Struggled in physio/anatomy, am I doing something wrong?

[musiconcerto]

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[Ashley1989]

How exactly did you study?

 

[Mountaineer12]

Reviewing the material after every lecture is good, maybe try reviewing everything so far when you do that. For example if you started material for the next exam on a Monday then on Friday study what you learned in lecture that day and what you learned on Monday and Wednesday (if it's a MWF class). Hopefully that makes sense. That will allow you to get the new stuff down and drill the old stuff. I promise you after doing this a few times the old stuff will become second nature to you.

A super high B doesn't mean you're struggling though, that's a good grade for such a tough class. Maybe just work on making your studying more efficient and you'll do great.

 

[Morsetlis]

I don't know why people conflate the two together...

Physio by itself was 2 undergrad classes, and 2 labs.

 

[luke587]

Adcoms aren't going to look at a B+ in anatomy/physiology and think, wow this kid just doesn't have it. Anatomy/phys are normally considered a little more upper level bio courses, so getting a B+ isn't bad. I got B's in regular Bio and A's in anatomy/physiology so they just offset i wouldn't worry about it

 

[willen101383]

Uhhh thats a pretty good grade man. I think I ended up with a 86 in med school anatomy.

 

[musiconcerto]

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[Ashley1989]

I think the key is how many times did you rewrite the notes? I had a professor just like that last quarter and I had to rewrite them at least 6 times before I had them down really nicely for the test and felt very confident. Also, instead of reviewing the notes after lecture I rewrote them immediately after, found where they were in the book, highlighted the corresponding places in the book and annotated. Then as I rewrote the notes I added in any additional clarifying information from the book in a separate color and color coded the rest of the information from lecture. These were the new, baseline notes and I trashed the ones from class. From there I rewrote the new notes over and over and over and it worked like a charm. I personally don't think that rewriting the notes from class once or twice would have helped it stick as much as I needed it to, and finding where it was in the book helped tremendously.

 

[ineed2stpsmurfn]

I ended up with a 98% in anatomy at my college. The professor would give us mountains of slides per class, and you never knew what was going to be on it. We would type up study guides of the notes and the terms would be like 16 single-spaced pages of computer printed text long. I would make about 130-140 flash cards prior to each test like... 2 days before, memorize them (I'm talking about 6-8 times repeating each one the first time.. It might take 6 Hours to get through the whole batch) each night while exercising at the SAME time, and I absolutely destructed each test. You gotta really hammer all that **** home.


In Physio, which I just finished, I ended with a 97.6% but I had to study differently. I would read our pre-made (again, at minimum 20 pages for each test) study guide at least 20 times through the days before the test. It cut out all the fluff while leaving the vast majority of substance.

 

[Morsetlis]

I ended up with a 98% in anatomy at my college. The professor would give us mountains of slides per class, and you never knew what was going to be on it. We would type up study guides of the notes and the terms would be like 16 single-spaced pages of computer printed text long. I would make about 130-140 flash cards prior to each test like... 2 days before, memorize them (I'm talking about 6-8 times repeating each one the first time.. It might take 6 Hours to get through the whole batch) each night while exercising at the SAME time, and I absolutely destructed each test. You gotta really hammer all that **** home.


In Physio, which I just finished, I ended with a 97.6% but I had to study differently. I would read our pre-made (again, at minimum 20 pages for each test) study guide at least 20 times through the days before the test. It cut out all the fluff while leaving the vast majority of substance.

^ Example of studying like a med student, lol...

 

[AestheticGod]

Question for OP: Are you talking about undergrad anatomy/physiology? And how are the other students doing compared to you? I found that class pretty easy since I'm a pretty good visual learner. But then again, only 2-3 people got an A in the course (40 students).

