Anatomy and physiology tests minus the stress

Study habits

A&P exams are hard on the emotions. The more worried you are about your performance the harder it is to think and recall what you have studied.  Stress and panic make passing anatomy and physiology hard.

Good study habits are essential for learning a course with an overwhelming amount of new information like anatomy and physiology. How can you possibly know all that stuff??? A good place to start is to stop trying to know it all! Here are some tips about how to prioritize your studying of anatomy and physiology.

First, your instructor did not teach you everything there is to know about A&P, or even everything he/she knows about the subject. There simply is not enough time in a college course to do that. Focus only on the primary concepts that your instructor selected for you to learn. You have the rest of your life to continue learning about anatomy and physiology.

Most anatomy and physiology courses schedule multiple quizzes and exams during the term. While at first this may appear to be adding stress upon stress, there is another way to think about multiple exams. The more tests you take during the term, the less likely one or two bad exams will greatly lower your grade.  And the more likely you will pass anatomy and physiology class with a high grade. Also, the more times you recall from memory related information the easier it will be to see the patterns and themes in the material.

A rule of thumb is that a test should enable an instructor to make judgments about how well you were able to learn what he/she was trying to teach. Your instructor wants you to pass with a high grade, because your high score demonstrates that the instructor did a good job teaching the material. If the tests seem tricky to you, tell your instructor you think so. Nothing helps your grade as much as an honest, civil conversation between you and your instructor.

How to prioritize studying

How to prioritize studying is always a challenge. Begin your exam preparation by asking your instructor to provide a study guide 1-2 weeks in advance. A study guide is an effective way for an instructor to communicate expectations. There should be no surprises about what you were to learn by test day.

If your instructor’s guide appears to cover everything imaginable, then you need to pare it down to essential ideas. First, decide which items in the guide were discussed in class. Learn that material very well. Check your textbook to see if your notes about those subjects match the textbook. If there not a match, again talk to your instructor about the difference between your notes and the book.

Next, study any supplemental material that seemed exciting to the instructor when it was introduced or that the guide maintains is very important. Did the instructor tell stories about any of the ideas presented? Did the instructor bring teaching props to class? Topic that get special attention and extra effort on the part of the teacher should be high on your list of priorities to know. Continue to prioritize the remainder of topics on the study guide. Those items on the top of your list should get the most time for learning.

Practice tests

Write your own practice test. This is a good exercise, because writing test questions is hard and you really must think about the material. Think about what questions you might write for subjects at the top of your priority list. If you would have a hard time writing a clear question with a single answer about a concept, your instructor will have a hard time writing a good question as well.

Be sure to ask what format your instructor will use for test questions – multiple choice, essay, diagrams to label, etc. Try writing a few questions on the topics presented in class in each format. Keep what you write! Ask yourself after you get your test results back if you were close with your questions to what appeared on the test. If yes, great. If no, go again and talk to your instructor. Ask for help focusing on the course’s major topics.

Also ask what the point distribution will be for the various types of questions. Knowing this ahead of time will help you pace your time when taking the exam. Also find out before each exam what the procedure will be if you find an error in grading. Finish studying by early evening the night before the exam. Get a good night sleep to let your brain have time to properly store all that stuff you have been learning. The brain needs time to rearrange its memory connections.

Test taking skills

Not everyone has equal test taking skills. But here is what those who get high scores know. On test day there are some simple mistakes you can avoid. Finish all your studying the day before the exam. Do not even look at your notes the day of the exam. Have a nice breakfast, listen to your favorite music or take a walk. Do not think about the test material. Think about something else, preferably something you like doing a lot.

When you open the exam in class, the first thing you must do is write your name on it. It is not fun when 2-3 students forget to do this. Who is to decide which student gets the test with the best grade? Take time to carefully read instructions for each section of the exam. If instructions are unclear to you, ask the test monitor to clarify. Directions that are unclear to you will probably be unclear to your classmates.

Check the number of questions and the amount of time you have. Figure out the maximum time you can afford to spend on one question on average. Then go to the section with the type of questions you find easiest. Read each question carefully. Go through the exam and answer all the questions you find easy first. They work your way back through the rest of them. Leave the hardest questions for last.

I hope the ideas presented here will help bring down your anxiety level – both before tests and as tests are returned with a grade. There are few things as hard on one’s stomach as getting back an exam with a poor grade. Yet, almost everyone, at one point in their anatomy and physiology class, will get back an exam or quiz with a less than satisfactory grade. When that happens to you just move on. There is so much to learn in A&P that there will be plenty of chances to perform well on future tests.

In summary, to develop test strategies for anatomy and physiology watch closely what your instructor prioritizes to teach. Follow the instructor’s lead in allocating your study time and write some practice tests yourself. Stop studying the day before the exam. Give your brain some time to rearrange its memory synapses.

Further reading

Memory Patterns and Themes in Anatomy & Physiology

Best Way to Learn Anatomy and Physiology

Study Anatomy & Physiology for Maximum Learning

Do you have questions?

Please put your questions in the comment box or send them to me by email at DrReece@MedicalScienceNavigator.com. I read and reply to all comments and email.

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Margaret Thompson Reece PhD, physiologist, former Senior Scientist and Laboratory Director at academic medical centers in California, New York and Massachusetts is now Manager at Reece Biomedical Consulting LLC.

She taught physiology for over 30 years to undergraduate and graduate students, at two- and four-year colleges, in the classroom and in the research laboratory. Her books “Physiology: Custom-Designed Chemistry”, “Inside the Closed World of the Brain”, and her online course “30-Day Challenge: Craft Your Plan for Learning Physiology”, and “Busy Student’s Anatomy & Physiology Study Journal” are created for those planning a career in healthcare. More about her books is available at https://www.amazon.com/author/margaretreece. You may contact Dr. Reece at DrReece@MedicalScienceNavigator.com, or on LinkedIn.

Dr. Reece offers a free 30 minute “how-to-get-started” phone conference to students struggling with human anatomy and physiology. Schedule an appointment by email at DrReece@MedicalScienceNavigator.com.