How hard is gross anatomy?

[tima]

I have seen many posts that say anatomy is the hardest course in the first year. I took mam phys in college. Will this help? Any tips for studying. Thanks.

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[CodeBlu]

Anatomy is as hard as you make it.

Mamm phys might help you with understanding function behind the structure.

Anatomy is a lot of work, but not that bad if you keep on top of it. Review everyday, and it will be over before you know it!

 

[Ride Big Sky]

Anatomy is as hard as you make it.

Mamm phys might help you with understanding function behind the structure.

Anatomy is a lot of work, but not that bad if you keep on top of it. Review everyday, and it will be over before you know it!

And I presume this comes from your experience in a medical school's anatomy course???

 

[soccerbabe7582]

I have seen many posts that say anatomy is the hardest course in the first year. I took mam phys in college. Will this help? Any tips for studying. Thanks.

I took gross anatomy already (in my undergraduate) and it is a really really hard course. I spent hours late in the evening working with the cadavers. Having said that however, it was my most favorite class so it made it easier to learn and keep motivated. I ended up with an A in the class as a freshman in college.

Human phys and A&P will help you with the basics but it is nothing near the same thing. The best advice I would give for studying is 1)work with the cadavers as much as possible. 2) practice a lot of relationship type of questions. aka. the ductus arteriosis in the adult human is where in comparison to the vagus nerve, etc. 3) when you do dissections, don't stand back and let people do it all to be nice. try to get in there as much as possible. 4) each day go over what you have learned and build off of what was done in the past week and/or past test

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[soccerbabe7582]

And I presume this comes from your experience in a medical school's anatomy course???

ROFL

 

[CodeBlu]

And I presume this comes from your experience in a medical school's anatomy course???

Uhhh yeah. It does.

I took gross anatomy with med students. Soooooooo don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I took gross anatomy already (in my undergraduate) and it is a really really hard course. I spent hours late in the evening working with the cadavers. Having said that however, it was my most favorite class so it made it easier to learn and keep motivated. I ended up with an A in the class as a freshman in college.

Human phys and A&P will help you with the basics but it is nothing near the same thing. The best advice I would give for studying is 1)work with the cadavers as much as possible. 2) practice a lot of relationship type of questions. aka. the ductus arteriosis in the adult human is where in comparison to the vagus nerve, etc. 3) when you do dissections, don't stand back and let people do it all to be nice. try to get in there as much as possible. 4) each day go over what you have learned and build off of what was done in the past week and/or past test

Hope this helps and best of luck!

A lot of medical students on here say that you'll get more out of studying the book than the cadavers themselves.

Regardless, I've only taken dinky A&P 1 and I can fully say that anatomy is evil. Nothing more evil than having to remember over 1000 bone markings and holes, and insertions of muscles are relatively annoying... But other than muscles and bones anatomy of everything else is actually pretty epic.

 

[Brasco888]

Uhhh yeah. It does.

I took gross anatomy with med students. Soooooooo don't let the door hit you on the way out.

And to be fair, this thread was posted in Pre-Allo...

 

[tima]

I will later post in that allopathic section next week. Thanks everyone.

 

[Ride Big Sky]

Uhhh yeah. It does.

I took gross anatomy with med students. Soooooooo don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Haha, cheers.

 

[235788]

lol ^. Leave it to us pre-med's to handle anything.

 

[NickNaylor]

I will later post in that allopathic section next week. Thanks everyone.

While you're doing that, how about you size down your obnoxious avatar as well.

Also, ITT: people comparing college-level courses to med school anatomy.

 

[tima]

While you're doing that, how about you size down your obnoxious avatar as well.

Since I haven't received any warnings, people must like it or don't care. You probably fall in the latter group, I assume.

 

[Myuu]

A lot of medical students on here say that you'll get more out of studying the book than the cadavers themselves.

I could not disagree more.😱

Quality time with the cadavers can really help enhance your understanding of anatomy.👍

 

[pfaction]

While you're doing that, how about you size down your obnoxious avatar as well.

Also, ITT: people comparing college-level courses to med school anatomy.

