Anyone else having trouble with Gross Anatomy?

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UT_mikie

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My 2nd week into medical school. Gross Anatomy is already the bane of my existence. I'm having such a hard time getting my mind around the information EFFECIENTLY. If I spend 4 hours on a lecture I can eventually get it. But thats too much time I think. I didn't take anatomy in undergrad so I have absoulely no familiarity with facts like "the superficial branch of the radial nerve emerges in the distal part of the forearm and crosses the roof of the anatomical snuff box" etc.

Any of you MS II, III, IV's who have been there done that have any advice for a struggling MS I?
 
Ahahahaha I'm in the same boat. Man, UT Houston sucks major a$$. I think most of our class feels the same way, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
I found that it was easier to remember stuff like this
"the superficial branch of the radial nerve emerges in the distal part of the forearm and crosses the roof of the anatomical snuff box" etc.
if I just learned where things were in Rohen's. Then you would know the information in that statement without having to memorize a sentence like that. At least that's what worked best for me.
 
I...LOVE...ROHEN'S. I just had my first anatomy test (don't know how I did yet, so take this with a grain of salt). I think the best thing I did was spend a day rotating between the anatomy lab and my books. I'd go look at what I had just read about and then go back, read more (and, literally, Moore - Clinically Oriented Anatomy, big Moore is DEFINITELY better than little Moore if you have the time) and then go back to the lab and look. Helped me understand better what I was reading and it gave me extra lab time before the practical.

Good luck.

Oh, and at least you are on top of your s---, studying as classes go on!
 
Hi Guys,
Here are a few things that helped me honor Gross Anatomy: First, I always studied with Netter's Atlas open. I found the plate that corresponded to my lecture notes and studied the atlas as I studied my notes. When it came to muscles, I reviewed each origin and insertion on a skeleton or bone so that I could see the action of the muscle in my mind's eye. I also studied cross sections for the three dimensional effects too.

Second, I always went to anatomy lab prepared. I made a list of structures from superficial to deep and checked them off as I found them. We devised a schedule so that we would always complete our dissections outside of lab time and teach the other folks just before lab started. It took about two extra hours a week for each person in the tank group.

Third, we shared every good dissection with the rest of the class. We kept a list of good dissections so that everyone could share them and learn from them. When you taught your fellow students something, it became more honed for you.

Fourth: I photocopied plates from Netter and colored over structures with colored pencils so that I could learn the structures as I was coloring. This was especially good for things like cranial nerves, plexi and vessels. I would take photocopies of plates to class with me and take notes on the plates.

Last: Every week, our tank group would have a session with one of our instructors. We would ask this person to be brutal with us and pimp us to the max. In the end, we all honored Gross because we helped each other. It was hard to adjust at first but in the end, everything worked out and studying/dissection/cleaning up became easier.

Anatomy takes some cooperative work and some solo work. Be very proactive about what you need. Dissection is best done in groups of two; one to dissect and one to point out things. Take turns and do not allow anyone to dominate this process. I was fortunate to have a great group of tank mates but others were intimidated by the whole process. Since one day, I knew that I would have to send my patients to one of my classmates, I made sure that everyone participated.

I hope this helps. My last bit of advice: Do not get behind. If you find that you are behind, catch up on the weekend and immediately go to where the rest of the class is studying now. Even if you miss a week, don't try to catch up at this point, do it on the weekend and in the evenings.

njbmd 🙂
 
There's a gross anatomy coloring book, too, but njbmd's suggestion is probably cheaper anyways!
 
Darth Asclepius said:
I found that it was easier to remember stuff like this if I just learned where things were in Rohen's. Then you would know the information in that statement without having to memorize a sentence like that. At least that's what worked best for me.

This is pretty good advice for the practical, but will not help you on the written exam, which is basically an exam of muscles, nerves and vessels and their relationships to each other (make "superficial branch of the radial nerve" a blank in your previous example to understand what I mean) at UT.

My advice is to study for the practical with Rohen and people from other tanks who prosected other labs (so you all are experts on a different lab). When you feel comfortable (about the week or so before the exam), start reading baby Moore or the syllabus (or whatever you are using as a supplement) to learn the relationships.

