First Semester/Anatomy Struggles

[mdpt]

Hi all - I was wondering if anyone here struggled with anatomy? I'm barely holding on to passing and it is getting really deflating. If you didn't do too stellar in the course, how did you fare in the rest of the program? I do feel like learning this all online is a big issue for me, so I'm hoping that once we're in person and utilizing the applications of everything I'll improve, but right now I am really struggling to find the positives.

Update: I have a tutor, and things seem to go so well, and then I tank on exams. So I'm not sure what else to do!

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[kdubz7w7]

Hi all - I was wondering if anyone here struggled with anatomy? I'm barely holding on to passing and it is getting really deflating. If you didn't do too stellar in the course, how did you fare in the rest of the program? I do feel like learning this all online is a big issue for me, so I'm hoping that once we're in person and utilizing the applications of everything I'll improve, but right now I am really struggling to find the positives.

Update: I have a tutor, and things seem to go so well, and then I tank on exams. So I'm not sure what else to do!

Hi there,
I struggled with anatomy. I got a 78 on our first exam after killing myself studying, remediated another exam (by ONE point), ended on a B, also ONE point away from a B+ lol. 96 on the final though!

I went to my prof several times to go over test-taking strategies and also how to sort of know what she is going to test on. Turns out I was overthinking things and going into too much detail where I didn't need to, and not enough detail where I needed it. If you haven't taken this step yet, go talk to them!

It lowkey haunted me through the next couple of ortho classes, especially the very next semester. I had to re-study anatomy a lot to get caught up on where everything was so I could figure out why they were moving the way they do. The good news is you will go over anatomy in future classes, over and over and over, and I found it easier to learn when it was attached to meaning and function vs just flat OIBNA tables etc. So don't worry - you will get the info down. After going over everything again and again, I got it down fine and no longer felt like it was a weakness. I had to work at it, but it's by no means a show-stopper. I got B+/A- through my ortho courses and my overall GPA is a 3.6, so ultimately, struggling with anatomy in no way ultimately hurt me.

As for online....I didn't take it online so I cannot imagine what an extra challenge that is for the course. I think when you're back on the ground, things will fall into place more easily for you.

 

[mdpt]

Hi there,
I struggled with anatomy. I got a 78 on our first exam after killing myself studying, remediated another exam (by ONE point), ended on a B, also ONE point away from a B+ lol. 96 on the final though!

I went to my prof several times to go over test-taking strategies and also how to sort of know what she is going to test on. Turns out I was overthinking things and going into too much detail where I didn't need to, and not enough detail where I needed it. If you haven't taken this step yet, go talk to them!

It lowkey haunted me through the next couple of ortho classes, especially the very next semester. I had to re-study anatomy a lot to get caught up on where everything was so I could figure out why they were moving the way they do. The good news is you will go over anatomy in future classes, over and over and over, and I found it easier to learn when it was attached to meaning and function vs just flat OIBNA tables etc. So don't worry - you will get the info down. After going over everything again and again, I got it down fine and no longer felt like it was a weakness. I had to work at it, but it's by no means a show-stopper. I got B+/A- through my ortho courses and my overall GPA is a 3.6, so ultimately, struggling with anatomy in no way ultimately hurt me.

As for online....I didn't take it online so I cannot imagine what an extra challenge that is for the course. I think when you're back on the ground, things will fall into place more easily for you.

Thanks for weighing in. I'm glad to hear there's hope for me yet! I'm already studying in prep for the first day of content for our final, which starts tomorrow - hoping staying ahead will help me. I'm nailing ex phys so I know on some level I can do this, I just have to get through anatomy!

 

[kdubz7w7]

Thanks for weighing in. I'm glad to hear there's hope for me yet! I'm already studying in prep for the first day of content for our final, which starts tomorrow - hoping staying ahead will help me. I'm nailing ex phys so I know on some level I can do this, I just have to get through anatomy!

Good luck! As long as you pass, you will be okay!

 

[ya1]

What are your problems with exam questions? Or what kind of questions are you missing? If you don't know the answer, ask your instructor because that may be a key to fix your issue with exams. They may not be able to tell you what exact questions you missed, but ask them what TYPE of questions you were missing (wrong structure? wrong neuro pathway? combination of everything?)
I felt lost at the beginning of anatomy course. It was helpful for me to narrow down information to study and read that information over and over, and over again - repetitions. Lot of information made no sense to me (as you said, you are not applying it, so it's hard to make sense out of it) and I had to blindly memorize it. Interestingly, enough repetitions of blind memorization was enough to succeed on exams (I did not expect that) and repetitions did help to make sense out of some stuff...
I also found it very helpful (in all courses) to save and redo practice exams/tests/quizzes that we did prior to real exams. You may even get exact same questions on the real exams.
Focus on passing anatomy for now. It is a challenging course. After the 1st year, you will find the information you are learning is repetitive, so it will be settling down in your head better.

 

[chdom02]

Sometimes it's the test taking skills. If the tutor sessions are going well and you understand the material, maybe you need to work on applying the material in a clinical way, as most DPT programs have clinical based questions. Are you working on test taking strategies/practice application questions with the tutor? If not, you can always reach out to a professor I'm sure they'll be happy to help figure out where things are going wrong