Freaking out

[fldoctorgirl]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is besides to vent, and if anyone has any advice or a "comeback" story to share.

Should I go speak to the course director or the M1 director? I don't know what to do. I just feel helpless and I basically feel like repeating this course is inevitable.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Sephirakra]

I ran the numbers on my grades, and I'm in the exact same boat. I know it may have seemed like busywork, but what did you put on your reflection assignment? I identified a few key areas in which I need to improve, and it helped to put it in perspective just by having it on paper like that.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I ran the numbers on my grades, and I'm in the exact same boat. I know it may have seemed like busywork, but what did you put on your reflection assignment? I identified a few key areas in which I need to improve, and it helped to put it in perspective just by having it on paper like that.

Yeah it helped and I definitely feel more confident with this material, but to average a 85-90 just to pass seems impossible. I don't see how I can do that.

 

[sab3156]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

Was the average for written and practical really that low? If so, as of now the class has roughly a 15 point curve (the courses are curved to 85%). You may not be in that bad of a shape.

It sucks to study under pressure, but you just need to go to as many lab tutoring sessions as you can for this next exam, and start hitting the Gray's review questions book very early on. Do multiple passes of the lectures and make sure you can answer all the Robbins questions (some of them will be irrelevant, so ignore those, I guess).

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

How many people also didn't pass? At my school about 25% of the class "failed" anatomy and then the course coordinator curves the class at the end so only a handful actually fail. He does this every year as he knows anatomy is brutal, and they don't adjust any of the exams so people freak out but it always turns out ok.

I hear every class as KCU is curved to an 85, if that is true then you might be better off than you think.

Edit: just saw sab's post, yeah if its curved to an 85 at the end then bust your hump the rest of the exams but don't be ready to throw in the towel yet.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Was the average for written and practical really that low? If so, as of now the class has roughly a 15 point curve (the courses are curved to 85%). You may not be in that bad of a shape.

It sucks to study under pressure, but you just need to go to as many lab tutoring sessions as you can for this next exam, and start hitting the Robbins Review book very early on. Do multiple passes of the lectures and make sure you can answer all the Robbins questions (some of them will be irrelevant, so ignore those, I guess).

Yep, average for upstairs was 73 and downstairs was 69. Hm, this is the first time I'm hearing anyone mention Robbins. Most people recommended Gray's.

How many people also didn't pass? At my school about 25% of the class "failed" anatomy and then the course coordinator curves the class at the end so only a handful actually fail. He does this every year as he knows anatomy is brutal, and they don't adjust any of the exams so people freak out but it always turns out ok.

I hear every class as KCU is curved to an 85, if that is true then you might be better off than you think.

Edit: just saw sab's post, yeah if its curved to an 85 at the end then bust your hump the rest of the exams but don't be ready to throw in the towel yet.

So this is the math done with me considering the curve. I'm only counting on a 5 point curve in the end (heard it was 8 last year) because the second exam is supposed to be easier, so I'm assuming the average will go up. Assuming a 5 point curve at the end, I need to average an 86 on the next exam + practical. I just feel like that's impossible.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Assuming a 5 point curve at the end, I need to average an 86 on the next exam + practical. I just feel like that's impossible.

Take it one day at a time, and try to master the material you get for that day. Live in the lab. You can do it.

 

[Roxas]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is besides to vent, and if anyone has any advice or a "comeback" story to share.

Should I go speak to the course director or the M1 director? I don't know what to do. I just feel helpless and I basically feel like repeating this course is inevitable.

Alright boys and girls, I have a story for y'all. Once upon a time there was this terrible terrible med student who undoubtedly didn't belong in med school at all. Let's call him Roxas. During fall of 2nd year in my heme/onc course I failed the first 2 exams, quite solidly (I recall something like 63 and 56%). I totaled up all the points in the course and needed a 91% on the last test to pass. I knew it was impossible, especially after putting valiant effort into the first 2 and still failing. Nevertheless I decided to eat, sleep, and breathe the material. I prayed like crazy. Exam day finally came - 92%. I was stunned. I even got an email from our dean congratulating me on turning that class around.

