Any ideas for doing well in Gross would be welcomed here as all of us entering this fall are rapidly approaching D Day. Study hints and practices, menomics…nemonics(?)…oh hell, the little acronyms we use to make it quicker to remember stuff in the hippocampus short term parking section.
Anyway, flail away at them. I want to see some things you did to get thru Gross.
Hi Joe,
When do your classes start?
As a former Anatomy instructor: Look at all your colleagues dissections too - there are lots of variations between individuals and for the exams you have to identify items in different cadavers. I didn't use books much other than some diagrams. Good luck! (but didn't you do this already in your ms program in Florida?)
LM
Well these are from my undergrad Anatomy and Physiology class but I think they'll serve well for Gross Anatomy as well:
For memorizing skeletal structures I made tracings out of my lab book with lines to all the pertinent spots and made several copies then just worked on filling them in.
The muscles and arm/leg nerves I just spent a lot of time on the cadavers and with my lab book trying to sink them into my brain lol.
Flashcards helped a lot for everything else.
Mnemonics:
For brain nerves:
On
>Olfactory
Old
>Optic
Olympus
>Oculomotor
Towering
>Trochlear
Top
>Trigeminal
A
>Abducens
Finn
>Facial
And
>Acoustic (Vestibulocochlear)
German
>Glossopharyngeal
Vaulted
>Vagus
Some
> Spinal (Accessory)
Hops
>Hypoglossal
To remember the order of nerve branches:
Robert
>Radi
Taylor
>Trunks
Drinks
>Divisions
Coffee
>Cords
Black
>Branches
To remember the bones in the hand:
Sally
>Scaphoid
Left
>Lunate
The
>Triquetral
Party
>Pisiform
To
>Trapezium
Take
>Trapezoid
Cindy
>Capitate
Home
>Hamate
There was also a cool story about a guy riding his horse and having a lasso and stuff for remembering some of the skull bones like sella turcica etc but I can't find that one in my notes anymore. Anybody else out there familiar with this one?
Good luck!
--Jessica, UCCS
Hi there,
Here’s what worked for me:
Don’t ever go into the lab unprepared. You need to read the dissection manual and make a list of the structures that you need to find. I made a check list somewhat in the order of where things should be located and put a check mark next to each structure as I found it.
Plan on doing plenty of dissection outside of lab time. Set aside a couple of hours three times each week to get into the lab and dissect. You should have a partner who looks at the atlas and helps to hold things. Trade off doing the dissection and the direction. Teach each other parts of the body or sections.
Look at every body in the dissection lab. Never invade a dissection tank without asking permission but you should have plenty of company in the lab after hours. Teach other students about your body. I did a very detailed dissection of the venous supply to the face. I taught those veins to every student and I still recognize them today as a surgeon.
Make master lists and divide these lists into digestable chunks. If you have access to Moore’s Anatomy , read and memorize the blue boxes but know everything in baby Moore. You don’t have to memorize big Moore but the blue boxes are great prep for USMLE Step I. You don’t need anything else.
Get a good Embryology text like Moore and Persaud. If you know Embryo well, gross anatomy goes even better. The Anatomy Department website at Howard College of Medicine Anatomy Department has a menu that includes Anatomy I (Med). Under student notes, you will find my Gross Anatomy notes for many of the classes and structures. They are a pretty good starting point though I didn’t finish thorax, pelvis and head and neck. Someday soon, I will finish them and have a complete set. If you use these notes, drop a little note to James Wilson, Ph.D and tell him that you have used the website. He is the webmaster and loves feedback.
Plan on purchasing Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy. I photocopied pages from this atlas and colored them in with my colored pencils. Get a good set of colored pencils for gross anatomy. You want to make detailed maps of where you are going and what you have accomplished.
Realize that there are no shortcuts to learning gross anatomy. Plan a session with one of the instructors outside of class time. Gather no more than four buddies and get the instructor to be brutal with you. I set up sessions with all of my Gross Anatomy instructors for my tank group. Do this long before exam time. Watch any prosections being prepared.
The Rohen atlas is another good book to have on your shelf. It has great pictures of actual dissected structures so you have an idea of how big the sciatic nerve will be or how small the nasopalatine nerve will be.
Always remember that once you cut something, you can’t put it back. (This applies to General Surgery too) Don’t use a scalpel but use scissors and do blunt dissection first. Scalpels tend to cut through valuable structures! Use your children to locate surface anatomy. They enjoy playing with you and you learn to find stuff. Trace out the borders of the lungs on one of your kids! When you are studying muscles, have a skeleton nearby and look at each origin and insertion of each muscle. I know that there are hundreds but you would be surprised how this helps you at exam time!