To be fair, I have my friend's PA notes. They and MS students take the same physiology. Nothing new from our A&P except integrations of physics for blood flow, lung capacity...they weren't tested on it. Just conceptual.

 

[Myuu]

Since I haven't received any warnings, people must like it or don't care. You probably fall in the latter group, I assume.

Wrong!

 

[yamaraja808]

While you're doing that, how about you size down your obnoxious avatar as well.

Also, ITT: people comparing college-level courses to med school anatomy.

If you mean undergrad, I have no comment.

However, my graduate school anatomy course was harder than the medical school anatomy (same university). I say this because my friend took the same graduate anatomy course and the medical school course (when he got in med school). He clearly stated the grad level course was harder.

People who say they only learned from the book really shock me. How do you do well on the exams where you have to point out structures on your cadaver? I not only had to look through three different books and look at medical school dissection videos (from 7 different schools), I also had to look at a least 5 different cadavers to learn my structures down cold!

No way in h*** can you ace a cadaver exam without spending at least 3 hours a week looking at a cadaver (not including class time now).

 

[EpicBearMan]

A lot of medical students on here say that you'll get more out of studying the book than the cadavers themselves.

In my undergraduate anatomy course, we had exams where we had to identify structures / landmarks that were marked on the cadaver. I learned on the first test that primarily studying through the book wasn't so effective. Structures on the actual cadaver sometimes looked significantly different than the illustrations.

What worked best for me was to study with both the book and cadaver handy. Studying multiple cadavers helps a lot too if they are available. I'd pick a structure in the book and identify it on a few different skulls. It was easier to identify a structure when I was familiar with some of the human variation.

 

[DrBowtie]

If you mean undergrad, I have no comment.

However, my graduate school anatomy course was harder than the medical school anatomy (same university). I say this because my friend took the same graduate anatomy course and the medical school course (when he got in med school). He clearly stated the grad level course was harder.

People who say they only learned from the book really shock me. How do you do well on the exams where you have to point out structures on your cadaver? I not only had to look through three different books and look at medical school dissection videos (from 7 different schools), I also had to look at a least 5 different cadavers to learn my structures down cold!

No way in h*** can you ace a cadaver exam without spending at least 3 hours a week looking at a cadaver (not including class time now).

False.

I learned the structures from Netter's (idealized) then Rohen's (prosections) before I even attempted to find them on our peer dissected, fat infiltrated, time sink of a cadaver.

Efficiency is the name of the game and cadaver learning in all but the last phase is useless. Also in our course the written tests were much harder and counted for more hence more reading than cadaver.

 

[CodeBlu]

False.

I learned the structures from Netter's (idealized) then Rohen's (prosections) before I even attempted to find them on our peer dissected, fat infiltrated, time sink of a cadaver.

Efficiency is the name of the game and cadaver learning in all but the last phase is useless. Also in our course the written tests were much harder and counted for more hence more reading than cadaver.

My cadaver was grossly obese also. Took forever to resect fascia... uh.

 

[UAAWolf]

I have seen many posts that say anatomy is the hardest course in the first year. I took mam phys in college. Will this help? Any tips for studying. Thanks.

Low yield and pretty boring

 

[Onres]

False.

I learned the structures from Netter's (idealized) then Rohen's (prosections) before I even attempted to find them on our peer dissected, fat infiltrated, time sink of a cadaver.

Efficiency is the name of the game and cadaver learning in all but the last phase is useless. Also in our course the written tests were much harder and counted for more hence more reading than cadaver.

I know this is crazy talk but perhaps different people learn differently. 😱

 

[UAAWolf]

While you're doing that, how about you size down your obnoxious avatar as well.

Also, ITT: people comparing college-level courses to med school anatomy.

MS0 plz go. My college advanced anatomy class was harder than med school.

 

[NickNaylor]

MS0 plz go. My college advanced anatomy class was harder than med school.

Cool story bro, n=1.

 

[DrBowtie]

I know this is crazy talk but perhaps different people learn differently. 😱

I was responding to this: "No way in h*** can you ace a cadaver exam without spending at least 3 hours a week looking at a cadaver (not including class time now)."

