What's Testing Like At Your School?

lmolvr · Sep 18, 2004

how do your tests go in your nsg schools? we have a schedule of our tests for the whole semester. tests are only given on friday. it's great because we go for testing at 9am and are done by 11am. there are no classes or anything else on fridays. before the tests, we are given blueprints that outline what we really need to study and how many questions there are on each subject. usually our tests are 50 questions and they are all on scantrons. pharm is the only exception to the rule. in pharm we have to do dosage calculations for the whole year (no multiple choice questions on those calculations) and we usually have 100 questions. so, what's the testing experience like for you?

i am going for my lpn so i'm a little different. all of our test are also scantron....even in pharmacology, but of course we still need to do the calculation to choose the right answer. tests are on varying days... i have two classes and two clinicals this semester...the tests in our classes are given the day we have that class, no rhyme or reason, but we know what days thes tests are for the entire semester. our skill tests outs, are of course demonstration based.

grading scale: 94-100 a

87-93 b

80-86 c

anything below an 80 is failing.

lmo

fnimat1 · Sep 18, 2004

All of our tests this semester are on a Wednesday, during the tutorial portion of the course. I have my first nursing test this Wednesday....I am sooo nervous...mainly because I don't know what to expect. Our lecture professor did tell us that everything from Orientation Part 1(which started on July 7th), Orient. Part 2 & 3 (which were on Sept. 1st. & 2nd) and everything covered in Weeks 1 and 2...that includes everything learned in clinicals, laboratory, tutorial and lecture....she concluded by saying "Everything that touches us is fair game".... :uhoh3: I feel prepared......hopefully, I will be.

Fatima

Jill1215 · Sep 18, 2004

Our tests are scattered throughout the semester. There is no specific test day. I believe they are designed to get minimal A's in the class. Every class has tests that are only 25 questions each and in each class (except one where there are 5 tests) have only four tests. Each test is 25% of your final grade. 25 questions means you can only miss 2 questions per test to make an A. I would rather have more questions. Being asked 25 questions over 10 chapters is very hard, in my opinion.

How about everyone else? What happens when you test?

kathy_79 · Sep 18, 2004

at my schol, we are grading as following:

92-100% A

85-91% B

78-84% C

anything below 78 is failed. we have our tests on mon or tue. next week i have my first midterm so i am little nervous.

we have also schedule for whole semester, so we know what we up to and we are able to prepare advance.

godd luck to all of you, :)

All_Smiles_RN · Sep 18, 2004

We have a schedule of when all the tests will be and on what chapters they will cover. But keep in mind, all the tests are somewhat cummulative, so they can throw in questions from previous chapters. Ours are 50 question multiple choice. We have 8 of them this semester. For those of you who haven't taken a nursing test yet, they are different than a typical A&P test. They set up little scenarios and ask what would you do. At the end of each chapter in my textbook (Perry and Potter) they have a review section. The critical thinking review section seems pretty close to the actual testing style. Good luck to everyone.

...Jennifer...

arial143 · Sep 18, 2004

- naw...they aren't that bad. i'm in an RN, BSN program. we have small reading quizes and we have exams (sporadically- they are more of midterms with 100 questions) we have to pass our exams with an 80% or better. They are all multiple choice-NCLEX style. we have to maintain a 3.0 GPA.

We also do ATI testing. For those who don't know what this is...it is a standardized online proctored test that the entire class takes. it's divided by topics so this semester we have: OB, Peds, Community. They are actually pretty hard but they let you know what areas to focus on for the NCLEX. we have to pass this with an 80% or better too (so we keep taking it until we do), but its only worth 5% of our grade for that class. FUN FUN!!!

good luck with all your exams :)

NewEnglandRN, RN · Sep 18, 2004

At our program, we have 10 unit exams in the first semester:

50 questions, multiple choice
taken at the computer lab, no paper involved
all questions are taken from a "bank" of questions, so no two testers will have the exact questions in the same order
we do not have a certain test date. All tests are taken within a time frame after all lectures are finished. So if the unit is finished on 9/17, you have until October 1st to take the exam (completion date)
exams are worth 70% of our final grade, the final exam is worth 30%
the final is done on Scrantons and is 100 questions

I love having the ability to test when I am ready. The theory is that is makes us independent learners. No one can take a unit test until all lectures, research papers, etc are complete.

I also love being able to get my grade immediately after the test is done!

Nikki730 · Sep 19, 2004

Our lecture tests are in a testing center computer. We take them every 3 weeks or so, since there are 6 tests through the semester. There are 50 questions and we get grades immediately, & the teacher may later award points for questions that he determined were too confusing. We don't have to pass each test for the lecture class, but in the end the scores are averaged and the grading scale is this:

90%-100% A

83-89% B

77.5-82% C

We have check-offs for the skills labs which I find much more stressful than the lecture tests. I've survived vital signs & physical assessment so far, with medication administration & catherterization yet to come. :uhoh21:

danaRN2b · Sep 19, 2004

We have a Unit test every Wednesday morning, at 8 am. Each unit is taught by one of three different intructors, so the number of test questions changes from week to week. So far they've ranged anywhere from 50-80 questions. All of the unit tests are done on computer, so we get our score right away...I love that! We also usually do an abbreviations quiz and a math quiz on Wednesdays.

not now, RN · Sep 19, 2004

We have lecture every Monday & Tuesday. We test every Monday and Tuesday morning, first thing in the morning on what we learned the previous lecture day. Generally it's around 20-40 questions depending on the day, the instructor and content. We get a minute for each question, and when we finish we wait for our instructor to grade them (Scantron), then we go over the test. After all that, we pick up where we left off in lecture (our lecture days are six hours long).

Since we do modules we finish a class within eight lecture days. The final always lands on a Tuesday. We take our final, get a half hour break, go back to the classroom and start our next module.

lunakat · Sep 19, 2004

The only tests I have are the mid-term and final. The rest are all quizzes given every Thursday for the entire semester! It's a little stressful because I am always studying. The good thing is that all the quiz scores are averaged out at the end of the semester so I can mess up and fail several times and still pass with a good grade. The only thing I don't care for is that I don't know what my score is until the following Monday. I noticed after our quizzes we all congregate outside and compare our answers. I have learned not to do this anymore because everyone's answerers vary and they all have logical reasons as to why theirs might be the correct one. So I spend all weekend thinking I am a total idiot and come Monday I found out I hade been right all along. Other than that it's okay.... :rolleyes: