What an online anatomy and physiology lesson with me actually looks like.

Before the lesson: you send your material

Before we meet, you send me your course material: the syllabus, lecture slides or notes. I prepare the lesson from that material, so we cover exactly what your professor is teaching. Not too little, not a generic version of the topic, and nothing that won’t be on your exam.

If you can’t send anything, I still prepare. I build the lesson from my own books around the topic you need. But your own material is always better, because your exam is written from it.

The start: what do you already know?

I’ll be honest, I am not great at small talk. After a quick hello, I go straight to a few questions: what you are studying, what year you are in, and what you find hardest in the subject.

Then I check what you already know about today’s topic. If we are doing the skeletal system, I might ask: “Can you tell me one function of the skeleton?” Your answer tells me where to start, so I don’t waste your time on what you know or skip what you don’t.

I also tell you how I teach before we begin: I will explain, and I will ask you a lot of questions. If that doesn’t suit you, I would rather know at the start.

The middle: small pieces, drawn live

I explain one small piece at a time. While I talk, I draw on my iPad with an Apple Pencil, so you watch each structure or process being built up, not just a finished slide. For processes, I make flowcharts in front of you.

Some students learn best from pictures. With them, I use even more diagrams: I explain a diagram first, then ask them to label it themselves. You take your own notes as we go, in your own words.

Questions, all the way through

This is the part students notice most. I don’t save questions for the end. After each small piece, I ask you something.

For example, I explain that one job of the skeleton is protection: the skull protects the brain, the ribs protect the heart and lungs, and the vertebral column protects the spinal cord. Then I ask: “What does the vertebral column protect?” and I wait for your answer.

If you answer correctly, we move on. If you don’t, that tells me I went too fast, so I slow down and go over it again. A few topics later, I ask the same question again, sometimes worded differently. Students usually laugh when they realise I am trying to catch them out. That is the point: if you can still answer it later, you have learned it, not just heard it.

The end: questions, then feedback

At the end, I ask questions from the whole lesson. Sometimes we do multiple-choice questions together, and for each one I ask you to explain why the wrong options are wrong. That is usually where the last gaps show up.

Then I ask you how the lesson went and what I should do differently. I mean it. One student once told me I was talking too fast, so in our next lesson I slowed down. Your feedback changes how I teach you.

The next lesson starts with a review

Understanding something in a lesson is not the same as remembering it a few days later. So every new lesson starts with a short review of the last one: a few questions, oral or written, sometimes multiple choice, fill in the blanks or true or false.

If you answer most of them, we move on with confidence. If something slipped, we fix it before building anything new on top of it.

What the free trial is like

The free trial is a 50-minute lesson on Google Meet. It is there so you can see how I teach and decide if it works for you, before you pay for anything.

• Getting to know you: what you are studying, your goals and when your exam is.
• A real lesson on one topic: taken from the material you send me, taught the same way as a paid lesson, with the same effort.
• Your questions: anything you want to ask, and you leave knowing exactly what the next step is.

If your exam is very close, my guide on how to study for an A&P exam in 7 days is a good place to start while you wait for your trial.

The short version

• You send your course material, and I build the lesson from it.
• I start by finding out what you already know.
• I explain in small pieces and draw everything live.
• I ask you questions throughout, then ask them again later.
• We finish with questions from the whole lesson, and I ask for your feedback.
• Every lesson starts with a review of the last one.

You won’t sit and listen for an hour. You will be answering, labelling and explaining, because that is what makes anatomy and physiology stick.