"Concern over future performance" meeting for anatomy?

[hazelnutmilktea]

First time posting as a med student, kind of in a uhh, less than ideal situation right now. I'm at a new-ish medical school, and we're currently in our anatomy block. We have one hour a week of prosection, and one hour every other week of dissection, no other time in the lab at all. I was a humanities major in college, and have essentially no background in this subject at all, and I'm honestly struggling. My anxiety and depression has gotten worse despite seeing a therapist and starting SSRIs, and I feel like nothing I'm learning is sticking.

We just had a practice exam, and I scored a 53, which is less than 10 points above the fail line for last year, and I received an email from the course director because she's concerned I might fail. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has been in this kind of situation before, know what this kind of meeting means in terms of likelihood to actually fail, and can give any sort of guidance at all.

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[SweetBurger]

Have you tried using anki and image occlusion. I know thats not really helping any problems but it might help you to make some of the anatomy things you are learning stick.

 

[ciestar]

The Essential Anatomy app was wonderful for me

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

Have you tried using anki and image occlusion. I know thats not really helping any problems but it might help you to make some of the anatomy things you are learning stick.

I have been! Anki has kind of been my savior haha, but I feel like the things I put on the cards (which are from our prework) were not tested at all

The Essential Anatomy app was wonderful for me

I'll definitely check it out, thank you!

 

[Osteosaur]

Anatomy is one of the hardest medical school subjects.

Just go, listen to what they have to say, and be open to suggestions. It might be helpful to go in explaining how you studied and what resources you used so that they can help you tweak things.

They aren't trying to kick you out. Its just one exam and most people in med school bomb an exam or two and do okay.

 

[M&L]

consider getting a 3D atlas. And talk through EVERYTHING>

 

[jmtbekm]

Are you following a dissector text in lab? Ours explain every relationship and are the only things we’ll be tested on.

If you’re missing a question in anatomy, you’re really missing a relationship, because that’s what they should be tagged to show.

Are you provided any sort of videos for outside lab study?

Sorry, one more question: how are you preparing before coming into prosection or dissection time?

 

[altblue]

100% take that meeting seriously and lay out your concerns in an objective manner. Meet with academic support if you can, but if we're being honest, any M2s who would be able to lay it out and tell you what works. If you're at a "new-ish" school I'm assuming you aren't inaugural.

Keep meeting with your therapist or find another one who works better. Truly wish you well, the first semester M1 is tough and it's harder when you have personal struggles interfering with it.

 

[harvard_of_the_west]

The U Mich anki deck for anatomy is the gold standard if you like image occlusion. Also try approaching some upperclassmen to see if they might have an anki deck personalized to your school that they'd be willing to share.

Also, does your lab not allow you to just go in and study on your own free time? Maybe that's something your student leadership could approach the admin about. Most schools allow for students to have 24/7 access to their cadavers outside of specified lab time. We haven't really taken a huge dive into anatomy yet, but our dissection team is planning to go in with 2-3 other teams so we can compare the structures on our donor to those on others' donors.

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

Are you following a dissector text in lab? Ours explain every relationship and are the only things we’ll be tested on.

If you’re missing a question in anatomy, you’re really missing a relationship, because that’s what they should be tagged to show.

Are you provided any sort of videos for outside lab study?

Sorry, one more question: how are you preparing before coming into prosection or dissection time?

Our dissector only has directions for dissection, but since we're not even dissecting half of the weeks it's pretty much useless. I take the cartoon images from there and make occlusion cards. We are provided cadaver pictures in ppt for virtual labs every week, where the professors guide us through relationships. Prosections I prepare for by going through my anki deck and rewatching the virtual lab, dissections I don't really prepare for, since we never really get to see anything anyway.

The U Mich anki deck for anatomy is the gold standard if you like image occlusion. Also try approaching some upperclassmen to see if they might have an anki deck personalized to your school that they'd be willing to share.

Also, does your lab not allow you to just go in and study on your own free time? Maybe that's something your student leadership could approach the admin about. Most schools allow for students to have 24/7 access to their cadavers outside of specified lab time. We haven't really taken a huge dive into anatomy yet, but our dissection team is planning to go in with 2-3 other teams so we can compare the structures on our donor to those on others' donors.

Thank you, I just downloaded the deck and will try it out today! And yep we're absolutely not allowed to go into the lab afterhours, despite multiple petitions from the student body and student council. So gross anatomy is definitely a weakness of mine, but hopefully the UMich deck will be able to change that.

 

[jmtbekm]

Also, does your lab not allow you to just go in and study on your own free time? Maybe that's something your student leadership could approach the admin about. Most schools allow for students to have 24/7 access to their cadavers outside of specified lab time. We haven't really taken a huge dive into anatomy yet, but our dissection team is planning to go in with 2-3 other teams so we can compare the structures on our donor to those on others' donors.

Many schools have cut out open lab due to covid restrictions. We only get about 5 hours in the lab each week.