And I'm the worst med student ever. You can do this, you just need to want it bad enough.

 

[sab3156]

Yep, average for upstairs was 73 and downstairs was 69. Hm, this is the first time I'm hearing anyone mention Robbins. Most people recommended Gray's.

So this is the math done with me considering the curve. I'm only counting on a 5 point curve in the end (heard it was 8 last year) because the second exam is supposed to be easier, so I'm assuming the average will go up. Assuming a 5 point curve at the end, I need to average an 86 on the next exam + practical. I just feel like that's impossible.

Sorry, I meant Gray's - not Robbins. Go through the Gray's review questions in that separate textbook several days before the exam and make sure you can know all the relevant material in there.

Trust me, our averages were around 78 or more last year if I remember correctly (someone may be able to correct me here)... there is no way you're going to have only a 5 point curve after those low averages from the first exam.

 

[Dr.Bruh]

Your curve will most likely be greater than 5% (probably 8-10) but better to use 5 as a benchmark. I will say anatomy at KCU is tough but how it’s split up you can turn this around easier than any other course bc the info from the first exam doesn’t translate to the second. It’s totally new stuff that doesn’t build on eachother (except maybe some embryo stuff). So you can just brute force this one and put as much time in as you can and kill it. I got a 65% on one lab practical (was horrified, so I went to lab every day basically for at least an hour) and ended up getting 90%+ on every practical from then on the rest of the year. MSK is the “easiest” course to comeback on bc of the nature of th material. So don’t worry just put in more time or chance up how you’ve been studying and you can do it. If you can pull of an 80%+ on both exams you should realistically still be able to pass the class.

 

[Espressso]

Yeah it helped and I definitely feel more confident with this material, but to average a 85-90 just to pass seems impossible. I don't see how I can do that.

You gotta first stop saying you can't. Or that it's impossible. That mentality will literally drive you up a wall. A bad exam is okay. You won't get through medical school without a bad exam here or there. Or even a failed exam. It's okay. I almost failed my first two courses. It wasn't until the spring semester that I actually felt comfortable with myself, school-wise. It takes time to adjust. especially with anatomy and M1.

I always looked at it like this... you do bad on exam. Okay, so what? If you sit and freak out, without any viable action, you lose the time that you need. The exam is over, you got your score. Figure out what studying you need to focus on and what you should change up, i.e., spend more time on x, or spend more time in the lab; and do that.

Everytime I do bad on an exam I kick myself for it the whole evening after we get our grade, but it always hits me that if I beat myself up too much, worry too much, or fret over the past exam, it distracts me from the next one.

Medical school is tough. It's stressful. It's a train that doesn't stop. if you mess up once, you have to keep moving or you can fall even more behind. Trust yourself. But don't slow down. You got this!

 

[ciestar]

I got a 45% on a written anatomy exam and still got over an 80 in the class.

You got this!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Alright boys and girls, I have a story for y'all. Once upon a time there was this terrible terrible med student who undoubtedly didn't belong in med school at all. Let's call him Roxas. During fall of 2nd year in my heme/onc course I failed the first 2 exams, quite solidly (I recall something like 63 and 56%). I totaled up all the points in the course and needed a 91% on the last test to pass. I knew it was impossible, especially after putting valiant effort into the first 2 and still failing. Nevertheless I decided to eat, sleep, and breathe the material. I prayed like crazy. Exam day finally came - 92%. I was stunned. I even got an email from our dean congratulating me on turning that class around.

And I'm the worst med student ever. You can do this, you just need to want it bad enough.

Thank you! I needed this.

Thank you everyone for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate it.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Did you go to tutoring? By my calculations there is currently a 13.4% curve in the class. Add that onto your current grade, and if you're over 70 then be happy you're technically passing. I know curves aren't applied until the end but you need to think positively. Last year our curve was around 8%, and it sounds like your practical was roughly 5% lower than ours. Don't use 5% curve as a ballpark because the chances your class is going to average an 88% on your next exam and practical is 0%. I know people that failed both exams, and both practicals (albeit not by much), and still passed because of the curve. you will be fine. Just make sure you keep going to tutoring.

