Happy Monday! I recently put out a blog post on How to Pass A&P I/II: Lecture, and promised to share my tips for success with the lab portion.

*WARNING: If you have a weak stomach beware. I have included an organ picture*

For those who may not know, when students are enrolled in a science course in college, they must take an accompanying lab course once a week (normally). My lab for A&P I was on Thursdays for 3 hours and during the spring semester my lab was on Tuesday morning for 2 hours. I was fortunate enough to have the same professor for both; she actually was also my A&P I lecture professor! The format of both lab courses were exactly the same : 3 practicals and pre-lab quizzes.

cranial nerves

bone markings…

How did you prepare for lab?

• I would read the activities we were assigned to read, take notes and then take the pre-lab quizzes.
• My lab professor would provide us with PowerPoints for her mini lectures she would give before we completed our activities, and I would print/hole-punch those.
• I would just make sure to have a good idea of what I would have to do during the activities.
• This helps to make sure you can move along quickly in lab. Three hours can really fly by!

What did you bring to lab with you?

• My lab binder with printed PowerPoints and notes from the pre-lab quiz.
• Goggles (always bring these along just in case)
• Writing utensils of course!

How did you take notes during lab?

• I would annotate the PowerPoints during the mini lecture, but our lab textbook was pretty much a workbook to fill out data and answer the questions provided at the end of the activity.
• I made sure to take pictures of every model/organ dissection from a few angles, these will come in handy when studying.
• Make sure you always take photos of EVERY microscope slide and label them.

How did you prepare for lab practicals?

• As I do for every exam no matter what subject, I would break up the content evenly between about 2 weeks.
• I made sure my review worksheets were filled out and would review the content form these for the written portion.
• I would also take photos of the models I took and print them out to label them, after labeling what I remember of the top of my head, I would turn to the review PowerPoints.
• Spelling counts, so I would use the PowerPoints and my dry erase board to write out the structure/tissue and then check the next slide.
• Repetition counts for the practical portion, so review PowerPoints, index cards and labeling are helpful reinforcement. You can always make your own if you are not provided with any.

That is pretty much how I prepared for and passed lab! If you have any questions or want blog post requests feel free to leave them in the comments!