? for those of you who've already taken A&P1

tabacue · Apr 30, 2009

I just did the same thing...my class may have been a week or two longer, but still accelerated schedule and was online and lecture/lab combo. If you know what text you are going to need get it early and see what comes with it...my books came with a cd, an "atlas" of the human body, and another overview of A&P. There was also a companion website that had links to other helpful sites by chapter, quizzes, games, etc. All very helpful.

We had to identify all bones on our lab assignments with different views (primarily anterior and lateral), but we could use the book and the atlas was very helpful on that part. Our exams did require us to know specific bones, but not views.

Hope that helps some. I enjoyed the class - am taking A&P 2 this semester (starts next week). Good luck.

mochabean · Apr 30, 2009

I took A&P 1 during the fall. My instructor started with the skull and then the facial muscles. Next we did the thoracic bones and the muscles in that area. Then the arms and the arm muscles. For me, learning the bones were easy. It was just the muscles I had to really focus on. Just make sure you know which bones belong on the left or right side (ex: clavicle, humerous, tibia, scapula). Different markings on the bones will tell if the bone is attached to the left or right side.

bananimal · Apr 30, 2009

I took A&P back in 2005/2006, but I remember it very well. Yes, the bones (and also the circulatory anatomy) were the hardest part, but I made it through with all A's. Stop what you're doing right now, and go to Barnes and Noble and buy yourself an Anatomy Coloring Book. Seriously. It will save your life (: When you color the different bones in you will become more familiar with their shapes. The book I have has a general skeleton, front and back. And also close ups of the arm, the leg, the face, etc-- so you can learn all the smaller bones as well. In my A&P class we didn't need to know JUST the bones, we also had to know the names of all the little nooks and crannies of each bone-- and that book helped me so much.

On top of the Anatomy Coloring Book I had my Anatomy text book and lab book, also a SparkCharts on Anatomy (GET THAT TOO!! Has all the bones and pieces of bones), and 'the essential atlas of anatomy', and then A&P CliffNotes. Learning the bones I used ALL of those resources, as well as the websites provided by my anatomy text book. Using ALL the resources gives you different ways of looking at everything, and helps you memorize them different ways. Another thing that helped a lot was our lab time (which you may not have if you're in such a short class)-- we had all the bones available to us to look at and study. I paired up with a few different people and pretty much tutored them on the bones.. going over it with them, and having to tell them if they were right or wrong, made sure that I knew the bones.

Whoops sorry this was so long, hope I helped (: Feel free to ask me anything else.

ccjus123 · Apr 30, 2009

thanks guys I've also posted asking about flash cards and a&p coloring books -some say they made their own flash cards and others say that the a&p coloring books were time consuming. But since I haven't started the class if I used the coloring book now instead of when class starts it will help me. And once the class begins I can just focus on the text and other resources.

What has been your experience with using flash cards and a&p coloring books? Are there any specific ones that you can recommend?

-Thanks,

Cee Cee

JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 30, 2009

I didn't find the bones hard at all. Muscles were harder because there are so many more of them,and you have to not only remember where they are, but what they're attached to and what they do. I still remember the skeletal system down cold but I can't remember half the muscles, and if you ask me which muscles are involved in picking up a spoon or hopping on one foot, I couldnt' tell you. You need to know the skeletal system as a basis for the muscular system, but really, it is far from the hardest thing in A&P.

cursedandblessed · Apr 30, 2009

I loved the coloring book, it's especially good for visual learners like me. Somehow even at 40 coloring in the different parts made me focus (good for the ADD part of me too) on it.

bananimal · Apr 30, 2009

The A&P coloring book I have is The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit / Lawrence M. Elson. Yes, it is very time consuming coloring all the sections, but it's not wasted time. I usually did it at night while watching TV, and never really found that it WASTED all that time, it helped me a lot.

I didn't use flashcards much in A&P. Only for the roots, prefixes, and suffixes of different words.. We had quizzes every week on them.