 

[NotYou20]

Step 1: take a breath

Your class average was the border between failing and not falling. They aren't going to fail anywhere near half of yall. You basically need to hit the 5th at most 10th percentile to pass. A 5 point curve is underestimating.
That being said your job is to kill that next anatomy exam. Don't bother calculating what you need to get, just go kill it. Talk with people who did decently but not great. Identify where your studying was inadequate. You can do it

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is besides to vent, and if anyone has any advice or a "comeback" story to share.

Should I go speak to the course director or the M1 director? I don't know what to do. I just feel helpless and I basically feel like repeating this course is inevitable.

Been there, done that. You can do it. Schedule lab sessions with the TA's to go over 'high yield' and take advantage of any upperclassmen mentor that will help you. If you had a friend who was in the masters and already took anatomy, hit them up.

Use the michigan anatomy and the BRS anatomy. Do all the questions, this will help with the lecture. The lab stuff just takes lab time. Also get Rohens flashcards if you haven't.

Thats what I did, and I bounced back . And if worse comes to worse and you fail one of the components by a point or something, you will be able to pass the remediation later because you will be much better (trust me).

Also, anyone who has their anatomy curved I am super jealous.

 

[ortnakas]

@fldoctorgirl I messaged you.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Alright boys and girls, I have a story for y'all. Once upon a time there was this terrible terrible med student who undoubtedly didn't belong in med school at all. Let's call him Roxas. During fall of 2nd year in my heme/onc course I failed the first 2 exams, quite solidly (I recall something like 63 and 56%). I totaled up all the points in the course and needed a 91% on the last test to pass. I knew it was impossible, especially after putting valiant effort into the first 2 and still failing. Nevertheless I decided to eat, sleep, and breathe the material. I prayed like crazy. Exam day finally came - 92%. I was stunned. I even got an email from our dean congratulating me on turning that class around.

And I'm the worst med student ever. You can do this, you just need to want it bad enough.

You inspired me, I always say you haven't really had the full med school experience till you start failing tests. I still remember having a 71 or 72 going into the renal final. I found every nice professor around and asked for all the help I could get. A couple of the professors threw the whole class some bones with some helpful hints in lecture.

I went into that final breathing heavy, but walked out with a 90 on the final. That was 16% higher than any of my previous renal tests and brought my grade upto a 77%. The class overall average was high mid 80's, but what did I care, sometimes seven-oh really does make DO.

 

[You shall know the Truth]

PM me if you would like help. I do tutoring at your school

 

[deleted103644]

Step 1: take a breath

Your class average was the border between failing and not falling. They aren't going to fail anywhere near half of yall. You basically need to hit the 5th at most 10th percentile to pass. A 5 point curve is underestimating.
That being said your job is to kill that next anatomy exam. Don't bother calculating what you need to get, just go kill it. Talk with people who did decently but not great. Identify where your studying was inadequate. You can do it

You don’t need to outrun the bear, just your friends.

 

[wysdoc]

PM me if you would like help. I do tutoring at your school

Here ya go, OP. Tutoring on a silver platter. Go do it

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is besides to vent, and if anyone has any advice or a "comeback" story to share.

Should I go speak to the course director or the M1 director? I don't know what to do. I just feel helpless and I basically feel like repeating this course is inevitable.

Hey so if it makes you feel any better, The class average for the next exam would have to be an 85% in both the written and the practical for the curve to be under 10%, which likely wont happen its at 13% right now, and I m guessing it will be between 7-10% after the final

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Sorry, I meant Gray's - not Robbins. Go through the Gray's review questions in that separate textbook several days before the exam and make sure you can know all the relevant material in there.

