Forgetting Anatomy

[kingofthehill]

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We have an elective at our school called "surgical anatomy" going on right now. It's pretty much each week we have a surgeon do surgery on a cadaver and we go over anatomy and other stuff. It's just P/F based on attendance. Anyway, we have a block system, and we did anatomy the first 10 or so weeks back in Aug/Sept. Well, I bet I have forgotten at least 2/3 of what I learned in anatomy, and so have some of my classmates. The surgeons will ask us "what's this" and we're all like uuuuuuuhhhh... Can anybody relate?

 

[strv04]

its worse in 3rd year

 

[la petite mort]

I think it would be impossible for anyone to retain every detail learned in Anatomy...the point of the course itself is to prove you could at one point in time learn (at least most of) it, which means you can refresh your memory again under normal circumstances.

 

[kingofthehill]

Well I didn't expect to be able to recall 100%, just a little surprised at how dumb I'd feel. I guess that's a big part of being a med student. And, I agree, 3rd year's gonna blow.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm pretty sure I forgot 90% of anatomy as soon as I walked out of the test. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Well I didn't expect to be able to recall 100%, just a little surprised at how dumb I'd feel. I guess that's a big part of being a med student. And, I agree, 3rd year's gonna blow.

Two things for third year:
1- You will review pertinent anatomy the night before
2- Reading surgical technique helps put the anatomy in perspective. We were told we didn't have to read the steps of any given surgery, but I found it very helpful to remember the anatomic relations, and which structures we wanted to preserve.

 

[Mackey]

I'm pretty sure I forgot 90% of anatomy as soon as I walked out of the test. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

No doubt. I like looking at old practical tests of mine and thinking "What in the hell is that and how did I ever know it at one point."

 

[vicinihil]

That's how I feel with every test. We have cumulative finals for Pharm and Path and looking back on the exams, I keep thinking...dang you were mad smart at one point wth happened????

We posed that question for our anatomy instructor back in 1st year and she said the goal is to have some exposure to the information but seeing it once now, makes it that much easier to learn it and remember it later. Chances are, if you're ENT, you don't really need to remember pelvic anatomy and vice versa.

 

[njbmd]

If you learned the material the first time around, a short review will help you recall it. Certainly reviewing pertinent landmarks and relevant anatomy before a surgical case is good for a medical student who is scrubbing the case. You don't have to know every little detail but you should know the major points.