Welp... failed THAT test....

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Critical care.

Sooo I broke my A streak today, and what a fall from grace it was. Allllll the way down, down, doooooown to a big, fat, D!!! Holy CRAP.

I was in shock when I clicked submit and it popped up with 34/50. Complete shock! I worked with a partner on the test and she was in shock too- we had no idea we'd done that badly.

I have a former bachelor's degree (graduated cum laude!) under my belt. I studied. I read. I looked at my ATI books. I understood the concepts! I got an A on the last test in that class, have made straight A's so far in nursing school, and I have never gotten worse than a C in my life.

But, this test was completely different. It seemed like she was looking for tiny random details, rather than general concepts. Last time she used material from lectures and some from the review questions in the book, NCLEX book, and ATI. I studied those along with the book- but this test was completely, 110% different. Different style, different question types... like night and day. Pretty cruddy.

Anyways. The good news is that I am FAR from the only person to have failed. Almost our entire class did- including the people who normally make A's and set the bar. And, there were at least a few questions where I am confident I picked the right answer, but they were marked wrong at the end. Several others had the same concern so she said she is looking into it. I also have heard from more than one source that the cohort before mine consistently failed every single one of her tests, all the way up until the final when they miraculously passed. So, maybe that's just the way this professor rolls? Doesn't seem right. :-/

Overall, not a good feeling to fail a test completely out of the blue! First and hopefully LAST time ever! All I can do is hope she gives back a few questions, and keep on studying hard as I can!

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Sorry about the grade, but you seem to have a good attitude about it. And maybe (just maybe) the instructor will take a look at the exam and adjust wording, answer choices, etc. This was just ONE exam, and like you said "hopefully last" bad grade.:cheeky:

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

I would make an appointment to review the exam with her. If some questions were legitimately marked wrong by the system, it'll easily be seen by you both simultaneously. If you got them wrong, you can her her rationales for the answers so you have a better idea how to proceed.

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1) Nursing school is pretty different than most majors, don't be surprised if your A journey ends here.

2)She decided to give you a different style test and I see nothing wrong with that. Kuddos to her for challenging you and measuring your understanding from different angles.

3) Number one thing I've learned about nursing is....adaptation.

4) You admit you'll study as hard as you possibly can and Kuddos to that! I was so relived to see that. I admittedly assumed this was gonna be "my nursing professor hates me because I'm pretty and she's an old bat thread". Lollol

Good attitude! Good outlook! Be easier on yourself, learn to go with the flow ~~~~~ =)

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I can sooo relate. My waterloo was a linear models (advanced stats) doctoral class - characterized by previous students with the phrase "if you are failing in the top 10%, you'll be OK" Sheesh.

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I have failed one test since starting nursing school, best thing to do is keep a positive attitude about it and keep studying for your next test! Stressing about it will only make it worse. I had to learn the hard way. It gets better, trust me! :)

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

did the instructor use a test bank or create his/her own questions? If the questions were not evaluated for validity and reliability, then I would request they be evaluated at this point. At the very least, ask the instructor to give you feedback.

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Specializes in Critical care.

Thanks you guys!

We have not yet discussed the test in class because we haven't had that class again since, but she did evaluate her test and give back certain questions, depending on how you answered the test in the first place. A few classmates got 12 points back... I ended up getting 9 back, and I am soooooo thankful. One, I am grateful that I now got a B on that test and not a D (whew!!!!), and two I am thankful that she was willing to review her test and to adjust accordingly.

Onwards!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Just want to throw in real quick.... I can also remember the shock of my first low test grade. It can knock our worldview out of whack for a little and maybe in my case a jolt of humility could be added to that. You sound like you have a great attitude. Yes, onward!

Best wishes to you.

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Specializes in None yet..

I'm bracing myself for my first fall from grace in nursing school. I'm in a tough program and it's not reasonable to think I'm going to cruise along with my 4.0 GPA. It just doesn't happen here... but it's hard to admit it's over 'til it's over.

Thanks for showing me how to accept the realities of nursing school with grace, grit and determination to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Hope you post what your instructor says after you meet with her... and that it WAS a computer glitch that put you in the ditch. But even if it wasn't, don't let any number stop you from passing the NCLEX and being a nurse.

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Wait? Yall get Ds... man.... 80 is the lowest C we can get, after that...fail. I got my first C "EVER" on the second nursing exam I took. Hopefully, it doesn't kill your average. Doesn't sound like it will.

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Sorry to hear that you failed a test; however, I am happy with how you are handling it. I had a very similar thing happy to me my junior year of Radiology school. The test was unlike any other test we had from this teacher and majority of the class failed. We did question the teacher about the outline and even some of the information in the test did not seem to coincide with the chapter it covered. It took him about 2 weeks to give us an explanation. He said he did not know why we did so poorly and decided to 'grade on the curve' for that test. So, it changed my 'F' to a 'B'. I can't say that you should expect your teacher to do this, but I say it wouldn't hurt to ask for some insight from your teacher on how to make sure this doesn't ever happen again.

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