Well, this has never happened before....

[NonTradMed]

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It was an interesting day today. We got our gross anatomy exam back and I....failed.

And not just failed, but failed abysmally. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially since I had to guess on quite a number of the problems. But I just didn't anticipate that I would fail this badly.

I'm worried mainly because I would need to do well on the next few exams in order to make up for it and I'm not sure I can. I studied everyday and I made sure I understood everything but I just didn't have a good grasp of the material come exam time. I realized my problem was that I was taking an engineering approach to my studying. Engineering is all about concepts. If there's any straight memorization, I just do it and go on. Anatomy is a weird hybrid in that it requires intense memorization but also a 'big picture' approach. I will try to do that for the next exam. My bigger concern is that I've heard it's hard to make up anatomy in the summer so many people who fail have to retake the entire year....I guess other than the waste of tuition, I feel it would be very embarassing to have the entire class advance ahead of you, especially since it is only one class that kept you back (so far, I'm not failing anything else....). It's just a strange feeling knowing that you studied for something but that a wrong strategy could throw your grades out like that. In college, even if I took the wrong approach on something, the exams were always easy enough that I could pass with a B or whatever just based on what I knew of the subject matter. Not so in gross I guess.

I was wondering if there is anyone like me out there that have been struggling in this one class. You study and study and study and then come exam time, you realize you know nothing, that you're study strategy is wrong. I think that was my problem. Right now, I'm feeling kind of stupid. I know that med school can make a person feel that way, but the fact that I scored so poorly----well, that is a *new* low, even for me. 🙁

Well, back to studying I guess.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

It was an interesting day today. We got our gross anatomy exam back and I....failed.

And not just failed, but failed abysmally. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially since I had to guess on quite a number of the problems. But I just didn't anticipate that I would fail this badly.

I'm worried mainly because I would need to do well on the next few exams in order to make up for it and I'm not sure I can. I studied everyday and I made sure I understood everything but I just didn't have a good grasp of the material come exam time. I realized my problem was that I was taking an engineering approach to my studying. Engineering is all about concepts. If there's any straight memorization, I just do it and go on. Anatomy is a weird hybrid in that it requires intense memorization but also a 'big picture' approach. I will try to do that for the next exam. My bigger concern is that I've heard it's hard to make up anatomy in the summer so many people who fail have to retake the entire year....I guess other than the waste of tuition, I feel it would be very embarassing to have the entire class advance ahead of you, especially since it is only one class that kept you back (so far, I'm not failing anything else....). It's just a strange feeling knowing that you studied for something but that a wrong strategy could throw your grades out like that. In college, even if I took the wrong approach on something, the exams were always easy enough that I could pass with a B or whatever just based on what I knew of the subject matter. Not so in gross I guess.

I was wondering if there is anyone like me out there that have been struggling in this one class. You study and study and study and then come exam time, you realize you know nothing, that you're study strategy is wrong. I think that was my problem. Right now, I'm feeling kind of stupid. I know that med school can make a person feel that way, but the fact that I scored so poorly----well, that is a *new* low, even for me. 🙁

Well, back to studying I guess.

I'm sorry to hear this. However, you should think back to Albert Einstein's famous quotation- the definition of insanity is doing things over and over again and expecting different results. How much did you fail by?

Change how you do things. I vaguely remember one of your postings that you don't use a textbook, but instead only powerpoints. I highly recommend Moore, or baby Moore. Read that -- I'm also of an "anti-memorize, learn" mindset, and I love how this book explains and unravels things really well. I read through this once for an overview, once for a detailed reading, and a couple of times over for review. It is time well spent. THEN, consult your school's powerpoints, then your school's problemsets (if they offer them).

I got a 98 on the written part of my first exam, although I freaked out a couple of weeks before the test because I thought I knew nothing. You have to do more problems as well. Buy BRS gross anatomy. You can't learn from it, but you can certainly review from it, and the problems in it are ESSENTIAL. The UMICH problems are also excellent. Look through the other websites in the basic sciences sticky thread in this forum. There should be a ton of quizzes and self-tests. Do them all.

