[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 1. I hear this is just a "weed-out" course, is that true?
The phrase "weed-out" is rather hostile! No faculty member involved in teaching this course, or in requiring it for your major, enjoys the fact that many students earn poor grades. We do not think of you as "weeds" that need to be eliminated from our academic garden! We would much rather see you perform well. There are many possible explanations when students do poorly.
1. Poorly prepared students have trouble. Just like everything else in life, you need to have a proper foundation upon which to build. If you have not achieved a college-level understanding of basic science, anatomy and physiology will be very difficult for you. Minimum recommended prerequisites for Biol. 251 are a grade of C or better in Biol. 110, with Chem. strongly suggested. This does not mean that a grade of D or F will satisfy the prerequisite, nor does it mean you are guaranteed to do well in A&P if you meet the minimum requirements or C or better. Just imagine being a kindergartener and attending a 3rd grade math class - do you think you would do well? And if not, does that mean that you lack intelligence or your teacher is awful? We don't think so!
2. Studying for A&P classes is extremely time-consuming. If you do not have the time to devote to the class, either take the class some other time, or remove some of your time commitments. If it is important enough to you, you will find a way. We know you have other classes, and job and family commitments, but the material we cover and the work we require from you is based upon the recommendations of the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, and is similar to what any reputable college requires. Maybe it is too much work, maybe it is not enough, but the bottom line is you need to be competitive with students from other programs.
3. High school preparatory classes sometimes do more harm than good. We frequently hear, "I took this in high school and got an A, how can I be failing now?" If that is the case, then the high school class was not well-designed. We are not trying to lay blame on high school teachers or curricula, because we have not observed these classes and do not know every aspect of the situation. But we do know that, even at the college level, sometimes faculty inflate student grades beyond the knowledge the student has actually acquired. This makes a student feel good and saves the instructor some hassle, but it destroys the integrity and reliability of the grade, and worse, it sets the student up for a nasty surprise when s/he finally runs into an conscientious instructor! [see FAQ reply 6 for more information]
4. Science involves a particular way of thinking. Not everyone feels comfortable with scientific logic. What does that have to do with this class? There is much more to doing well than memorizing - your instructor will expect you to achieve a level of understanding of physiology that will allow you to solve problems that you haven't specifically covered in class. If this seems unfair, stop a moment to think about how to be a good health-care worker - no two patients are exactly alike, and they certainly aren't exactly like what the textbooks say! If you don't develop the mental skills that allow you to use logic to arrive at the appropriate treatment for your patient, you will be ineffective at the very least, and worse, your patient may die from something that could have been cured!
5. The terminology of anatomy is foreign! Most anatomical terms are derived from Greek or Latin roots. If you were raised speaking another language, you might find the terms very intimidating. Some instructors like to teach root word meanings to try to help develop your ability to figure out what a word means instead of just memorizing it. Having this ability makes classes such as this one much easier to get through. For example, if you know that "cornu" means "horn" as in horns on a bull, you will have an easier time understanding the cornu of the hyoid bone (horn-shaped portions), the corniculate (horn-like) cartilage, and the stratum corneum (hard, horny layer) of the skin.
BOTTOM LINE - The course is difficult for many students for a variety of different reasons. To maximize your chances of doing well, TALK to your instructor frequently, and start early in the semester getting to know him. Tell him if you are having any problems, and give him a chance to help you. Remind yourself, if necessary, that there is no diabolical plan here to ruin your life - all we want to do is prepare students for health care programs or other courses of study, which will likely be even more challenging and time-consuming than what you are experiencing here.
[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 2. My instructor won't give me a make-up exam in lab, doesn't this mean that he dislikes me or he is mean?
Your instructor was once a college student, and understands more than you realize what the circumstances may be to make you want to re-schedule an exam. We all found ourselves dreading our exams, feeling unprepared, knowing that if we just had one more day to study we would do so much better! So what's the big deal about providing a make-up exam?
1. It can take several hours to set up a practical exam. It is normal for your instructor not to want to do it twice! We do not get paid over-time and are not able to reduce our own commitments to compensate for doing extra work. It does not mean that we don't care about you or don't understand that extenuating circumstances can exist. It is just that we are human beings and we get tired and we want to have leisure time to spend with our friends and families, just like you do. No instructor will give a student a score of zero for missing an exam for a legitimate, documented excuse.