Best of luck, and just remember it is only a semester and a good mneumonic for the branches of the brachial plexus is radial nerve, ulnar nerve, axillary nerve, median nerve and musculocutaneous nerve (a little UT alum humor😉).
 
Best of luck, and just remember it is only a semester and a good mneumonic for the branches of the brachial plexus is radial nerve, ulnar nerve, axillary nerve, median nerve and musculocutaneous nerve (a little UT alum humor😉).[/QUOTE]

This pretty much means.......just learn it!
good mneumonic is just "marmu" musculocutaneous, axillary, radial, median, ulna"

Randy Travis Drinks Cold Beer is a good one for the organization of the plexus.....but you prob don't need one for that ...Roots, trunks, divisions, cords, branches.
have fun......our cadaver is fat...and we fell a little behind..but have a pretty good dissection of the arm, from the plexus to the wrist.

although I change my cloths when I come out of the lab.......my hair still smells....I have great tank-mates....(3 others)
 
Termwean said:

Randy Travis Drinks Cold Beer is a good one for the organization of the plexus.....but you prob don't need one for that ...Roots, trunks, divisions, cords, branches.


We did the brachial plexus the second week......bleh...my group's dissection was terrible.

Another mnemonic for the upper limb- The Radial Nerve is a BEAST-- Brachioradialis, Extensors, Abductor Pollicus Longus, Suppinator, Triceps.

Anyhow, anatomy is taught poorly at our school, so I spend the majority of lecture looking through Harvey's anatomy text. I'm not gung-ho about dissection either, although I have gotten over most of my fears. Thank goodness we only have it once a week for an hour and a half or so.
 
these videos are pretty good
http://www.anatomy.wisc.edu/courses/gross/index.html
Its awesome to use b4 going into the lab and also for studying for practicals if u cant get into the lab with Rohen.
Anatomy is one of THE complex med schl classes becos its simply a ton of stuff to remember. What might work for others might not work for u, are u a visual person? Anatomy is very much hands on, working as a team is also good, u tend to feed off each other. Even if ur group members arent putting forth the effort, dont be afraid to seek out others.
 
lotanna said:
these videos are pretty good
http://www.anatomy.wisc.edu/courses/gross/index.html
Its awesome to use b4 going into the lab and also for studying for practicals if u cant get into the lab with Rohen.
Anatomy is one of THE complex med schl classes becos its simply a ton of stuff to remember. What might work for others might not work for u, are u a visual person? Anatomy is very much hands on, working as a team is also good, u tend to feed off each other. Even if ur group members arent putting forth the effort, dont be afraid to seek out others.

what a great link! My school shows the video of how to do the dissection before lab each day, but these are wonderful.
 
Third, we shared every good dissection with the rest of the class. We kept a list of good dissections so that everyone could share them and learn from them. When you taught your fellow students something, it became more honed for you.



Great advice ... also the good/better dissections are usually the ones they use for the wet practical so make sure you go and look at other tables bodies. For the first exam I went in the weekend before and looked through other groups dissections so I could be more familiar with different bodies.

That said, I HATED anatomy! I am not a 3D thinker so I always found it really hard and incredibly boring to study. The way I got through it was repetition, repetition, repetition. I usually had to study a lecture two or three times before I could remember anything from it.

Some things just wouldn't stick in my brain ... when this happened I found if I did something like 10 push-ups or running around my apartment after I studied that particular fact I would somehow remember it better.
 
Also, if you find yourself studying too much (clue: you fall asleep in your chair, you go into lala land when you open a book, you can't sleep at night or even pee without feeling guilty like you should be studying)...take a break. Putting the time in doesn't mean squat if it's not effective time.

I did the coloring, the photocopying Netter's so I could label and relabel, but what helped me most were memorizing Netter's cross-sections and spending extra time in lab ...going in the day before the actual lab and doing the dissection with a fellow, going in after lab and reviewing the dissection- and U of W's anatomy videos.


Repetition IS the key.
 
SocialistMD said:
This is pretty good advice for the practical, but will not help you on the written exam, which is basically an exam of muscles, nerves and vessels and their relationships to each other (make "superficial branch of the radial nerve" a blank in your previous example to understand what I mean) at UT.

