Anatomy before dental school/Memory

[jpn123]

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How many people take anatomy before they enter dental school? If you did not take do you wish you did? I have been out of school for three years and I am applying this year. How can I make myself more competative. I am a slow reader and my memory is not great. How can I improve my memory for dental school. Thanks

 

[acrunner]

dental school may prove to be challenging for those folks who are slow readers with a bad memory. another post suggested eating blueberries. you should be fine if you buy buckets of blueberries and study hard.

 

[tinker bell]

You will have to learn so many words in one anatomy lab session. And they go pretty fast. Usually, the prof. just hold up the specimen and say the name once (mostly Latin), and you have to not only remember the word, but how it looks on the real sample. And be able to write down exactly the same on the test.

I suggest you take anatomy and improve your reading speed before you start. Otherwise, you will end up on the other end of the curve in most classes.

And you won't believe how much you have to read in school. It's never ending.

 

[aphistis]

With my limited experience so far, undergrad is proving to be a real help in relevant areas. Gross anatomy is the first course they threw us into, and my undergrad anatomy was probably the weakest course in my entire degree. Needless to say, I'm struggling to lift myself into B territory. In molecular cell bio and SABS (systems approach to biomedical sciences), however, I feel like I'm starting out way ahead of the game thanks to my undergrad experience.

A lot of people will tell you to major in something you enjoy during undergrad, and I respect tremendously those people and their advice...but I have to advise getting as much biology under your belt as possible during undergrad. It'll be a big help in dental school...and if you don't enjoy biology in undergrad, what on earth makes you think you'll enjoy it in dental?

 

[jpn123]

I was a biochemistry major in college. I did take all the prerecs and I took Eukaryotic Biology and Cell biology but I never had anatomy or histology. I am not concerned with the rigor of the classes but I what kind of memory/study techniques do you use to study for the class.

 

[ItsGavinC]

jpn,

I use repitition, repitition, repitition. With some of the dental school subject material the only way to remember it is by repeating it/reviewing it over and over again.

With some of the material this invovles studying it 15 or more times.

And you are correct, the classes aren't usually rigorous, but they simply include HUGE amounts of material. The work itself (in didactic classes) is typically mind-numbing in and of itself, but the load is outrageous.

 

[aphistis]

MNEMONICS.

The volume is, as you and everyone else mentioned, huge. The best way I've discovered to aid recall is packing a bunch of recall cues into a small amount of information.

Examples:
Secretions of the three salivary glands?
Parotid: serous
Submandibular: serous/mucous both
Sublingual: mucous
(S)evere (B)owel (M)ovement

Five braches of the facial nerve? (temporal/zygomatic/buccal/mandibular/cervical)
(T)he (Z)ebra (B)it (M)y (C)ock

Etc. etc.

Sincere apologies to anyone offended, but my experience is that, for better or worse, vulgar mnemonics tend to stick better. Your mileage may vary.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Nicely done Bill. Vulgar ones always stick better.

 

[aphistis]

And that's just the barest scratch of what we've been given/come up with. Our anatomy TAs are brilliant for that sort of thing 😀

Also, while on the subject, www.medicalmnemonics.com is a treasure trove of memory aids. I use it regularly, and highly recommend it to all y'all.

 

[AT03]

jpn,

I agree with Gavin. Repitition is the key. I have an average memory but through systematic repetition I managed to earn a B+ in my Human Anatomy. I made my flash cards using Winflash (a softwear for making flashcards ) and reviewed my cards on daily basis.

Gavin, If you are using repitition alot . Go to www.openwindow.com and download a demo of the WinFlash Educator. And let me know what you think of it.