PassProfessor’s Anatomy & Physiology program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. The 1,519-question chapter-simulation bank is built and quality-checked, and enrollment opens soon. Join the notify list and we will email you the day it launches — then use this guide to plan how you will study the course.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
Anatomy & Physiology, in one paragraph
Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) is the undergraduate course that studies the structure of the human body (anatomy) and how that structure works (physiology), usually taught over two semesters as A&P I and A&P II, commonly with a laboratory component. There is no national A&P exam and no single syllabus: each institution and instructor sets the chapter order, the semester split, and the grading. What is standard — across essentially every version of the course — is the scope: foundations in homeostasis, chemistry, cells, and tissues, then the body system by system, from the integumentary system through the reproductive systems and development.
Who takes Anatomy & Physiology, and why?
A&P is a gateway course. It is most often required or expected for students heading toward:
- Nursing and allied-health programs, where A&P grades frequently weigh heavily in admissions and where the material returns immediately in clinical coursework.
- Pre-professional tracks — pre-medical, pre-dental, pre-pharmacy, pre-physical-therapy, and similar — where A&P is foundational to everything after it.
- Exercise science, athletic training, and health-science degrees, where the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular material is the working core of the field.
- Biology and related science majors, as part of the standard undergraduate sequence.
Two practical consequences follow. First, the course is deliberately demanding: it combines a large memorization load (names, locations, attachments, pathways) with genuine reasoning (predicting what happens to blood pressure, pH, or urine output when one variable changes). Second, because later courses assume you kept it, A&P rewards students who learn it durably rather than cramming it — a fact this guide’s study section is built around.
There are no eligibility rules, age requirements, or registration bodies for A&P itself — you enroll through your college like any other course. Prerequisites vary by institution; many schools expect introductory biology and sometimes chemistry first, and your catalog is the authority for your school.
The course, piece by piece
The standard A&P sequence runs to 20 chapters in the organization this program’s bank uses: four foundation chapters, then the systems. The table below shows that full scope with the practice counts from the delivered PassProfessor bank (1,519 questions, counted chapter by chapter). Your textbook’s chapter numbers may differ — the system names are the stable part, and they are how you should navigate.
| Chapter | What it covers | Practice questions |
|---|---|---|
| Ch. 1: Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology | Anatomy vs. physiology, levels of organization, organ systems, anatomical position, directional terms, body planes and cavities, and homeostasis — the feedback-loop idea the whole course returns to | 85 |
| Ch. 2: The Chemical Level of Organization | Atoms, ions and electrolytes, chemical bonds, water’s roles, acids, bases and pH, buffers, the macromolecules, enzymes, and ATP | 52 |
| Ch. 3: The Cellular Level of Organization | Plasma membrane structure, membrane transport (diffusion, osmosis, active transport), organelles, cell junctions, the cell cycle | 63 |
| Ch. 4: The Tissue Level of Organization | Epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous tissues; membranes; glands; tissue repair — the identification skills laboratory practicals test | 80 |
| Ch. 5: The Integumentary System | Epidermal layers and cell types, dermis, hair and nails, sweat and sebaceous glands, skin functions, burns and wound healing | 72 |
| Ch. 6: The Skeletal System and Bone Tissue | Bone classification and anatomy, bone cells and matrix, ossification and growth, calcium regulation, fracture types and healing, the axial and appendicular skeleton | 95 |
| Ch. 7: Joints | Structural and functional classification, synovial joint structure and movements, the knee and shoulder, stability vs. mobility, arthritis | 60 |
| Ch. 8: Muscle Tissue and the Muscular System | The sliding-filament model, cross-bridge cycle, excitation–contraction coupling, the neuromuscular junction, fiber types, and the major muscles and their actions | 72 |
| Ch. 9: Nervous Tissue, Spinal Cord, and Peripheral Nerves | Neurons and neuroglia, membrane and action potentials, synapses, spinal cord anatomy and tracts, spinal nerves and plexuses, reflex arcs | 102 |
| Ch. 10: The Brain, Cranial Nerves, and Autonomic Nervous System | Brain regions and ventricles, cerebrospinal fluid, the twelve cranial nerves, and the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions | 71 |
| Ch. 11: The Special Senses | Eye structure and the visual pathway, ear structure and hearing, equilibrium, taste, smell, and proprioception | 55 |
| Ch. 12: The Endocrine System | Hormone mechanisms and feedback, the pituitary and hypothalamus, thyroid and parathyroid, adrenal cortex and medulla, pancreatic islets, and blood-glucose regulation | 92 |
| Ch. 13: Blood | Plasma and formed elements, red blood cell production and recycling, white blood cells, platelets, hemostasis and coagulation, ABO and Rh blood groups and transfusion | 54 |
| Ch. 14: The Heart and Cardiac Function | Heart anatomy and valves, the conducting system, the cardiac cycle, the ECG, cardiac output and its regulation | 60 |
| Ch. 15: Blood Vessels and Hemodynamics | Vessel structure, capillary exchange, blood pressure and its regulation, hemodynamics, and special circulations (coronary, cerebral, hepatic portal) | 60 |
| Ch. 16: The Lymphatic System and Immunity | Lymph and lymphatic organs, innate defenses, complement and inflammation, adaptive immunity, antibodies, T and B cells, and immune memory | 88 |
| Ch. 17: The Respiratory System | Airway anatomy, ventilation mechanics, pulmonary volumes and capacities, gas exchange and transport, control of breathing | 60 |
| Ch. 18: The Digestive System | The GI tract wall and accessory organs, mechanical and chemical digestion, enzymes, absorption, and the phases and hormones of digestive control | 60 |
| Ch. 19: The Urinary System and Fluid Balance | Kidney and nephron anatomy, filtration, reabsorption and secretion, hormonal control of urine, micturition, fluid compartments, and acid–base balance | 88 |
| Ch. 20: The Reproductive Systems and Development | Male and female reproductive anatomy, gametogenesis, the ovarian and uterine cycles, fertilization, pregnancy, development, parturition, and lactation | 95 |
| Integrative Capstone | Cross-system scenarios — hemorrhage, exercise, dehydration, acid–base disturbances, burns, heart failure, pregnancy — that combine three or more systems in one question | 55 |
| Total | 1,519 |
How the two semesters usually split
Institutions divide this scope differently, but the common pattern is:
- A&P I: the foundations (Chapters 1–4) plus the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems and the special senses (Chapters 5–11). It is the more anatomy-heavy semester — structures, names, locations, and the identification work of the laboratory.
