Since apparently there are like 10 threads on how much anatomy sucks, I figured I'd make a thread for the survivors to share some tips on how to get through it. Please don't start any more anatomy threads guys- if all goes well, this'll become your one-stop shop.
I'll start.
1) For me, the best part of anatomy was that it ended. I considered it a huge bump in the road and nothing else. If you hate it, you hate it, and that's ok. No, it won't make you a bad doctor or mean that you'll fail out of med school.
2) Ask your upperclassmen what the expectations are and how you are tested. I found that our second years were my best resource as far as figuring out how to study, while people at other schools were basically useless.
3) As you go through structures, try to think of their function. Look at the body clinically. We happened to be tested on that stuff a lot so it was useful as far as our exams were concerned, but even if that's not the case, it's a good way of looking at things for later on (path etc). When you're doing the portal system, for example, imagine what would happen if the whole thing backed up- what would cause it to back up? Where would the blood go? What would happen next? It'll turn out to be important the next year at the very least.
4) Use dissection time as study time. A couple of people I had spoken to about anatomy told me often how useless dissections were, and I took it to heart. I then realized that I was wasting 4ish hours of my life mindlessly going through fascia. Open the Netter's and study while you do it. Quiz people in your lab group and ask them to quiz you. Name everything you see and think of where it goes/ where it comes from/ what could happen to it. Efficiency is key, and when you don't have any free time to begin with, dismissing lab time as a waste is just not smart.
5) Draw things. I am the least good artist ever, but I couldn't have gotten through some of the more complicated branchings of arteries if I hadn't drawn and redrawn them 100 times. If I remember correctly, I drew the entire course of the abdominal aorta on the back of my GI/pelvis exam in the beginning. It took up quite a bit of time but it saved a ton of it as well because whenever there was a question about vascular supply of something or hemorrhage from somewhere, I could just look at my drawing instead of having to think through the whole thing in my head.
6) Collaborate with your classmates. One of the things we did last year that turned out to be super useful is that we set up a google doc in which anyone could write down a structure their body had that was particularly well-dissected, aberrant, or hard to find. Whenever I went to lab to review, I'd take that document with me and go to all of those bodies. Chances are, those structures were tagged during the practical exam.
Alright guys, feel free to ask questions and M2s and above: write down your advice!
