The following are study tips provided by students who have successfully completed
A&PI &/or A&PII with me.
(Thank you to those students for taking the time to help!)
| To succeed in A&P, do not miss class, pay attention during lectures, and give it your time. This class requires that you study, study, and study. For every lecture, have Dr. Hixon's lecture notes available. Expand on these notes with her explanations and what she writes on the board. I learned that 100% of what she writes on the board will be on the test. The material she repeats orally in class you should definitely understand; It's important and will be on the test. If she orally highlights material in the textbook, know it! Also Dr. Hixon usually begins each lecture with a quick review of the last lecture; make sure you understand this material because lectures build upon one another. Do not lose out on the "easy points" in A&P - lab attendance and participation, and clicker quizzes - these points add up fast. Use study guides provided by Dr. Hixon, be able to answer study guide questions in the text, be able to verbally explain material, and most importantly stay on top of this class, do not get behind, and don't wait until the day before a test to study. | One important thing I remember before taking any difficult class is: hope is not a strategy for success. I can't simply half-heartedly study for an hour or two and then hope that I will do okay on the exams. What tends to work for me is to begin studying several days (often a week) before the exam. Normally, I make flash cards for myself, and then I go through them one by one. As I understand the material better and better, I eliminate some flash cards that I know well. That way I can focus on the materials that are the most challenging to me. For example, I may write out 100 flash cards and then go through them all once and be able to eliminate 20 of them. Then I go through them again and eliminate perhaps an additional 20, and so on and so forth until I know all of the material. However, if I try to do this whole process the night before the test, I know that my chances of success will go down significantly because it is very difficult to process so much information in just one night of studying. Also, it is also important to be able to explain how specific physiological functions work, and sometimes that is difficult to do only using flash cards. In those instances, I try to write down as much information as I know from memory, and then I go check my work. Typically after about three tries, I know all of the main points I need to know. |
| 1. Don't think a day in between classes in enough
time to accomplish everything you need to, stay on to of the material as best
you can, don't procrastinate.
2. Don't think you can study for a test (especially lab exam) the day or night before, the earlier you study for a test the better your outcome will be. 3. GO TO CLASS! Some people think they can read the material on their own and show up for the test and do fine, that's probably not the case for most people. Dr. Hixon does a fantastic job of explaining the material. Going to class everyday will definitely help you succeed. |
I think the main thing when approaching A&P is to read and keep up with the material. If you look at it a little each day it really helps you to obtain the knowledge you learn in class and from reading. I also used the A&P website that came with the book a lot because it better helped you to understand the material and walked through each topic if you didn't fully understand it. Attending each class also helps tremendously because if you miss something it is that much more difficult to learn on your own! I |