I know that Gross Anatomy is integral to my business so here are some resources that I still used today as a Surgeon:
Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy
Grant’s Atlas of Human Anatomy
Pocket Atlas of Human Anatomy
Moore and Persaud: Human Embryology
Pocket Atlas of Radiologic Anatomy (Head and Neck) (Abdomen and Pelvis)
Pocket Guide for Medical Students (This book contains everything that you need to know for all four years)
It you know that studying Gross Anatomy is just going to occupy most of your time right off the bat, you should be fine. Dissection is fun and very interesting! Prepare and have a good idea of what you need to know before you go in. Most classes start off with dissection of the back. After you remove the skin, there is not much that you can destroy here. If you realize the embryological origins of the back muscles, you realize that the muscles that control the shoulder joint crawled out there and took their nerve supply with them. This stuff is great fun. The major purpose of the arm is to move the hand. The major purpose of having a hand is to have an opposable thumb. When you do a dissection of the hand, see how elegantly the muscles of the thenar region are placed. Great stuff!
You will generally dissect head and neck last. By this time, you really know what you are doing and can appreciate all of the fine structures. I spent at least 2 hours dissecting out the ossicles of the ear only to find that I had microscopic crumbs (these structures are really small)when I was done. It was a great dissection though. Have a magnifying glass or dissection scope nearby too. Some of the head and neck structures are practically microscopic. (Can you tell that I love my loupes for surgery too!) You can also make your own drill tapes and listen to them as you fall asleep or in the car as you drive. Mine went something like this: This is the blood supply to the stomach. There is the left gastric artery off of the celiac. The right gastric off of the hepatic. The right gastroomental off of the gastroduodenal which is off of the hepatic which is off of the celiac trunk. There is the left gastro-omental off of the splenic. There are the short gastrics to the greater curvature off of the splenic etc. I can still remember this stuff today!
Enjoy!
Natalie 
I agree with Natalie. Also, a friend (not in my lab group) and I would go in on the weekend and “rework” the disection directions. This allowed us to review the 3-D relationships of the structures that we did not necessarily appreciate or understand when we were doing the actual disections. This wasn’t a method we intentionally did, but fell into it while studying and it worked out great.
Don’t fear gross anatomy…it was by far my FAVORITE class of first year 
Good luck,
Tara
Is the consensus that continual working of the areas in question what is required? IOW, I suppose making sure you go over the information once a day at least is what is required to make sure you stay on top of it, in addition to other topics as well, of course.
Additionally, was there a pattern to the study time spent alone or with a person/group?
| QUOTE (Skaterbabe74 @ Jun 22 2003, 09:58 AM) |
| Mnemonics: For brain nerves: On >Olfactory Old >Optic Olympus >Oculomotor Towering >Trochlear Top >Trigeminal A >Abducens Finn >Facial And >Acoustic (Vestibulocochlear) German >Glossopharyngeal Vaulted >Vagus Some > Spinal (Accessory) Hops >Hypoglossal |
C'mon! Nobody could remember this stream of conciousness here! This is like random words strung together.
Here's the REAL mneumonic that everybody used - and I promise you won't forget it...
Oh
>Olfactory
Oh
>Optic
Oh
>Oculomotor
To
>Trochlear
Touch
>Trigeminal
And
>Abducens
Feel
>Facial
A
>Acoustic (Vestibulocochlear)
Girl's
>Glossopharyngeal
Vxxxxx---->Vagus
Ah
> Spinal (Accessory)
Heaven--->Hypoglossal
Hey...it works... 
OK…here’s free palm candy, so check this out:
http://www.medicalmnemonics.com/
It helps!
I had the odd, but absolute luxury of dissecting w/o the pressure of exams this past fall…two full days a week I got to dissect on campus. Truly loved it…all of it!
So like the others have said, get a partner, some good dissecting tools, good lights, optics and books…and good luck!
lol GED…I definitely like your mnemonic for the brain nerves much better…that was the one we were taught in our A&P class tho. Some came directly out of our book, others were taught to us by our lab instructor and lecture prof. Surprisingly enough the brain nerves have stuck in my head pretty well thanks to that “stream of consciousness” mnemonic hehe.
–Jessica, UCCS
| QUOTE (GED2MD @ Jun 23 2003, 09:06 PM) | ||
C'mon! Nobody could remember this stream of conciousness here! This is like random words strung together. Here's the REAL mneumonic that everybody used - and I promise you won't forget it... Oh >Olfactory Oh >Optic Oh >Oculomotor To >Trochlear Touch >Trigeminal And >Abducens Feel >Facial A >Acoustic (Vestibulocochlear) Girl's >Glossopharyngeal Vxxxxx---->Vagus Ah > Spinal (Accessory) Heaven--->Hypoglossal Hey...it works...
|
Hey there,
This is the one that I learned during Gross.
Natalie
| QUOTE (futrfysician @ Jun 23 2003, 08:29 PM) |
| Is the consensus that continual working of the areas in question what is required? IOW, I suppose making sure you go over the information once a day at least is what is required to make sure you stay on top of it, in addition to other topics as well, of course. Additionally, was there a pattern to the study time spent alone or with a person/group? |
Hi there,
You will figure out sometime before or just after the first exam, how much time you need to spend studying alone or with the group. This will be highly variable. Some folks just didn't get Gross Anatomy until well into the year. Others picked up the pace pretty rapidly. Plan on spending as much time as it takes to be able to recognize the structures. You also need to study things like radiographs, MRI, angiographs, ultrasounds and the like. You may have to go over structures over and over to get the patterns but once you do, it all clicks and becomes quite enjoyable.