My advice is to study for the practical with Rohen and people from other tanks who prosected other labs (so you all are experts on a different lab). When you feel comfortable (about the week or so before the exam), start reading baby Moore or the syllabus (or whatever you are using as a supplement) to learn the relationships.

Best of luck, and just remember it is only a semester and a good mneumonic for the branches of the brachial plexus is radial nerve, ulnar nerve, axillary nerve, median nerve and musculocutaneous nerve (a little UT alum humor😉).


Gotta love that UTH is the ONLY school in the nation that I know of that:
-Teaches all of gross anatomy in one horrible semester
-Has lab 3x a week for 3+ hours
-Makes us do those God-awful prosections every 2 weeks

I practically live in that stupid lab, and sad to say I'll be there this weekend...again. I guess the one upside to the UTH method is that it's all overwith after the first semester.... 🙄
 
njbmd said:
Hi Guys,
Here are a few things that helped me honor Gross Anatomy: First, I always studied with Netter's Atlas open. I found the plate that corresponded to my lecture notes and studied the atlas as I studied my notes. When it came to muscles, I reviewed each origin and insertion on a skeleton or bone so that I could see the action of the muscle in my mind's eye. I also studied cross sections for the three dimensional effects too.

Second, I always went to anatomy lab prepared. I made a list of structures from superficial to deep and checked them off as I found them. We devised a schedule so that we would always complete our dissections outside of lab time and teach the other folks just before lab started. It took about two extra hours a week for each person in the tank group.

Third, we shared every good dissection with the rest of the class. We kept a list of good dissections so that everyone could share them and learn from them. When you taught your fellow students something, it became more honed for you.

Fourth: I photocopied plates from Netter and colored over structures with colored pencils so that I could learn the structures as I was coloring. This was especially good for things like cranial nerves, plexi and vessels. I would take photocopies of plates to class with me and take notes on the plates.

Last: Every week, our tank group would have a session with one of our instructors. We would ask this person to be brutal with us and pimp us to the max. In the end, we all honored Gross because we helped each other. It was hard to adjust at first but in the end, everything worked out and studying/dissection/cleaning up became easier.

Anatomy takes some cooperative work and some solo work. Be very proactive about what you need. Dissection is best done in groups of two; one to dissect and one to point out things. Take turns and do not allow anyone to dominate this process. I was fortunate to have a great group of tank mates but others were intimidated by the whole process. Since one day, I knew that I would have to send my patients to one of my classmates, I made sure that everyone participated.

I hope this helps. My last bit of advice: Do not get behind. If you find that you are behind, catch up on the weekend and immediately go to where the rest of the class is studying now. Even if you miss a week, don't try to catch up at this point, do it on the weekend and in the evenings.

njbmd 🙂


You did all your dissections ahead of time, and asked someone to pimp you? Your methods sound insane! Maybe I am just too laid-back/lazy for med school afterall...
 
We have lab on MWF from ~9-12......now it's 8-12. We also do it all in one short semester. We have done the back, pects, B plexus, arm to the wrist, scapula area. We started classes on the 10th.
 
getunconcsious said:
You did all your dissections ahead of time, and asked someone to pimp you? Your methods sound insane! Maybe I am just too laid-back/lazy for med school afterall...

njbmb is notorious( in a positive way) for being a bit of a 'wonder-woman'. . .i think she was a professor before med school, and most of her posts go something like,

'don't worry, you too can honor everything in med school and get a surgery residency. what works for me is getting up by 4 each morning, working continuously, and working continuously. but don't forget to take some time for yourself!' (by which i am guessing she means something like a 20 min break each day for a nice 'relaxing' 3 mile run 😉 )

i have nothing but respect for you, njbmd. . .i just have my doubts as to whether I will ever be as mature/organized/efficient as you! but you always give great advice, whether or not we lesser beings are up for following it 🙂
 
Look into Acland's DVDs. They are expensive but worth it.
 
getunconcsious said:
Gotta love that UTH is the ONLY school in the nation that I know of that:
-Teaches all of gross anatomy in one horrible semester
-Has lab 3x a week for 3+ hours
-Makes us do those God-awful prosections every 2 weeks

I practically live in that stupid lab, and sad to say I'll be there this weekend...again. I guess the one upside to the UTH method is that it's all overwith after the first semester.... 🙄

I thought lots of schools had that. We have it 3x a week for 3 hours a day plus 1 hour of lecture, also in one semester.
 
