How to Not Fail Anatomy: The Quick, Cheap, Dirty Guide

I would like to first preface this guide with the following: When you first arrive to the island you are going to hear lots of different advice coming from all over the place whether it was solicited or not. Everyone’s got an opinion and many people feel inclined to provide you with their thoughts on certain subjects, teachers, and tests and as a first semester student, you will come to realize that a lot of it is contradictory and a lot is pretty subjective to the individual. Each student comes from a different educational background and there will be subjects they are excellent in and others that they will struggle with. For example, since I was a Biology major at BC and took MCB and Genetics, I don’t find MCB difficult. I allocate little time to it and I still do just fine. Because of this background I may be inclined to tell you MCB isn't bad, and to spend more of your study time on anatomy. You may follow my advice and do well in anatomy, but then fail the first block exam in MCB. So please be wary of everyone's advice and try to put what they are saying in perspective by asking about their backgrounds. With all the chatter that went on in my first semester about this class, or that particular exam, the single most simple and true piece of advice I received was to study for every class like its your worst subject. If you do poorly in an exam it's solely because you didn't study hard enough for it. And it's true. AUC gives you all the tools and support needed to pass all your classes and as long as you put in your study hours, you will do well.

With all that being said, let's get to anatomy!

As a student who had no background in anatomy, I was fairly intimidated by the new language and material for the first month of school. I hated anatomy lab (I still do actually), did very little dissecting and didn't spend any extra hours in lab. It was a rough first block which culminated in an exam grade so terrible, that it kept me in failing range for pretty much 1/2 of the semester. I adjusted my study habits and I would like to share with all of you what I did to go from 60s to 80s.

The Only Books you will ever need:

1. BRS Gross Anatomy

2. Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy

3. Rohen's Color Atlas of Anatomy: A Photographic Study of the Human Body

What I came to realize as I struggled through first semester anatomy:

1. Read BRS anatomy and forget the class notes. Other than Dr. New Zealand's slides, all the other anatomy professors' slides are pretty useless and do not stand up well on their own when it comes to studying for block exams. Whichever part of the body you are doing, I recommend reading the corresponding chapter in BRS that week and write down notes. Star the clinical points (pink boxes) in the book that are mentioned in class or are in the class notes since that is what will be tested on. 

2. When you do a new part of the body spend the first day or two memorizing the bones and muscles of that section. Open up Netter's and just stare at the page and memorize all the muscle names. It will take a couple hours but learning them in the beginning will be good for later in the week when the professors reference back to these muscles. I sometimes had a hard time staring at Netter's because there are just so many goddamn names so I used winkingskull.com to quiz myself. You can click on labels to hide or reveal them. After I thought I got everything memorized I would do the quiz to make sure I was 100% on the names. Winking skull is free to register and you have access to the more important slides so I highly recommend using this site when memorizing muscles. 

3. After learning the names and locations of the bones and muscles, you MUST LEARN BLOOD SUPPLY AND NERVES.  Use Netter's to learn where the nerves and arteries travel and how they branch because the pictures are great for it. And then use BRS to learn which structures the neurovasculature is associated with. If you break the medial epicondyle of the elbow you will have to know that it can affect the ulnar nerve because it passes posterior to it. 

4. DO QUESTIONS!!!! This is what saved me for my exams!! BRS questions are awesome. Do them at the end of each chapter and read all the explanations whether you get the question right or wrong since they completely explain why one answer is right and the others wrong. In addition to these questions go to the UMich anatomy site for even more questions that tend to be easier, but are an excellent source for learning what is most important.

5. Block Week after-hours lab time! The Lab Practical exam accounts for half your anatomy grade and tends to be the half that everyone does better in. To be honest, I never paid attention to a single thing in lab. The first half hour while the professors lectured, I zoned out.  I dissected from time to time but had no idea what I was ever cutting into. When I was not dissecting I spent most of the two hours talking with my tablemates about anything and everything that had nothing to do with anatomy. So how is it I started scoring 83s in the Lab Practical? I would go to the lab with a group of my knowledgable friends 3 or 4 nights during block week. I would stay for an hour and half and we would run through all the structures in the body. We did it again and again each night for that last week and that is what saved me. I figured why try learning the structures during the first couple weeks when everything was just going to look different at the end of the block? This is a terrible attitude to have by the way. You should pay attention in lab and try to actively learn what you are seeing in the bodies. The point of my revealing little story is to emphasize the importance of going to after hours lab during block week because that is your shot to see the structures that will be tagged after the weekend.

6. When you aren't in lab, use the Rohen's book to see actual cadaver images with all labels. Netter's is nice but it is all cartoons showing everything in the most perfect way. For the actual practical exam, Rohen's is amazing. The book has full color, labeled photographs of all the structures one might encounter during dissection. This book is particularly important for the weekend before block exams because you aren't allowed back into the lab after 8 am on Friday. Also very important: Do the practice practical images on Angel! Dr. New Zealand will upload a bunch of pdf files containing photos of tagged and labeled structures that are high yield for the actual block exam so definitely go over those pictures a couple of times before taking the exam! For even more practice with identifying tagged structures on the cadaver, Umich has tons of questions covering the material.

A word on Mock exams: I didn't go to a single one. I can't tell you anything about them but they are pretty popular with most of the class. It usually takes a couple hours, but I rather spend my time studying in LH4. For first block it may be a good idea to go just to see what the actual exam is like. You get one minute to answer the question of the tagged structure and when you hear the "next" you walk over to the next question. The Mock exam is headed by the anatomy TAs so they don't really know what will be tagged on the exam, but they manage to get a few tagged structures that appear in the real thing. 

And there you have it! It may seem like a lot now, but I started doing all these things by block 3 and my grade definitely jumped up. I wish you guys the best!