Anatomy Study Tips

​A couple first year students have reached out for tips on studying anatomy. Here’s how I (luckily) scraped up an A in one of the slightly harder courses in didactic. Looking back, anatomy still remains one of my favorite courses!

FYI: Our school anatomy lab was arranged in team based groups of 4-5 students to one cadaver. None of the dissections were done for us (no prosections). 

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General tips:

• Read the topic before coming in to class: ​I know everyone says this but it really DOES make a difference. I saw my scores on exams improve when I did this! Takes a lot of discipline & planning ahead, but it works.
• Draw your own figures: I am in no way an artist, but drawing (even simple shapes) helped me remember nearby structures, physio, etc. I used a small white board when studying.
• Figure out how you learn: I knew from undergrad anatomy that I learned best from dissecting on my own—this goes back to being able to identify nearby structures because I physically went through different layers to find them. Others learned from spending more time reading & then going to anatomy lab. Figure out what works for you—one isn’t necessarily better than the other. A lot of the time, its trial and error to see how you learn.
• Cadaver lab: I spent my weekends and probably every waking minute in here if possible. I'm a bit of a dissection nerd, so I didn't mind it too much.
  •  I had a rule that if I could not identify the structure in lab within 10-20 seconds, I didn’t actually know it. This sounds a little crazy, but I studied in this manner as a way to prep for the exam. On test day, the time limit (~45 sec I believe?) to identify a pinned structure wasn’t much of a stressor
  • When you're in lab, don't just focus on being able to identify a single pinned muscle or organ. Ask yourself..how does it relate to other structures around it? It is proximal or distal to x, y, z? It is more superficial or deep to x,y,z? This helps tremendously during exams!
• Study with others: When you feel comfortable, find a study buddy to test you! I cannot tell you how incredibly great this is. When you’re quizzing someone, you must know the anatomy well enough to know the right answer & when you hear the correct answer it works as reinforcement. I learned so much from my amazing classmates— tips on how to identify structures, great mnemonics...laugh attacks also help for memory :) 
• Once you can identify it on your own dissection (cadaver), see others: Every person’s anatomy is slightly different (we all inherently know this) so if you only focus on YOUR own cadaver, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Be able to recognize these slight variations before the exam. Different tables dissect through different planes, so having a look a various angles is important for recognition.

Books I recommend: ​

1. Board review series (BRS) Anatomy—Best $10 I ever spent! I used thriftbooks.com to find mine. Not a plug, but you can find me on this website a lot bc seriously...what is better than inexpensive books? (Not related but used BRS immunology/microbiology for didactic also). 
FYI: I used the 6th edition but traded up to the 8th edition now that I graduated--I have it as a reference in my office. Either edition will work (anatomy doesn't change much!)

2. Netter’s Anatomy—This is a classic textbook for anatomy. The E-version is shown here. Also loved Netter’s anatomy flash card

3) Color Atlas of Anatomy by Rohen, Yokochi, Lutjen-Drecoll--Probably one of the best anatomy books because it shows real images of human anatomy dissections. If you were ever in lab & thought, “How am I supposed to find this structure if we’re referring to a cartoon drawing?”—then this book is for you! Also great for those times you can't make it to lab to study

4. Atlas of Anatomy by Gilroy, MacPherson, and Ross—similar to Netter’s anatomy. A little lower on my list of must get books, but some classmates preferred this one instead of Netter's. To each his own!

Apps:

• I didn't really use apps, but had e-versions of all my anatomy books--this really helped with highlighting on my tablet. I would bring in my tablet to lab & would place it inside a ziplock bag in order to prevent any cadaver juice on it. You're welcome for that tidbit..ha!
• Pocket anatomy (shown below)—bought this and probably used it about 10 times. Some classmates loved it since you can virtually remove layers revealing deeper structures. It also has pins that remind me so much of our exams. This didn’t really work for me, but it might for you. This is how the app looks, check it out if you'd like! 

That's all! Hope you enjoyed & best of luck! If you have any recommendations on what worked for you, please leave them below :)