Trust me, our averages were around 78 or more last year if I remember correctly (someone may be able to correct me here)... there is no way you're going to have only a 5 point curve after those low averages from the first exam.

I would not go through grays personally. There were barely any gray's style questions on the the last exam after tutors were preaching to do them, and half of our exam is going to be histo. The second years had a much differently structured course than we did. They had half and half for embryo and histo while we had full embryo on the first and now have full histo on the 2nd. The people I know that passed said they mostly studied from the power point slides

 

[sab3156]

I would not go through grays personally. There were barely any gray's style questions on the the last exam after tutors were preaching to do them, and half of our exam is going to be histo. The second years had a much differently structured course than we did. They had half and half for embryo and histo while we had full embryo on the first and now have full histo on the 2nd. The people I know that passed said they mostly studied from the power point slides

Sounds like you guys really got screwed this time.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Sounds like you guys really got screwed this time.

Not through anyone's intention lol. The 2nd years were def trying to help our exam format just turned out to be radically different and no one put two and two together

 

[Coltuna]

Not through anyone's intention lol. The 2nd years were def trying to help our exam format just turned out to be radically different and no one put two and two together

Yeah Dr. Dennis actually mentioned that they did that in an effort to keep us from punting either of those 2 subjects lol.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Yeah Dr. Dennis actually mentioned that they did that in an effort to keep us from punting either of those 2 subjects lol.

LOL. Those were always punted last year.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

I would not go through grays personally. There were barely any gray's style questions on the the last exam after tutors were preaching to do them, and half of our exam is going to be histo. The second years had a much differently structured course than we did. They had half and half for embryo and histo while we had full embryo on the first and now have full histo on the 2nd. The people I know that passed said they mostly studied from the power point slides

Remember this though, the person who uses Gray's questions and puts them on his exam is dr. wright. Who you guys have for lower extremity. So I WOULD do grays this time.

 

[Dr.Bruh]

Definitely do Grays is Dr Wright is still teaching. I remember he would literally take some question straight from grays and put them in the test verbatim.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Definitely do Grays is Dr Wright is still teaching. I remember he would literally take some question straight from grays and put them in the test verbatim.

Yep, it's still Dr. Wright. So, I agree to definitely do Gray's. Multiple people have said sometimes the questions were straight up from there.

 

[Goro]

Results for our first anatomy exam + practical are out and although the averages for both were low at around 70, I did poorly on the practical. Per my calculations, I basically have to average at least an 85-86 on the next exam + practical in order to pass this class (and that's assuming the class will get a 5 pt curve). I'm basically freaking out because I feel like thats impossible and I'm not going to pass this class....

I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is besides to vent, and if anyone has any advice or a "comeback" story to share.

Should I go speak to the course director or the M1 director? I don't know what to do. I just feel helpless and I basically feel like repeating this course is inevitable.

That's a bloodbath, for sure. Anatomy is challenging, but still, something is wrong with the way your Faculty are teaching it, or more likely, assessing it.

Complain loud and hard to the Anatomy faculty, and the clinical Deans, UNLESS, the OMSIIs also had the same problem. It may be an issue of the Class not fully learning what they need to survive med school yet. There is a learning curve to deal with the firehouse.

I expect that your Faculty will massage the results.

 

[sab3156]

Not through anyone's intention lol. The 2nd years were def trying to help our exam format just turned out to be radically different and no one put two and two together

Sorry, but that really doesn't address a barely passing written exam average.

Also, the fact that your practical average was literally an F is cause for serious alarm, and is not explained by your implication that the second years helped you in the wrong way. I hope you guys get this addressed earlier rather than later. Ask the second years what happened last year during Neuro.

 

[Hippocrates II]

Sorry, but that really doesn't address a barely passing written exam average.

Also, the fact that your practical average was literally an F is cause for serious alarm, and is not explained by your implication that the second years helped you in the wrong way. I hope you guys get this addressed earlier rather than later. Ask the second years what happened last year during Neuro.