You need to develop thinking / learning in multiple dimensions... for example, you need to not only know that the latissimus dorsi medially rotates the arm, but you need to know ALL the medial rotators of the arm as a group, and also the lateral rotators to contrast, etc. Not only do you have to know basic innervations, but you have to know what all a particular nerve innervates. Branches of arteries are also super important, so you can think about collateral circulations, etc. You need to focus on integrating the material a lot more, I think.

Do you remember what kind of questions you got wrong? What was covered last exam? What else is to come?

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm sorry to hear this. However, you should think back to Albert Einstein's famous quotation- the definition of insanity is doing things over and over again and expecting different results. How much did you fail by?

Change how you do things.

Agree with this. Whatever you have done thus far isn't working. Totally scrap it and start anew. Forget about what might have worked in college -- you are in the majors now. If you were relying heavilly on lectures and not on written material, try reversing that. Make sure you are doing active studying -- meaning taking notes, writing outlines, making flashcards, drawing structures -- not just trying to passively soak stuff in. Although not my personal cup of tea, perhaps give Moore's a try as the prior poster suggested. If you were not spending as much time as you could on the coursework, then goose it up a bit.
Don't even concern yourself with the consequences of not passing the course, because you are simply not going to let that happen. Worry about the future only as it unfolds.

 

[bjackrian]

I also agree with the starting with a new strategy.

Keep in mind that a good number of current doctors failed a class in medical school and are perfectly good doctors. A much larger number failed an exam at some point in med school and they're still good doctors. Don't let this destroy your entire self-esteem--you can and will recover from a bad exam.

 

[frycek]

The same thing happened to me on my first anatomy practical last year, nontrad (I'm a second-year now.) And I think for similar reasons: I was a physics major as an undergrad, and had been conditioned (rather explicitly) by that training that what was important was to understand the deep concepts, and that all the details would flow from that understanding. So I went from an academic training of contemplating a single equation and all its implications for weeks at a time, to having to take in and retain (at least for a few weeks) a vast quantity of details with little "depth" behind them.

I, too, was rather emotionally distraught at first, this being the first test I had ever failed. It wasn't cool. I had a terrible evening and night after getting that exam back. But I rebounded pretty quickly, by telling myself (and truly believing) that: 1.) this is a very common experience for med students, and 2.) this can be a good learning experience for me if I try to figure out what to do different next time. It's all about accepting that all new experience, especially challenges like med school, involve a learning curve, always. Just embrace that, and accept that it will take a bit of time to get to the top of the curve.

For me, it had to do with spending a lot more time in the lab pre-practical with the cadavers and TA's, going over several times all that we'd have to know. Book-studying didn't cut it for me for the practicals. With a small group of friends, it was even a little fun sometimes. For the written exams, the best strategy I found was to go through the notes/powerpoints from individual lectures, recognize the "testable details", and make flashcards, then go over them until I felt comfortable that I had truly taken in each one.

Don't beat yourself up over this, and don't spend much time focusing on future bad scenarios. Your brain is having to figure out an entire new kind of learning - it takes time, and it takes trial-and-error. You'll have to develop new instincts for when something has really "clicked" - again, it's not so much about deeper concepts, and more about retaining content.

Best wishes. I had friends last year who failed most of their anatomy tests the first time through, and still were able to have it all made up by the spring. You can do it - really!

 

[lilnoelle]

Well, its not an anatomy exam, but I'm pretty concerned about my second test in our Foundations block tomorrow. I did decently on my first test, but circumstances were slightly different this time and there seems like theres more material this time.... I guess I'll see, but I'm thinking that I'll not do well.

 

[NonTradMed]

I got a 98 on the written part of my first exam, although I freaked out a couple of weeks before the test because I thought I knew nothing. You have to do more problems as well.

....

Do you remember what kind of questions you got wrong? What was covered last exam? What else is to come?

Thanks for the advice. I will take it to heart. I have decided to look through the stickied links on anatomy and look into the text you suggested. I also have the BRS book and I will utilize it. I actually know what I did wrong and the types of questions I missed. It was the innervations and movements of the hand muscles. Devil in the details and all. I also realized I didnt' know the lab as well as I thought. Again, devil in the details. I will make a list of everything they want us to know and keep in mind as I go along. I missed the passing cutoff by quite a bit, but I calculated we have three more exams and if I hit around the mean on each, I should be able to pass. Here's hoping!