Natalie
ok, so there becomes a pattern to the structures once you get into it. Its the abstract things I hate.
Thanks Nat…love ya!
This is a good topic to ressuscitate! Gross Anatomy has found its way into the world of the undergraduate. At CSU we have an intense Gross Anatomy class that is now even one of the requirements for all the folks in pre-nursing. This semester is presenting us with 19 prosected cadavers, CDROM software of the VH Dissector/Virtual Edge (of which one of the authors is my professor). It is mentioned that this class (CSU’s BS301) is comparable to Gross Anatomy in Medical School, but only requires 1 semester of Biology in order to take it.
I have never had an Anatomy or Physiology class before, and the overwhelming amount of terminology to remember is daunting. Triaging between real bones or cadavers, plus 3-D software, plus Netter seems to help to put things in perspective. We get to deal with the cadavers for the first time next week.
I was looking at the list of written material that was recommended, and it sounds as though the coloring book would be a great asset. The Medical Student’s Pocket Reference (Bookstein) looks good, too, for down the road and as a handy reference for a lot of things; I’m guessing this is the one that was mentioned.
I’m thinking about buying an inexpensive skeleton (maybe a Bucky or Stan) to help me with the bones at home, but don’t know how good they are. I figure my kids would love to have the skeleton around and it would serve well on Halloween as a second practical use.
I haven’t told my husband yet (who is a squeamish type LOL), but I figure I’d surprise him with one of the models in a natty pose at the front door one of these days HAHAHA. I’ve seen these particular models (especially 4th qualities) running for less than $100 in various places (less than the cost of a textbook). What are your thoughts?
I read your post and felt compelled to comment, I went to nursing school in the 80’s and Anatomy and physiology, a year of it was required, (Same as gross anatomy) When I have taken Anatomy in medical school it was a heck of lot more detail and clinicaly oriented with injuries and deficits in mind.
I’m not trying to knock you at all, infact I think everyone should take Anatomy undergrad cause 1 semester of anatomy in Medschool is way not enough.
I think the best way to learn anatomy is repetition, repetition, repetition, get a netters atlas with the cd, you can make up tests with the cd, I still use it today to look up and make up self study tests to review anatomy! The netters is way better than any skeleton! In fact I did not find a skeleton very helpful at all. It looks nice though.
Good Luck
Thanks much for the input! I suspect that the premed and prenursing curriculums have tightened up over the years with increased interest in medical careers–I see this where I live in Fort Collins. Our city was just ranked by Money Magazine as the best city in the nation to live, in part because of the outstanding medical care, in addition to other lifestyle issues.
I suspect that it is a result of the local interest out here in nursing and the good hospitals out here for which to work, that the waiting list for the RN nursing program at the community college, which is very tight with the local hospitals, is three years long AFTER completing at least a Physiology class and a Microbiology class just to get on the waiting list.
I have been very tempted, but really wanted to finish my bachelor’s degree which was long overdue first and found that the nursing track to a BSN would take a long time because of the types of college credits I have had along the way. The more of the science I study, the more I really enjoy it–particularly the chemistry, so I am keen to learn whatever I can and don’t mind the educational ride.
We were told by the instructor (for what it is worth–surely there is some bias!) that this particular anatomy class is state of the art because of the combination of cadavers with leading edge software (which is part of the Visible Human Project that strives to digitize the process of working with cadavers, since medical utilities continue to grow in a technological way).
With regards to the boney landscape, on top of the other systems, we are required to know a great detail of the humps and bumps and fissures on each bone and are to be tested on identification of structures on real bones, so handling them helps to fix the form and function in memory. They have boxes of bones in the library for review, but it is tough for me to take the time to sneak away to the library because of my family, so finding something similar that I could have at home for practice sounded good.
Frankly (and I know I am such a newbie with this subject 
), but I really had no idea how complicated a femur was!
This website seems to be ok for practice. I remember when I did my A&P’s, the websites worked for me due to the limited open hours at the library. I worked FT nights and had FT day classes and I often preferred to sleep if I could.
I can’t find the site I used way back then (2000) but this one seems cool
http://www.getbodysmart.com/
it’s interactive and basic enought for pre-nursing type stuff.
Here are some A&P sites I found useful:
QT Dissection Videos
Anatomy of the Skull
Muscular System
Skeletal Anatomy Quizzes
Some sites I haven’t used (so can’t vouch for their usefulness) :
Hole’s Human A & P
A&P I Links
A&P II Links
A&P I Lab Links
I also really liked having Netter on hand (though I really wish they’d alternate black lines with non-black lines on the labels; would make it much clearer).