After college anatomy, med school anatomy, and several patients with knee problems, I have finally sat down and learned my knee anatomy – but only because I knew I’d have to teach it to the first years tonight.
And in retrospect, I don’t know what was so damned hard about it.
It’s like doing your laundry. You put it off for weeks, thinking it’s “too much work”, and then you do it and you’re like, “Oh, wait, no – I’m just lazy.” (… No? Just me?)
I suspect it seemed too hard because 1) all the initials make it seem like there’s more ligaments than there really are, 2) no one ever shows any simplified diagrams before jumping right to the 100% anatomically accurate stuff and 3) people teaching the knee tend to forget how confusing it looks at first.
Professor: Just like the ACL, MCL, and LCL – the action of the PCL obviously makes sense. Any questions?
Me: Yes. But only about the stuff that “obviously makes sense”… because I’m an idiot.
But to be fair, I used to teach MCAT classes and I did the exact same thing. That’s just what happens when you have to cover 3.5 hours of material in 3 hours – you inevitably assume you know which parts are easy for your students, and if you get it wrong, you feel like a total jerk.
Me: Look at how clear that passage was, especially when there’s so many difficult ones on the test! This is exactly why you NEED to triage the verbal section.
Students: … *panicked expressions*
Me: <– in all of test-taking history, never once actually “triaged” a verbal section.
Me: <– what a jerk.
While we’re on the subject of anatomy, here’s a slide that was actually included in the 1st year’s foot lecture.
I like how nicely it sums up absolutely everything you need to know about med school lectures.
Action Potential 
I think the synovial bursae are the coolest part about the knee. When we cut those babies open, I was amazed.
AP-
I now know what horror you spoke of when you said medical school PPT presentations were convoluted, overwhelming, improperly used means of disseminating information. I will definitely do a post sometime soon echoing your sentiments. In fact, as I type this, I am in a histology lecture that makes me want to poke out my eyes with a rusty spoon. I never wanted to have an hour an a half lecture on desmosomes, tight junctions and adherence junctions.
Make it stop, please make it stop!
There are 4 layers to the foot? Wow. And to think that at one time I actually knew that.
I wish I learned my anatomy better. There, I said it. I also wish I reviewed my anatomy better for step 1, probably would’ve added 5 pts to my score. There, said that too.
Now, in terms of teaching anatomy, I found the best way to learn it is to use it and understand it: it’s not enough to know what the attachments of the PCL are, but it’s important to imagine what the PURPOSE of the PCL is, to visualize how it works and how it is injured, and only then can you realize that it all makes sense …
Crucial to review and keep reviewing, and to integrate anatomy into your second year medical education because it is often forgotten in a systems-based curriculum …