Anatomy memorization

[gonefishing]

I need an easy way if at all possible of memorizing anatomy. I'm getting it down I just get frustrated because I get testing jitters. Anybody out there with a little advice? I am a hands on learner so the book thing isn't my really my drift. Thanks in advance!.

 

[CAO]

What part do you seem to be having trouble with?

 

[medicRob]

I need an easy way if at all possible of memorizing anatomy. I'm getting it down I just get frustrated because I get testing jitters. Anybody out there with a little advice? I am a hands on learner so the book thing isn't my really my drift. Thanks in advance!.

Flash cards. In Nursing school during anatomy & physiology I and II, I would go into the lab and make pictures of each one of the models at different angles. I would get 3 copies of the pics from the local photo center.

I would number the structures on the pic and then write them from my book on the back of the photo with the corresponding number. I would then study those photos and slowly label the other 2 sets one at a time trying not to look at the labeled set.

I also used my lab manual, my full color atlas, and my anatomy & physiology coloring book a lot.

I also used ADAM ONLINE (Subscription service).

Also, there is no substitute for quality time in the A & P Lab!

I am now a teaching assistant in nursing level Anatomy & Physiology I and II (Biol 2010 and 2020) and I tell students the same things I am telling you about how to study. Also, don't try to just memorize and repeat back like a parrot. Try to understand why a particular bone is shaped the way it is, articulates in a certain position, etc.

Tie in your physiology with it as well, such as Endochondral ossification, etc. Take a look at the periosteum and the epiphyseal plate and tie in what you learned in physiology with it.

Contact me via PM and I will send you my email address and a way to contact me outside of this site so I can send you some digital textbooks and resources that the admins here might not appreciate me sharing via their board.

 

[gonefishing]

Flash cards. In Nursing school during anatomy & physiology I and II, I would go into the lab and make pictures of each one of the models at different angles. I would get 3 copies of the pics from the local photo center.

I would number the structures on the pic and then write them from my book on the back of the photo with the corresponding number. I would then study those photos and slowly label the other 2 sets one at a time trying not to look at the labeled set.

I also used my lab manual, my full color atlas, and my anatomy & physiology coloring book a lot.

I also used ADAM ONLINE (Subscription service).

Also, there is no substitute for quality time in the A & P Lab!

I am now a teaching assistant in nursing level Anatomy & Physiology I and II (Biol 2010 and 2020) and I tell students the same things I am telling you about how to study. Also, don't try to just memorize and repeat back like a parrot. Try to understand why a particular bone is shaped the way it is, articulates in a certain position, etc.

Tie in your physiology with it as well, such as Endochondral ossification, etc. Take a look at the periosteum and the epiphyseal plate and tie in what you learned in physiology with it.

Contact me via PM and I will send you my email address and a way to contact me outside of this site so I can send you some digital textbooks and resources that the admins here might not appreciate me sharing via their board.

LOL sounds good! will do. My wife is a kaiser nurse and I don't feel like bothering her when she gets home on ways to study anatomy.lol

 

[JPINFV]

LOL sounds good! will do. My wife is a kaiser nurse and I don't feel like bothering her when she gets home on ways to study anatomy.lol

Remember to get some good surface anatomy studying in too!

 

[LucidResq]

Also, there is no substitute for quality time in the A & P Lab!

Nothing helped me quite like gettin' my hands dirty in the cadaver.

 

[Phlipper]

Try to understand why a particular bone is shaped the way it is, articulates in a certain position, etc.

That's what I have to do.

I'm in the Para A&P class now and it is a compressed class. It is a killer. And I have test anxiety to the extent I sometimes actually throw up, and at 47 that's pretty embarrassing.

The only way I can kick azz on A&P is to memorize the subject matter in relation to what it does. For me, regurgitation from reading or flash cards doesn't do it. The only way to make it stick is to put it in context and truly understand why ad how it does what it does.

 

[medicRob]

That's what I have to do.

I'm in the Para A&P class now and it is a compressed class. It is a killer. And I have test anxiety to the extent I sometimes actually throw up, and at 47 that's pretty embarrassing.

The only way I can kick azz on A&P is to memorize the subject matter in relation to what it does. For me, regurgitation from reading or flash cards doesn't do it. The only way to make it stick is to put it in context and truly understand why ad how it does what it does.

If your professors are anything like my A & P professor was they will disarticulate the bone from the skeleton, lay it on the table in a strange position and ask you to identify it.