Alexander Pink said:
I thought lots of schools had that. We have it 3x a week for 3 hours a day plus 1 hour of lecture, also in one semester.


Really? When I interviewed there I thought they said it was a whole year.

Oh well, at least it's not just UTH but most of Texas that is backwards. That's to be expected I guess.
 
FSU started back in June and we just finished Gross Anatomy. We had lab 4 times a week for 2-3 hours, as well as 2 hours of lecture a day. (This also included embryo and radiology)
 
getunconcsious said:
Gotta love that UTH is the ONLY school in the nation that I know of that:
-Teaches all of gross anatomy in one horrible semester
-Has lab 3x a week for 3+ hours
-Makes us do those God-awful prosections every 2 weeks

I practically live in that stupid lab, and sad to say I'll be there this weekend...again. I guess the one upside to the UTH method is that it's all overwith after the first semester.... 🙄
this is the norm, not the exception as others have stated.

our school does things in a way that may seem stupid at the time but end up making a lot of sense looking back and they really do set you up to do well in the clinics and the boards.

I'm sorry med school may not be for you or maybe you're feeling really nervous about your ability to succeed but going around and knocking our school (which is the one I would pick first over the others in Texas AGAIN) isn't cool when you know nothing about it. Maybe going AP would be a good option for you since doing the first year in 2yrs instead of 1yr isn't very stressful.

Hang in there and this semester will go by much faster than you realize. You can and will make it through the semester all in one piece. 🙂
 
UT_mikie said:
My 2nd week into medical school. Gross Anatomy is already the bane of my existence. I'm having such a hard time getting my mind around the information EFFECIENTLY. If I spend 4 hours on a lecture I can eventually get it. But thats too much time I think. I didn't take anatomy in undergrad so I have absoulely no familiarity with facts like "the superficial branch of the radial nerve emerges in the distal part of the forearm and crosses the roof of the anatomical snuff box" etc.

Any of you MS II, III, IV's who have been there done that have any advice for a struggling MS I?
First semester is all about learning how to cut out the crap and get down to what you need to know. This is a skill which will come in handy in the spring with neuro which has a syllabus of about 1200 pages I think.

"the superficial branch of the radial nerve emerges in the distal part of the forearm and crosses the roof of the anatomical snuff box"

turns into: snuffbox = superficial radial nerve

don't learn more words than you need to, take notes on the opposite page of your syllabus that bare it down to the fact that you need to know, excluding the words that make it seem hard when it isn't.
 
Termwean said:
This pretty much means.......just learn it!

That's the joke. I'm making fun of a professor at UT (hence my "UT-alum" comment).
 
I just finished Anatomy (we start early at MSUCOM) and hopefully passed
 
SocialistMD said:
Originally Posted by Termwean
This pretty much means.......just learn it!.

Reminds me of a really good mnemonic they use at our school (any Jefferson students on this forum will surely know this one, hehe):

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue,
The Long Thoracic Nerve
Innervates the Serratus Anterior Muscle

😀 (Hey, it worked, didn't it?)
 
bmcgilligan said:
FSU started back in June and we just finished Gross Anatomy. We had lab 4 times a week for 2-3 hours, as well as 2 hours of lecture a day. (This also included embryo and radiology)

UWash starts in two weeks, and our wonderful professors decided that we'd have anatomy for a whole month (we're starting 3 weeks earlier than last years class), 8 hours a day, 4 days a week. Yipee! (Not!)
 
Thanks for all the kind words and support. But it really is true what they say about med school. They can warn you about the work load all the way through undergrad, but nothing can prepare you when they finally unleash MS I on you. Just gotta find my groove I guess.

