At the new school in Northern Kentucky near a racetrack, the Director of Nursing receives a few practice codes and tests from ATI for each particular class. The first code is a practice test with a practice password. The second one is the actual test. The third one is used for remediation. I am 8th term, and over Christmas break, we were "finally" given a list of tests to take over break. It was necessary, because 4th or 5th week into the term, we had our first ATI exam - if we did better than 70%, we did not have to the second ATI week 9 (or we could take it for funsies). *I believe for a fee* you can purchase practice tests from ATI. Some of the discs with the book are too generalized, I feel, and I feel a pharmacology disc would have been useful.
The gripe we have at our college is 1) if you don't pass ATI with 50%, you flunk the term, no matter what your attendance, clinical grade, test grades, papers, & presentation grades were like. You have to sit out and go through hoops to get back in class in 6 months. A few have already had that experience. 2) Other colleges have Hessi, and you don't flunk the term if you flunk Hessi, you just take the test over again. 3) The college decided to do this midway through the program, without grandfathering anybody. Our credits don't transfer anywhere else. (Adding to the stress of the already unhappy campers!)
I've noticed that the ATI questions will ask things that you *KNOW* you haven't read in their book or heard on the disc; they wish you to think it through clinically. The days of multiple choice with one obvious answer are over.
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