I'm sure I sound like an arrogant **** saying this but our practical was very fair. I literally did not see a single station that made me wonder what the hell it was. Not to say I got 100% on the practical, but everything presented was very clearly dissected and was something I had seen at some point in the lab. I was pretty surprised to see our practical grade was lower than the upstairs test because I thought that exam was bull****.

 

[sab3156]

I'm sure I sound like an arrogant **** saying this but our practical was very fair. I literally did not see a single station that made me wonder what the hell it was. Not to say I got 100% on the practical, but everything presented was very clearly dissected and was something I had seen at some point in the lab. I was pretty surprised to see our practical grade was lower than the upstairs test because I thought that exam was bull****.

Yeah but... your class doesn't seem to think so. The practical average is significantly different than ours was for either lower extremity or upper extremity. Something has changed between our time and your time, and it isn't for the better.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

@fldoctorgirl I messaged you.

I still remember when you did the same for me when I struggled with MSK.

Look MSK is miserable. I only started realizing how not to fail it like the last week. The solution is to spend lots of time in the lab and dont waste time trying to make sense of the muscle's functional anatomy as literally no one cares ever.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Sorry, but that really doesn't address a barely passing written exam average.

Also, the fact that your practical average was literally an F is cause for serious alarm, and is not explained by your implication that the second years helped you in the wrong way. I hope you guys get this addressed earlier rather than later. Ask the second years what happened last year during Neuro.

Was it really that bad?

 

[sab3156]

Was it really that bad?

I don't know how much of the story you heard, BUT.. in short:

Basically, we were the first class which had two separate sets of professors teaching Neuro between both campuses. The professor in KC taught very different material than the professors down in Joplin. It became clear on test day that the exam was written with the same emphasis taught to Joplin. KC got destroyed. We also were given an entire lecture that they later told us was a mistake and will not be covered on the exam. Somebody in KC got a 38 or something on the written exam. Or maybe it was less. In any case, it was bad.

We were also given two VERY different practicals. Basically, according to several of my friends who were corresponding with people in Joplin, they were having a hard time finding anyone who got less than an 80% on the practical. Joplin had tags like "frontal bone", while KC had stuff like "bony portion of internal auditory meatus". Moreover, half of KC's practical was hemisections... except KC only had ONE HEMISECTION through the regular lab sessions throughout the course and could not reliably learn that stuff.

We had a dean's meeting after the KC class exploded and spam messaged the dean about this. We had a meeting, in which the dean and director of education (or whatever his title is) basically blamed it on us and said "medical school is hard". Our class challenged them and told them to show us the scores between the two campuses, which they outright refused and said "the differences in the averages are not statistically significant so we will not show you". It was highly disrespectful and an insult to our intelligence.

To this day, we sing the tales of the fallen ones. Numerous brave souls among our peers did not make it through that course, and are either expelled or repeating first year. It's sad.

 

[Hippocrates II]

Yeah but... your class doesn't seem to think so. The practical average is significantly different than ours was for either lower extremity or upper extremity. Something has changed between our time and your time, and it isn't for the better.

I came into anatomy with zero previous knowledge of anatomy and made it through, so I'm not sure why our average was so low since the practical is 100% reliant on memorization and regurgitation, and I came into that class as unprepared as one could be. If I could do it, anyone could. I suspect people just didn't put in the time in the lab as I saw the same 15-20 people in the labs outside of class pretty much every time I went. It wasnt until the day before the test that everyone appeared in the lab. I'm all for calling out poor teaching when I see it, and I thought they did a piss poor job preparing is for the upstairs test, but I will maintain the practical was very fairly presented.

I don't know how much of the story you heard, BUT.. in short:

Basically, we were the first class which had two separate sets of professors teaching Neuro between both campuses. The professor in KC taught very different material than the professors down in Joplin. It became clear on test day that the exam was written with the same emphasis taught to Joplin. KC got destroyed. We also were given an entire lecture that they later told us was a mistake and will not be covered on the exam. Somebody in KC got a 38 or something on the written exam. Or maybe it was less. In any case, it was bad.

