Advice Needed Regarding Anatomy Remediation OMS1

[gsm95]

Long story short, I will be remediating anatomy over the summer. Comfortably passed all my other first semester courses (Micro, Biochem, Pharm, OMM, etc), but struggled mightily with anatomy. I had multiple personal and health issues going on throughout the semester but I'm not going to make excuses, it was also a case of crumbling under the pressure after I did poorly on the first anatomy exam and it became an uphill battle to pass.

I'm trying to navigate a gameplan to study anatomy alongside my courses next spring. My main form of studying will be through anki. I realize this is going to be difficult to do alongside the courses I have next spring, but the remediation is essentially going to pack 4 months of anatomy into 4 weeks so I don't think it would be wise to just wait until the summer to touch the material again. I'm open to all thoughts and opinions about this however.

It's not an ideal situation at all and I wish I had handled things a bit differently during the course of last semester but it is what it at this point, and I have to do whatever is in my power to pass the remediation. Not sure how much of an impact this is going to have on my future residency prospects as well, but I realize I have to get through the course before even thinking about that.

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[deleted771945]

I'm just a first year but I passed anatomy. I highly recommend getting an iPad (even the mini which is cheaper) with the pencil and just draw out structures as you study the lectures. I was never an iPad person before med school but it helped imo.

 

[Sidus1011]

Remediation will have a negative impact on your residency application, but a good portion of students have to do it at one point or another. It may have shut some doors at higher tier academic centers depending on the specialty you’re shooting for, but overall it shouldn’t impact you greatly. The best thing you can do is pass the remediation and reform your studying techniques for the class. Anki and overall repetition is key for anatomy imo. Spend time doing cards, practice questions, and in the week leading up to the practical you need to live in the anatomy lab.

The same course continues to apply for you as before. Kill your boards, take step 1 and 2, and try your best to make connections related to your specialties of interest. Good luck!

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Michigan anki deck

 

[kirtar]

Are you having trouble with primarily cadaveric structure identification, conceptual questions, or are you struggling with both? The general advice with anatomy is lots of practice questions and time in the lab, though the latter is not exactly applicable in the lead up to remediation. BRS Anatomy and Bluelink were what most people in my school and class tended to use for practice.

 

[gsm95]

Are you having trouble with primarily cadaveric structure identification, conceptual questions, or are you struggling with both? The general advice with anatomy is lots of practice questions and time in the lab, though the latter is not exactly applicable in the lead up to remediation. BRS Anatomy and Bluelink were what most people in my school and class tended to use for practice.

The issue is pretty much entirely cadaveric identification. I actually do alright on conceptual questions. The thing is I was using anki quite a bit for cadaveric identification early on and still did poorly so I was honestly at quite a loss as to how to approach things differently. To be honest, I think people just have a knack for brute force rote memorization which I might be lacking a little of. But I’m willing to push myself to my limit to pass even if it means studying 12 hrs a day.

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

do you have an anatomy lab where you can go in?

 

[kirtar]

The issue is pretty much entirely cadaveric identification. I actually do alright on conceptual questions. The thing is I was using anki quite a bit for cadaveric identification early on and still did poorly so I was honestly at quite a loss as to how to approach things differently. To be honest, I think people just have a knack for brute force rote memorization which I might be lacking a little of. But I’m willing to push myself to my limit to pass even if it means studying 12 hrs a day.

Assuming that don't have access to a lab for this semester, then Bluelink is a good source of questions based on cadaveric images. If you're the type to use an atlas while studying, probably use Rohen since its images are cadaver based in contrast to Netter or Thieme. Other than that, if the remediation course gives you access to the lab, go in as much as you can and look at structures in more than just your assigned donor.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Don't make the mistake of failing a spring course by studying for anatomy. Focus on your classes. Go to the cadaver lab once a week and then take the remediation. They usually make these tests more fair so people don't fail out

 

[gsm95]

Don't make the mistake of failing a spring course by studying for anatomy. Focus on your classes. Go to the cadaver lab once a week and then take the remediation. They usually make these tests more fair so people don't fail out

Very sound logic and this was my initial plan - just focus on doing well in spring classes and then tackle anatomy when the time comes in the summer. Then I heard that the remediation is extremely difficult to pass at my school which made me switch gears into planning to study the material alongside spring courses. This could totally be misinformation however and I certainly hope the tests are more fair in the remediation.

