WHY IS THIS CLASS SO DIFFICULT?!?!?!
A&P courses are challenging, but they don't entirely deserve their reputation of being too difficult. Nationally, there is about a 30-50% failure rate (grades of D, F, or W) among students in A&P classes, yet A&P is far from the most difficult biology class at most schools. So, why the high failure rate?
A significant factor is that students who do not have a sufficient understanding of basic science attempt the A&P course. It is equivalent to putting a person who does not know how to swim onto a competitive swim team. It would probably be a miserable experience for that person, yet it is quite possible that with the proper sequence of beginner and intermediate swim classes, that person would be an excellent swimmer.
How does one achieve that basic understanding of science? Most students must earn a grade of C or better in a college-level general biology class, and possibly a similar chemistry class. To further muddle the situation, those courses must be sufficiently rigorous to do any good in preparing the student. That is, the student must be challenged to think critically, not just to memorize factoids. Thus, sometimes we see students who earned a decent grade in a college biology class still struggle with A&P.
Another factor is verbal skills, i.e., reading and writing. The terminology of anatomy is difficult, and the ability to follow verbal descriptions of physiological processes is essential.
Why aren't prerequisites established and enforced? Because there is as much opposition to this idea as there is support. Some pre-professional curricula are more concerned with getting students through in a short period of time than in encouraging students to be properly prepared. This is the classic sink-or-swim attitude, and many students sink, unfortunately.
College administrators are concerned about the bottom line of increasing enrollment and therefore getting more money, and fear losing students to schools without pre-requisites. Professors are concerned with their students understanding the subject matter. Students are concerned with moving on to the next semester. These three goals are sometimes in opposition!
Below are quotes from faculty teaching A&P at other colleges in the US, in response to a question about lack of enforcement of course pre-requisites.
"Our enrollment actually INCREASED despite the enforcement of prerequisites. In fact, at our community college, we found that we attracted some strong students who were impressed by the fact that we had placement standards."
"I...(studied) success/failure rates in about 600 students who had taken A&P. As suspected, their SATs or ACT reading and math scores were pretty good indicators for success in the class. Math ability was more strongly correlated than reading, although reading was high. ...Setting entry level prerequisites is better than trying to maintain the academic integrity of the course and fend off administrators who wonder why there is such a high failure rate."
"Before the prerequisites, the WDF rate was about 40%. After the prerequisites, the WDF rate is about 20%....After studying the failure rate of students, it was difficult to let student who we knew had a high possibility of failure take the course. It would have been nice for enrollment, but ethically questionable."