2. We remember being in college and wishing we would get sick so we could skip an exam! "Biology exams are the biggest cause of death of grandparents," one of us heard while a student in college. If you have kept up with your work, you can still perform well on a test even if you are feeling poorly. This doesn't mean we expect you do come to class when you are highly contagious. But if you've just got a headache because you didn't get enough sleep the night before, or you've got menstrual cramps, just take the test. It's much less hassle for everyone, and academic research shows that you will do OK on the test if you kept up with your studies before you started feeling bad!
BOTTOM LINE - Your instructor is a human being who works very hard to schedule and develop exams fairly. The syllabus you are provided with is basically a contract which your instructor will abide by. Please do your best to abide by this contract too.
[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 3. My instructor says I can't make up my lecture exam until finals week, doesn't this mean that he dislikes me or he is mean?
Your instructor was once a college student, and understands more than you realize what the circumstances may be to make you want to re-schedule an exam. We all found ourselves dreading our exams, feeling unprepared, knowing that if we just had one more day to study we would do so much better! So what's the big deal about providing a make-up exam?
1. It can take several hours to design, write, and photocopy an exam. It is normal for your instructor not to want to do it twice, and to not want to risk that you are being coached by a student who took the exam as scheduled and can share exam-related information with you, giving you an unfair advantage. It does not mean that we don't care about you or don't understand that extenuating circumstances can exist. It is just that we are human beings and we get tired and we want to have leisure time to spend with our friends and families, just like you do. No instructor will give a student a score of zero for missing an exam for a legitimate, documented excuse.
2. We remember being in college and wishing we would get sick so we could skip an exam! "Biology exams are the biggest cause of death of grandparents," one of us heard while a student in college. If you have kept up with your work, you can still perform well on a test even if you are feeling poorly. This doesn't mean we expect you do come to class when you are highly contagious. But if you've just got a headache because you didn't get enough sleep the night before, or you've got menstrual cramps, just take the test. It's much less hassle for everyone, and academic research shows that you will do OK if you kept up with your studies before you started feeling bad!
3. You may drop out before finals week anyway. It's not that we want to lose you. But sometimes we find that a student wants to re-schedule the test more because s/he is having trouble learning the material than that s/he is sick or has to be out of town for a funeral. It is rare that a student who is having such difficulties remains the entire semester anyway. A motivated student who is doing well with the material will be able to do fine making the test up later, so this policy really does not put the student at a disadvantage, and does prevent the instructor from having his work schedule altered by doing extra work earlier in the semester.
BOTTOM LINE - Your instructor is a human being who works very hard to schedule and develop exams fairly. The syllabus you are provided with is basically a contract which your instructor will abide by. Please do your best to abide by this contract too.
[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 4. I never miss class, I am always on time and never leave early, I do all the reading and assignments, I study A&P every day for several hours, yet I did poorly on my first test, so wasn't the test too hard or isn't the instructor a bad teacher?
Low grades indicate poor comprehension. High grades indicate good comprehension. You don't get points for attendance or time spent studying because those things do not indicate comprehension. You only get points for what you learn. The person sitting next to you may miss class frequently yet still end up with a higher grade than you.
Whoa! How can this be fair?
Well, think of it this way. Your car breaks down, and you desperately need for it to be fixed by tomorrow. Which do you care more about, how much time the mechanic spends on your car or whether or not he does a good job? If your car is still broken, you are probably not going to be very sympathetic that the mechanic stayed up all night trying to fix it. Instead, you will take your car to a different mechanic who can fix it. This doesn't mean you are cruel; it means you are paying for a specific service and you intend to be satisfied.
So how is this information applicable to your situation? You, as a student, are in the role of the mechanic. Your instructor is the customer with the broken car. The only way to convince the instructor that you understand what you are doing is to perform well on exams (fix the car). Luckily you don't really have to work on a car! You just have to work on your science comprehension.
1. There is a difference between quality of time and quantity of time. Imagine you are very ill and you go see a health care worker. Would you rather see a worker who spends a lot of time (quantity) trying to help you but you remain sick, or a worker who can diagnose and treat your problem effectively (quality)? College is an appropriate place to learn the difference between quantity and quality of studying, if you haven't learned already. When you receive a numerical score on an exam based upon how you answered questions, it is the same thing - this is what is fair and ethical, whereas getting a score based on how much time you spend studying is neither fair nor ethical.
2. There is always a possibility that an exam was unfairly difficult. If you suspect this, go talk to instructor about it, but be prepared to defend your position. Instructors want the exams to be fair, and to be moderately challenging but not impossible. Your instructor probably relies somewhat upon averages and top scores to help determine if the exam was fair, and also upon what he knows he emphasized in lecture, if he gave you questions ahead of time (as some instructors do for essay questions), or if some questions came out of the text book end-of-chapter questions or were available in library files or on these web pages. It is extremely rare that an exam average is much lower than 70% with no one scoring in at least the low 90s.
