what should i do?

[muzi]

---

Members don't see this ad.

i'm confused with anatomy.all muscles,bones that i have to memorize. do u have any idea how i can do this? do u use any method??or is there anything to make it easier???

 

[baylormed]

I'm still trying to figure out a good method, but here's what I'm doing (hopefully it will help).

I memorize the names and their location by looking at the atlas.

I am making a chart of all the muscles, with origin, insertions, innervations, and actions. I think this way I'll have a "condensed" (as if) form from which to study.

 

[GodoShingo]

Go by learning by segments. Don't learn everything all at once.
Like on the arm, learn by anterior, lateral, medial or posterior compartment of arm, and it's vessels and nerves.
It has helped me.

 

[Yehosh]

Go by learning by segments. Don't learn everything all at once.
Like on the arm, learn by anterior, lateral, medial or posterior compartment of arm, and it's vessels and nerves.
It has helped me.

yep, and another approach I've been using is making a "checklist" of anatomical features to know in each region/organ. By the time we finish disecting and reviewing the region I try and know that list. If I don't, I mark it on the list and come back to it again and again.

Not sure if how well you know all the latin terms (anterior, medial, lateral, proximal, distal, dorsal, ventral, posterior, superior, inferior...), but learning them really helps.

Also, and this is purely my personal opinion, the Atlas you use is important. I borrowed Netters from an M2 friend and found it very frustrating. Too much info in each image which can confuse someone taking anatomy for the first time. I followed my lab instructors recommendation and went and bought Grants. I find it way more concise and better for beginners (IMO). Again, this is my personal opion, keep in mind that Netters has received nothing but praise on SDN.

 

[Slide]

1) Go from big to small, known to unknown. If you're looking at the axilla and brachial plexus, start from one nerve and go down. Or, you can focus on one side and work your way down.

2) The first two things you should study about the muscle are the innervations and origin/insertions. Once you know those, you can apply those concepts to more detailed situations. For instance, if you know that the subscapularis muscle originates from the subscapularis fossa and inserts onto the lesser tubucle, and is innervated by the subscapularis nerves, you can predict the function of the muscle (muscles contract, so the insertion will move towards the origin during contraction). Since you know its innervation, if you're having trouble medially rotating your arm and shoulder, you may have a problem with that nerve.

3) Learn the pattern of the nomenclature. Be visual during your learning. If a muscle contains the word pollicis, you can get it's going to have to do something with the thumb and will insert there. From the opposite of that, if you know the location of a muscle visually, you can imagine the name too (a lot of structures are named just by location). For instance, if you're visualizing a muscle that looks serrated and is on the upper part of the back, the term serratus posterior superior will stick better.

4) Know the exceptions to general innervation rules. Sometimes they don't make sense, sometimes they do, but you can always bet they'll be tested.

5) Look over the stuff everyday, even if you can only cram in 20 minutes during a test week. I blew off anatomy for 3 days to focus on a biochem/genetics test and now I'm really regretting it. The key to this is constant exposure.

I'm also an M1, so take my advice with a grain of salt. One of the general rules from SDN'ers about studying is to find what works and stick with it during your first year. First year has a lot of important info to learn, but the most important thing to learn is how to change and adapt your study habits, and then to have the discipline to maintain it.

 

[SupaManu]

For origin/insertion i like using the skeletons in the lab that have the red for hte origin and blue for the insertion w/the name of the muscle, much better for me than trying to memorize that in a book.

 

[njbmd]

Learn muscles by compartment. The nerve and blood supply will go by compartment too. Use a skeleton to see origin and insertion and then picture action in your mind. Actively learn instead of passively memorizing data on a page. It will stick with you longer.

 

[oxeye]

I've only had one anatomy test so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I'm happy with how I did on the test so I plan to keep studying the same way.

For muscles, I made a chart with all the information I needed to know. I didn't just memorize origin and insertion, but really learned to visualize each muscle so I could see where it is and what it does. Blood supply and innervation was just memorization, but it wasn't too bad to get just from studying the chart a few times.

I really like netteranatomy.com. I got free access with the book purchase. I printed out the study guides and did most of my studying for the written exam from those guides.

I also did very detailed pre-labs. I went through the dissector before each lab and took notes. I knew every structure we needed to find and important things about each structure (what it does, what other things I would see around it, its blood supply and innervation when appropriate). I feel that I get a lot out of dissections this way and it wasn't hard to go from my body to the other bodies to identify things for the practical because I just needed to look for other landmarks to figure things out.

I love the resources that UMich has online for anatomy. The practice questions were very helpful - really helped me on the written on several questions. Things that were not emphasized in lectures at my school but were emphasized in the practice exams on the UMich site showed up several times on my exam.

I tried to review anatomy a little bit each day. I think this helped also because I wasn't overwhelmed by the volume of material right before the test. It had settled into my brain pretty well by that point and I just needed to figure out some of the details.

I always keep the Netter flashcards on hand and do some of those when I have a few minutes to spare.

I hope that helps! Now I just need someone to help me figure out how to study for histology. Any takers?

 

[Slide]

Oh, another thing I realized while studying tonight; learn the landmarks and its relations! No cadavers are exactly the same, and you'll often see something different you're not accustomed to seeing. Knowing landmarks (e.g. quadrangular space) will give you a frame a reference so you can make relationships on the body and help you find what you need (quadrangular space --> look for axillary nerve.)