Yea, I'm prosecting the forearm and the hand tomorrow. Our group was in the lab from 2pm until about 1030pm last night and we still have some disecting left to do. We have the oldest cadaver among the groups this year. She is 95 and apparently atrophied away during the last years of her life because every muscle we touch just falls apart. This prosecting stuff really does help you learn though. Good system in the long run but I #&$*%# can't stand it right now.

Back to studying.
 
getunconcsious said:
Gotta love that UTH is the ONLY school in the nation that I know of that:
-Teaches all of gross anatomy in one horrible semester
-Has lab 3x a week for 3+ hours
-Makes us do those God-awful prosections every 2 weeks

I practically live in that stupid lab, and sad to say I'll be there this weekend...again. I guess the one upside to the UTH method is that it's all overwith after the first semester.... 🙄

I hear ya...Here at Nebraska we have gross lab every day for at least 2 hours - and do our Structure and development core in 10 weeks. We were into the brachial plexus by day 3. Its my 4th day of medical school and i feel like i'm weeks behind!
 
SocialistMD said:
That's the joke. I'm making fun of a professor at UT (hence my "UT-alum" comment).
is it just me, or is WashU not working you hard enough as a surgery intern?? 😛


how goes it???
 
::Seabass:: said:
is it just me, or is WashU not working you hard enough as a surgery intern?? 😛


how goes it???

I drew the short straw and got my 3 weeks vacation in August. How is the third year?
 
Nittany Lion said:
Reminds me of a really good mnemonic they use at our school (any Jefferson students on this forum will surely know this one, hehe):

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue,
The Long Thoracic Nerve
Innervates the Serratus Anterior Muscle

😀 (Hey, it worked, didn't it?)

HAHAHAHAHAHA this cracks me up......SALT works for that....but this is better
 
::Seabass:: said:
this is the norm, not the exception as others have stated.

our school does things in a way that may seem stupid at the time but end up making a lot of sense looking back and they really do set you up to do well in the clinics and the boards.

I'm sorry med school may not be for you or maybe you're feeling really nervous about your ability to succeed but going around and knocking our school (which is the one I would pick first over the others in Texas AGAIN) isn't cool when you know nothing about it. Maybe going AP would be a good option for you since doing the first year in 2yrs instead of 1yr isn't very stressful.

Hang in there and this semester will go by much faster than you realize. You can and will make it through the semester all in one piece. 🙂

Sorry dude, every med school/law school/college/high school/grad school class has to have that pessimistic Daria-type who hates everything. Otherwises, society just couldn't function. I'm sure every class also needs that happy-go-lucky informative and helpful type who wants to hold hands and sing "Everybody's Beautiful". SO, please let me do my job and you do yours.
 
njbmd said:
Hi Guys,
Here are a few things that helped me honor Gross Anatomy: First, I always studied with Netter's Atlas open. I found the plate that corresponded to my lecture notes and studied the atlas as I studied my notes. When it came to muscles, I reviewed each origin and insertion on a skeleton or bone so that I could see the action of the muscle in my mind's eye. I also studied cross sections for the three dimensional effects too.

Second, I always went to anatomy lab prepared. I made a list of structures from superficial to deep and checked them off as I found them. We devised a schedule so that we would always complete our dissections outside of lab time and teach the other folks just before lab started. It took about two extra hours a week for each person in the tank group.

Third, we shared every good dissection with the rest of the class. We kept a list of good dissections so that everyone could share them and learn from them. When you taught your fellow students something, it became more honed for you.

Fourth: I photocopied plates from Netter and colored over structures with colored pencils so that I could learn the structures as I was coloring. This was especially good for things like cranial nerves, plexi and vessels. I would take photocopies of plates to class with me and take notes on the plates.

Last: Every week, our tank group would have a session with one of our instructors. We would ask this person to be brutal with us and pimp us to the max. In the end, we all honored Gross because we helped each other. It was hard to adjust at first but in the end, everything worked out and studying/dissection/cleaning up became easier.

Anatomy takes some cooperative work and some solo work. Be very proactive about what you need. Dissection is best done in groups of two; one to dissect and one to point out things. Take turns and do not allow anyone to dominate this process. I was fortunate to have a great group of tank mates but others were intimidated by the whole process. Since one day, I knew that I would have to send my patients to one of my classmates, I made sure that everyone participated.

