Two thousand multiple choice questions that could be asked of a student of introductory human anatomy and physiology are presented in 40 categories. It is assumed
that users of these questions are teachers or students who have completed at least
part of an anatomy and physiology course that might be offered in the first year of a
university degree programme. It is also assumed that they would have access to one
of the anatomy and physiology textbooks (or similar) listed in the bibliography
below. Each category has an Introduction containing a summary of useful knowledge pertinent to that category of question. However not all possible information is
provided within these Introductions, so a textbook is indispensable. The summary
Introductions are composed with vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to the beginning
student but which should be known in order to understand the questions. You will
need to look up the meaning of many unfamiliar words as your studies progress.
All questions have been used at least once, during the author’s teaching career, in
end of semester examinations of a university first year undergraduate introductory
anatomy and physiology course or a physical science course for health science students to support their anatomy and physiology study. Consequently they reflect the
author’s choice of content. Students enrolled in the courses for which these questions were written include nursing, midwifery, paramedic, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and dietetics, health science students, exercise science
students and students taking the course as an elective. Often, the students did not
have an extensive background in science from their secondary schooling. Some
knowledge of physical science is required to understand physiology; hence, physical
science questions are included. Students without some background knowledge in
chemistry and physics will find such questions challenging and will need to work a
little harder to develop their background knowledge. The boundary between chemistry and biochemistry is not distinct; nevertheless, chemistry is implicit in physiology. Furthermore, the physics of the body becomes physiology so gradually that
sometimes the boundary between the two is only noticed after it has been crossed.
Some questions were difficult to categorise and may span two (or more) categories. Furthermore, in order to answer some questions, you may need knowledge
drawn from other “sections” of anatomy different from the name of the section in which the question appears. This is not a bad thing as it emphasises the connected
nature of human anatomy and physiology. Each question is unique (there are no
duplicates). However, many questions will be examining the same (or similar)
material albeit with a differently worded question or different choice of answers. If
the questions are to be used to compile an examination, then care should be taken to
exclude questions that are too similar to already selected ones. On the other hand, if
the questions are to be used for instruction or study purposes, I would suggest
including several similar questions in consecutive order to emphasise the point and
to give the student practice. Advice to the Exam Candidate
The correct choice of answer for each question is provided. Accompanying the correct choice is a justification for the choice or an explanation of the correct answer
and sometimes of why the other choices are incorrect. The degree of difficulty varies, but not by intentional design. The perception of difficulty depends on that part
of science that the question examines, the level of scientific background brought to
the course by the student and their level of studious preparation for the
examination.
There is only one best correct answer for each of the multiple choice questions
among the four choices presented. However, there may be more than one correct
answer. You must choose the best one. In an examination, never leave a question
unanswered. If you cannot decide on an answer, guess at it (after eliminating any
choices that you deem to be incorrect). That is, you will be rewarded for the ability
to decrease the number of choices from which you are guessing, from 4 to 3 or 2. In
marking multiple choice questions, I suggest that that one mark be allocated for a
correct answer and that a quarter of a mark be deducted for a wrong answer or an
unanswered question. Deducting a quarter mark will reduce the score that would be
gained by selecting an answer from the four choices purely at random (i.e. guessing), from about 25 % to about 6 %. Not to deduct a quarter mark is, in my opinion,
unsound.
Be aware of questions that are asked in the negative. That is, those that have NOT
true; or FALSE; or INCORRECT; or EXCEPT one, in the stem. In this case you are
seeking a statement that is wrong in order to answer the question. Do not be intimidated by arithmetical calculations. The calculation itself will be simple. Deciding
what to add, multiply or divide with what, is the tricky part.
Some questions have been paraphrased from those published in the third edition
of the book Human Science: Matter and Energy in the Human Body (Caon, M., &
Hickman, R. (2003), Crawford House Australia Publishing, Belair South Australia),
and are used with the authors’ permission.