 

[MSKalltheway]

Try to make acronyms whenever you can! My lab group tried to do this for practically everything, and intentionally make them stupid sometimes. The dumber, the more memorable. As long as you can make them memorable for you, you're good to go.

 

[ScootDoc]

Oh yes...Anatomy and Histo! First off, let me say, "Isn't this fun?" I love medical school. Volumes and volumes of info at the speed of light. Now, I too am also a MS1 so take this for what you want. The toughest part of both of these subjects (Well studying in general, is organizing the material in our alredy scattered, overfilled, cerebral cortex (brain). Some say that it is all about memorization. (i.e. muscle, origin, insertion, innervation, bld supply, lymphatic drainage, action, clinical correlation), but for me it just doesn't work. I have to organize it before I can remember it. I suggest finding relationships between muscle actions, locations, etc. EX: Levator scapulae is innervated by the dorsal scapular nerve. Well, ok...what else is innervated by the same nerve. turns out the rhomboid muscle are, and it also turns out that they all act on the scapula. where does the dorsal scapular nerve come from? anterior rami of C4-C5 spinal nerve (brachial plexus). It turns out the whole brachial plexus originates from anterior rami and almost all the nerves that innervate the superficial back muscles originate from the b. plexus. Why is that? Well, embryologically they all originated form mesoderm located in the anterior region of the embryo and the muscles and ant. rami made the connection and then the muscle migrated to the back of the embryo......blah blah blah. I'm rambling! Anyway, my point is if you can relate the structures, innervations, and heck even your various classes Anatomy, histo, embryo, whatever. You will be much more likely to learn, and retain the knowledge not only for the test, but for STEP1, and most importantly, your career as a physician. Sorry, if I've rambled but I hope my point is somewhat clear. ORGANIZE & RELATE THE MATERIAL!!!!!!!!

 

[deleted29780]

i'm confused with anatomy.all muscles,bones that i have to memorize. do u have any idea how i can do this? do u use any method??or is there anything to make it easier???

What i did was read my dissecting manual with the physical aid of Netter. Cos an illustration in anatomy is worth more than a thousand words of descriptive language. My visual memory is pretty good it compensates for my average IQ. I have gone through several id tissue exams with just this approach. I could identify over 90 percent of the structures which were pinned on the cadaver. And in my school, you identify 3 major structures on a cadaver at each station ( its a steeple chase) you spend 120 secs at each station. TRY MY APPROACH TOO, it works when it comes to relations of the structures.
I can still see the iliotibial tract forming a firm fascia and inserting on that bony prominence on the tibia...the tubercle of Gerdy.

But for the muscles and their innervations, you have no choice...memorize them till they get stuck in your brain... - THINKING STOPPED THE DAY YOU ENTERED MEDICAL SCHOOL. LOL

 

[Katya00]

I've only had one anatomy test so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I'm happy with how I did on the test so I plan to keep studying the same way.

For muscles, I made a chart with all the information I needed to know. I didn't just memorize origin and insertion, but really learned to visualize each muscle so I could see where it is and what it does. Blood supply and innervation was just memorization, but it wasn't too bad to get just from studying the chart a few times.

I really like netteranatomy.com. I got free access with the book purchase. I printed out the study guides and did most of my studying for the written exam from those guides.

I also did very detailed pre-labs. I went through the dissector before each lab and took notes. I knew every structure we needed to find and important things about each structure (what it does, what other things I would see around it, its blood supply and innervation when appropriate). I feel that I get a lot out of dissections this way and it wasn't hard to go from my body to the other bodies to identify things for the practical because I just needed to look for other landmarks to figure things out.

I love the resources that UMich has online for anatomy. The practice questions were very helpful - really helped me on the written on several questions. Things that were not emphasized in lectures at my school but were emphasized in the practice exams on the UMich site showed up several times on my exam.

I tried to review anatomy a little bit each day. I think this helped also because I wasn't overwhelmed by the volume of material right before the test. It had settled into my brain pretty well by that point and I just needed to figure out some of the details.

I always keep the Netter flashcards on hand and do some of those when I have a few minutes to spare.

I hope that helps! Now I just need someone to help me figure out how to study for histology. Any takers?

I make up questions for histo and then put them on flash cards. This helps with learning the actual information about the tissues you need to know (the diseases, the proteins in the connective tissue, the types of glands and secretion etc). Thsi way I can flip through them every other day or so, to refresh my memory. For IDing the actual slides, I try to pay attention to the details of ONE type of tissue, and then compare it with other tissues, to see the major differences between them so I can try and figure it out during the test. If your professor has ppt presentations with the slides, you could probably print them out and then paste them on index cards, and then put the answers on the back of the card. I thought about that, but it just seemed like it would take too much time.

 

[TRAMD]

Use your photographic memory to memorize Netter's the night before the practical exam . . . easy!

 

[baylormed]

Use your photographic memory to memorize Netter's the night before the practical exam . . . easy!

lol

 

[speeter]

Use your photographic memory to memorize Netter's the night before the practical exam . . . easy!

I just use the atlas as a pillow the night before and let osmosis do the rest. I tried active transport but I wake up drained.

 

[Uegis]

Learn from your cadaver. Best way to get this stuff down cold. Atlas is indispensable of course, but your cadaver is your friend. Do a good job dissecting and everything will be before your eyes. Pull on tendons to see what the muscles do. Find the insertion and origin. Find the bony landmarks of the bones.

I seriously learned more from Grant's Dissector and anatomy lab than any lecture could've taught me. Good luck and be prepared to forget 85% of all the anatomy you learn now in two years. Good times!