Some of the nicest teachers, Jacinta and Rex, kinda felt sad the last time I saw them. But that’s about it, rest is traumatic. This is truly a tough subject where 90% of your grade is closed booked assessments, so you’ve seriously got to grind and devote raw effort to do very well (2x workload of a typical subject). Lectures are incredibly dense, and simply annotating lecture slides on your iPad will not suffice and you are bound to score crap on the MSTs. You need to collate labelled diagrams and condense the lecture notes so you can consistently and ACTIVELY test yourself, such as labelling plain diagrams. Many students fall into the trap of using ANKI which is inefficient. MST1 was straightforward and basically tested whether you knew a structure or its classification. MST2 was infamously tougher, covering bones, muscles and their FUNCTION. Lots of trick questions, sometimes it examined a concept the lecturer barely touched on. Exam was the easiest, but it came down to luck. Some topics were not even examined (like upper and lower respiratory) but heavily examined embryology and neuroanatomy (as they know students hate it!). If you can get at least 80% on your MSTs, then I guarantee you a H1 for the subject. And oh, practical classes were apparently not useful. People seemed quite toxic and cliquey, they all enter the subject confident like they will get into med and only shut up once they see their average MST scores. Ngl, this subject was kinda traumatic in its sheer workload, may even make you rethink the possibility of surviving med school. I averaged 90% in MSTs but required sheer raw effort (don’t believe anyone who tells you it’s an easy subject).

Grade- H1, ADSL (10%) make sure you get 10/10 for all the 8 quizzes. Maximise your marks wherever you can. Don’t leave the ADSL’s last minute do them like 2-3 days before because it can get tedious, just get them over and done with before the due date. MST 1 (MCQ-15%) is quiet simple, DO PRACTICE MST papers or quizzes, make you own questions, find them online, anatomy is an entirely visual subject so doing this practice question will force you to remember where certain viscera or structures are. The first practice quiz some questions were repeated in the MST, which was surprising. MST 2 (MCQ-15%), this is a very specific MST its not generalised like first MST, practice labelling diagrams without the answer there and then look back and correct yourself and repeat that process again and again until your getting them all right. A lot of people did worse in MST 2 than MST 1, I got the same mark. You don’t get the MST questions back, only the topics you lost marks in which is useless since the question are super specific and you end up losing 1 mark in each section essentially. Watch EVERY SINGLE REVIEW LECTURE THERE IS, they repeat similar questions in the MST. The practicals were 2hrs long, honestly personally there were not that helpful, thankfully there is only like 4-5 pracs every other week. You were basically just looking at the cadavers and most of the time people just talk with their friends. However the group demonstrators are super lovely, you can ask them questions about the anatomy major or other subject in general since they are typically 3rd years or honours. Embryology and neuroanatomy are the first topics you begin with and reproductive system is the last topic you end with. Initially it will make no sense and that’s okay, don’t let that discourage you, it takes time to understand especially with no previous exposure to anatomy. It seems very overwhelming and daunting, another thing that helps is watch vides online of people explaining certain structures and again do practice questions to build you confidence and understanding. You can’t memorise chunks of information it won’t retain and it’s not the right technique to study for anatomy. Make you own notes, don’t rely on people’s claimed ‘H1’ notes, because for revision you want to have something to look back on. Use the Feynman technique (act as if you’re teaching someone else). The lecturer Rex is so goated, he does upper and lower limb which to alot of people appears ‘dry’ but its so straightforward and simplified. This subject is highly organised expect for ed discussion, people would post questions, Jacinta answers ‘interesting questions’ online but many student would just answer other question on it. When you go back to review the topics again for the exam all of a sudden it just makes sense and it clicks, you will improve and it will get better the beginning is the hardest bit. The exam (60%) was easier than expected however there were some niche questions. 20 MCQ on only the last 3 topics and they are super easy, you have to label diagrams, print out blank photos of structure and practice labelling them its the best way to study. Section three is short answer. Also it’s okay if you don’t really enjoy anatomy, I thought I would be so obsessed with it going in and I wasn’t and that’s totally fine. There is also this ‘pressure’ I guess, to major in anatomy for 3rd year because so many people want to do it, you kind of feel obliged to do it idk, but if you don’t enjoy it then don’t major in it, its fine play with your strengths (path, immuno, biochem). No one really talks about that but the jump from 2nd year to 3rd year is VERY BIG. Good Luck :).