 

[Onres]

I was responding to this: "No way in h*** can you ace a cadaver exam without spending at least 3 hours a week looking at a cadaver (not including class time now)."

Valid point. I concede.😳 (I think this is the third emoticon I've ever used. I'm going crazy oh DAMN😱)

 

[yamaraja808]

False.

I learned the structures from Netter's (idealized) then Rohen's (prosections) before I even attempted to find them on our peer dissected, fat infiltrated, time sink of a cadaver.

Efficiency is the name of the game and cadaver learning in all but the last phase is useless. Also in our course the written tests were much harder and counted for more hence more reading than cadaver.

This was probably the reason why you did not concentrate your effort on the cadaver. My written exam and cadaver exam were equal.

I did the same thing as you but I did far better after looking at more cadavers and dissection videos.

Did you have cross sections (not dissections) of lab cadavers? Did you have to name the forearm muscles while the cadaver was on its back with the forearm bent at a 90 degree angle! There is no way you can do this without looking at a cadaver.

If my class had were a written exam as the majority grade, then I would be doing the exact same thing as you are. However, since the exam went even beyond the netters and rohen books, I had to do more.

 

[yamaraja808]

Valid point. I concede.😳 (I think this is the third emoticon I've ever used. I'm going crazy oh DAMN😱)

Sorry dude. That was the hardest class I took in my life! I was so jacked up on redbull. Never again LOL!

 

[DrBowtie]

This was probably the reason why you did not concentrate your effort on the cadaver. My written exam and cadaver exam were equal.

I did the same thing as you but I did far better after looking at more cadavers and dissection videos.

Did you have cross sections (not dissections) of lab cadavers? Did you have to name the forearm muscles while the cadaver was on its back with the forearm bent at a 90 degree angle! There is no way you can do this without looking at a cadaver.

If my class had were a written exam as the majority grade, then I would be doing the exact same thing as you are. However, since the exam went even beyond the netters and rohen books, I had to do more.

We did have cross sections and radiology stuff on ours as well. We also had an in house CD with labeled cadaver stuff on it that again was far more efficient than digging around in the greasy cadaver.

We also had the thinking type questions you mention where they tag an attachment site and we had to name the innervation of the muscle that attached there.

 

[yamaraja808]

We did have cross sections and radiology stuff on ours as well. We also had an in house CD with labeled cadaver stuff on it that again was far more efficient than digging around in the greasy cadaver.

We also had the thinking type questions you mention where they tag an attachment site and we had to name the innervation of the muscle that attached there.

Probably so but I was not given any media or labeled CD pictures in our class. If you were not given any resources and said to look for them by yourself (we had an assigned books but only netters was the most useful), then you would be stuck where I am. You would still need the cadavers.

Sorry about the previous thrid paragraph sentence. The cadaver was on its front with the forearm bent at a 90 degree angle.

 

[UAAWolf]

Cool story bro, n=1.

No sir, N is a letter! 😉

But yes you are right, anecdotal evidence is anecdotal...BUT I know a lot of MSs at different med schools and have a good idea of what its like across the spectrum.

 

[PlacentaSac]

I want to state that the level of difficulty of your Medical School Anatomy course will depend on the Medical School. I can tell you that at Georgetown the exams are close to impossible (evidence by the class average). Our anatomy professor, a Harvard grad. seemed to want to make it a point to show medical students how hard anatomy can be. His questions are crazy. I often found myself shaking my head in disbelief during some of his exams. This was not the same experience some of my friends had at other schools.

For me undergrad anatomy was a joke. We just memorized and regurgitated on the exam. In medical school the exam questions were in clinical vignettes and required us to apply our anatomical knowledge in a clinical setting. Our professor would put structures in bizarre orientations to test if we could orient ourselves in 15 seconds and answer the question in 30.

My point is that your medical school anatomy course will be as hard as your anatomy director wants it to be. I also found the “Rohen and Yokochi” atlas to be my savior all year. I liked it better than netters because it used pictures of real cadavers.