Agree with this. Whatever you have done thus far isn't working. Totally scrap it and start anew. Forget about what might have worked in college -- you are in the majors now. If you were relying heavilly on lectures and not on written material, try reversing that. Make sure you are doing active studying -- meaning taking notes, writing outlines, making flashcards, drawing structures -- not just trying to passively soak stuff in. Although not my personal cup of tea, perhaps give Moore's a try as the prior poster suggested. If you were not spending as much time as you could on the coursework, then goose it up a bit.
Don't even concern yourself with the consequences of not passing the course, because you are simply not going to let that happen. Worry about the future only as it unfolds.

I completely scrapped what I had. I have fully embraced 'active learning'. Tonight, I have gone through my notes and made sure I knew where it was on Netters, and understood what they touched, any special relationships etc. I also started making flashcards. Up until now, I just read through the notes and tried 'absorbed', as you so apted put it. That DOES NOT WORK FOR ANATOMY. I was treating this like a typical bio test where I just read though, undrestand the processes, and go into the test. Now, it's finding the connections, looking through the diagrams and FLASHCARDS who are my new best friends. 🙂

I also agree with the starting with a new strategy.

Keep in mind that a good number of current doctors failed a class in medical school and are perfectly good doctors. A much larger number failed an exam at some point in med school and they're still good doctors. Don't let this destroy your entire self-esteem--you can and will recover from a bad exam.

I keep telling myself that. I'm actually feeling much better now that I have calmed down and studied a bit of anatomy. I think it has re-energized me to do better in the future. I've grown complacent about my studying habits and I think this was the rude awakening I needed!

The same thing happened to me on my first anatomy practical last year, nontrad (I'm a second-year now.)

....

I, too, was rather emotionally distraught at first, this being the first test I had ever failed.

....

Don't beat yourself up over this, and don't spend much time focusing on future bad scenarios. Your brain is having to figure out an entire new kind of learning - it takes time, and it takes trial-and-error. You'll have to develop new instincts for when something has really "clicked" - again, it's not so much about deeper concepts, and more about retaining content.

Best wishes. I had friends last year who failed most of their anatomy tests the first time through, and still were able to have it all made up by the spring. You can do it - really!

Thanks for the encouraging words! I will certainly focus on doing better (and keep in mind that I am following in the footsteps of many students that came before me!).

 

[Kazema]

You need to develop thinking / learning in multiple dimensions... for example, you need to not only know that the latissimus dorsi medially rotates the arm, but you need to know ALL the medial rotators of the arm as a group, and also the lateral rotators to contrast, etc. Not only do you have to know basic innervations, but you have to know what all a particular nerve innervates. Branches of arteries are also super important, so you can think about collateral circulations, etc. You need to focus on integrating the material a lot more, I think.

This is the best way to approach anatomy I think. Learn everything forwards and backwards. Literally, forwards and backwards. Know the muscles, and learn what nerves innervate them. But also know all the nerves, their pathways, and what muscles they innervate. Same with arteries.

The human body for the most part makes sense. So your strategy of trying to make sense of it all is a good strategy. But you're also right in the sense that memorization is a huge component of the class. Some people can learn it from a book, but for most I think the best way is to spend as much time as possible in the lab, identifying structures on different bodies ad nauseum until you're completely sick of it. Usually, when you're sick of it (and not in a frustrated way) that means you know it well enough to stop.

You prep for studying by using books - this is when you get the conceptual idea that you've kind of been doing. Your actual "study" takes place in the lab, with other people, looking at actual bodies. Then you make sense of what you've studied by going back to the books.

Anatomy is almost like a skill more than a traditional class. You have to practice, not just study it.

 

[njbmd]

It was an interesting day today. We got our gross anatomy exam back and I....failed.

And not just failed, but failed abysmally. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially since I had to guess on quite a number of the problems. But I just didn't anticipate that I would fail this badly.

The first person you should make an appointment with is your Dean of Education/Academics and find out what happens if you fail. Some schools will require remediation of only the portion of the course that you failed and some wil alllow you to pass the NBME Gross Anatomy shelf and some will require you to take a summer remedial Gross Anatomy course and pass that. You need to know what your options are if you fail.

