Tips for memorizing nerves/muscles?

[gerrardsgirl]

Got any good tricks up your sleeves?
the thing I hate most about med school is how you have to memorize everything without giving it much logical thought... you have to always be like : "it just is... it is supplied by the median nerve because it just is..."

I heard that flashcards are good but anything else? Is it good to draw as well? My lecturer suggested drawing a picture in your head of the structure that you're concentrating on. e.g. for Brachial artery, you'd be visualizing the upper limb area with its surrounding muscles.

Is this a good way? What do top students do?

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[PeeWee137]

get a group of friends together and make up mnemonics. they will probably be stupid but you will never forget them. i made one up for the stages of sleep and eeg readings, and people still ask me about it. apple tree kentucky doobie doo!
seriously though, it really helps. theres also a website medicalmnemonics.com that has a bunch you can search thru. i think drawing helps too, or even making little flow charts starting with the big nerve and then all its branches...

 

[gouda]

I assume you are talking about actually identification and not written.

Although this is probably already evident - repetition is critical. Find out a way to quickly go over the stuff and then repeat...again...and again...(this would probably be true for the flashcards - however, Netter was way too busy for me). And I agree mnemonics are great!

 

[DOctorJay]

i used to draw stuff out on a dry erase board to save on paper - i'd draw out the brachial plexus or the arteries in some region. do it 7 times a day for 7 days and you'll have it down for your exam.

this method works great for charted material and for mnemonics as well.

quizzing each other in a good anatomy lab grouop helps tremendously as well. you know you know if you can teach it to someone else.

J

 

[PeeWee137]

quizzing each other in a good anatomy lab grouop helps tremendously as well. you know you know if you can teach it to someone else.

J

definitely! once we dissected out our heart, we would "toss" it to each other and have to name the part we were looking at. it helps you to understand where things are in relation to each other, instead of memorizing the "anterior" view that you see all the time.

 

[nlax30]

Agree with all the above. You have all to use several different methods (at least I do). I need to do a lot of repetition and/or teaching it to someone else for me to memorize the innervation, etc... But then to be able to identify/find it in the cadaver you also need to memorize/be familiar with it's course throughout the body and maybe memorize a few key landmarks such as what it comes off of, or what it passes over, etc...

It also helped me to use several different resources. I'd read about it in our Gray's anatomy book, find it in Netter's to understand its relationship with surrounding structures, look in Rohen's atlas to see what it actually looks like in the body, and then go to the cadaver and put my hands on it to see the 3D structure and what else is around it.

 

[Fin-Nor]

the thing I hate most about med school is how you have to memorize everything without giving it much logical thought... you have to always be like : "it just is... it is supplied by the median nerve because it just is..."

what do you expect them to say when you ask about innervation and such? you want them to give you a mathematical calculation or something?

too bad, its just the way it is. learn it like the thousands before you.

 

[Buckeye4life]

I agree with what others said. Mneumonics and plain ol' repetition are the keys for me.

A few I use are (well, some aren't mneumonics):
Radial n.- "the great extensor" it extends everything in the arm and forearm.
2LOAF for median n. in hand(everything else ulnar n.)- 1st two lumbricals, opponens pollicis, abductor pollicis brevis, flexor pollicis brevis.
longus, brevis, longus, brevis, longus (forearm m. on extensor side in order) - extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, abductor pollicis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, extensor pollicis longus.
Tom, Dick, and Very Nervous Harry (medial malleolous closest to furthest) - Tib posterior, flexor digitorum longus, tibial a., tibial n, tibial vein, flexor hallucis longus

Those are the ones off the top of my head. You probably already know VAN, TAN, NAVAL, Army over/Navy under.

 

[Animus]

I really just agree with the...find out what works for you strategy. That and tons of repetition. Mnemonics can be good for some people, I find that I never remember them and have a better time just creating the list in my head. Of course I am almost strictly a visual learner. There is no "top student" way, other than those people that find out what works best and repeat lots and lots of times.

 

[MJB]

My strategy so far...

Go to lab with lab sheets, give everything a once over to the best of my ability...

Study lab sheets and textbooks/flashcards and get to know the names.

Eventually, once I knew the names cold, i just spent more and more time in the lab.

By the time the upper limb test came, I could visualize the entire upper limb in my mind.

Learning the innervations, etc...was made easier by a great powerpoint our Prof. gave us.

The only real mnemonics I used were for the Rotator Cuff and Girdle Muscles, but they were more for the written part.

SITS and "Rotating The Shoulder Leaves Sore Pecs".

So far, the Head has been a whole new adventure.

Don't recommend memorizing much...but that doesn't work for me, if it works for you..so be it.

 

[jvinlv]

Think of the upper arm as beginning of alphabet and lower arm as end of alpha....therefore, "c" in collateral (upper arm) comes before "r" in recurrent (lower in arm).

Now, to figure out which artery matches up with what:

Superior ulnar collateral=Posterior recurrent (both start with consanant)
Inferior ulnar collateral=Anterior recurrent (both start with vowel)
Radial collateral=Radial recurrent (both are radial so just remember "c"
is before "r"
Middle collateral=interosseous recurrent (this one is memorize)

 

[harrypotter]

the thing I hate most about med school is how you have to memorize everything without giving it much logical thought... you have to always be like : "it just is... it is supplied by the median nerve because it just is..."

