"Hands on" assessments in science are called "practical exams". In Anatomy & Physiology this is the opportunity for the students to demonstrate mastery over the "stuff"--histology, models, and similar artifacts. The major obstacles to success are overconfidence and "underconfidence"!Under the first, a student thinks that having "looked at" something once is sufficient. One of the reasons I require students to "draw what they see" when doing histology is so that they can utilize a different learning modality--kinesthetic--to assimilate the visual knowledge that they (unwittingly) think is easier to acquire than it is. Another source of overconfidence is forgetting that we are working on anatomy AND physiology--one needs to know not only what something looks like but what it does!
Underconfidence is manifested by "second guessing" one's self. We all have experience with this. I learned years ago that my first answer is usually my best--not always "right" but as right as I am going to get!
Between these two extremes lies--SUCCESS!
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