I hope this helps. My last bit of advice: Do not get behind. If you find that you are behind, catch up on the weekend and immediately go to where the rest of the class is studying now. Even if you miss a week, don't try to catch up at this point, do it on the weekend and in the evenings.

njbmd 🙂

wow, thanks, that sounds like such excellent advice!! I'm already totally freaked out over this course (from reading the board and things I've heard) and classes haven't even started yet.
 
getunconcsious said:
Sorry dude, every med school/law school/college/high school/grad school class has to have that pessimistic Daria-type who hates everything. Otherwises, society just couldn't function. I'm sure every class also needs that happy-go-lucky informative and helpful type who wants to hold hands and sing "Everybody's Beautiful". SO, please let me do my job and you do yours.
Dude, you crack me up! :laugh: 👍

Daria was such a cool show.

I'd LOVE to be done in one semester.
 
Alexander Pink said:
I thought lots of schools had that. We have it 3x a week for 3 hours a day plus 1 hour of lecture, also in one semester.

Yeah, I think that's actually pretty typical. We only stay the entire 3 hours for lab every other MWF, but we still have to go down to the lab to teach the rest of our tank-mates on our "off days". But we do 1 semester, 3 lab days a week, and 3 hour-long lectures a week, often with a two hour clinical correlation thrown in as well. So your instructors aren't too terribly inhumane (at least relative to all the other med schools).
 
getunconcsious said:
Oh well, at least it's not just UTH but most of Texas that is backwards. That's to be expected I guess.


Here's the deal: Transitioning into the lifestyle of a med student is very difficult. Everyone handles it differently, whether they turn OCD about studying (with color- coded highlighting!), hit the gym like crazy, or just turn bitter about the loss of normal free time. But you have to have some humility and realize that you're a beginning MSI, and there's alot more to a med school than you realize just yet. Pretty soon, you'll learn how to cut back on the time you spend in gross lab, as you learn how to be more efficient about learning in general. Actually, most med students will tell you that some of their best memories were from gross lab, and some of their best friends started out as tank mates. After this semester flies by, you'll be so grateful at the promise of free afternoons in the spring, that you'll wonder why you ever wished that gross lab was drawn out over an entire year. That said, I hope your experience takes a turn for the better, and I also advise that in the future, you think about the ramifications of flippantly, publicly belittling your med school, as well as the entire state, just because you're having some attitude problems. Remember, the reputation of the med school that your name will forever be attached to depends on its continued recruitment of the best and brightest- who happen to be reading your baseless insults at this very moment.
 
getunconcsious said:
Really? When I interviewed there I thought they said it was a whole year.

Oh well, at least it's not just UTH but most of Texas that is backwards. That's to be expected I guess.
YO...where have you been this week? you should stop by...
 
SocialistMD said:
That's the joke. I'm making fun of a professor at UT (hence my "UT-alum" comment).

oh my god!! you're ...ALIVE !! I don't think I've seen you since you were a first year 😉
 
cpw said:
oh my god!! you're ...ALIVE !! I don't think I've seen you since you were a first year 😉

I look the same, so you aren't missing much. How are you?
 
Ribbets said:
Remember, the reputation of the med school that your name will forever be attached to depends on its continued recruitment of the best and brightest- who happen to be reading your baseless insults at this very moment.


Oh good Lord! You guys take this stuff way too seriously. Here's the deal--I am a bitter, complaining type of person. But people like me because I'm funny. I can do a killer and brutally mean imitation of every professor we have and it's only been a week. I'm not really serious when I say these things on here! It's not that UTH is any worse than any other med school--It's just that I like to complain about stuff. That's just how I deal with life. I've hated every school I've ever attended, every place I've ever worked, and every boss I've ever had. That's just my personality--Sorry if it upsets you.

At least EvoDevo got the joke 😉 I hope everything's going peachy for you in San Antonio Mr. Frog

But anyways yeah I think people being happy or depressed has more to do with them than it does with where they're at. I'm the type of person that would be complaining and bitter anywhere, and other people are just upbeat positive types that would love any med school they attended. Most of us cynics aren't really that horrible at heart, we just provide comic relief.

