WGU C870: Human Anatomy and Physiology

Where C870 Fits in Your Degree Plan

WGU's C870 Human Anatomy and Physiology is a three-competency-unit course that asks you to learn the healthy human body from the ground up. The institutional catalog describes it as examining the structures and functions of the human body, covering anatomical terminology, cells and tissues, and organ systems, with the healthy state of the digestive, skeletal, sensory, respiratory, reproductive, nervous, muscular, cardiovascular, lymphatic, integumentary, endocrine, and renal systems all in scope. The catalog also states there are no prerequisites, so you can land here without a recent biology class behind you. Plan for the vocabulary ramp yourself.

Direct answer: Pass C870 by learning each organ system as a story of structure leading to function rather than as a pile of labels, and by testing yourself out loud from blank diagrams every single study session. Work through the course materials system by system, use the pre-assessment as a diagnostic instead of a final rehearsal, and only schedule the proctored exam once you can explain how two systems cooperate without looking anything up.

In the current catalog, C870 sits in the first term of the Master of Arts in Science Education (Secondary Biological Science) program, alongside Introduction to Biology and Chemistry with Lab. That placement signals the intent: a content-mastery course meant to give you a working command of body systems you will later teach or build on. You may also run across material labeled C875, an older WGU anatomy and physiology course code that no longer appears in the catalog. The subject matter often overlaps, but the alignment is not guaranteed, so treat it as supplementary.

If anatomy feels intimidating right now, that is normal and not a verdict on your ability. The terminology load is large, but the material suits systematic study because almost nothing in it is arbitrary. Once you see why alveoli are thin-walled, the details stop being trivia and start being consequences.

Body Systems and Concepts the Assessment Covers

Build your study map directly from the catalog description rather than from a random flashcard deck. The scope breaks down into three layers:

• Anatomical language and orientation — directional terms, body planes and sections, cavities and regions, and the levels of structural organization from chemical to organism.
• Cells and tissues — cell structure and transport across membranes, and the four primary tissue types with the jobs each is built for.
• Organ systems in the healthy state — integumentary, skeletal, muscular, nervous, sensory, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, renal, and reproductive.

Notice the phrase "healthy state." C870 is a normal-function course, not a disease course. You are accountable for how a healthy kidney regulates fluid balance, not for the staging of kidney failure. Wandering into pathology burns hours on material the course does not ask for.

Because the course spans every major system, homeostasis is the thread tying it together. Expect to reason about feedback loops, about how the nervous and endocrine systems coordinate at different speeds, and about how the cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal systems jointly manage oxygen, carbon dioxide, and pH. Questions that ask you to connect systems separate a comfortable pass from a nervous one.

How Hard C870 Is and How Long It Realistically Takes

The honest difficulty of a body-systems course is not conceptual. Very little in C870 demands the abstract reasoning a genetics or biochemistry course does. The difficulty is volume: you hold several hundred structures, their locations, and their functions in memory at once, and retention makes or breaks the attempt. Expect the first two or three systems to feel slow while you build vocabulary, and the pace to improve once word parts start repeating.

Use the course's own weight as your planning anchor rather than someone else's timeline. Three competency units is a small course, but small here means a narrow topic list, not a light memory load. A workable starting plan is a few weeks of short, near-daily sessions if the material is new to you, compressed if you have studied anatomy and physiology before or work in a clinical setting. What tends not to work is treating it like a concepts course you can absorb in one long weekend, because discrete terminology does not consolidate that fast.

A better readiness measure than weeks is coverage: you are ready when you have finished every system, quizzed yourself on each at least twice on separate days, and can reconstruct any system's major structures from memory.

A Study Plan Built on Retrieval, Not Rereading

Anatomy rewards active recall more than almost any other subject, because recognition and recall diverge so sharply here. You can read a labeled diagram of the heart ten times, feel confident, and still be unable to produce the path of blood flow on a blank page. Design your studying so you find that out early, while it is cheap to fix.

