The Language of Anatomese

I have spent over 24 years teaching students the topics of anatomy, physiology, pathology and medical terminology.  Many of those teaching years have been spent educating massage students.  I found that there is one (very) common denominator that determines a student’s ability to, not only pass the MBLEx, but to do well on their A & P exams while in school.  This common denominator is the students understanding of what I refer to as the language of Anatomese.  I created this term years ago to describe the language that is used when having a conversation that involves anything that includes anatomy, physiology and pathology (really it is almost all of the “ologies.”)

               So many students have difficulty with understanding the information that is contained within the A & P textbooks while in school.  Not only is reading the material difficult and cumbersome but this difficulty translates into problems when they begin taking tests.  If you do not fully understand the language of Anatomese, the test questions will look lie a foreign language to you.  How can you answer a question correctly if it is in a language, you do not understand?  This issue leads to increased test anxiety and ultimately failure.

               The good thing is that this is “easily” correctable.  Same as if you were attempting to learn Spanish, German or any language, you need to spend time understanding the basics of the language of Anatomese.  This will create a foundation that will help you to understand what the test questions want you to know. 

               Medical terminology is definitely a base for this language, which means you should have an understanding of most of the root terms and a good number of the prefixes and suffixes involved.  You need to also understand how you build and read words using this terminology.  However, another basic component to this language is the need to know the definitions of some basic terms.  Some of these include: directional terms, range of motions, agonist, antagonist, synergist, origin vs insertion, acute vs chronic and others.

               When you know these things well, your ability to read the test questions and understand what it is asking of you will be improved and therefore increase your odds at getting to the answer more effectively.  This reduces test anxiety and increases your potential test scores.