 

[aewin90]

I've always had difficulty with mnemonics and such. In CNA class I used brutal memorization until I could draw a human body and then label at least 95% of what I was supposed to know. Drew it a few hundred times and then it was burned into my brain. h34r:

 

[Phlipper]

If your professors are anything like my A & P professor was they will disarticulate the bone from the skeleton, lay it on the table in a strange position and ask you to identify it.

Our A&P is all lecture with diagrams drawn from the teacher's memory on a white board. No visuals, mechanical aids, slides, etc. And the tests are all short answer and essay, so you really have to know the systems and the physiology.

Mine is being taught by a long-time CC Paramedic/MD who is an excellent teacher and who really bends over backwards to ensure you get the material. But the tests are a killer. I have to study until I can literally draw each system, label each part, explain what each does and how it does it (down to the cellular level), and list and explain any pathologies one might see as an EMT-P. The class is one condensed/short semester and it is like drinking from a fire hose. :wacko:

Can't wait for the core medic curriculum to start, though. I'm really digging this stuff. Wish I'd done it 20 years ago instead of Engineering and IT.

 

[JPINFV]

If your professors are anything like my A & P professor was they will disarticulate the bone from the skeleton, lay it on the table in a strange position and ask you to identify it.

...which is always fun with the small bones, like the incus.

 

[abckidsmom]

Our A&P is all lecture with diagrams drawn from the teacher's memory on a white board. No visuals, mechanical aids, slides, etc. And the tests are all short answer and essay, so you really have to know the systems and the physiology.

Mine is being taught by a long-time CC Paramedic/MD who is an excellent teacher and who really bends over backwards to ensure you get the material. But the tests are a killer. I have to study until I can literally draw each system, label each part, explain what each does and how it does it (down to the cellular level), and list and explain any pathologies one might see as an EMT-P. The class is one condensed/short semester and it is like drinking from a fire hose. :wacko:

Can't wait for the core medic curriculum to start, though. I'm really digging this stuff. Wish I'd done it 20 years ago instead of Engineering and IT.

Sounds like a fantastic class! Good luck with that!

 

[medicRob]

...which is always fun with the small bones, like the incus.

the incus on one side of the room, the maleus on the other and the stapesnon the back table

 

[MusicMedic]

If your professors are anything like my A & P professor was they will disarticulate the bone from the skeleton, lay it on the table in a strange position and ask you to identify it.

thats exactly what my professor does for our lab test, he lays the Bone upside or only shows one part of the bone, and we have to identify it, and we have to say if its left or right!
There was one section where he would put a bone in a box, and we had to feel the bone and tell him what bone it was and if it was left or right

luckly at our library we could rent a box of bones for a few hours, and i just went over it over and over.


the fun part is telling the Carpals apart from each other
while its seperated from the rest of the bones. just the single bone lying on the table


Pisiform, Trapezium, Navicular, Trapezoid, Lunate, Hamate.. Etc etc

i love anatomy

 

[Akulahawk]

If your professors are anything like my A & P professor was they will disarticulate the bone from the skeleton, lay it on the table in a strange position and ask you to identify it.

...which is always fun with the small bones, like the incus.

the incus on one side of the room, the maleus on the other and the stapes on the back table

While it was certainly instructive, I hated it when my A&P Professors did that... But I did learn. :glare:

 

[medicRob]

I hope every one enjoys the books I sent.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

...which is always fun with the small bones, like the incus.

Nah, those are too easy. The malleus looks like a club (mallet), the stapes looks like a stirrup, and the incus (anvil) looks like an anvil. Now putting out the bones of the wrist separately, that would be more challenging.

 

[gonefishing]

I hope every one enjoys the books I sent.

Hey Rob, didn't get anything yet? server block it? lol

 

[MusicMedic]

Nah, those are too easy. The malleus looks like a club (mallet), the stapes looks like a stirrup, and the incus (anvil) looks like an anvil. Now putting out the bones of the wrist separately, that would be more challenging.

and thats what my teacher did for one of our question for the lab test, he put one of the carpals out there its self and we had to identify it

 

[Veneficus]

Well, nobody said it yet, so I guess I will.

Memorization of anatomy is utter folly. There are rules to anatomy. (neatly described in book like clinically oriented anatomy if you actually read the text part and not just the colored boxes)

Once you learn all the rules. (an simple example is whenever there is a longus there must be a corresponding brevis)

Once yu can identify all the components of an area by functional rules, the names come very easy.