I'm currently taking Anatomy & Physiology and it's super hard! Is there anyone else who is taking it or has taken it? If so, do you have any tips for me?

As of right now I'm working on a note packet that is seven pages!

Oh, I feel your pain!! Or at least I felt it -- 25 years ago.

I remember just sitting with the book, almost every word was highlighted to study, and I would sit and write stuff down over and over again.
It's mainly just memorization. And I seem to have forgotten alot of it - lol !! All of the little holes on in skull is what killed me - oy !!

Good luck

Haha! Fun times!!!

First, really focus on form and function. A lot of the anatomy makes sense when you consider the physiology and vice versa.

I loved loved loved the coloring books for anatomy. Just something about sitting and using the colored pencils and taking time looking and thinking really helped the info stick.

Also, I would run and recite things like the cranial nerves, skull bones, etc., while I ran (to tie it into a healthy lifestyle!)

Good luck!

I've taken it and feel your pain! I don't really have any tips unforunately. As ddc said it's really just memorization. So flashcards, practice tests, diagrams, etc. I took a A&P class in high school and we learned all of the bones by going over a skeleton. Like we would just sit there with the skull and memorize it for a day. So maybe you should go find a skeleton replica? Sometimes it's easier if you can see it in 3D.

I had to take it before I started my EMT program. I studied A LOT and wound up getting an A in the class.

First things first, read all of the material like you're supposed to...it's the only way to get it all in. If you don't understand something you just read, go back and read it again to see if it gives you a better understanding. If not, ask your instructor about it.

I also used flashcards to help me through it. I had the word on one side and the definition on the other side. On slow nights at work I would have a co-worker either read me the definition or read me the word and I would give her the word or definition that matched it.

When memorizing the bones or muscles in the skeleton (or the different parts of each organ or whatever) I would make up sentences to help me remember. I can't even remember what it was for now, but I remember I had one sentence that was like "Make It Practice To Wear your Vest Everyday Because Vests Save Lives!" Sounds stupid, but it worked when I saw the diagram and could write down the first letter of each bone (or muscle, whatever it was) and get started...it helped jog my memory.

Good luck!!!

For me, it helped to view things as a part of a bigger system. I actually didnt do that much rote memorization because i learned that if I just understood how everything worked together to cleanse the body/digest nutrients/create energy/eliminate waste/circulate oxygen etc then it just made sense. But, yeah, the lab work IS all memorization. I had a great book with lots of pics of different half dissected cats...morbid, I know...but I would compare all the pics and identify all the parts on multiple cats and I aced those lab tests lol

I think that the main thing that made me do so well in lab was the recognition that just because i can identify a part on my OWN cat doesnt mean it will look the same or be in exactly the same place on another cat. Go in for as much open lab time as you can and look at other people's half dissected animals, get a book like the one I had...the more variety you see the better you will do.

Ohh!! I loved it! I was really excited when I took it because it was the first "nurse-y" class that I took, lol!

Here's an acronym for you when you get to the cranial nerves "Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Good Vein, Ahh Heaven" (Olfactory, Optic, Occulomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Acoustic, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, Hypoglossal)

Things like that always helped me

lol! we learned "old opie occasionally tries trigonometry and feels very gloomy vague and hypoactive"
olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, trigeminal, abducens, facial,
auditory (vestibuolocochlear), glossopharyngeal, vagus, accessory, hypoglossal

Oh yeah, I also forgot to say that when we did circulatory, reading the path the blood takes through the heart didn't make sense to me just based on the description...so I actually got the diagram out and traced the flow on the diagram as I read the description. That helped me out A LOT.

haha, the phrase we learned was just slightly different. I suppose 3FC isn't the place for dirty anatomy mnemonics

Yes, in nursing school we learned it as "Oh, Oh, Oh, To Touch And Feel A Girls V***** And Hips!" Never forgot it. I memorized things like that a lot. Like the Mitral valve is on the Left side of the heart (Like L & M cigarettes, that dates me!). And the Tricuspid valve is on the Right side (RT was a nickname for a friend of mine.) When we had to memorize each muscle's origin, insertion and action we used similar techniques.

We dissected cats, which was very traumatic for some of my classmates and I remember mine was pregnant with 4 kittens! Good luck!

Oh! and go to youtube and search for 'pump your blood' it's a cute lil song that follows the blood flow through the heart...but you will walk around singing it for days, so be prepared haha!

Ohh yeah we had the dirty mneumonics too....lol. I was just sharing the PC one haha

Ahhh, A & P. I took it once in high school, then in college. Now I am in nursing classes.

FLASHCARDS!!!!!! Coloring book and mneumonic (memory) devices to help you remember stuff. I remember also I could not ever remember blood flow through the heart until I drew a heart, traced the bloodflow through it, and wrote out the description beside it. I made it like a little booklet.

Something else for the heart...I always switched up the mitral and tricuspid valves...so my high school teacher taught us this saying: "Tri" before you "Bi" or try before you buy. lol

It helped me to write out diagrams or flowcharts with what I knew about particular processes. You can read the info in your book all you want, but theres a lot to be said for actually doing it yourself.

I think everyone else has already said this stuff but I just thought I'd pitch in too.