Practical Exam Information

Your Mid Block I Practical exam will take place on Tuesday afternoon September 16th at 1PM. All students should report to the corridor nearby Laboratory B (your microanatomy laboratory). Barring any last minute technical issues, we expect that the microanatomy portion of your practical will be administered on-line rather than in the more traditional way. Therefore each student MUST BRING A LAPTOP (remember to fully charge it, and bring your charger as a backup). You should also bring a CLIPBOARD or other hard writing surface to use during the gross anatomy portion of the practical exam. You may leave your belongings in Lab B while you leave to take the gross anatomy portion of the practical.

Students whose last names begin with A-L will take the microanatomy practical first, those whose last names begin with M-Z will take the gross anatomy practical first. The groups will then switch. You will have ~40 minutes to complete each part of the practical, depending on the final number of questions on the exam (expected to be ~30 per section).

Format of microanatomy practical

• The microanatomy practical will consist of ~30 questions covering all of the topics you have encountered in laboratory through the 12th of September. Topics also include some self-study material including microscopy, epithelia and cell structure. The following is a comprehensive structure checklist that you can use as a guideline for studying.

• The format of the questions varies. Some are multiple choice, and some are short answer/fill-in the-blank. Many questions will have two parts, where the first part is usually to identify a structure, and the second asks something about that structure (e.g., major products or major function of a cell, location where you would find that cell type, etc.) Spelling does not count unless the spelling makes your answer ambiguous. Rather than labeling the two part question with a Part A or Part B, you will recognize that a question has two parts when you see a question stem with 'AND' separating the two parts. You will provide your answers to that question in a single answer box in the online practical. You may flag questions and return to them as needed.

• The practical may utilize images taken from the laserdisk (videodisk), light and electron micrographs from various sources, and virtual slides (some still image captures, others slides that you can move around/change magnification). The images used in the exam (still images or virtual slides) do not have to be exact ones that you have seen before. You should, for example, be able to recognize a mast cell in EM, even if you have not seen exactly that same micrograph previously.

• Use the practice practical available on your microanatomy website to help you become familiar with the exam question format. Expect the online interface of the practical to be similar to that you encountered on your online quiz.

Format of Gross Anatomy Practical Exam

• The gross anatomy practical will consist of approximately 30 questions, plus some additional bonus questions. Each cadaver will be tagged with 4 to 5 questions. You may proceed through the practical at your own pace and return to questions as often as you like. Just pace yourself so that you complete all questions within the ~40 minute time frame alloted.

• Radiographs and skeletal elements may also be tagged.

• Most questions will ask you to identify a structure, though some may be 'second order' questions where you are asked a question about a specific structure.