Hi! I'm Kevin Patton, the author of this survival guide. I've enjoyed several decades of studying human anatomy and physiology—and also studying how to study this subject. Besides taking anatomy and physiology courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels, I have also taught it at all three levels. I still study A&P informally as I author A&P textbooks and as I prepare for the classes I teach at a community college and university. I study A&P several times each year at formal workshops and seminars. During this time, I've come to appreciate that the major keys to success in any A&P course are style and attitude. This book will help you with both by giving you some simple and clear tips on how A&P can be easily and quickly mastered.
This survival guide can be used easily in any A&P course with any textbook. In fact, you can use some of it in your other courses, too!
This survival guide for anatomy and physiology students begins with a quick and easy overview of some of the strategies my students and I have used to make our studies more productive—and therefore more fun and less time-consuming.
Scattered throughout the first section of this guide, I've included boxes conspicuously titled “Survival Tips” and other special boxed sidebars that cover topics of interest to many students. For example, a sidebar for returning or nontraditional students is offered, a sidebar for learners with special needs, a sidebar about learning in the laboratory, and a sidebar about using digital devices to help study A&P. You'll also find sidebars that highlight some of the more important points in this guide.
If you find that a thoughtful look at how you study has a positive effect on the efficiency of your studying—and I'm sure that it will—then I encourage you to talk to your professor, college librarian, or a learning center specialist to find out more ways to help yourself learn A&P and other subjects.
The second part of this guide is a handy compilation of diagrams, charts, and tables that serve as quick “field guides.” This collection of resources will help you as you study in class, at home, in the lab, and even later in clinical or applied situations because they contain much of the essential information needed to understand the human body's structure and function. The diagrams are like pocket maps to the body, quickly getting you on the right road when you're lost. The charts and tables summarize facts in a way that will help you organize your own thinking about important concepts—and they will help you remember the details when they slip your mind.
The second part of this guide also includes a scattering of analogies and models that you will find helpful in learning some of the trickier concepts of A&P.
I suggest that you READ the first part of this survival guide right away. That'll get you on the right track. Then as you progress through your A&P studies, RAID the second part for maps, charts, and shortcuts to help you with specific concepts.
I'm using the analogy of survival in a wilderness throughout this book for at least two reasons. First, beginning students often do feel overwhelmed in an unfamiliar territory. Secondly, it is a good analogy—many of the skills you might use to survive in the wilderness have their counterparts in coping with your A&P course. And, as we shall learn, analogies make learning easier.
I'd love to get any feedback on this guide that you'd like to share with me—good or bad. Or perhaps you'd like to share some learning secrets you've discovered. Contact me at kevin@theAPstudent.org and follow me on my blog for A&P students at theAPstudent.org.