 

[Stranger00120]

It took me until the last exam to really get where I needed to be and pass, and I had to really change up my study strategies to get there. I used a lot of Anki as well as paper flashcards (Netter's and Rohen's) I'm now the proud owner of three atlases (two illustrated and one photographic), an anatomy coloring book, and several paid apps. I used Kenhub and Draw It to Know It to study on my own. For conceptual questions I used the online questions from Netter's (I bought a paper copy and they're part of the provided digital version) as well as questions from Draw It to Know It. Bootcamp has additional photographic practice that I found helpful. The more that you can see the better. One of my classmates made a spelling deck for anatomy Anki, and that was a huge help with ID. Typing it out instead of just saying it out loud or in my head helped immensely with muscle memory.

I also found that studying with a group made a real difference, if you can make sure that people have different strengths, but that might be harder in remediation. I would often get stuck on a structure and ask my group, "Can someone please tell me the life story of the middle meningeal artery (for example)?" and someone would tell me where it was coming from, where it was going, which helped me remember it when it came to an exam. I think owning that anatomy isn't your greatest strength can be helpful too. I would talk out with my group structures that I was getting mixed up with my group and ask how people were identifying them, usually I got advice that I could remember and occasionally someone would say to me after an exam, I got that right because you mentioned it. A group can also help with identifying one another's strengths and weaknesses, so if we were working on ID together and someone was always misidentifying one type of structure they became the official identifier of that structure. We could talk more in depth about relationships if we knew where weaknesses were, and honestly it was a lot more fun.

The thing that finally clicked for me was relationships. I kept trying to study the ID portion of anatomy in isolation, and that doesn't work. One of our anatomy professors kept saying that it's always about where the blood vessels are going, and that finally clicked for me. If you can see what you're solid on you can build the rest of the relationships from there. For instance, if muscles are fine but blood supply and innervation is iffy start with muscles and build out your relationships based on where the nerves and vessels are going.

 

[dingleberrypie]

if you're having trouble with anatomy then chances are you're not studying correctly. the following is what works for me.

first, have a solid conceptual foundation of the material. Like, be able to draw out what is where and be able to recall where structures SHOULD be in anatomy textbooks or 3d anatomy apps (using an app really helps with spacial recognition). i found that anatomy lab practice is pointless if you don't even have a conceptual base of the info. At this stage of, you can use anki, draw things out, or just do conceptual practice questions. the point of this is to cover your bases on didactic knowledge.

then, drill in practice by identifying in an anatomy lab. preferably go with a partner so they can pimp you on structures and vice versa. Before randomly guessing a structure, think to yourself: How is the body oriented? what is located in this region of the body? out of all the things that this could be, what could it NOT be based on what i'm seeing? Is there something i can do to make it more clear what it is that i'm looking at (such as tracing the structure up or down the body)? Make sure to eliminate options as you gain more information regarding the structure, where it originates, and where it goes to. Before confirming on an answer choice, be sure to justify in your head TWO reasons why the structure is what you think it is. This greatly reduces the chances of you jumping to conclusions based on a narrow/quick preview of the structure.

Lastly, the remediation i imagine would be quite easy considering the fact that schools don't want students to fail out. they need that tuition after all.

 

[Mav13]

YouTube the account The Noted Anatomist.

 

[deleted1079620]

Find out if your anatomy faculty or TAs will tutor you a couple of times a week. They can walk you through the high yield anatomy on the cadavers & help you identify where you’re going wrong with study techniques.