- A&P II: the endocrine system and the fluid-transport and maintenance systems — blood, heart, vessels, lymphatic and immune, respiratory, digestive, urinary — finishing with the reproductive systems and development (Chapters 12–20). It is the more physiology-heavy semester, where feedback loops, pressures, and flows dominate.
Some schools move the endocrine chapter into the first semester or teach blood with the tissues; check your syllabus. The point of naming the standard split is planning: the first semester rewards identification and spatial knowledge, the second rewards reasoning about regulation — and students who study both semesters the same way usually find one of them harder than it needed to be.
The foundations carry the whole course
Chapters 1–4 are only 280 of the bank’s 1,519 questions, but they are the load-bearing part of A&P:
- Homeostasis and feedback (Chapter 1) is the single most reused idea in the course. Negative feedback explains temperature control, blood-glucose control, blood-pressure control, calcium control, and the ovarian cycle’s turning points; positive feedback explains labor and blood clotting. Every later system chapter is, in part, a new application of this one concept.
- Membrane transport (Chapter 3) — osmosis, tonicity, active transport — reappears as capillary exchange in Chapter 15, urine formation in Chapter 19, and nutrient absorption in Chapter 18.
- Tissue identification (Chapter 4) is the core skill of the laboratory practical, and it returns whenever a system chapter asks what a structure is made of and why that suits its job.
How A&P exams actually work
Because there is no single A&P exam, this section describes the common pattern rather than one test — your instructor’s syllabus and exam announcements are the authority for your course.
- Unit exams follow chapters. Most courses examine in blocks of two to four chapters, in the order taught. The exam you face in week five covers what the class covered in weeks one through five — which is why chapter-aligned practice maps to it so directly.
- Questions are scenario-heavy. Beyond naming and identification, A&P exams characteristically ask you to predict: a blocked duct, a hormone in excess, a change in blood pressure — what happens next, and why? Memorizing definitions alone underprepares you for this question style, which is the dominant style from the nervous-system chapters onward.
- Laboratory practicals test identification. Models, specimens, slides, and images, usually timed station by station. Tissue types, bone landmarks, muscle names, and vessel pathways are the classic practical content.
- Finals are commonly cumulative, and the cumulative final is where cross-system integration gets tested — the exact skill the bank’s Integrative Capstone set is built to train.
- Grading is local. Exam weights, curves, and passing thresholds are set by your instructor and institution. There is no scaled score, no board, and no retake policy beyond your school’s own course-repeat rules.
How to study for Anatomy & Physiology
A&P defeats two common strategies: rereading (which produces familiarity, not recall) and last-week cramming (which collapses under the sheer volume of named structures). What works, and what this program is organized to support:
- Study in the chapter rhythm of the course. Do the practice for a chapter in the week your class teaches it. A&P is cumulative in vocabulary even when the exams are not: the nervous system assumes the cell chapter, the endocrine chapter assumes feedback, and the urinary chapter assumes membrane transport.
- Alternate identification with reasoning. For each system, split your practice between “what is this and where” questions and “what happens if” questions. Exams ask both; students usually practice only the first kind and are surprised by the second.
- Learn structures in systems, not lists. A bone’s landmarks make sense with the muscles that attach there and the joints they form; a hormone makes sense as a loop — gland, signal, target, effect, feedback. Questions in the bank are written as scenarios and applications for the same reason.
- Use the numbers where the course has numbers. Cardiac output, filtration pressure, pulmonary volumes, burn assessment by the rule of nines — A&P contains a modest amount of genuine calculation, concentrated in the cardiovascular, respiratory, urinary, and integumentary chapters. It is high-yield precisely because students skip it.