1. Blank-diagram drills. For every system, sketch an unlabeled figure and fill it in from memory before you check. Redo the misses two days later, not two minutes later.
2. Structure-to-function sentences. After each section, write one sentence per structure: "X is shaped or located this way so that Y can happen." If you cannot finish it, you have memorized a label without understanding it.
3. Spaced review of old systems. Spend the first ten minutes of each session quizzing yourself on a system you finished a week ago. This single habit keeps the early systems from evaporating by exam day.
4. Use the pre-assessment as a diagnostic. Take it once you have covered most of the material, then treat the weak-area report as a study list rather than a score. Re-taking it repeatedly to chase a number teaches you the pre-assessment, not the anatomy.
5. Teach it out loud. Explain a system to an empty room, a patient family member, or a voice recorder. Because C870 sits inside a science education program, this doubles as classroom rehearsal, and it exposes gaps instantly.
6. Learn word parts, not just words. Roots, prefixes, and suffixes let you decode unfamiliar terms on the exam instead of guessing. An hour on word construction pays for itself many times over.

Lean on the resources inside your course of study first. The linked materials, their practice questions, and your course instructor are aligned to what you will be assessed on in a way that generic internet decks are not. If you supplement, prefer reputable open anatomy atlases and video walkthroughs of physiology processes over question banks of uncertain origin.

Where C870 Students Lose Points

The failure patterns in a body-systems course are predictable, which makes them avoidable.

• Memorizing labels without mechanisms. Knowing the sinoatrial node exists is not the same as knowing what it initiates and why that matters. Questions tend to probe the second thing.
• Studying systems in isolation. The body does not partition itself, and harder questions ask you to trace something across systems, such as a nutrient from digestion to cellular use.
• Letting early systems decay. It is common to finish the last system strong, then find the integumentary and skeletal material from three weeks earlier has faded.
• Passive review disguised as studying. Highlighting, rewatching, and rereading feel productive and produce little durable recall here.
• Scheduling the exam by calendar rather than readiness. A test date does not create knowledge. Move it if your self-quizzing says you are not there yet.
• Ignoring the proctoring setup. Confirm your equipment, room requirements, and identification well before exam day so logistics are not competing for your attention.

C870 Readiness Checklist

• Can you fill in a blank diagram of the heart, the nephron, and a long bone without prompts?
• Can you trace blood from the right atrium through the lungs to a capillary bed, naming each structure in order?
• Can you explain how a negative feedback loop maintains a variable such as blood glucose or body temperature?
• Can you name the four primary tissue types and give a location and function for each?
• Can you contrast nervous and endocrine signaling in speed and duration, with an example of each?
• Can you follow a bite of food from mouth to absorption, saying what each accessory organ contributes?
• Can you decode an unfamiliar anatomical term from its roots and affixes?
• Have you reviewed every system at least twice on separate days, including the ones you studied first?
• Have you completed the pre-assessment and closed each weak area it identified?

If you are working through several science courses this term, these habits transfer directly. Our guide to D203 Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology covers similar body-systems territory, C625 Biochemistry pairs with the cellular material here, and D663 The Professional Educator is a common companion in education programs. You can also browse the health and nursing guide collection or the full index of WGU course guides.

C870 FAQ

Is C870 assessed by an objective assessment or a performance assessment?

C870 is a content-knowledge course with no submitted task or lab deliverable, and it is completed through a proctored objective assessment. The program's performance assessment is a separate course taken later. The catalog does not spell out assessment formats, so confirm the current structure on your own course page in the WGU portal.

How many competency units is C870 worth?

Three. WGU's institutional catalog lists C870 Human Anatomy and Physiology, course number BIO 5120, at three competency units in the first term of the Master of Arts in Science Education (Secondary Biological Science) program.

Do I need to take a biology course before C870?

No. The catalog states that C870 has no prerequisites. If it has been a while since you studied biology, budget extra time for the cell and tissue material, since everything after it builds on that foundation.

What is C875, and can I use C875 study material?

C875 is an older WGU anatomy and physiology course code that no longer appears in the current institutional catalog, so it is not a course you can enroll in today. Material tagged C875 often covers similar body-systems ground, but the alignment is not guaranteed. Check it against your own course of study before relying on it.

Does C870 include pathology or disease processes?

The catalog describes C870 as covering the healthy state of the organ systems. Disease processes belong to pathophysiology coursework, so keep your preparation focused on normal structure and function.

How should I use the pre-assessment?

Treat it as a diagnostic that tells you which systems still need work, not a dress rehearsal repeated until the score looks good. Take it once you have covered most of the material, act on the weak-area report, then confirm your recall with blank-diagram drills before scheduling the exam.

For official course descriptions and current program requirements, consult the WGU institutional catalog. This guide is an independent study resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Western Governors University.