3. There is always a possibility that your instructor did a bad job teaching. If you suspect this, go talk to the chair of the biology department. But understand that this is a department that values excellent teaching, and your instructor went through a rigorous screening process before being hired, and undergoes an annual review. Your instructor likes science and likes teaching - believe us, the job doesn't pay well enough or come with enough respect to make it a worthwhile career otherwise! This department does NOT retain poor instructors. Maybe your instructor is normally good but had a bad semester. Your instructor is a human being and, as such, is imperfect. But, unless your instructor gets a significant proportion of his facts wrong or fails to show up for class, he is probably competent. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to learn the information regardless of the competency of the instructors and students around you.
BOTTOM LINE - LEARNING IS SOMETHING STUDENTS DO, NOT SOMETHING THAT IS DONE TO THEM. Thus, whether or not you learn and perform well on exams is solely your responsibility.
[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 5. My best friend took A&P at UT-M and failed, then she went to Joe Shmoe College and passed, so why should anyone take the classes here?
We sure hope your friend isn't ever in charge of our health care!
1. Anatomical terms and physiological explanations/principles that are covered at UT-M are what is used and accepted by the vast majority of workers in the health care industry. It is therefore not logical that a student will perform vastly differently at a different school. When we hear comments like this, we suspect that the program at the other college is not a good one. It could be that the instructor is not knowledgeable, or is pressured to inflate grades. It could be that the instructor doesn't push the students to learn much. It could be that the student did better because she had already had the class once.
2. While instructor styles vary, research shows that different styles have little impact on student performance in science classes. We know it seems hard to believe, but it is true. Different styles of teaching may affect a student's attitude toward a class - the instructor may be more entertaining, maybe tells jokes, so that time passes more quickly. But if the instructor is ethical and conscientious, the testing and grading styles will be similar to what any instructor uses. LEARNING IS SOMETHING STUDENTS DO, NOT SOMETHING THAT IS DONE TO THEM. Thus, whether or not you learn and perform well on exams is solely your responsibility. If you are in a good program at Joe Shmoe College and you do well, then it is equally likely that you should do well at UT-M.
BOTTOM LINE - Anatomy and physiology is a body of knowledge that is the same whether you are taking it Yale or UT-M or JSC. If you want to be a health care worker, you MUST attain an appropriate level of understanding of the scientific foundation upon which your profession is based.
REPLY TO FAQ 6. I took A&P in high school and got a good grade, so how is it possible that I am doing poorly in college A&P?
This could indicate any number of explanations.
1. Your high school course was not rigorous enough. This could result from unrealistic guidelines forced on the teacher by the school administrators (so many students must be passed regardless of their actual performance). Or it could be your teacher had an inappropriate educational background (he majored in physical education or math, not in biology!). Other explanations are possible, but there is one thing for certain - if the bar is set too low, students don't have to work hard to reach it, and therefore they don't. Thus, they do not achieve an adequate background. Is there a solution? Well, you can't change history.
BOTTOM LINE is you have to learn the material at a college level to do well on college exams. If your high school course didn't help prepare you, don't dwell on it - move on and tackle your college course. Understand that you may have to alter your study strategies, or increase the amount of time you spend studying. It wouldn't hurt to give some constructive feedback to your high school teacher - he probably never had college A&P, and may not realize that it is so much more rigorous than how he teaches it.
2. You expect college to be a continuation of high school.
College isn't grades 13-16. It is a completely different kind of educational experience for most students. If you get off to a bad start in college, see your instructor right away - don't delay! Your instructor wants you to do well! You may now lack discipline or academic maturity, but you can change.
3. You have more adult responsibilities now than you did in high school, and these responsibilities compete with your study time.
You have to establish your priorities. If your #1 priority is to earn enough money to make payments on your new car, cell phone, pager, and satellite dish, then that's fine, you are an adult, that is your choice. Just don't expect academic requirements to be lowered to accommodate your other commitments. It isn't always easy to choose, but it is necessary.
BOTTOM LINE - Either make your education your #1 priority, or stay out of school for a few semesters until you are ready to make that kind of commitment. There is no harm in waiting, and you might actually benefit from maturing in the "real world" for a little while! Or, promise not to sue when you receive poor health care - your doctor didn't have time to learn his anatomy and physiology, but surely you won't hold that against him!
