Bruce’s guide to an anatomy unit in 5 days.*
*Don’t actually do this in 5 days if you can avoid it. Maybe “5 steps” would be more appropriate.**
**Don’t actually do this in 5 steps, either. Each bullet point could be an entire day of studying, or close to it. This is just my idealized framework for getting through the material quickly and effectively.
Day 1: Regional Anatomy LOs and IDs
- Acland’s DVD Atlas of Human Anatomy: These are the best first-pass resource I could ever imagine, and I also uploaded the video transcripts so you can search for specific terms in the PDF and jump to whenever they’re mentioned in the video.
- Read the unit learning objectives for embryology, imaging, and anatomy, as well as the structure ID list. I like to reformat these documents into a note-taking app so that they sync between my devices and I can read them on my phone.
- Read through the regional anatomy and circulatory tool slides for the unit, taking care to recall what you saw in Acland’s video and matching it to what you’re seeing in the slides. (I like to take notes on Acland to modify later with a different color pen when going through the slides. If you’re having a hard time remembering any of the specific terms, read about their etymology. I find things to be far more memorable when I understand how they were named.)
- Start going through my Anki flashcards, whether they’re cadaver ID images (like the USUHS deck) or Anettermy/Grey’s doesn’t matter so much at this point so long as you’re remembering names and the important relationships. Eventually, start focusing on the cadaver IDs since they’re also preparation for the practical exam.
Day 2: In-Depth Study of Non-Anatomy Material
- Read through the imaging and embryology slides. Read through the relevant ultrasound iBook section and take special care to look at the animated images, since these are usually used on the practical exam.
- Read the relevant embryology pages from UNSW (for example, here is the introduction to head development page). These are well-written and cover most of the material we need for embryology. Take the relevant UNSW embryology quiz.
- Read the relevant embryology pages from Duke and take the practice quiz at the end of each page.
- Read the relevant Langman’s Medical Embryology chapters for the unit.
- If you want, watch the embryology lectures on 2X speed and check that you recognize everything.
Day 3: Solidify Anatomy Knowledge
- Draw the circulatory tools and nerve plexuses (if relevant). YouTube is an excellent resource for finding simple line-drawings of the nerve plexuses (this is how I learned the lumbosacral, brachial, and abdominal autonomic plexuses).
- Read the relevant chapters of ECA and pay special attention to the clinical correlates. If another MS1 posts the clinical correlates as a compiled PDF on the class Facebook page, download the file for later.
- Continue to review the Anki flashcards, and begin to study the University of Michigan BlueLink cadaver ID images. You need to open these PDFs in Adobe Reader for the tagged structures to render properly.
- Review the VHD pin quizzes (click “quizzes” under the relevant topic) and the VHD radiographic images (click “radiology”).
Day 4: Apply Anatomy Knowledge
- Begin to review the University of Michigan Practice Questions. These are by far the best preparatory resource available online for the written exam, other than the Canvas practice quizzes.
- Take the Canvas practice quizzes (ideally, after you get through all of the University of Michigan questions). Identify which clinical correlates are most important to our exam, and review the slides/ECA reading to confirm your knowledge.
- Review the relevant regional and unit resources on the Dartmouth Human Anatomy page. These include radiology quizzes, axial cadaver image quizzes, and regional anatomy practice questions.
- Take the Downstate regional anatomy practice practical exam. It’s up to you how many systems to include in the quiz, and you might want to sprinkle these throughout your studying as you learn neurovasculature/muscles/etc.
- If there are knowledge base/ETIG practice practical sessions, attend them. If the knowledge base stuff isn’t resonating with you, don’t stay and waste your time! Use the other resources to continue studying, but don’t skip the real-life practice practical.
Day 5: Review Everything
- Reread the unit learning objectives for regional anatomy, embryology, and imaging. Explain your knowledge out-loud as you read each learning objective, and if you don’t recognize something, Google it to refresh your memory.
- Reread the lab and bone ID lists and elaborate out-loud on each term, describing location and physical features to confirm your geographic and visual knowledge.
- For the written test, review the Michigan, Dartmouth, and Canvas practice questions. Look over the SOAR materials, particularly the Bedside Anatomy and imaging resources.
- Glance over the embryology slides and mentally elaborate using your knowledge from Langman’s and the UNSW and Duke pages. Review the UNSW and Duke embryology quizzes.
- For the practical exam, review the Downstate, Dartmouth, BlueLink, and VHD pin quizzes.
- Draw the neurovascular pathways from memory (circulatory tools and relevant nerves).
- If you have a compiled PDF of the clinical correlates, read through it (and any particularly tricky parts of ECA) the morning of the exam.
Additional Resources (skim these – especially FSU)
You’ve got this!
BEK20180922