I thought I paid for school not ATI

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I'm sitting here with an ATI assignment which states the following:

Read slides from ATI and take the test.

over 90% of the material we have not covered, nor will be tested on and the ATI test is 100 questions which your only graded on attempting.

I calculated that each section of the slides (all 7) would each take an hour to go over, and by the end of them I won't retain anything.

I figure the test being 100 question should take 2 hours which...again I won't retain anything.... has ATI just given teachers an out from actually performing their duties and instructing?

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

As the ATI material is outdated before it's even published and isn't state-specific, no, ATI did not give professors an out from actually instructing students. However, different programs incorporate ATI testing in different ways, so I can't speak to your specific situation.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, OB/GYN, ER, Geriatrics.

ATI is suppose to mimic the NCLEX exam according to my instructors. They told us that if you can pass the ATI tests, then you will pass the NCLEX. All in all, I feel that it is a waste of my money and really do not care for the whole thing as the previous poster stated that the material is way out dated.

Best of luck to you...

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I had never heard that ATI was outdated. Where did you all hear that information?

In my program it is not graded either. But there is an ATI test at the end of each class, and if you do well on it, you can earn extra points towards your final grade. It has literally moved people in my class from B's to A's. And they told us if we get a Level 2 or above we will be able to pass the NCLEX.

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Specializes in Family Medicine, Medical Intensive Care.

I didn't know ATI was outdated either. I'd like to know where you guys heard that as well. :confused:

Based on my experience, the ATI modules are a nice compliment to what we learn in theory. The test questions are great because they "teach" you how to to think on nursing exams. Plus, the ATI Fundamentals and Med/Surg review books they gave us on the first day of class have come in really handy for studying for the comprehensive finals. They really put the information into bite-sized pieces for a quick review.

...And yes, my program grades our ATIs. We must make a 90% on each one or a Level 2 or higher (depending on the grading scale).

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

The ATI bases its content off of textbooks, which themselves are at least a year or two behind current knowledge due to the realities of publishing. For general knowledge things it's ok, but to pull an example off the Maternal/Child ATI, the ATI was using an older edition of our textbook for its source material. A lot of the concepts were current, but if the content involved numerical values they were almost certainly at odds with the content in the more recent textbook. The fact that the ATI updates every three years also doesn't help.

My program used to require Level 2 on every subject ATI and 74% on the cumulative, which they've since scaled back to only requiring it on the Med-Surg ATI and cumulative, since there wasn't the data to justify mandatory passage for most of the subject exams.

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I guess the overall problem that most of us are having with this whole ATI is that if some of the questions lined up with what we were learning than yes it would be a great asset.

Sadly when it comes to the pharmacology section of the ATI I can't say that it does. We are not taught drip rates, or much of the other material that ATI is testing us on, so I have no idea how they expect us to get anything close to even a 70%. As much as I want to complain I know its going to fall on ears that don't care nor will change.

I have a final pass off next year in pharmacology and I really feel so very little prepared for it based off this semesters material .

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I guess the overall problem that most of us are having with this whole ATI is that if some of the questions lined up with what we were learning than yes it would be a great asset.

Sadly when it comes to the pharmacology section of the ATI I can't say that it does. We are not taught drip rates, or much of the other material that ATI is testing us on, so I have no idea how they expect us to get anything close to even a 70%. As much as I want to complain I know its going to fall on ears that don't care nor will change.

I have a final pass off next year in pharmacology and I really feel so very little prepared for it based off this semesters material .

"Read and study the ATI book we gave you, that's what you will be tested on" My question always seems to go unanswered. "when?"

~Simmy

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

I've taken ATI's for fundamentals, pharmacology, OB, peds, and psych. I've managed a level 3 on all of them.

My instructors DO NOT teach to ATI, but they DO teach. I'm grateful for all of them except my patho teacher who was crazy and totally uninterested in teaching. Why they keep her is beyond me. It annoys me that she's still there, actually.

I thought our instructor for pharmacology was fantastic. However, when I took the pharm ATI test, I was sure I had failed it. The questions were just so freakin' out there! I got a Level 3, but my heart was pounding as soon as I hit "submit."

If they are teaching you nursing, you shouldn't have a problem passing ATI.

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I've taken ATI's for fundamentals, pharmacology, OB, peds, and psych. I've managed a level 3 on all of them.

My instructors DO NOT teach to ATI, but they DO teach. I'm grateful for all of them except my patho teacher who was crazy and totally uninterested in teaching. Why they keep her is beyond me. It annoys me that she's still there, actually.

I thought our instructor for pharmacology was fantastic. However, when I took the pharm ATI test, I was sure I had failed it. The questions were just so freakin' out there! I got a Level 3, but my heart was pounding as soon as I hit "submit."

If they are teaching you nursing, you shouldn't have a problem passing ATI.

That the problem I have with the pharmacology. They have a patho pharm class together and its more focused on pathology than pharmacology, so the test seem irrelevance to the way we are being taught.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.

**** ATI.

it drives me nuts

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