We were also given two VERY different practicals. Basically, according to several of my friends who were corresponding with people in Joplin, they were having a hard time finding anyone who got less than an 80% on the practical. Joplin had tags like "frontal bone", while KC had stuff like "bony portion of internal auditory meatus". Moreover, half of KC's practical was hemisections... except KC only had ONE HEMISECTION through the regular lab sessions throughout the course and could not reliably learn that stuff.

We had a dean's meeting after the KC class exploded and spam messaged the dean about this. We had a meeting, in which the dean and director of education (or whatever his title is) basically blamed it on us and said "medical school is hard". Our class challenged them and told them to show us the scores between the two campuses, which they outright refused and said "the differences in the averages are not statistically significant so we will not show you". It was highly disrespectful and an insult to our intelligence.

To this day, we sing the tales of the fallen ones. Numerous brave souls among our peers did not make it through that course, and are either expelled or repeating first year. It's sad.

That brings up an interesting point and makes me wonder if our practical average is low because Joplin was given a very difficult exam. I do think it's rather bs that we are given the same test while Joplin receives far better material imo.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

I came into anatomy with zero previous knowledge of anatomy and made it through, so I'm not sure why our average was so low since the practical is 100% reliant on memorization and regurgitation, and I came into that class as unprepared as one could be. If I could do it, anyone could. I suspect people just didn't put in the time in the lab as I saw the same 15-20 people in the labs outside of class pretty much every time I went. It wasnt until the day before the test that everyone appeared in the lab. I'm all for calling out poor teaching when I see it, and I thought they did a piss poor job preparing is for the upstairs test, but I will maintain the practical was very fairly presented.



That brings up an interesting point and makes me wonder if our practical average is low because Joplin was given a very difficult exam. I do think it's rather bs that we are given the same test while Joplin receives far better material imo.

I've heard from my friends who are TA's and Tutors that none of the 1st years went into lab on their own. Like wtf, that's how you learn the material. Tutoring is a tool to guide you and make sure you are on the right track. You HAVE TO PUT IN THE TIME. Our class always had people in the lab. Always. According to the fellows, they had 5 difficult tags. 5. The other 45 were straight and easy. I'm willing to bet that the 1st years didn't take it seriously and didn't put in the time to learn the material properly. They needed this wake-up call.

 

[failingmedicine]

if the practical was the issue, try to switch up tutors. Or join multiple tutor groups and see things from different people. I would have been a complete failure had it not been for my amazing tutor. After I learned something, I spent hours in the lab with my friends re identifying the things we learned. Or Id just hop in on a different tutor group.

For the written section, try using the tables that have Muscle name, Artery, Nerve and function. Memorize the table by covering a column and working through it. Do this multiple times. Then work on memorizing "blue boxes" or whatever crap you guys have now.

General advice: Punt the mitochondria guy all the time.

Good luck!

 

[Stagg737]

Dear lord, wtf did they do to the curriculum? We had averages in the 70's for the first two sections (immuno and biochem) but for systems our averages were almost always in the 80's and pretty sure we only had one lab practical average in below 90. If your lab practical average was that low ya'll really need to get together as a class and speak up about it, because that should never be happening.

I've heard from my friends who are TA's and Tutors that none of the 1st years went into lab on their own. Like wtf, that's how you learn the material. Tutoring is a tool to guide you and make sure you are on the right track. You HAVE TO PUT IN THE TIME. Our class always had people in the lab. Always. According to the fellows, they had 5 difficult tags. 5. The other 45 were straight and easy. I'm willing to bet that the 1st years didn't take it seriously and didn't put in the time to learn the material properly. They needed this wake-up call.

If this is true then the M1s need to get their s*** together. I spent at least 4 hours/day in lab for the MSK lab practical and I had friends spending 8-10 hrs/day down there. Waiting until the last day to spend more than an hour in the lab outside of actual lab lectures is unacceptable, and if that's the case I understand why the grades would be so low.