 

[AestheticGod]

I ended up with a 98% in anatomy at my college. The professor would give us mountains of slides per class, and you never knew what was going to be on it. We would type up study guides of the notes and the terms would be like 16 single-spaced pages of computer printed text long. I would make about 130-140 flash cards prior to each test like... 2 days before, memorize them (I'm talking about 6-8 times repeating each one the first time.. It might take 6 Hours to get through the whole batch) each night while exercising at the SAME time, and I absolutely destructed each test. You gotta really hammer all that **** home.


In Physio, which I just finished, I ended with a 97.6% but I had to study differently. I would read our pre-made (again, at minimum 20 pages for each test) study guide at least 20 times through the days before the test. It cut out all the fluff while leaving the vast majority of substance.

wtf man.....IsThisRealLife.jpeg

 

[obgyny]

I've made a lot of sacrifices and worked tirelessly all semester to do well in this class because apparently, bio is not my thing. I must be ******ed because I find organic chemistry and physics to be naturally easier. This is going to haunt me in med school since physiology and anatomy are pretty important during preclinical years.

Finals just ended and I got my course grade: 89.4%. 0.1% away from an A-. Even though the semester's over, I'd like to get some input on how to prepare for a physio/anatomy (or any advanced bio class) exam. I always reviewed the material after every lecture, but I've noticed that I can't remember much from the earlier lectures as the exam date approaches. I know I'm going to struggle again if I go to med school. Any advice?

Are you having trouble memorizing details/facts? Or is it the concepts? If it's the details that are the problem, repetition is key (whether that's using flashcards or re-reading your notes over and over again). I'm not sure how anatomy-intensive your class is, but anatomy can be quite a challenge to some people at first (because of the sheer amount of detail and because it can be hard to memorize 3D structures).

If it's the conceptual stuff, then simply re-writing your notes may not be very helpful. For med school physio, I would make my own notes (not just copy what's on the powerpoints). I would summarize every concept in my own words and cut/paste useful diagrams (from lectures or other sources). It not only condenses the amount of material to read through, but also forces me to think about what's going on. For any concept I don't understand, I would refer to the textbook, google it, watch youtube videos, etc.

I wouldn't say a B+ is "struggling." Maybe you just haven't found a study method that's right for you (I'm still changing up my study methods in med school, you have to adapt).

Did you at least find the material interesting? If you absolutely hated it, then you might not like the first 2 years of med school...

 

[musiconcerto]

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[obgyny]

I did! I really enjoyed the material because I could actually relate to it. But my consistently low performance was such a letdown. I knew that something was wrong with my study routine. Looking back at my exams, I was much better at the concepts. I missed points here and there on the details, and it added up. I guess it's a good thing that this happened to me early on so I can change and adapt myself to future classes.

Well that's good! Don't let a B+ in physio/anatomy dissuade you from pursuing medicine if it's what you want to do. Sounds like you just need to adjust your study methods.

 

[dmf2682]

I've made a lot of sacrifices and worked tirelessly all semester to do well in this class because apparently, bio is not my thing. I must be ******ed because I find organic chemistry and physics to be naturally easier.

Everyone has their own way of studying for different things, so maybe you should try something different.

My approach to classes like undergrad a&p where you have to straight memorize most things is to find a pattern, even if the most basic or nonsensical.

Make mnemonics. Line up functions of the kidney on a piece of scratch paper, take their first letters and plug them into an anagram solver (google this). Gives you an expression or a word that you can regurgitate on an exam to help as a memory aid.

Another thing I did was make stories or find actual etymologies for different anatomical features or landmarks. If you're "walking" along the femoral what do you "see" as you pass from superior to inferior? Or for a landmark, my favorite was the sella turcica, because I had no idea how to remember it but wiki'd that it meant "turkish seat" because it resembled a saddle. Not forgetting that now.

Finally, something that helped me (and this may be me, only) was to not study as much for as long a period of time. What I would do, especially for A&P, was to stare at my notes for maybe 20 minutes and then turn away. Do something else for 5 minutes. Then come back, cover up your labels or right hand side of your notes with your hand, and try and conjure up what they said. Eventually you'll start to get more and more right, especially if you use the memory cues.

good luck on your next course.