Hi Friends,
I wanted to share a great article written by Med School Bootcamp because I know Anatomy can be a pretty intimidating class.
Enjoy -
You need to start by first asking yourself the question “why do I need to know anatomy?” Anatomy is not like any other subject you’ll take in medical school. It involves learning new terminology to refer to specific structures within the human body - and not just knowing the names of things, but understanding what they do. In its essence, learning anatomy is like learning a new language and you have to treat it as such. That bring me to my first tip which is:
Treat anatomy as a new language
You have to treat learning anatomy as if you are learning a new language, like Spanish or French. When you think about how you will be using anatomy in a clinical setting, you will need to understand it to be able to communicate with other health professionals. The only way to become better at this is to practice speaking in anatomical terminology and become fluent in it.
How do we learn languages? As children, we learn our native language through hearing words, repeating them, and then giving them meaning, NOT by trying to memorize names of things on a piece of paper. With anatomy, we need to flip this, we need to learn what something is called and then incorporate it into our vocabulary when we are in the lab or clinical setting. If you were learning italian, you wouldn't try to memorize an entire italian book. You would learn it through practicing communicating with other people. This brings me to my second tip which is to…
Study in small groups
The most effective use of your time is to learn the basics of anatomy individually and then practice communicating it to others by studying in small groups. Find a small study group of no more than 2-4 people and meet in the lab once a week to “talk anatomy”. Create a list of objectives for the chapters your group will be covering, and take turns explaining those concepts to the group. For example, “Sarah, can you please explain the celiac trunk, its branching, and the general structures it supplies?” This way Sarah can practice communicating her understanding to the others, while the rest of the group can check their understanding and also provide feedback in real time if Sarah is misunderstanding anything. While describing the structures, make sure Sarah can also identify them on a cadaver! This brings us to our final tip…
Practice with the REAL thing
Now comes the hard part, making sure you can identify structures on cadaveric specimens. The best way to prepare yourself for your next practical exam is to practice on the REAL thing. You’ll want to make sure that you’re practicing on a real cadaver and using real cadaveric images to study, not just learning from your slides/note or you will be unpleasantly surprised on the day of the exam.
Sometimes it can be hard to find time to make it to the lab, and during the week leading up to the exam, everyone’s in the lab cramming for it at the last minute. One alternative is to use online resources to help you prepare, and one of the best online resources for learning cadaveric anatomy is anatomybootcamp.com. We’ve got thousands of practice questions testing both identification and application style concepts on REAL cadaveric images, and with our 24-hour tutor support service, you’ll have all your questions answered when you need them!
These are the methods I used while I was getting my masters in clinical anatomy. They help me not only understand human anatomy but also effectively communicate it so I could go on to teach thousands of healthcare professionals over the years. Try them out this semester - I’m positive they will help you just as much as they’ve helped me!
Happy Anatomy!
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