How to Get an A or B in Anatomy and Physiology (A&P Study Tips)

“I need an A or B in A&P to get into my program, but there is so much to memorise and not enough time.” I hear some version of this all the time, from nursing, radiography and physiotherapy students alike. The good news is that A&P rewards method more than memory. These are the habits I recommend to every student who wants a top grade.

Why A&P feels harder than your other classes

For a lot of students, A&P is the first prerequisite they genuinely have to study for. The volume is large, the pace is fast, and exams often test fine detail, sometimes with long multiple-choice questions where several options look almost right.

There is also an uncomfortable truth here. Passing A&P is very doable. Getting an A takes much more effort than getting a C. That is not a sign you are bad at the subject. It is simply how this subject works, so plan for it from week one instead of discovering it the night before your first exam.

Study what your professor keeps repeating

You cannot learn everything in equal depth, so decide where your hours go. The best guide is your professor.

Cross-check your sources. Compare the lecture slides, the textbook, any guided notes and your own notes. If something appears in all of them, expect it on the exam.
Keep a “said more than once” list. Every professor has a few favourite topics they come back to again and again. Write them down as you hear them.
Treat the study guide as a map. If your professor gives one, it tells you what they care about.
Take the extra credit. Even when it feels tedious, those points can move you from a B+ to an A.

Mix topics in the same session

Most students study one topic per day: skin on Monday, bones on Tuesday. Try switching between topics inside a single session instead. For example, 30 minutes on skin, a 10-minute break, then 30 minutes on bones. If that feels too short, stretch it to 45 and 15, or 60 and 20.

Switching feels harder, and that is the point. Your exam will not group questions neatly by chapter, so practising the switch makes you better at choosing the right idea when it counts. This technique is called interleaving.

Change the method, not just the topic

Rereading the same notes three times feels productive, but it mostly builds familiarity, not memory. Change how you study each day instead:

Day 1: label diagrams while looking at your notes.
Day 2: label the same diagrams without your notes and see what you kept.
Day 3: answer the review questions at the end of the chapter.

Each day asks your brain to pull the information out, rather than just look at it again. Testing yourself and spacing it out over days is called active recall with spaced repetition, and it is the most reliable way I know to make A&P stick. Flashcard apps that bring cards back on a schedule do the spacing for you.

Try this tonight

Close the book. Write down everything you remember.

Then open the book and fill in the gaps in a different colour. The gaps are your study list for tomorrow.

Draw it, then cover the labels

Anatomy is visual, so learn it visually. Draw the structure yourself, even roughly. Then take a photo of a labelled diagram, hide the labels, and practise naming every part until you can do it without hesitating.

This is how I teach, too. In my lessons I draw each structure live on an iPad while I explain it, so students see it built up piece by piece. A structure you have watched being built, or drawn yourself, is much easier to find in your memory than one you have only looked at.

Exam trap

The arteries leaving the aortic arch are not the same on both sides. On the right, a single brachiocephalic trunk splits into the right subclavian and right common carotid arteries. On the left, the subclavian and common carotid come straight off the arch. Draw both sides once and you will not mix them up again.

Write your notes by hand too, on paper or a tablet. Handwriting forces you to choose what matters, while typing makes it easy to copy everything without thinking.

Teach it to the wall

If I could give only one tip, it would be this: explain the topic out loud to someone else. A classmate, a sibling, your cat or a rubber duck all work. Even presenting the chapter to your bedroom wall works.

The test is simple. If you can explain a chapter fluently without notes, you know it. If you stall, you have just found what to review. With classmates, try sending each other one random quiz question a day and answering it from memory.

Be honest about the hours

Top grades in A&P take real time. A useful rule of thumb is about an hour of study for every hour of lecture. Your number will depend on your class, but if you are only studying in the few days before each exam, that gap is usually the problem.

Take short breaks every 20 minutes or so when watching lecture videos, and spend them away from your phone.
Read the textbook, even if you never needed to in other classes, and reread any section that did not make sense.
Start early. Short daily sessions beat one long night before the exam.

Use videos the right way

Videos are great for a first pass. Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology gives short, lively overviews of each body system, and Amoeba Sisters explains the biology underneath, such as cells and membranes, which helps if your basics feel shaky.

But watching is not the same as learning. Use a video to understand a topic, then close it and switch to recall to remember it.

If you read for an hour and understood nothing

Some students tell me they sat with their notes for an hour and could not follow a single page. If that is you, more hours will not fix it. It usually means a few foundations are missing, so every new page builds on something that is not there yet.

Go back a step. Make sure you know the difference between anatomy and physiology, and why a structure’s shape explains its job. My beginner’s guide to anatomy and physiology covers that, along with four body systems you will meet first.

When students work with me, they send their course material first: the syllabus, slides or notes. I prepare each lesson from that material, so we work on exactly what your professor is teaching, not a generic version of it.

The short version

Find what your professor repeats, and study that first.
Mix topics within a session instead of one topic per day.
Change the method every day: label, then recall, then questions.
Draw structures and practise naming them with the labels hidden.
Explain each chapter out loud without notes.
Budget real hours, and start early.

An A in anatomy and physiology is hard, but it is achievable. Students who get there rarely have better memories. They use better methods, and they start sooner.

How to get an A or B in anatomy and physiology: what actually works.