 

[jmtbekm]

Our dissector only has directions for dissection, but since we're not even dissecting half of the weeks it's pretty much useless. I take the cartoon images from there and make occlusion cards. We are provided cadaver pictures in ppt for virtual labs every week, where the professors guide us through relationships. Prosections I prepare for by going through my anki deck and rewatching the virtual lab, dissections I don't really prepare for, since we never really get to see anything anyway.

Dissecting this way can be difficult to prepare for, especially if you aren’t sure how much was done by another group or how well it was done. However, I would suggest at least pre-reading your dissector to see what you’re supposed to be doing, then using either your virtual labs to make those connections or a cadaver atlas (Rohen’s). Sometimes drawing out the muscles in relation to the neurovasculature is helpful too.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

This is probably a how can we help you be successful meeting rather than a punitive one

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

Free: Check out Anatomy Guy - The Vertically Integrated Education Site for good dissection videos
Full trial: Check out Home | Acland's Video Atlas of Human Anatomy for good general anatomy videos.

It's a tough subject and will eat a lot of your time. Good luck!

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

Free: Check out Anatomy Guy - The Vertically Integrated Education Site for good dissection videos
Full trial: Check out Home | Acland's Video Atlas of Human Anatomy for good general anatomy videos.

It's a tough subject and will eat a lot of your time. Good luck!

Thanks so much, I'll check these out!!

 

[libertyyne]

Deep breath and start your reps.
Anki reps that is.

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

They are most certainly trying to help you – our school has made it a "program" in that if you score a certain grade, they'll just put you on a list of people to trend in order to give you extra attention. So they just want to head off any problems you might be having, get you help, etc. So if they called you in and you said, well, you know, my whole family just disowned me before this test they can say, ah, that's hard. What can we do for you?

At least, I hope yours is like ours.

 

[hang50]

is it recognizing structures your struggling with or clinical applications? you’ve received good advice above for the former, for the latter i would recommend pumping out Grays Review Questions

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

is it recognizing structures your struggling with or clinical applications? you’ve received good advice above for the former, for the latter i would recommend pumping out Grays Review Questions

Mostly recognizing structures, since I have minimal lab time, but thank you I'll keep that in mind!

 

[medstudent9839]

I failed my first anatomy exam and really thought I was going to have to drop out of medical school, but here I am now just waiting for the match as an M4! At my school we had unlimited access to the lab, so that definitely helped me after that exam. Try to find an anatomy book that uses cadavers for labeling so it is similar to what you're actually looking at (I had one, but sorry, I don't remember what it was called).

It's good that your school is meeting with you about it (mine did something similar, basically had a group of students who all failed the first exam who practiced together lol). Keep trying, anatomy is hard. Med school is hard. You'll figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

I failed my first anatomy exam and really thought I was going to have to drop out of medical school, but here I am now just waiting for the match as an M4! At my school we had unlimited access to the lab, so that definitely helped me after that exam. Try to find an anatomy book that uses cadavers for labeling so it is similar to what you're actually looking at (I had one, but sorry, I don't remember what it was called).

It's good that your school is meeting with you about it (mine did something similar, basically had a group of students who all failed the first exam who practiced together lol). Keep trying, anatomy is hard. Med school is hard. You'll figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Thank you that's so reassuring! This was definitely a wake up call for me so I'm switching up my study methods, hoping for the best!

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

ACT downstate has good cadaver multiple choice.

 

[FutureSurgical]

I'll have to second Acland's website. Our school gives us a free subscription, which is incredible. His team also made practice tests for every MSK and organ module, which is just identifying tags.

Your school is putting you at a disadvantage by only giving you an hour a week or every other week to go into the lab to learn. Our school gives us some more time (not too much though) and it's still a struggle.

Lastly, I don't know if "Essential Anatomy" and "Complete Anatomy" are the same thing, but I use Complete Anatomy and it's an AMAZING tool. Definitely look into it!

 

[cyanotoxin]

I second Acland’s, and I also want to recommend Anatomy Bootcamp. They have a free 7 day trial, and it’s not that expensive if you decide it’s worth subscribing. They have quick review videos for the different areas of the body, but the most helpful part for me has been their practice sets using cadaver images. The practice sets also come with video explanations to help you understand mental tricks for orientating yourself with each image. I didn’t have any anatomy background prior to med school and my school is doing zero in-person labs, and they’ve helped me immensely this year as an M1! They’re still new and releasing content, but I’ve been lucky that they’ve been releasing it in the exact order my school covers the different areas of the body.

 

[denalirun]

I agree with a lot of the above - the instructor is appropriately trying to intervene early. You're going to have to learn several styles of acquiring/consolidating information in med school and this is your first opportunity to find a new method. Lots of students run into this - they try one method and it doesn't work so they switch it up. Some subjects are more about straight memorization whereas others are more analytical. Sketchy/symbolic stories/mnemonics/anki are better for the memorization and practice questions and understanding the 'why' is better for analytical stuff, but that's just what has worked for me. I often found myself using multiple tactics during each course based on what we're learning. Hang in there - most students who are open to changing their methods tend to improve.