The next person to get in touch with is the instructor of the course. You still may mathematically be able to pass the course but you need a diffierent approach to this course. See the instructor and let him/her know that you are ready and willing to do everything possible learn this material and pass the couse. Get some strategy here. Also keep in mind that if you did poorly, it is likely others in the class did poorly so you still may be able to salvage a passing grade by digging in and working hard.

Another thing to do is get a Gross Anatomy tutor if your school has this service. Sometimes working one on one with someone who finished the class and did well will work. Find out if a tutor is available and use their services.

Once you know your options, figure out how you are going to give Gross Anatomy enough time without neglecting your other courses. Often when one class is ailing, the others can become neglected which create a downward spiral. If you find that you cannot salvage Anatomy, dig in and ace the rest of your classes and then do whatever remediation you have to perform during the summer.

Also keep in mind that 75% of my class failed their first Gross Anatomy exam but only 2 people failed the course. It is likely that you are going to be able to pull this up to a pass if you get a new strategy and some help for mastering this material. Good luck!

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Ditto on meeting with the dean and the course instructor. At our school, the story is that the course instructor will meet with you regularly to see how you're progressing if you fail the first test.

I also agree with going through all the problems in BRS. Doing that helps me retain the material, and it preps you for the type of questions you'll get on the actual written exam. Moore's a good reference, too. Personally, I don't read all of it, but I read it when I have something I'm having trouble understanding or conceptualizing (like the hand!). For some reason, it really helps things stick in my mind.

Anyway, from what I understand from SDN, lots of people fail the first anatomy test, so you still have lots of time to make it right.

 

[WhatUpDoc!]

Yeah, I crashed and burned too on my lab practical, but my saving grace was the written portion which I did pretty good on. But I wasn't nearly in the lab as much as I should have been, so I relied heavily on memory from dissections and clinical pictures in one of my atlases... which obviously didn't wortk out too well. On the other hand, my friends who were in the lab like every weekend did very well on the practical, but bombed the written portion. Needless to say, we're looking for some common ground this next block of tests.

 

[subi]

Anyway, from what I understand from SDN, lots of people fail the first anatomy test, so you still have lots of time to make it right.

i am having my first anatomy exam tomorrow

the profs been saying that even if 95% of the students failed he wouldnt be surprised and asked us also not to be surprised (some encouragment🙁)

 

[subi]

completed my exam and the performance👎
i didnt have time to complete even the questions i knew!!!🙁

 

[indo]

did you use a scantron sheet or some other non written way of recording your answers? I know a person who got 0 on her anatomy exam because all of her answers were shifted up or down or something. Of course, the instructor let her resubmit them in the correct order.

 

[Sophie]

We had a practice practical gross exam this past week, and I did REALLY badly. Thank god it was only a practice, but it was very unnerving to completely fail an exam. It sounds like you have everything straightened out already, NonTrad, but to echo previous posters I'd really recommend meeting with your course instructor. Also, what did me in, was I've been studying for gross like any other class - going over the lecture notes and powerpoints, making flashcards to memorize all the names - but I didn't spend any extra time in the lab, or even use my atlases much. The practical was ALL about where things are located, what they're related to, and what they branch into or what their tributaries are. Recognizing a structure on the body is so different from reading where it's located, that very little of my knowledge translated.

I'm meeting with my instructor next week for help, and am planning to spend a whole afternoon in the gross lab just looking at cadavers. I'm also going to spend a lot of time with my atlases, and much less time with the written material. Our real exam is in a little under 2 weeks, so I'm hoping that the dramatic shift in study style will work quickly.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

Ditto on meeting with the dean and the course instructor. At our school, the story is that the course instructor will meet with you regularly to see how you're progressing if you fail the first test.

As a student at your school who failed the first test, that's actually not true 😉 He never met with me, but I pulled it together and passed the class. Failing the first test is NOT that big of a deal, as long as you don't make it a habit. It's only one test, and you just have to learn from it. Obviously, what you did didn't work this time. So just try something new (ask your classmates what works for them), and I'm sure you'll be fine next time and end up passing the class. Good luck!!