I totally know what you mean. If there is a logical reason for something being the way it is, then you understand it and not have to just memorize it cold.

The more anatomy I do, the more it looks like it's just straight memorization. Use a mneumonic to start the memorization, keep repeating it, and pretty soon you won't need the mneumonic anymore.

g'luck!!!

 

[v-lander]

Isn't anatomy yummy?! It's my fave so that probably helps me learn it better than other subjects. Mnemonics can be good but I find it just as hard and meaningless to memorize the mnemonic as rote memorizing the info without the mnemonic. Pictures and teaching it help me the most. Like others have said, though, no matter what works for you, repetition is key.

Also, if you want to know the meaning and the why's of anatomy, you really gotta go to embryology. Some stuff doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you understand the developmental basis of it - then it can be pretty cool! Of course, though, that's more info to learn/memorize! Worth it, though, IMO.

 

[scpod]

My lecturer suggested drawing a picture in your head of the structure that you're concentrating on. e.g. for Brachial artery, you'd be visualizing the upper limb area with its surrounding muscles.

Is this a good way? What do top students do?

If you really want to do well then visualization is important because you will need to know relationships as you go farther into anatomy. For instance, you'll start getting questions about a patient who was shot in the abdomen and the bullet nicked the left side of T12, so what artery and organ did it likely penetrate as well? Or you'll start getting questions about where the gallbladder is located: posterior to the right lobe of the liver, posterior to the left lobe, in a fossa between the right and caudate lobe, or a fossa between the right and quadrate lobe? I actually had that last question yesterday in a 2nd-year PBL exam-- so anatomy never goes away.

You may have to try 2, 3, or even 4 methods before you finally find one that fits for you. Everyone learns differently.

 

[LoveThyEnemy]

can i suggest you get a copy of Comlex review - clinical anatomy & osteopathic manipulative medicine.
it has heaps of relevant anatomy and some really really funny acronyms and mneumonics to remember various facts about. its not overly helpful for muscle attachments/insertions but quite helpful.
if you are looking at trying mneumonics - make them so silly you will remember them or slightly wrong/dirty. nice things don't work quite as well - the comlex book has some really clean ones that made us laugh when we were going through it to revise for a test over here is oz.
someone above had tom, dick and very nervous harry. we change very to bloody but same thing really.
drawing things over and over always helps as pretty much everyone has said.
hope this helps!

 

[Kuba]

If you really want to do well then visualization is important because you will need to know relationships as you go farther into anatomy. For instance, you'll start getting questions about a patient who was shot in the abdomen and the bullet nicked the left side of T12, so what artery and organ did it likely penetrate as well? Or you'll start getting questions about where the gallbladder is located: posterior to the right lobe of the liver, posterior to the left lobe, in a fossa between the right and caudate lobe, or a fossa between the right and quadrate lobe? I actually had that last question yesterday in a 2nd-year PBL exam-- so anatomy never goes away.

You may have to try 2, 3, or even 4 methods before you finally find one that fits for you. Everyone learns differently.

Our anatomy exams are all about relationships, levels, and other spacial orientation crap.

 

[medschoolsoon]

Kuba,
VERY off topic...but The Office starts tonight! Damn, something else to distract my anatomy studying. Oh well...

 

[Kuba]

Kuba,
VERY off topic...but The Office starts tonight! Damn, something else to distract my anatomy studying. Oh well...

yea, and I was in the damn anatomy lab for a review and my roommate f'ed up the DVR... GRRRRRR

 

[emidesu]

I had to repeat anatomy and found the second time that having a broader context and reading Moore and really understanding the relationships make it much better. I am not a rote memorizer and probably never will be.
If you are also not a rote memorizer, try to find lots of clinical correlations (Moore, BRS review book, UCV etc...)
Also know for first year in general that there are a lot of review books with questions out there. The faculty probably won't tell you about them perhaps because they like to pull test questions from them, but ask upperclassmen. For anatomy there is a book called Review Questions for Anatomy and Embryology By Gest. It helped me a lot but it's very hard to find (out of print).

 

[sharmei17]

what do you expect them to say when you ask about innervation and such? you want them to give you a mathematical calculation or something?

too bad, its just the way it is. learn it like the thousands before you.

 

[madscientist50]

I have really found the Moore Clinical Anatomy to be a great addition to my studying, as I am terrible at straight memorization, I do much better with systems and concepts as in Biochem.

But with the clinical correlations its much easier to turn memorizing the branching of the Sciatic N from the Sacral Plexus much better when you learn about the injuries that cause the problems with the cutanous vs muscle innervation it gets much easier. At least thats what has been working for me.

 

[DaveinDallas]

Our anatomy profs presented the material in compartment form so it helped us learn everything via compartment. That worked great for the extremities and other areas but in head and neck, thorax, abdomen and other such stuff, it was sheer, grind it out, rote memorization.

It helped me to draw it out repeatedly and then go to lab and physically touch the structures while verbally recalling the information I had planted
in my brain. Tried to do lab time by myself or with a buddy at least twice prior to the practical.

In one class we had a former surgeon teaching the anatomy. He gave us a set of notes of what he considered important. Memorized those notes and got all but 2 of his questions right. Definitely high yield notes....