Does learning medical terminology feel like a tedious chore? Are you staying in on Fridays or Saturdays pouring over your medical dictionary just to find that you only remember five terms the next morning? Whether you’re a medical student or studying to get a healthcare certificate, you simply cannot skip this part of your education. If you aspire to be a true professional you absolutely have to learn the language of medicine.
The truth is that learning medical terminology is not an impossible feat — most people simply have the wrong approach. The good news is that by honing the most effective memorization techniques and using proven resources, you can easily best your peers and turn learning into an effortless, even pleasant, task.
In this post, you’ll learn about:. Using visual cues to remember complex terms. Practicing terms using apps for iOS and Android.
Deciphering terms by learning basic Latin components (root, suffix, prefix). Bulk learning using self-made acronyms. Using engaging guides and workbooks.
Taking free online classes 1. What’s Medical Terminology Without the Visuals? You will immensely improve your learning curve if you simply associate an image with each term, which will act as a cue when trying to recall the word. Our brains are hardwired to save most information as images. This is why when someone says the word “apple” a visual representation of the fruit immediately pops up in your head. Most people don’t visualize the letters spelling the word. But if we take the word “subhepatic” (definition: situated under/on the ventral side of the liver), it would be really hard for your brain to assign a visual to that word.
The trick here is to give your mind something simple and familiar which you can associate with the term, no matter how strange the path. A Visual Memorization Tip for Effective Learning: Let’s examine the word “ginglymoid” (definition: pertaining to or shaped like a hinged joint, such as a knee or elbow). Here’s a tutorial for memorizing this term from a popular site: Step 1. Choose a phrase that summarizes the definitions of “ginglymoid.” In this case, that can be simply “hinged joint.” Now you need to connect these two in your mind.
Break the word phonetically into syllables. Forget about the spelling. Focus and listen to the sounds of the syllables. The word “ginglymoid” is pronounced “jing-lei-moyd”. Consider how it sounds to you.
Say it out loud slowly. Figure out what real-life words sound like these syllables. It sounds like “jingly mud”. (You should use the phrase that pops into your own mind.) For jingly mud, a memorable image could be jingle bells stuck in mud. You’re trying to pull them out, but the mud is thick. Your elbows hurt trying to pull it out. Step 4. Try to clearly visualize a picture with these items in your mind.
What’s the color of the ribbon? What type of metal are the bells made of? Visualize the brown, thick mud and sore elbows. The key here is to create an image that is silly, gigantic and unrealistic. The mind forgets the ordinary.
It’s the unusual that gets remembered! Step 5. Now when you read or hear the word “ginglymoid”, the sound of the syllables of that word will make you think of “jingly mud”. When you picture the image you just created, you’ll know that this terms means “hinged joints.” If you’ve pictured this image and engraved it deep in your visual memory, the sound will recall the crazy image of jingle bells stuck in the mud and sore elbows. Thus, you’ll be reminded that “ginglymoid” means a hinged joint such as the elbow. Medical Terminology Games: Apps and Tools for Your Phone YOU DON’T HAVE TO CARRY HEAVY BOOKS AND FLASHCARDS ALL THE TIME. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF iOS AND ANDROID APPS THAT CAN HELP YOU TRAIN YOUR MEMORY AND EXPLORE DIFFERENT LEARNING TECHNIQUES ON THE GO.
Here’s a list of some the best apps that can help you learn medical language: APPS FOR IOS. You can create customized card sets choosing from 200 concepts in physics, general chemistry, biology, and organic chemistry. Over 65,000 terms, 1,200 photos, 32,000 audio pronunciations, 100+ videos, and more than 600 patient-care statements. This medical dictionary is a pocket glossary for psychology, psychiatry and mental health. A list of abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes to help you understand complex medical terms. A free game that lets you test your knowledge of medical terms. Over 30 word lists to choose from.
The app is also available for Android devices. A short description of more than 1,700 common and obscure medical eponyms. APPS FOR ANDROID. This app contains lists of prefixes, roots and suffixes. You’ll also discover links to other free interactive medical terminology exercises and e-learning courses. Learn the most common medical terms, diseases, tests and symptoms. Voice enabled search with word prediction and smart options let you narrow search results to abbreviations.