 

[stickgirl390]

Kaplan and Princeton both have really solid coloring books for Human Anatomy if you’re a kinesthetic/visual learner. I used the Princeton one + Anki and aced all my practicals.

keep in mind that the coloring book is somewhat time consuming (about an hour per dissection), and doesn’t work for everyone. But for the right type of learner, it works wonders. Sold at Barnes and Noble, probably other retailers as well.

 

[DeepInTheHeart]

I used Color Atlas of Anatomy: A Photographic Study of the Human Body and bought the flash cards. We were also given a list of things to locate in anatomy lab , so I would memorize the structures in the book and when I went into lab I would try to locate the structures in lab. Our dissections weren’t perfect, so I’d ask a TA to help if I had trouble locating something.

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

Not sure how many people will see this but I wanted to update, since I just got my anatomy block grades back. I passed with an above average score, and actually feel like I retained much of the content I learned. Will be going into thanksgiving break a very happy person lol

 

[SweetBurger]

Not sure how many people will see this but I wanted to update, since I just got my anatomy block grades back. I passed with an above average score, and actually feel like I retained much of the content I learned. Will be going into thanksgiving break a very happy person lol

thats awesome news dude. keep it up

 

[hazelnutmilktea]

thats awesome news dude. keep it up

Thanks so much, I honestly don't think I would've passed without everyone's advice, just super grateful rn

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Keep the thread on topic. This thread has nothing to do with midlevels.

To the OP, they have been recommended, but I second UMich anki deck and Acland anatomy.

Also, what really works for me is learning anatomy like I’m learning a map. I pick a place on each view that I can pick out every single time and use that as “home” and then I just learn the relationships to different structures like I’m learning directions from my house to school. I used that technique throughout my preclerkship anatomy and only got maybe 10 questions wrong total in the whole 1.5 years. Highly recommend.

 

[Redpancreas]

First time posting as a med student, kind of in a uhh, less than ideal situation right now. I'm at a new-ish medical school, and we're currently in our anatomy block. We have one hour a week of prosection, and one hour every other week of dissection, no other time in the lab at all. I was a humanities major in college, and have essentially no background in this subject at all, and I'm honestly struggling. My anxiety and depression has gotten worse despite seeing a therapist and starting SSRIs, and I feel like nothing I'm learning is sticking.

We just had a practice exam, and I scored a 53, which is less than 10 points above the fail line for last year, and I received an email from the course director because she's concerned I might fail. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has been in this kind of situation before, know what this kind of meeting means in terms of likelihood to actually fail, and can give any sort of guidance at all.

A similar thing happened to me long ago. I passed the written exam by a good margin, but just barely failed the practical. It's not as uncommon as you think. No one is going to advertise that they are in the same boat. I suspect it's not effort given that this is only the first exam and I bet you gave it your all. Also, realize that anatomy is unlike any other subject in medical school so don't panic.

1. If you did not pick up on everything in the time allotted to you, you need to look into options to spend more time with the actual cadavers. You're meeting with your course director so that's a good time to bring that up. This is important because it's very different to read from your course notes or Netter's vs. identify tagged structures on actual cadavers. One book I recommend is known as Rohen's. It's the closest a textbook gets to the real thing. Amazon product

2. Be judicious on how you spend your time in anatomy lab. Don't burn yourself out reading Gray's Dissection Guide and trying to dissect away. Let the people crazy about dissection worry about that. Focus on identifying the structures. There will be people in your class that are good at this. Pick their brain. Quiz them and simultaneously quiz yourself and when you get it wrong, ask them how they knew it was this muscle "x" instead of "y". You'll learn useful tricks this way. The key is to make sure you're using the right method to identify a structure. I'm too far removed to think of a perfect example but I remember the subclavian anatomy was such that branches were defined by where it branch point in relation to other structures. I ignored that and focused on my observation that that branch was always squiggly...but then on the practical there was no squiggly branch. Therefore, pay close attention to the strategies others use to identify structures.

3. Our anatomy practical had multiple cross sectional images that were handed out before the exam that we could memorize. Make sure you have these down pat as they are easy points.

4. One last thing I wish I did during my first two years was study in a group more especially for anatomy. I was a self-studier in college because I went to a party school. In medical school you have highly motivated classmates who won't goof off and in fact whenever I studied in a group I was much more efficient and didn't have to spend hours trying to make sense of the material. Some people just got it better than I did.

Overall, that's all you can do. I don't see any comments about the written exam so I presume that went OK which is reassuring. The rest of medical school material will be closer to that if not more enjoyable if you like physiology, etc. In terms of memorization I went crazy with mnemonics and that always helped me with the written. I'm sure you'll do well!