 

[Coltuna]

That brings up an interesting point and makes me wonder if our practical average is low because Joplin was given a very difficult exam.

FWIW, literally everyone I spoke to after our practical in Joplin felt awful about it. I can say with relative certainty that the Joplin practical brought down the class average if the KC test was as fair as you mentioned earlier. Who knows-- Maybe we underestimated the time needed to do well; however, there were a lot of people here who I felt really knew their stuff (in my humble M1 opinion) and did poorly.

 

[shur711]

Hey I think we're in the same class! I scored decently on the practical (87%) and decently on written (83%) so I thought I'd share some of my study techniques.

First off, I think the Gray's Review questions were not as high yield as everyone made them out to be. Think about it this way, there's 180 really tough Gray's questions for the Upper Extremity. How many Upper Extremity lectures did we have, only like 6 maybe out of 22 lectures? So if you do all of them, you're spending hours and hours studying for only a fraction of your exam. I know many people who wasted soooo much time doing every single Gray's question and did poorly on the exam. Just do a fraction of them and understand the concepts behind them. Many of them repeat and it is absolutely a waste of time to go through every single one. Also many of the explanations were definitely out of the scope of the stuff we learned in class. I would actually recommend using the Michigan's anatomy practice questions over Gray's. Secondly, I watched all lectures at home, not sure if you go to lecture or not, but don't go, it's a waste of time.

For study techniques, I made anki cards for every single lecture (using image occlusion etc) and would review those as often as I could. Get a group and split up the lectures with them and you can share the anki decks with each other. I made sure I could draw all of the arterial supplies and the brachial plexus cold. The day before the exam, I went through each lecture and made sure I knew each of the clinical scenarios mentioned in each lecture. Oh, and blue boxes are pretty low yield too, idk why tutors were emphasizing them soo much. I would just do the ones that were mentioned specifically in lecture. I will admit most of the exam questions I got wrong were embryo, so I'm def gonna try to study histo better this time around lol.

As for specific things I did for lab, I went to most of the lab tutoring sessions and reviews. I split up the muscle groups into different days and would go into lab and make sure I knew them. So Friday before the exam I did rotator cuff, saturday I went in and did all of the back muscles and nerves/artery, and sunday I did upper extremity. I came in on Monday just to go over vasculature and nerves one last time. Also don't dissect when you come into lab outside of lab time. They make it seem like dissecting is super helpful, but it's such a waste of time. You don't get points for dissecting, and even if you really clean out a structure on a body even then there's no guarantee that you'll get that specific structure on that body.

I hope that helps a bit! Let me know how it goes. And remember, it's not impossible, I believe you can get the 85 that you need!

 

[ohmanwaddup]

I was surprised how low the practical grade was, but as other posters said, I did not see a lot of my classmates in the lab outside of tutoring which probs explains it. I ended up not doing well on the practical which surprised me, but it came down to a bad habit of freaking myself out on if something was a nerve or artery. I agree the averages for both were super low and concerning, but when we were told by a second year that embryo would only be 10 questions or less and there ended up being 26, and tutors preaching Grays and Blue boxes, both of which were barely on the exam, I think that it explains part of why the average was so low. Thats just my opinion though

 

[jcve34]

As a second year I still preach to do Gray’s questions. You have to apply the knowledge you learn or else you’ll get to the exam and that’ll be the first multiple choice experience for those types of questions. What I’m not saying is to only do questions. 80% of your time should be spent organizing information in your head. You should be able to march along any muscle, arterial supply, or nerve in your head. You can spend your time drawing or you can purchase the complete anatomy app and practice walking through each region doing mini practicals on your iPad.

I lived in the lab. I went every single morning before it got crowded. What did I do? My whole objective was to be able to walk up to any cadaver in any position and be able to identify every structure that I could possible see. I garuntee if you can do this you’ll find the anatomy on the upstairs exam to be super easy. But I spent hours upon hours in the lab. This is precisely why I wouldn’t repeat first year and I would find a new job if that was my only choice. Anatomy is brutal at our school.