You can create your own decks and cards or just use the pre-made ones.The app lets you mark cards as “correct” or “incorrect” to help track progress. Medical dictionary with common and uncommon words, terms and phrases. Works offline. A multiple choice quiz. Twelve different topics covering the anatomy of the human body. A medical variation of Scramble with more than 30 different word lists.
The app is also available for iOS. Learn Latin Roots: Create Your Own Medical Terminology Cheat Sheet The basic components of each term are: root word (the base of the term), prefixes (letter groups in front of the root word) and suffixes (at the end of the root word). If you break a word into its components you can easily decipher its meaning. It is no secret that a lot of medical terms come from Latin or Greek.
Most words are just too long and sound too alien to remember. Truth is, you don’t have to learn words one by one.
In fact, most top teaching hospitals recommend that you don’t. You’ll be better off if you focus only on the common Latin or Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes instead. When you know all the major building blocks of the medical language you can easily puzzle out the meaning of even the most complicated medical terms. Example: Let’s look at the word “pericarditis” broken down into its components: peri + card + itis (prefix) (root) (suffix) around heart inflammation Medical terms using several combinations:. root + suffix.
prefix + root. prefix + root + suffix Sometimes a word may contain more than one root.
The term “bronchogenic” has 2 roots: “bronch” and “gen”, with an added “o” to ease pronunciation, and “ic” being the suffix at the end. You can easily find lists of almost all and even various. Just download them, keep them handy, and soon you’ll be on your way to deciphering any term that comes your way 4. Bulk Learning: Create Your Own Acronyms You can memorize a group of similar or related words by creating acronyms. Just take one letter of each word and form a single new word or a phrase. Creating acronyms yourself takes a little bit of imagination and creativity, but it’s extremely effective.
To get started, just take your group of related words, look at their first letters and rearrange them to form something new that is easy to remember. Example: Let’s say you want to memorize the causes of “erythema nodosum” (definition: inflammation of the fat under the skin). This condition is usually caused by drugs, infections, pregnancy, OCP, uicerative colitis or tuberculosis. We take the initial letter of each cause and see if we can create a meaningful word or phrase (in this case, we already did that). Then we get the acronym: DIP OUT D I P O U T Drugs Infections Pregnancy OCP Uicerative Colitis Tuberculosis You can create you own lists of acronyms for various purposes: groups of diseases, treatments, body parts, etc.
Then you’ll have your own, self-made medical terminology study guide, tailored to your specific learning needs. Of course, there are some that you should explore as well. Guides and Workbooks: Taking Learning to a Whole New Level As an alternative to heavy medical books and dictionaries, you can explore a number of guides that provide you with the same information but in an extremely easy-to-understand way.
There are a few books that have been heavily optimized with the clear goal of not only teaching you the medical terminology, but also making sure you effectively memorize it. Here are our top picks: This book will get you on track in no time, even if you’ve just started learning medicine. The language used is very engaging and even entertaining. The author was able to to turn a serious field like medicine into something fun and interesting to read about. You’ll be amazed how effective this book is at delivering huge amounts of information, without giving you a headache or boring you to death.
Another characteristic of “Medical Terminology: A Living Language” is that it won’t bombard you with outdated terms or words that you’ll probably never use. All the information has been carefully selected and cataloged. As the authors have put it: “it provides the tools necessary for building and sustaining a large working repertoire of medical terms”. The book offers a number of exercises and real examples that will help you train and develop your memory. Free Online Classes You can take a medical terminology online course on the internet for free. Even if you study in medical school or another type of healthcare training institute, you can still supplement your knowledge by taking additional courses.
Here are some of the best free online programs you’ll find: Apart from providing you with definitions and explanations regarding different terms, you’ll also learn the most common abbreviations. Words are broken down to their Greek and Latin roots and most examples come with nice visuals. The course can also be downloaded and reviewed offline.
The course is divided into several sections with a quiz at the end of each lesson. Every lesson contains practical examples and additional information regarding the topic that is being examined. The language and tone used in the explanatory text are very light and easy to digest.
The lessons are presented in a flashcard format that gradually takes you through the different modules. This course if perfect not only for medicals students, but for hospital personnel and other healthcare workers. You can take the course at your own pace and skip through some sections if you wish. For those of you who’d like to start a career in Allied Health Education, check out our.
