Instructor giving away test questions!

[nursingforme2]

I am currently in my first year of nursing school. I have an instructor who is awesome. She cares about the students and doesn't want anyone to fail. I am all for that, I know she genuinely cares for us. However, I don't agree with what she's been doing. She gives away test questions for the upcoming exams. Other instructors are not aware of what she's doing, only the students. I feel like, everyone needs a freebie every now and then, but to always be trying to fish people out of certain situations is not going to help. Students need to do their part as well and not rely solely on the instructor's questions to get by. I don't feel it's right, and I'm here to ask you what I should do. I want to let the other instructors know but I don't want to get her in trouble because she just wants us all to pass. But we need to be responsible for our own education. By her giving us everything, how are we to learn? I don't know what to do. Please help.

[HermioneG, BSN, RN]

As someone previously said, I think that by saying something you might be putting a giant target on your back. If the teacher was only giving the questions to certain students, or to her "favorite" students, then that's a whole different story. But if she's being fair and allowing everyone access, I don't see where your complaint would be taken very seriously.

Before nursing school I wanted to be an Anatomy professor, so I TAed for several upper division biology classes. These classes were filled with overly stressed and very neurotic pre-med and pre-dental students who were terrified of anything less than an A-. The poor dears would get themselves so worked up, and run themselves so hard into the ground, that they would come into class in tears sometimes. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, I've seen students get so stressed and scared witless that they didn't know where or even how to begin studying. Because I would see this and I was responsible for making lab quizzes, I would frequently give some of the questions ahead of time so they understood where to begin studying, as well as how well they were expected to understand the material. My boss, the professor of the classes, saw me do this on several occasions and he never said anything about it. Ultimately, you can give someone the question, but they still need to know the answer. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can give the student the tools to succeed, but they need to put the work in. They have to study it, and then when quiz/test day comes they either know it or they don't. I don't see anything wrong with dropping a few hints here or there if you're working with first year nursing students who might be feeling lost and uncertain. If a professor had been doing this, say, in a critical care class, I might be a little more concerned. Because at this point the student should be at a place where they've walked enough to be able to run, so to speak, and should now have the confidence and familiarity to be able to manage.

If this teacher was giving a sheet with the verbatim test to the students, or was giving every single question that was going to be on the test, then maybe that's a different story. But even still, I would be hesitant. You don't know what this professor's philosophy is, or his/her reasoning behind it. If she's giving some of the questions here or there, or even a good percent of the questions, ultimately that's her decision because it's her class and I would stay out of it.

[hippie_runner]

Do you live in Tennessee by any chance?

[Extra Pickles]

I'm having dejavu. Truthfully if you spend anywhere near as much time studying and focusing on your own education as you do obsessing about your classmates and your teachers' teaching style, you should do very well. In other words, pay attention to your own business and let others worry about themselves. You are not doing yourself or anyone else any favors with this line of concern you keep raising. Eyes facing front, please!