 

[NonTradMed]

Sounds like gross anatomy is a huge pain for others as well. I have set up a meeting with my professor to go over my learning issues. I'm also considering getting a tutor although I'm not sure if I need one or not. I have decided to really hit on my flashcards this time. This way, a week before the exam, I'm already done memorizing a bunch of stuff. And I have gotten to know my Netters, my new best friend. 😀

I think the key to studying anatomy is to remember that it is all about picking out relationships between items. It's not just about picking out parts on a body. I thought it was and I studied it with that approach, but the test questions were all about relationships, what would happen if so and so was paralyzed etc. I need to make sure I know the parts, but I think it also helps to stand back and just look at why this nerve is important and where have I heard its usage, in other parts of the body, perhaps? I never thought about doing the BRS questions, but I may do that just because our school does not give out old test questions.

I think studying in med school is a learning curve by itself because I'm not used to memorizing so much stuff in such a short amount of time. As a result, compensating lack of studying by cramming does not work (anymore). I'm also used to spending hours in lab (CS major), not in front of a book, so spending so much time in front of the book seems almost....unnatural. 😀

I hope others who are reading this use my experience as a warning about treating anatomy just like another bio course, because I really think it is a unique animal.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

As a student at your school who failed the first test, that's actually not true 😉 He never met with me, but I pulled it together and passed the class. Failing the first test is NOT that big of a deal, as long as you don't make it a habit. It's only one test, and you just have to learn from it. Obviously, what you did didn't work this time. So just try something new (ask your classmates what works for them), and I'm sure you'll be fine next time and end up passing the class. Good luck!!

Really? I wonder why he meets with some people and not with other people.

 

[fpr85]

Wow, excellent posts with great advice. Although I am not in medical school, I too did poorly on my first A&P exam (low C) -- it has been a challenge between juggling a full-time job and full-time classes at night. Of course, I also took the wrong approach by trying to read through the text and develop an understanding of the literature rather than straight memorizing. I also bombed my first lab practical -- keeping my fingers crossed for the next exams. Once again, great advice and good luck to all 👍

 

[fpr85]

PS: What flashcards did you purchase, or did you make your own? Any recommendations for undergrad students whom aren't too troubled with minutiae?

 

[anon-y-mouse]

We had a practice practical gross exam this past week, and I did REALLY badly. Thank god it was only a practice, but it was very unnerving to completely fail an exam. It sounds like you have everything straightened out already, NonTrad, but to echo previous posters I'd really recommend meeting with your course instructor. Also, what did me in, was I've been studying for gross like any other class - going over the lecture notes and powerpoints, making flashcards to memorize all the names - but I didn't spend any extra time in the lab, or even use my atlases much. The practical was ALL about where things are located, what they're related to, and what they branch into or what their tributaries are. Recognizing a structure on the body is so different from reading where it's located, that very little of my knowledge translated.

I'm meeting with my instructor next week for help, and am planning to spend a whole afternoon in the gross lab just looking at cadavers. I'm also going to spend a lot of time with my atlases, and much less time with the written material. Our real exam is in a little under 2 weeks, so I'm hoping that the dramatic shift in study style will work quickly.

Don't worry, I bombed my practice practical and did well on the real thing. The practice is NOT as good as the real thing...b/c on the real thing, they have to make it meticulously good to avoid any sort of ambiguity at ALL about what a structure is (you know, the usual premed "challenging a test question" bitching). They'll tag the structures and pin them REALLY well... like for example, you'll see the suprascapular artery in one cadaver and suprascapular nerve on another... but the ligament will be nicely cleaned and indicated and the structure will be pinned in such a fashion as you can gather it's "army over navy" etc.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Don't worry, I bombed my practice practical and did well on the real thing. The practice is NOT as good as the real thing...b/c on the real thing, they have to make it meticulously good to avoid any sort of ambiguity at ALL about what a structure is (you know, the usual premed "challenging a test question" bitching). They'll tag the structures and pin them REALLY well... like for example, you'll see the suprascapular artery in one cadaver and suprascapular nerve on another... but the ligament will be nicely cleaned and indicated and the structure will be pinned in such a fashion as you can gather it's "army over navy" etc.