[Frequently Asked Questions page]
REPLY TO FAQ 7. I have to work lots of hours each week to earn money for household expenses and/or I am caring for children and/or elderly parents. How is it fair to be expected to meet the demands of this class?
Good question! Difficult answer!
1. Try to look at it from the instructor's perspective. The instructor is pressured to meet the demands of the following people:
- the students ("make sure I earn a good grade"),
- the colleagues ("the biology department prides itself on maintaining high academic standards, and will not tolerate faculty who trivialize the courses to make them easy"),
- the university ("students pay tuition and we want that money so we need to keep them"),
- professional schools such as nursing school ("we require that students take the A&P course before applying to our program because we feel the course will prepare them for the rigors of nursing school"), and
- the community ("as a patient in a hospital, the most important thing to me is quality health care by competent professionals, and I don't want to hear any sob stories about why someone gave me poor care that I paid good money for").
This is a tough set of masters to obey because they are demanding different services! So what's an instructor to do? Well, we try to find a middle ground.
We feel that the most important thing of all is for your grade to reflect your mastery of the material. If we do this accurately, then a student who earns an A will probably do quite well in nursing school. A student who earns a D would probably struggle in nursing school and therefore the nursing program should not accept this student until she has mastered the material. Professional educational programs like nursing and physical therapy are very expensive to run, and your tuition dollars barely cover half the actual expenses. So it is essential that your pre-professional courses be an accurate indicator of your potential to do well in the program.
BOTTOM LINE - Your A&P instructor is sympathetic to your struggles, but is still obligated first to the integrity of the course. You will receive the grade you earn, regardless of other issues in your life.
WEIRD FACTOID - Instructors at the Physical Therapy school at UT - Memphis tell us that they can accurately gauge how a student will do in their program by looking only at their grades in Physics!
2. A patient in the hospital under your care doesn't want to hear that you weren't required to master the material because your instructors felt your great personality compensates for lack of knowledge, or that because you had some personal issues that made it difficult for you to do well we gave you a grade that is higher than you really earned.
BOTTOM LINE - Modern, mainstream health care is based to a great extent on the science of anatomy and physiology. You have to master this material to be a successful professional in this area!
REPLY TO FAQ 8. I have other classes to study for (doesn't my instructor know this?), so how is it fair that studying for this class is so time -consuming?
Every student is in the same boat, and you are competing with those students. Your grade is not intended to reflect how you can perform with no other demands in your life. Instead, it should reflect how you can perform when you DO have other demands, such as other classes, jobs, etc. Yes, we know you have other classes. We all took full loads when we were in college too. We found it tough to juggle so many classes. But, if we can do it, you can too!
REPLY TO FAQ 9. I got a bad grade on an exam and so did several of my classmates -- doesn't this mean that the professor has done something wrong?
Not necessarily. Learning is a student's responsibility, not an instructor's. Your A&P instructor's job is to present material clearly and then test you over your comprehension of the material. Period. Your instructor is a highly trained professional, and while s/he is an imperfect human who makes occasional mistakes, this doesn't absolve the student from the majority of the responsibility. A poor grade indicates poor comprehension. Blaming others for a poor grade indicates immaturity, and more importantly, is not a constructive response.
REPLY TO FAQ 10. My aunt/cousin/dad is a nurse, and s/he says s/he never uses any of this basic A&P knowledge. So, why do I have to learn all this tedious stuff?
1. The professional program you plan to enter wants to see that you can succeed in a rigorous science class. They know you will forget some of the information, or muddle through with an incomplete understanding of the tougher concepts. They know you may specialize in, say, cardiology and thus who cares how the stomach works? So what's the point? You will retain some basics, and more importantly your grade in A&P is an excellent predictor of your grades in nursing or PT school, where your training is a little more tailored.
2. There are different types of health care professionals, with different daily duties and responsibilities. Some nurses may end up with low responsibility, only doing things like drawing blood and taking temperatures. These nurses will not be very competitive on the job market and will not command the larger salaries. There are plenty of nurses who do need to know how the stomach works. Without hiring a personal tutor to direct all your studies, we simply can't tailor the course to your interests, because the other 70 people in your class have 70 different interests.
3. The professional programs you are interested in do not WANT you to take a highly specific course of study. They want you to have a broad background, because they feel your ability to handle a variety of classes and topics is another indicator of the likelihood of succeeding in their program.
REPLY TO FAQ 11. Why isn't Anatomy lab a more structured environment? I don't like to be handed a list of 100 body parts and then turned loose on my own.
