was tedious, but it worked.

Muscles were harder to study like this because we had to know the action for every single one and the origins and insertions for 13 key ones, but it's still basically what I did. I focused on the practical application of each muscle as well as the key ones, knowing that those would be tested on.

Memorizing can be hard, but applying what you've memorized is even more important, so figuring out what each of the muscles - or tuberosities or processes or whatever - does and WHY is the best way to really cement your knowledge. (Sorry - this turned into a book!)

Good luck with whichever option you choose!