Yeah, I did a lot better on our real first practical than I did on the practice practical, too. Of course, doing poorly on the practice one did motivate me to study a little more. 🙂

 

[indo]

One good thing about med school anatomy is that they don't try to trick you at all. They just want you to know the stuff they think is important. In undergrad, they would take a muscle off of the cadaver, lay it on the table, and tag it. What the hell?

 

[indo]

FPR85, do you work for Hanger or what? Are you planning on going into surgical equipment sales or orthopaedic surgery?

 

[nightowl]

I failed my first practical after studying for hours. I think a lot of it was that I wasn't learning anything in the actual lab, just dissecting and leaving. Plus, I relied too much on the books and didn't spend enough time going through things in the lab, like identifying structures. When I did go to the lab, I spent too much time working with other people instead of running through things on my own, so I never learned it all. One of my friends that did really well said that helped for him was going to lab with one other person. They had an "allstar" list of all of the major structures, and they'd both id the structures on their bodies and then show each other. I'm definitely going to try this with someone for gross lab, because you're forced to go through all of the structures on your own, but if you're wrong, you have someone else to correct you.

I really thought I was going to do some type of surg before gross, but after not really enjoying it I'm thinking I'll be leaning towards a non-surg specialty. For written, I think everyone is right in saying it's all about relationships. Plus, at our school is it basically sef-taught. If you're not learning it on your own out of a book, you're most definitely going to fail. Finally if you're school has practice tests or old tests available, utilize them to practice for the written exams. I know this makes all of the difference at our school.

Good luck

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Plus, at our school is it basically sef-taught. If you're not learning it on your own out of a book, you're most definitely going to fail. Finally if you're school has practice tests or old tests available, utilize them to practice for the written exams. I know this makes all of the difference at our school.

This is really true, I think. The powerpoints and lectures cover maybe 20% of what you need to know and are there mainly to help you with the big picture. All those little nitpicky details need to be picked up through books.

 

[fpr85]

FPR85, do you work for Hanger or what? Are you planning on going into surgical equipment sales or orthopaedic surgery?

I currently work for Hanger.

I wouldn't mind going into orthopaedic surgery, but at this point I'll just settle for an acceptance into med school

 

[southerncomfort]

We just took our first block exams this week, and while we don't have our grades in yet, I am fairly confident that I failed the anatomy practical.
I've always had a sort of "practical anxiety", in that I end up learning so much in the lab by touch that when I can't touch anything on the practical, it freaks me out a bit (let's be grown-up and not make stupid comments here, yes?), . Not to mention that timer! 😱

I like to hit the lab daily, just to look around at other groups' cadavers, review on my own, etc. Our class lab sessions end up being more "work" than "learning", at least in my lab group.

Any advice or ideas? 😕

 

[HIghbury]

One good thing about med school anatomy is that they don't try to trick you at all. They just want you to know the stuff they think is important. In undergrad, they would take a muscle off of the cadaver, lay it on the table, and tag it. What the hell?

Completely concur👍

 

[BooMed]

One good thing about med school anatomy is that they don't try to trick you at all. They just want you to know the stuff they think is important. In undergrad, they would take a muscle off of the cadaver, lay it on the table, and tag it. What the hell?

Ugh, I wish our profs were more straightforward. 🙁 They'll take the lungs and put them on the wrong sides of the body, or pin muscles in the anterior compartment of the leg from behind, and they always pin anomalies. It's like one giant mind-f**k.

The thing that surprised me about anatomy was that they only test on the minutia. Out of 50 pinned parts on a practical, two will be muscles and 25 will be vessels the size of dental floss. I've found it really frustrating but I guess that way you know everything. For a couple of weeks at least. 🙄

 

[Orthodoc40]

You guys are making me nervous!
Why is this class so tough for so many people?

 

[MarzMD]

You guys are making me nervous!
Why is this class so tough for so many people?

Ugh, I wish our profs were more straightforward. 🙁 They'll take the lungs and put them on the wrong sides of the body, or pin muscles in the anterior compartment of the leg from behind, and they always pin anomalies. It's like one giant mind-f**k.