Medical Terminology Quiz is the most comprehensive medical quiz app which contains handpicked questions from Medical Science. This handy application is designed with precision and understanding to give you a boost of brain power and at the same time a refresher. This Terminology App is for professionals, students and whoever is interested in increasing knowledge or refreshing what you know in this field. With four different game strategies this app happens to give you the edge to stay ahead.
A handy reference and learning program for common medical terms, abbreviations, and prefix, suffixes. This play ready app can be thoroughly enjoyed whether you are on a plane, at your comfort zone, waiting for a friend, at the taxi, bus or train station, at the back seat of a car or even at work. Take part in the fun, challenge your friends and climb the leaderboards while earning trophies and test your skills. Features:-Time based games, - Picture based learning, - 4 game strategies, - No hassle, no fancy distractions – made easy to read and answer questions swiftly - Challenge your Friends and all around the globe. Includes over 100 levels. Spelling challenge, -Affluent design just to please your experience and pleasure.
Nararabbit I wish I was able to attach images to this review, so I could show some examples. The first section, terminology quiz, is the most useful. There were some spelling errors in the quiz questions, but they were obvious - 'blue skim color means.' (aka skin color). My issue is with the medical anagrams. Don't even use this section.
I am a beginning nursing student and even I knew the info in here was wrong. For example, it asked what an antipyretic is - answer? (Actual answer, it's a medication for the treatment of fevers.) the question SHOULD have been, what does the prefix 'anti' indicate? Then 'against' would have been correct.
There were many such instances in this section. Another example is 'Antepartum means.' Answer in game: 'Before.'
Antepartum means 'before childbirth'! I would hesitate to recommend this app to anyone who is newer to medicine. If you're familiar, it may actually be helpful as you mentally correct the game as you go. But if you're trying to actually learn and study for exams, this would be detrimental to your studies. I wish I was able to attach images to this review, so I could show some examples. The first section, terminology quiz, is the most useful. There were some spelling errors in the quiz questions, but they were obvious - 'blue skim color means.'
(aka skin color). My issue is with the medical anagrams.
Don't even use this section. I am a beginning nursing student and even I knew the info in here was wrong. For example, it asked what an antipyretic is - answer? (Actual answer, it's a medication for the treatment of fevers.) the question SHOULD have been, what does the prefix 'anti' indicate?
Then 'against' would have been correct. There were many such instances in this section. Another example is 'Antepartum means.' Answer in game: 'Before.'
Antepartum means 'before childbirth'! I would hesitate to recommend this app to anyone who is newer to medicine. If you're familiar, it may actually be helpful as you mentally correct the game as you go. But if you're trying to actually learn and study for exams, this would be detrimental to your studies.
Millette Two things: 1) When an answer is wrong the game board turns red and falls from view. Unless you're quick you loose sight of the answer you've selected and may have trouble selecting the correct answer next time around.
2) By the time I reached level 20 there were 2 answers (that I knew the answers to) that were wrong. I played and replayed the level. Finally I had to select the wrong answer in order to advance. Those just happened to be answers I knew to be wrong. It has me wondering about the rest of the game.
Two things: 1) When an answer is wrong the game board turns red and falls from view. Unless you're quick you loose sight of the answer you've selected and may have trouble selecting the correct answer next time around. 2) By the time I reached level 20 there were 2 answers (that I knew the answers to) that were wrong. I played and replayed the level. Finally I had to select the wrong answer in order to advance.
Those just happened to be answers I knew to be wrong. It has me wondering about the rest of the game. AppleFanTara In the beginning, this app was kind of fun, so I paid for it. At $3.99, this app is kind of pricey for what it is. There aren't NEARLY enough quizzes for the price, and there are so many mistakes. They spelled calories 'CLORIES', for Pete's sake. And that's just one example.
Not a good thing when you're trying to learn actual medical terms for school. I'm so disappointed I paid for this. Someone probably threw it together in a weekend, at most. This app is a joke. It could have been great if they'd actually put any effort into it. In the beginning, this app was kind of fun, so I paid for it.
Free Medical Terminology Games
At $3.99, this app is kind of pricey for what it is. There aren't NEARLY enough quizzes for the price, and there are so many mistakes. They spelled calories 'CLORIES', for Pete's sake. And that's just one example.
Free Medical Terminology Games For Memory
Not a good thing when you're trying to learn actual medical terms for school. I'm so disappointed I paid for this. Someone probably threw it together in a weekend, at most. This app is a joke. It could have been great if they'd actually put any effort into it.