Anatomy lab is simply a location stocked with materials and a chunk of study time. No one but you can make you use that time wisely. Sure, your instructor could spend the entire two hours pointing out all 100 parts to the class as a whole, but if she did that, it would prevent you from actively participating in your education.
The only way you will learn anatomy well is to have to locate parts on your own, even when it is challenging to do so, then repeatedly test yourself. Furthermore, the only way you will do well in nursing or PT school is to be able to take an active learning role, so now is the time to learn how.
To make lab more fun and more helpful, find a partner or study group to make the time more interactive. Help each other and quiz each other. As every instructor knows, the best way to learn is to teach. Lab is your time to teach and learn. Why is the instructor there at all, then? Mainly, to answer your questions when they come up. Your instructor is a facilitator.
REPLY TO FAQ 12. I'm pretty sure my instructor hates me (I think this because my scores are low or because sometimes I am late for class), what should I do?
Your instructor most likely does not hate you. Think about it, there is one instructor for 50-80 students. We don't get to know you personally, do not make such judgments, and have more important things to think about. All we do is enter the numbers you earn into the calculator to determine your letter grade. Chances are that we have no opinion on you as a person. Even in the rare case that you have directly offended your instructor so he has, in his opinion, a good reason to dislike you, he will not let that influence your letter grade. Each instructor has a mathematical way of determining your grade, and there are no points added or deducted based on personality conflicts.
"...You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you; they are thinking about themselves."
REPLY TO FAQ 13. I can't stand being in my regular lab section because it is crowded. I would rather study on my own during open lab periods. Why does this bother my instructor?
Instructors feel that open lab times are to be used to reinforce the learning that should take place during the regular lab session. Your instructor would also like to have a chance to observe you while you are studying, so that he can provide better feedback to you if you want to discuss your academic performance with him.
An instructor's perspective is, he loves to help students who are really trying by giving them extra time, but he doesn't feel at all compelled to help students who don't appear to be trying. It is a normal reaction to assume a student who doesn't attend her scheduled lab either doesn't care or isn't trying.
REPLY TO FAQ 14. I feel like my instructor's attitude is that I will either sink or swim by myself, and she won't help me. This makes it hard for me to keep trying, because I feel like she doesn't care how I do. Should I try to take a different instructor?
There is some truth to what you say, but please don't assign a hostile motive to your instructor and let it destroy your attitude. Understand that most college instructors expect you to be very independent.
Look at it this way - when you were 1 month old, your mom placed food in your mouth and changed your diapers. When you were 4 years old, she expected you to take care of feeding yourself and controlling your bathroom habits, though she still cooked for you and washed your laundry. She still cleaned your room and bought all your clothes. Then when you were a teenager she expected you to contribute a little to the housework and drive yourself to your after-school activities. Now that you are in college, she expects you to pay for most of your needs, and to assume all the responsibility for cleaning your clothes, car, etc..
Does this mean your mom doesn't love you anymore? NO! It just means, like any good mom, she gradually weans you from complete dependence so that you can become an independent, productive, and successful adult.
Being a college instructor is a lot like that. We try to wean you off of depending upon us for making you study and learn, because we want you to develop your own learning tools that will help you be a successful adult, in and after college.
BOTTOM LINE - Your instructor will help you outside of class, but you need to work up the motivation to arrange for the meeting, and come prepared with questions over the material that you didn't understand during lecture. Students who have learned the necessary skills to perform well resent high school-type busy-work assignments, understandably so.
REPLY TO FAQ 15. In high school, my grade wasn't only determined from my exam scores. I earned points on attendance, participation, attitude, and effort on homework assignments. Why isn't the college A&P course designed this way?
Several reasons.
1. College instructors are required to perform many duties outside the classroom, such as serving on committees, meeting with textbook sales reps, advising students during course registration, supervising graduate student research projects, writing grant proposals, and teaching other classes in addition to A&P. These things are very time-consuming, and unfortunately result in less time spent interacting with A&P students and devising traditional pre-college-type assignments. More simply - we do not have the time to grade these, nor are we required to assign them.
2. One purpose of awarding students points for such things during high school is to help the student develop good habits, such as attending classes, and to develop good study skills, such as outlining chapters or answering end of chapter questions. The assumption is that you have those skills when you enter college, and you no longer need to be treated like a child-student. Just like your mom doesn't call you every night to make sure you brushed your teeth before bed, your instructor won't tell you it would be helpful to try to outline chapters or answer questions in the book. She assumes you already know that because you have a high school diploma.