The thing that surprised me about anatomy was that they only test on the minutia. Out of 50 pinned parts on a practical, two will be muscles and 25 will be vessels the size of dental floss. I've found it really frustrating but I guess that way you know everything. For a couple of weeks at least. 🙄

It is so tough because they like to test the very small details. If you have a packet of notes, the seemingly insignificant facts are the ones that will be tested on both the practical and written. On top of that, our written has stuff like A)xxx B)xxxC)XXX D) two of the above are true E) none of the above are true. Then the choices of A, B, and C will have like 3 points of knowledge in the answer so they like to switch around one little fact to make an answer wrong. Or word it in a very confusing way.

 

[dpmd]

The biggest problem I always had was when they would isolate a structure and want us to know it without any context. It is all about relations, but I had spent too much time looking at things with a big window. They liked to give you just a small body part, then you would have to figure out which side you were looking at and the orientation before you could even hope to know what structure they had pinned. On the other hand, they also liked to stick a knife in somewhere and ask what layers it would pierce (in order of course).

 

[NonTradMed]

Anatomy is a #^$% of a class, can we all just agree on that? 😀

 

[Mixtli]

Anatomy for me is all about understanding, spatial relationships, and mnenomics. It takes a lot and a lot of time and practice. I do the practice practicals and group tutoring that our 2nd years provide. I find embryology a lot more difficult understanding. The naming don't make no sense as all the embryological stuff have different names. Also, things get moved around a lot and destroyed. It's driving me crwzy. I can't understand why things happen the way they do in the developing human embryo. I can't believe this junk is going to be 10% of our quizzes and exams.

Nonetheless, for some #$%$ reason averages in our anatomy class is consistently around 88% and supposedly not one person in our class of 82 failed. A lot of people are interested in surgery in our class for some reason or another.

 

[71263]

Anatomy is a #^$% of a class, can we all just agree on that? 😀

Although I agree, I still say Neuro is ALOT worse

 

[71263]

To the OP: there are ALOT of people in your position, believe me. I came into med school, started off doing the same things I did in undergrad. Then I took midterms and got RAPED. And that was the point when I realized that I either have to get my butt in gear or fail for good. Those few weeks were like hell. Fall midterms, then winter. I was somehow able to pull through and make it to 2nd year, but I know people who had to decelerate and repeat much of first year. Its not easy. I struggled alot mentally and emotionally. At times, I thought I wouldnt be able to make it. But I did. And Im only moving forward from here. Just keep your head up, surround yourself by people to support you, and get help if you need it. Best wishes. 👍

 

[Analyzethis]

STRONGLY disagree with the above advice to change completely the way you study-I agree that you may have to modify that WAY YOU STUDY ANATOMY for the next couple months but after that-than make sure you go back to the engineering "conceptual" type of studying. I too struggled with anatomy somewhat, I hated memorizing and frankly was not good at it. Unlike you I was always a text person. I never wetn to lecture in UG either and always focused on reading and understand the text and than "figuring out" the answer on tests rather than ever memorizing.

Now after anatomy, there is very little that will be strict memorizing and you can easily use conceptual learning. Especially in path, pharm biochem. ALthough there is always some degree of "memorizing", I like to think of it more as a degree of "remmebering" which is essential part of all learning but after you take the time to learn something conceptually well, you will "remmeber" enough of it to not have to sit and memorize any more than that. Even biochem, some people say its all memorization but I did very little-you memorize some basic steps but then you can work your way through cycles etc-Enzyme names obviously are something you have to memorize. Path I memorized very very little-learned it well. Pharm, very little memorization surprisingly as well.

Bottom line-adjust your studying tecnique a bit for anatomy but after that stick to what worked in college because it WILL work for the rest of med-especially your steps! Everyone who was a memorizer first 2 years did NOT do as well as the people who really understood things on their steps. They may have done better on class tests first 2 years but the ones who did reallyw ell on the steps were the "understanders" gluck

 

[Law2Doc]

Although I agree, I still say Neuro is ALOT worse

Agree with this. Anatomy feels like the worst it can get while you are in it, but I guaranty that you will get to courses down the road that may make you miss anatomy.😀

 

[CityDweller]

NonTradMed, I have the exact sort of problem with anatomy. I was also an engineering major in undergrad. We were expected to problem solve on exams, and not to regurgitate ridiculous amounts of information. I did not do so well on my first anatomy exam either, but I have been trying to change my study habits since then. I thought it was important to understand the concepts involved in anatomy, and this method failed me in the end. This time around I've been trying to focus more on memorization, and while it is not as interesting for me, I realize that it is what I have to do. Good luck, I hope that after anatomy is over we will be able to utilize our conceptual skills more than we are right now.

