One of the classes Medical Students take in their first two years of Medical School Is Anatomy. While Some excel at learning this subject, for many learning anatomy presents huge challenges. These challenges include not knowing how to memorize all of the structures in such a short period of time, not knowing how the human anatomy is relevant to clinical practice, as well as not being able to understand the functions of important anatomical structures. While Anatomy is definitely challenging, it is not impossible to learn. In this article I will be giving some tips on how to study anatomy in Medical School.

Take Advantage of group study

• Before Coming to medical school, many medical students are so used to trying to understand new information on their own. While this may be possible to do to some extent, it may not always be the most efficient way to learn. 

• A good way to learn it to this extent is to have someone explain it you, so that rather than just trying to memorize everything cold, you are instead processing the information verbally. Once you understand it you could then teach it to another one of your study partners. In this way weather than sending multiple hours trying to memorize the information, You can just learn through thoughtful discussion.

Use question banks to study Anatomy

• The emergence of technology has greatly improved learning in medical education. Now there is rise in the use of Question banks to learn complex anatomy, and solidify our understanding of how each part of the human body works
• Question banks can help to frame your thinking when it comes to learning anatomy as well as help you focus on what is important to know, and what you should not be Saying attention to. 
• Using question banks will help you to understand how Anatomy gets tested in the context of board exams as well as in your specific School Exams

Study Anatomy by System

• My Medical School used a Systems based approach when it came to studying Anatomy. What exactly does this mean? Basically it means that we studied each Organ System as a whole in units. So for example From January to March of my first year of Medical School we studied the Musckuloskeletal System. This included all fo the disciplines relevant to the Muskuloskeletal system such as Pharmacology, Histology, Physiology as well as Anatomy. So during this period between January and March we did not really go into depth about heart anatomy, neuroanatomy, or even the Anatomy of the Gastrointestinal organs. We mainly focused on the Muscle groups of the upper and lower extremities (ie:  brachialis, brachial plexus, quadratus femoris etc.).
• Taking this approach prevented students from becoming overloaded with information and gave us a better understanding of anatomy because we were learning it within the full context of an entire organ system.

Which are the best Sources to Study Anatomy

Anatomy Question Banks

• Anatomy Bootcamp: This is the best question bank on the market by far. Not only does this cover all of the relevant anatomical regions, it does so in a very organized manner, and then follows each lesson up with a cadaver quiz. Each lesson contains two types of quizzes in the question bank, an  identification quiz and an Application quiz.
• Statpearls: StatPearls has an entire question bank on just anatomy questions. All of their questions are multiple choice and test you on the clinical relevance of the anatomy of anatomical structures as well as the ability to be able to identify what structures are being described in the question stem. I discuss more about StatPearls here.
• TeachmeAnatomy: TeachMeAnatomy includes a question bank as well as a interactive 3D anomy models which users are bale to toggle and zoom into using the control panel on the website. TeachMeAnatomy is a great resource because each anatomy region comes with a very succinct article that goes along with it. Similar to StatPearls, the questions in the Question bank test your ability to identify certain anatomical structures as well as your knowledge on the clinical relevance of certain anatomical structures.
• KenHub: KenHub also contains 3D images and has a very comprehensive question bank to go along with it. KenHub has the added advantage of allowing you to select the difficulty of the questions which range from basic identification questions, all the way to Exam style questions
• Med School Bootcamp: This is a great resource for answering board style questions having to do with anatomy, more specifically anatomy questions that you are likely to see on step 1. This resource is better used to focus on training your ability to answer anatomy questions on step 1. For that reason I would suggest using alongside other board relevant question banks.

• Amboss: Amboss is primarily known for its vast library of clinical information as well as question bank which contains board style questions for the USMLE step exams. However, One of the most useful features that Amboss has for studying anatomy are their anatomy labeling quizzes. These quizzes are multiple choice and give users the opportunity to cover and uncover the labels on anatomy structures and also answer multiple choice type questions. These questions are mainly questions that test your ability to identify the relevant structures rather than knowing the clinical relevance of the anatomy.

Additionally you can study Anatomy using normal question banks by simply creating custom quizzes on only Anatomy.

How Many Hours Should I study Anatomy a day In Medical School

This depends on your current level. If you are someone who struggles with learning, then you definitely want to devote some extra time to studying. To give some exact numbers here is the approach many of my classmates as well as other medical students took for studying anatomy. If you have anatomy 3 days a week then you can use this approach. For every Anayomt lab we did the following

1. Study for 1 hour by reviewing the powerpoint slides and anki decks before going into lab.
2. Spend 1 hour in the lab actually looking and studying the cadaver using the dissection manual.
3. Quizzing yourself using a question bank after the lab for an additional hour.

This approach is for 1 lab session. It comes out to be about 3 hours. So if you have lab 3 times a week then it would total to about 9 hours of studying anatomy per week. This doesn’t not even include weeks where there were lab practicals. In this case I would add on additional 3 hours due to the time it takes to take a practice practical exam. If your school doesn’t offer a practice practical exam, You can take one of the ones offered by Anatomy Bootcamp. The questions look like what is seen in the image below. You can read more about Anatomy Bootcamp here.

. You can visit the website by clicking on the link below.

What are other ways to study anatomy?

Use Videos to Study Anatomy

• Seeing the Human Body in video form is also very helpful. It allows you to form a visual picture of neural pathways, blood supply pathways etc. For some people using videos to help with Anatomy allowed them to visualize the human body as a maze. Other people benefitted from a video format of learning because they learned better through Auditory modalities.

Draw out Structures to Study Anatomy

Resources such as Draw it To know it are great for this. This can help you get an initial understanding of the spatial relationships between anatomic structures. This is great if you need a more active and tactile approach to learning anatomy.

As you can see there are many ways to study anatomy in medical school. By using any of the methods that I mentioned you will have a good chance of succeeding in your Anatomy class!

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