How should I study? (anatomy question)

[turquoise13]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm an MS1 struggling in anatomy this block. I did very well on the first two exams (upper, lower limbs, superior, middle mediastinum), by memorizing the lecture notes several times while making sure I understood the general concepts and clinical correlations (did a lot of practice Qs) It's been really hard to catch up this block as I'm learning about the heart and abdominal viscera; it trumps the first two blocks on the amount of material and I'm not sure how to best manage my time. It's taking me forever to get through one lecture!

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to organize the information so that I can make better sense of the info. I try to think of the big picture (GI tract = abd. esophagus, stomach, small intestine (DJI), etc. etc), but am feeling really behind. I'm a visual learner as well, so drawing things out or just plain rote work well for me. But it's harder to do with things that feel so isolated.

Thanks!

 

[psipsina]

One of my weirdo tricks was to walk myself thru netter slides talking to myself and pointing at everything. My memory likes spatial organization so that really worked for me. I'd do the same thing on my cadaver. I used my dissector with the cadaver the first run thru and then tried to do it cold the next ones (referencing the dissector when I got stuck). I also think that drawing complicated stuff out over and over again is useful (like for crazy arterial branching patterns).

 

[corbis11]

I think one of the hardest parts of the abdomen (and pelvis), and which we were tested heavily on, is the relative location of each organ(and it's parts) to other organs (and it's parts)...I think it really helps to look at CT's, MRI's, cross sections, etc...so glad gross anatomy is over, lol

 

[Jemmy]

Hey ,,,I think that the best way to study anatomy in a short time & gain the biggest knowledge that you can get is setting your priorities firstly ... and order them
and then you can determine the pattern of study that you should follow

for example,,, you're studying now the abdomen ,,, the pattern of studying now has to be changed than before as you were studying the upper & lower limbs
first you should know what is the abdomen ?? It is a Chamber containing some viscera .... so you should set your priorities as the following:
-studying the walls of this chamber ( skeleton - muscles - fascia ....etc)
- then the main arteries and veins ( aorta - vene cava -....etc)
- then the main & the largest viscera ( liver - stomach - colon .....etc)
- then the peritoneal covering of these viscera & the associated ligaments
- and so on .....
In my opinion the orderliness is the best way to study anatomy easily & quickly even it maybe not corresponding to your lectures ....I remember my first lecture in this chapter it was about the peritoneum & I didn't get any of it cuz I now nothing about the viscera that the lecturer was talking about & their relation to each other & to the wall

that was my experience ....thanks