 

[FenderHM]

I'll never miss anatomy..

the smells, the vomiting up memorized facts on an exam, the lack of critical thinking required...after this class I'm definitely NOT going to be a surgeon, yuck

OP your new active method sounds promising..

Get BRS anatomy and do the questions before the exams

 

[Law2Doc]

I'll never miss anatomy..

the smells, the vomiting up memorized facts on an exam, the lack of critical thinking required...after this class I'm definitely NOT going to be a surgeon, yuck

OP your new active method sounds promising..

Get BRS anatomy and do the questions before the exams

You will find down the road that many of the live patients often won't smell as good as your cadaver did. And anatomy is not the most memory intensive class you will have to take (compared to neurosci, micro, pharm) -- the stack of flash cards gets bigger, not smaller, after this one. Welcome to med school.😀

 

[med_heidelberg]

Anatomy is rough, thats for sure. We had oral exams from the professor directly at the cadaver, and it was open season, he could ask whatever he wanted.If someone screwed up the dissection of a certain structure, you had better know that it was gone or cut through or what not. One prof even did group exams and it was a 3 to 4 hour ordeal and he would humiliate people that didnt know their stuff in front of the entire group.

 

[med_heidelberg]

You will find down the road that many of the live patients often won't smell as good as your cadaver did. And anatomy is not the most memory intensive class you will have to take (compared to neurosci, micro, pharm) -- the stack of flash cards gets bigger, not smaller, after this one. Welcome to med school.😀

Right on .. colostomy bag .. thats all Ive got to say about that!

 

[subi]

flunked my anatomy exam..................

 

[vtucci]

The same thing happened to me on my first anatomy practical last year, nontrad (I'm a second-year now.) And I think for similar reasons: I was a physics major as an undergrad, and had been conditioned (rather explicitly) by that training that what was important was to understand the deep concepts, and that all the details would flow from that understanding. So I went from an academic training of contemplating a single equation and all its implications for weeks at a time, to having to take in and retain (at least for a few weeks) a vast quantity of details with little "depth" behind them.

I, too, was rather emotionally distraught at first, this being the first test I had ever failed. It wasn't cool. I had a terrible evening and night after getting that exam back. But I rebounded pretty quickly, by telling myself (and truly believing) that: 1.) this is a very common experience for med students, and 2.) this can be a good learning experience for me if I try to figure out what to do different next time. It's all about accepting that all new experience, especially challenges like med school, involve a learning curve, always. Just embrace that, and accept that it will take a bit of time to get to the top of the curve.

For me, it had to do with spending a lot more time in the lab pre-practical with the cadavers and TA's, going over several times all that we'd have to know. Book-studying didn't cut it for me for the practicals. With a small group of friends, it was even a little fun sometimes. For the written exams, the best strategy I found was to go through the notes/powerpoints from individual lectures, recognize the "testable details", and make flashcards, then go over them until I felt comfortable that I had truly taken in each one.

Don't beat yourself up over this, and don't spend much time focusing on future bad scenarios. Your brain is having to figure out an entire new kind of learning - it takes time, and it takes trial-and-error. You'll have to develop new instincts for when something has really "clicked" - again, it's not so much about deeper concepts, and more about retaining content.

Best wishes. I had friends last year who failed most of their anatomy tests the first time through, and still were able to have it all made up by the spring. You can do it - really!

Me too. Also a non-trad. Failed my first anatomy exam horribly last year. There is no critical thinking in this class. It is memorize and regurgitate and for those of us from non-science backgrounds, it is more than a little frustrating. It does not help that there is no clinical relevance whatsoever presented in the class. Just get through it and don't beat yourself up too badly.

Good news, though- if you can reason well, you will probably love path and second year.