 

[shur711]

Dear lord, wtf did they do to the curriculum? We had averages in the 70's for the first two sections (immuno and biochem) but for systems our averages were almost always in the 80's and pretty sure we only had one lab practical average in below 90. If your lab practical average was that low ya'll really need to get together as a class and speak up about it, because that should never be happening.



If this is true then the M1s need to get their s*** together. I spent at least 4 hours/day in lab for the MSK lab practical and I had friends spending 8-10 hrs/day down there. Waiting until the last day to spend more than an hour in the lab outside of actual lab lectures is unacceptable, and if that's the case I understand why the grades would be so low.

I think an important point to note is that this IS our second block. We took MCM, and then went straight into MSK. We haven't had Immuno yet. I think that might be a factor in why the average was so low, since people are saying that MSK is harder than Immuno.

 

[Hippocrates II]

My whole objective was to be able to walk up to any cadaver in any position and be able to identify every structure that I could possible see. I garuntee if you can do this you’ll find the anatomy on the upstairs exam to be super easy. But I spent hours upon hours in the lab. This is precisely why I wouldn’t repeat first year and I would find a new job if that was my only choice. Anatomy is brutal at our school.

Part of why I found our upstairs exam difficult that was the answers were written in either very confusing terms, or in terms that I do not ever remember learning. For example, Olinger would have a question on a ligament or muscle that I was familiar with, but then the answer choices would have anatomical terms in them that I had never heard. I spoke with other classmates who felt similarly. I was expecting the questions to be more about their location within the body, movements they created, innervation supplying them, etc., and this wasn't really enough. Other times, they would present answer choices with very similar answers (duplication of a process vs. continuation of a process) that went above and beyond an understanding of a topic that I had personally expected. Even if I could retake that test, I'm not sure how I would prepare for it because neither Grey's nor my understanding of anatomy helped me with most of the questions that I got wrong. Not sure if other people feel the same, but I felt like a solid 1/4 of that test was something I had either never seen, had seen but did not understand the new verbiage it was being presented in, or required an understanding beyond what I personally felt we needed to know. Just my $0.02.

 

[jcve34]

Part of why I found our upstairs exam difficult that was the answers were written in either very confusing terms, or in terms that I do not ever remember learning. For example, Olinger would have a question on a ligament or muscle that I was familiar with, but then the answer choices would have anatomical terms in them that I had never heard. I spoke with other classmates who felt similarly. I was expecting the questions to be more about their location within the body, movements they created, innervation supplying them, etc., and this wasn't really enough. Other times, they would present answer choices with very similar answers (duplication of a process vs. continuation of a process) that went above and beyond an understanding of a topic that I had personally expected. Even if I could retake that test, I'm not sure how I would prepare for it because neither Grey's nor my understanding of anatomy helped me with most of the questions that I got wrong. Not sure if other people feel the same, but I felt like a solid 1/4 of that test was something I had either never seen, had seen but did not understand the new verbiage it was being presented in, or required an understanding beyond what I personally felt we needed to know. Just my $0.02.

That sounds like KCU. I hate to say a lot of the stuff is like that first year. I will say that doing Upper extremity first is strange definitely much harder than lower extremity. I will also say that we had a similar problem with advice from second years not being applicable. So full disclosure I just stopped listening. That may be what you all need to do unfortunately.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

That sounds like KCU. I hate to say a lot of the stuff is like that first year. I will say that doing Upper extremity first is strange definitely much harder than lower extremity. I will also say that we had a similar problem with advice from second years not being applicable. So full disclosure I just stopped listening. That may be what you all need to do unfortunately.

I'm just scared honestly. I feel doomed to fail idk. I def plan on spending more time in the lab then I did last time, but I'm most worried for the written.

 

[sab3156]

I'm just scared honestly. I feel doomed to fail idk. I def plan on spending more time in the lab then I did last time, but I'm most worried for the written.

Lower extremity is easier. Wright's questions are going to be much better.