And come on, GROSS ANATOMY SUCKS. You have to admit that at least...
 
getunconcsious said:
Oh good Lord! You guys take this stuff way too seriously. Here's the deal--I am a bitter, complaining type of person. But people like me because I'm funny. I can do a killer and brutally mean imitation of every professor we have and it's only been a week. I'm not really serious when I say these things on here! It's not that UTH is any worse than any other med school--It's just that I like to complain about stuff. That's just how I deal with life. I've hated every school I've ever attended, every place I've ever worked, and every boss I've ever had. That's just my personality--Sorry if it upsets you.

At least EvoDevo got the joke 😉 I hope everything's going peachy for you in San Antonio Mr. Frog

But anyways yeah I think people being happy or depressed has more to do with them than it does with where they're at. I'm the type of person that would be complaining and bitter anywhere, and other people are just upbeat positive types that would love any med school they attended. Most of us cynics aren't really that horrible at heart, we just provide comic relief.

And come on, GROSS ANATOMY SUCKS. You have to admit that at least...


I agree. Give the guy a break. Anatomy is the biggest pain in the ass on the planet. I complained bitterly every day of MSI (and ended up leaving...because I hated it so much, but that's a different story). Our anatomy course (and anatomy professor was so horrible that even the students who LOVED anatomy before they came to school ended up hating it because this guy was such a sociopath) was a year long, lecture/lab twice a week for 10 hours a week. The exams were absolutely absurd. The mean was usually around 50. Our practicals sometimes had stuff tagged that you couldn't find in Netter's. It was a nightmare. This year the first years end in March, so they get this maniac for 3 days a week/14 hours. Whooppee! Bad times.
 
I forgot to add another study secret: flamenco and classical music.

Flamenco is better for keeping you awake at 2 am, classical is better for daytime studying.

Even if it's just a placebo effect, I think it works and therefore it does- I swear it raised my anatomy average 6 points.
 
Elysium said:
I agree. Give the guy a break. Anatomy is the biggest pain in the ass on the planet. I complained bitterly every day of MSI

Which is what my point is, I'm worried a pre-med who is somewhat naive and doesn't know his SDN personality would have their opinion of our school turn negative because he directs his frustration at the school, not the course itself or med school in general. I think he would be upset/unhappy no matter what school he is at which is what he just said above. I just don't want to see my school trashed in the process.

I actually liked anatomy but hated every other class except maybe neuro so I can understand. And I'm far from the cheerleader type off line, I barely even interact with my classmates unless it is required. People generally tend to go on SDN to ask advice, have someone tell them they can do it and will, or blow off some steam. I think the OP of the thread was looking for mostly the first and maybe a bit of the second.
 
SocialistMD said:
I drew the short straw and got my 3 weeks vacation in August. How is the third year?
great. I spent the first 2yrs of med school asking myself why I quit engineering, but now I know. I'm easing into it though so none of the hard rotations have yet to come my way. 😉
 
::Seabass:: said:
great. I spent the first 2yrs of med school asking myself why I quit engineering, but now I know. I'm easing into it though so none of the hard rotations have yet to come my way. 😉

Psycation?
 
MadameLULU said:
Just had an "Acland party" with some of my med school friends. OMG, that guy is awesome.
alright i'm clueless.. who is this acland....
 
SocialistMD said:
I look the same, so you aren't missing much. How are you?

great ! have my job offers lined up to practice in Tampa, FL. Back with the man. just waiting for my license to arrive so i can make real $$ 😀

So, washU huh? you must be smart ! 😛
 
virilep said:
alright i'm clueless.. who is this acland....
The guy at U of L who did the DVD dissection thingy. They have it at the med bookstore, there are like 6 DVDs at $35 each. Maybe you could find some people to go in on the purchase of a set, or they might have it available to us somewhere, not sure.

Hearing about the amount of time you guys spend dissecting makes me really appreciate my school. Lab runs from around 10-noon MWF and we dissect on alternate days, and when we're not dissecting we show up at 11:30 so our tablemates can present to us. Total time in lab: 3 or 4.5 hours per week, depending which week it is. It's a 13 week block so we'll be done in early November.
 
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