test grades

[cindyr]

Hey everybody.This is my first time to log in and I have a question that I cannot seem to find as being addressed. I have one semester after this one for my ADN and so far am passing but am having a real difficult time with the way our instructors are grading tests. There are 96 people in our class and on the last test all but 3 people failed. Our passing grade is 75. Our instructors go through the tests after we are finished and randomly select questions to throw out. When they do this, it raises some test grades by a lot of points. The only problem is that if you happened to get these test questions right in the first place, you don't get the extra points and this may leave you with a failing or near failing grade while people who actually earned lower grades can potentiallly end up with much highter grades. People are actually passing or failing semesters simply because of the test questions that are being tossed and not on the grades they are earning. Does this happen everywhere and if so, how can this possibly be legal? Thank you for your help. Cindy

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

yes, the same practice is used in my ADN program. i am not happy with the explanantion either.. we are told that we already received the points for getting the question correct, so we cannot receive the "extra" points for them nullifying the question. my belief is that if they nullify a question, they should divide the score into the number of "new" questions on the exam. ie, if there are 100 questions, and they nullify 3, then the score should be divided into the 97 instead of the 100. unfortunately, that isn't going to happen any time soon in our program.

the only positive i can tell you is that there will be a time (a test) where you will benefit from this practice. on our first test, i didn't get any of the points because i, too, had gotten the questions right. however, on the second test, i got 3.67 or thereabouts extra because i didn't get those correct.

so i guess it'll all wash in the end.

after two exams, our class has a failing average also. we're in our last semester of the program which is making it even harder to swallow this crud. our third test is monday, so i'll be hoping i get the questions wrong that they decide to nullify or accept more than one answer!

good luck in your program.

[cindyr]

Thanks for the feedback. Our instructors gave us the same lame excuse about it balancing out in the end. I'm just not sure I like the idea that my final outcome is like playing Russian roulette. I could pass or fail based on points randomly given or not given. In the end, the person next to me could, in effect, pass to the next semester and I could fail when this person actually earned lower grades than me. Sorry for sounding like I am whining.

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

you don't sound whiney at all to me, I happen to agree with you 100%!

Unfortunately, our opinions matter not.

:)

[moongirl]

happens for me too. I want an extra credit point for getting it rigth in the first place! or half a point, sumptin! It truly is not fair

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

I can understand throwing out bad questions that over 75-85% of the class missed, but to do it randomly makes no sense.

[Megsd, BSN, RN]

I can understand throwing out bad questions that over 75-85% of the class missed, but to do it randomly makes no sense.

Yeah, my profs will throw out questions most people missed, but the same rule applies... your grade stays the same if you got it right to begin with. I don't understand why they would throw out questions randomly.

[rll28]

At least your teachers are giving points. We have 50 students in the class and every test average has been below or slightly above (but not by much) the minimum passing grade (which is an 80 C) and our teacher hasnt given us squat. And plus to get an A in the class you have to average a 92 not a 90 and a B is 85-91. Cant do anything about it so I will take my B and click my heels and go on.