Identifying medical student perceptions on the difficulty of learning different topics of the undergraduate anatomy curriculum

Anatomy education research has identified neuroanatomy and pelvic anatomy as particularly challenging to medical students. However, perceptions of the whole undergraduate anatomy curriculum have not been properly determined. One hundred eighty-five second year medical student evaluations showed that neuroanatomy and head and neck and pelvic anatomy were rated significantly harder than the remainder of the curriculum (p < 0.0001). However, students at the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition did not rate neuroanatomy harder than the other subjects. This study identifies topics which are perceived to be the most difficult to learn and targeting these will make the biggest differences in medical student learning experience.