Probably one of my favourite subjects ever!! Jacinta and Rex are such lovely coordinators/educators and their lectures in particular have been super engaging. Also really enjoyed the relative lack of structure in the practicals as it allowed us to just explore and develop our curiosity for the human body. The lab demonstrators were all super helpful too! My only pet peeve is that I wish we got our MST papers back because there's literally nothing you can do with the knowledge of only what number of questions you got wrong, but I'd say the organisation is really good otherwise. Definitely a content heavy subject and you'll probably find the first few weeks the hardest, but once you adjust to the relatively different style of learning required for anatomy and build your foundational knowledge, it'll only get easier from there!

This is one of my most favourite subjects! There was a ton of subject support from the coordinators (shoutout to Rex and the anatomy lab demonstrators) which made the subject very enjoyable and engaging. A lot of this subjects focus is to get you to understand the basic concepts and then apply it throughout the whole body, which I found really helpful in getting a holistic overview of our human structure and function. I will say that it is very content heavy though and that embryology may be a common pitfall topic for many because it's the earliest topic and is extremely content heavy. So I would really recommend anyone doing this subject to really prioritise understanding and memorising the first few topics early on in the semester, as the content amount will only grow as the semester goes along.

MST1 - use diagrams from lecture slides, know muscle types and their diagram, very easy, know which region most dermatomes MST 2 - very hard. Go very specific. Know every single information written on slides. Know the muscle movements at different joints. Be VERY careful with the question wording. Practice MST not indication of actual difficulty at all. But it does get scaled since difficult. Exam - easy. Know the labelling for embryology and spinal cord. Pay attention to what Rex says in the review lecture - free marks for MST 3 in the exam. I know embyrology is difficult at first, but trust me it gets better. Revise it, then watch the lectures again and suddenly everything Dahgmar says makes sense now. I recommend previewing lecture slides before watching the lectures. Overall, H1 is accomplishable for sure.

Content understanding is limited by lecturers ability. Embryology lecturer was embarrassingly bad, yet MST was heavily based on embryology. Rex is very nice but sets up false expectations for assessment. Eg will teach something and then say don’t worry if you don’t know it, when you do need to know it. But inconsistent. Prac demonstrators were amazing, best part of the subject.

unnecessarily difficult. MST's are way too hard, the subjects throughout the semester couldn't be balanced any worse in the exam. Some topics got max 5 marks while others got more than 20. Lecturer for embryo + reproductive systems was incredibly hard to understand. Questions were very niche and it seems like they wanted to just trick you rather than test your understanding of anatomy. Pros: Rex, cadaver labs are really interesting, demonstrators in labs are great, labs really help understanding relative locations of things

Really great subject overall, I think Rex is incredible and a really involved coordinator (will be at the pracs chatting to people and really furthering your learning. The labs are ultimately the best part, however some parts can get repetitive (as in you see the same thing all the time) but when you see some new stuff with the cadavers its really cool, and it puts context to your learning as how organs look is different to the diagrams you see in lectures when it comes to real people. Some content was a bit dry, starting off with embryology which makes sense in the grand scheme of things but the lecturer for these talked quite fast. Another issue was with the cardiology lectures as well, however everything else was quite good and engaging - including upper/lower limb which is the most "dry" in content but Rex makes up for it. The MSTs were hard, but the exam was incredibly fair, I ended up with a H1 despite hovering around a H2B all semester.

interesting subject but can be a bit tedious and boring - just learning the names of a lot of parts of the body can get boring. But the pracs are great and easy, looking at cadavers with some really great demonstrators that consolidate learning. Overall pracs were good, most of the lecturers were engaging and good but content can get a bit dry

I truly enjoyed this subject. Whilst not being overwhelming, it gave a good overview of all the major body systems. The professors were clear in their explanation, and were quick to reply to concerns. Ended up with a H1 and happy with the overall experience!