- Return to the foundations on a schedule. Every few weeks, re-drill Chapters 1–4. Homeostasis and transport questions you answered easily in September are the ones that quietly decay by December — and the final assumes them.
- Finish with integration. In the run-up to a cumulative final, shift your practice mix toward combined-chapter simulations and the Integrative Capstone set, where a single scenario runs through three systems. That is the final’s native question form.
This program’s practice bank (1,519 questions across all 20 chapters plus the capstone) is built chapter-by-chapter on this same structure. The Anatomy & Physiology program page shows the full coverage table and the textbook/edition alignment — and the notify list there will email you when enrollment opens.
Common mistakes A&P students make
- Treating physiology as memorized anatomy. Knowing where the loop of Henle is does not tell you what ADH does to it. Exams from the endocrine chapter onward weight the second kind of knowledge more heavily.
- Skipping the chemistry and cell chapters because they feel like review. They are the mechanism layer for everything later; osmosis alone underlies the urinary, cardiovascular, and digestive units.
- Learning muscles as a name list. Exams ask actions, innervations in context, and what movement fails when a muscle or nerve is injured — the applied form of the same material.
- Ignoring the laboratory until the practical. Identification under time pressure is a trained skill, and tissue and bone identification in particular repay early, repeated short sessions.
- Saving the capstone-style material for last. Cross-system questions are not an advanced extra; they are how cumulative finals are written. Build toward them all semester.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a national Anatomy & Physiology exam? No. Anatomy & Physiology is a college course, examined by each institution’s own instructors. There is no national test, no licensing body, no standard passing score, and no registration process beyond enrolling in the course at your college. Guides or products that describe A&P as if it were a board exam are misdescribing the course.
How many chapters are in Anatomy & Physiology? In the standard organization this program uses, 20 chapters: four foundation chapters (introduction and homeostasis, chemistry, cells, tissues) and sixteen system chapters running from the integumentary system through the reproductive systems and development — plus, in this bank, an integrative capstone section. Individual textbooks number and group chapters somewhat differently; the body-system scope is what stays constant.
What is the difference between A&P I and A&P II? In the common split, A&P I covers the foundations plus the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems and the special senses — the more structural semester. A&P II covers the endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic and immune, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems — the more regulatory and physiological semester. Institutions vary; your syllabus governs your course.
What topics does A&P cover? The full human body, system by system: cells and tissues; the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic and immune, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems; plus cross-cutting themes — homeostasis, fluid and acid–base balance, and development — that tie the systems together.
Why do students find A&P hard? Volume and duality. The course carries one of the largest vocabulary loads in the undergraduate curriculum — hundreds of named structures — while simultaneously requiring physiological reasoning about feedback, pressure, flow, and balance. Either demand alone is manageable; together, in a 15-week semester, they punish passive study methods like rereading.
How should I study for an A&P exam? In the rhythm of the course: practice each chapter the week it is taught, split your effort between identification questions and predict-what-happens questions, revisit the foundation chapters (homeostasis, membrane transport, tissues) regularly, do the calculation questions in the cardiovascular, respiratory, and urinary units, and shift to combined-chapter and cross-system practice before a cumulative final.
What is homeostasis, and why does it matter so much? Homeostasis is the body’s maintenance of a stable internal environment — temperature, pH, glucose, calcium, blood pressure, fluid volume — through feedback loops: a sensor detects a change, a control center compares it to a set point, and an effector acts to reverse (negative feedback) or amplify (positive feedback) it. It matters because nearly every system chapter is a case study in it; the endocrine and urinary systems are barely intelligible without it.
Does this study guide replace my textbook or my course? No. This guide describes the course’s standard scope and how to study it; your textbook, lectures, and laboratory remain the course itself. PassProfessor’s practice program is built from published course structure and verified disciplinary facts — it reproduces no textbook’s content, is not endorsed by any publisher or author, and is never sold under a textbook’s name.
How does the practice program align with my textbook? At enrollment you select the textbook and edition your course uses, and the chapter simulations are optimized for that book’s chapter order and emphasis. The guide and program pages use the bank’s chapter labels for the standard sequence; the system names match across textbooks even where numbering shifts.
How many practice questions does the program have? 1,519 — distributed across all 20 chapters (from 52 on the chemical level of organization to 102 on nervous tissue, the spinal cord, and peripheral nerves) plus 55 integrative capstone questions. The counts are taken directly from the delivered question bank and are shown in full in the table on this page.
When can I enroll in the Anatomy & Physiology program? Soon — the bank is complete, delivered, and quality-checked, and the program is in final preparation. Join the notify list on this page or on the program page and we will email you the day enrollment opens.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent practice provider and is not affiliated with any college, university, instructor, textbook publisher, or textbook author. This guide is general information about the Anatomy & Physiology course as standardly taught, current as of October 2026; your institution’s syllabus and your instructor’s materials govern your course if anything here differs from them. This program provides no course credit and is not a substitute for the course itself.