You’ll all have had your mock by now and whatever the result was, you should be proud. The anatomy spotter exam is different to the format of any other exam you will ever sit so be pleased you’ve made it through. We have compiled a list of tips and links that we hope will help you with your revision over the winter break!
Exam Format:
- Anatomy sessions and tooth morphology
- Total 60 questions, 60 marks. PASS MARK: 24/60 (40%).
- The first question may be to identify what part of the prosection the pin is pointing to. E.g. masseter muscle on a head.
- The second and third question could be to identify other parts of the prosection, or questions linked to the first part. E.g. what is the innervation of A, what is the function of A.
- After the minute, you MUST move right to the next station as you are taking up another person’s time.
- If you have a bad station, forget about it. Do not keep going back to it on your screen as it will affect the rest of your answers. Make an educated guess and move on.
- One bad station is 3 marks lost worst case scenario. You still can lose 33 marks (11 stations) more, so do not stress.
- The same prosections are used in the exam, that are used in your anatomy sessions AND in the resource rooms, so pay close attention.
- There will be a minimum of 1 transverse sections. Remember your left and right! (your left is your right and your right is your left).
- Remember you are studying dentistry…the anatomy of teeth can be tested as well as eruption dates as follow-on questions.
Aclands anatomy is the best resource you can use. VPN will allow you to use this at home. It also has very good practice questions similar to that of the spotter exam. You will only need to revise the head and neck sections at the moment.
Goslings anatomy is a great book for this exam. It has pictures of prosections actually used in UoM and labels them. It explains the anatomy also. PDF versions available if student loan running a bit low/none in library. Many other anatomy atlases are also available to use.
Make sure you know all of anatomy from each week before beginning spotter themed revision. Several resources can help you to do this: your green anatomy book (PDF); Greys anatomy; Moore & Dalley; Netter’s flashcards (these you would have to buy, but they have a lot of information and great to test yourself on)
Plastic skulls are available in the Stopford Library, you can practice the foramen of the skull and have a closer look at the origins and insertions of facial muscles.
Sometimes histology is also assessed so give this a quick read!
BUT it is important to remember the format of this exam during your revision. Although you may know all of the anatomy, this is not a full written exam. You must be able to identify each part of head and neck anatomy covered also. For this, the two resources at the top are very useful.
You have 4 weeks off. Although this may be very stressful, enjoy Christmas, New Years Day etc. You have enough time.
Some useful revision links we found are:
We all know and love Acland’s, it’s great to use to visualise anatomy and gain a deeper understanding: http://aclandanatomy.com/
This is a great way to get bulk information with regards to muscle originas, insertions, actions and innervations, as well as uses for different systems: http://teachmeanatomy.info/
There is free content on this site or sign up for the free trial and take advantage of the quizzes and videos: https://www.kenhub.com/en
Make your own quizzes with images of real prosections and a lot of questions, specified into head and neck sections: http://act.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/quiz/practice/u5/quiztop5.htm
Not all of these questions apply, but they are very useful for quick revision: https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=head-and-neck-anatomy-final-practice