Anatomy can be one of the hardest subjects for a medical student. There are 206 bones in the body, hundreds of muscles attached to these bones with thousands of blood vessels and nerves supplying them continuously. It can be extremely tough to memorize all their paths, locations, functions and then on top of that even their constituting cells. Memorizing the huge stack of notes is just impossible, which is why every medical student dreads this subject, however, if you associate the knowledge, things start to look better. Ultimately, you will realize that anatomy is an interconnected web of knowledge, once you start to make connections, things become easier to remember. This is just the way our brain works. There are specific ways of studying that you can use in order to facilitate fast learning. Here we describe three methods that will help you memorize anatomy fast!
Visual aids
Our brain has 3 modes of input, sight, touch, hear. Once you stimulate all of them, you have three different modes in which the information was stored and hence, it is easier to remember. This is why, it good to learn but hearing the lecture by your teacher, however, writing these notes down and memorizing them transfer your information into the long-term memory. Now, add to this the information that you saw while you dissected, while you saw the pictures, the models and so on. This will make your knowledge full proof making it hard to forget.
Associate
Try to learn a specific topic by studying all relevant information about it. For example, if you study the gross anatomy of the brain, try and learn its histology, and its major pathologies also. This will help you make an association which makes you remember things faster and more efficiently.
Medical terminology quizzes
The best step in fortifying your memory is by recalling it. A quiz is a perfect way to do so and with so many terminologies, it helps you to remember most of them. Anatomy is filled with similar sounding words that can sound almost alike and yet mean completely different. This is why it is best to test yourself repeatedly, and there is nothing better than a medical terminology quiz for that task.
Teaching
The final way to fortify your anatomy knowledge after you are done with the medical terminology quiz is to teach the topic. Once you sit down and explain the concept to another person, it helps you to remember all the things in order, which will further fortify your knowledge. Repeatedly revising the information yourself and by teaching it to others, you can enhance your anatomy and gain the confidence of what you have learned.
These tips for studying anatomy are sure to help you out from all that gloom. Anatomy can be hard to study, but it isn’t impossible. Plus, it is the basis of what you are going to study in the years to come. Unless you have a profound knowledge of the basic structures and their composition, how in the world will you learn about the defects? Hence, using your time efficiently, going through medical terminology quiz, repeated revisions and practice are all important to get through this subject. It’s demanding, yes, but not impossible.
