Instructor's throwing out exam questions

Nursing Students LPN/LVN Students

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Thought i should ask this since it's on my mind before i go back to studying. well, since i've been in school on almost every exam there are a few questions an instructor would throw out for various reasons like, majority of the class missed it, material wasn't covered, etc.. i don't think it's fair to students who got the thrown out questions right who studied and students who got it wrong b/c they didn't study the material more they are not penalized for it. i've never had this happen when i was in RN school, NEVER.

Is this sort of thing happening in your classes? how do you feel about it and should i be concerned?

Specializes in ICU, School Nurse, Med/Surg, Psych.

Throwing out a question for a valid reason, or any reason, should not penalize students. It shoudl benefit all the students if they got it right or not. Apparently your teacher is less skilled in math than she is in exam writing if your score is being lowered.

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.
Wow this just happened to me today. Last week I took an exam and got a 78 ( 75 is passing) and today we all got emails from our instructor that a couple of questions were credited. After the added points I got bumped up to an 80 ( B!). I'm very happy and pleased. The questions that I thought I got wrong were actually right. One question had two correct answers, so originally I was marked wrong for my correct answer. I do think this was fair. I just knew I was right about that particular question and to get it wrong really confused me. Now I know that I was right and I got credit for it !

So my point is : not all instructor are throwing out questions it just may happen that there were two answers that were right.

LOL! omg i thought my school was the only one who does this. just today on our pharm exam there were two questions where one was thrown out and the other had two right answers, so if you chose at least one of those you were ok. but, the other was thrown out bc most of the class including myself got it wrong. those who got it right she gave them an extra point.

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.
It also happens in my program and sometimes it is extreme. Last semester several students scored in the 50s on their cardiac exam and because the "grades were so horrible," the teacher threw out enough questions to make those students earn a B! And there I was, originally with a 94 on the exam, and only moved up to a 96.

It wasn't my fault those students failed to study ALL the material required to be successful. I'm so sick and tired of excuses in NS. There will be none - excuses - when we are dealing with life and death on the floor.

That is horrible for an instructor to throw that many questions out just bc alot of students scored very low. are they insane? those students who scored in the 50's should get what they deserve and that's an F! passing these students like that is not right and a very unsafe thing to do. one of my instructors just started giving us one extra point for questions that she would throw out.

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I am in a new role as an instructor in an LVN program. I love it! What I don't love is that the tests are pre-made and have not been updated in years. I am not "allowed" to alter the tests at all. What I have learned to do is make sure I cover all of the material that is on the test. If there is a question that is just a poorly written question or the answer that is "supposed" to be correct is actually wrong then I tell my students what answers to put. When I'm grading, if more than 50% of the students miss a question then I review that question. Did I cover the material? Was this info in the text or class outline? If I can find the info and/or did review this in class then I do not throw the question out. If I didn't cover the info and it can't be found in the text then I do throw it out. Then I give all of the students credit for those points. I hope this answers some of your questions to the rationale of throwing out questions. Good luck in school!

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.

In our program the instructors make their own exam questions with approval of the director over the nursing program. some of these exams we were told are pretty old and should be revised. they are finding out alot of things in some of these procedures that we do has changed. i've noticed that we are using some pretty outdated material for A&P and FON. the textbooks are more than 3yrs. old. it would be in the best interest of the students that these schools stay current with teaching material.

Good luck, and i really hope you, your students do well.

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Specializes in Rehabilitation; LTC; Med-Surg.
In our program the instructors make their own exam questions with approval of the director over the nursing program. some of these exams we were told are pretty old and should be revised. they are finding out alot of things in some of these procedures that we do has changed. i've noticed that we are using some pretty outdated material for A&P and FON. the textbooks are more than 3yrs. old. it would be in the best interest of the students that these schools stay current with teaching material.

Good luck, and i really hope you, your students do well.

Oh you think that's bad?

Second semester, OB. Text: 5 years old.

Clinical: doing patient teaching, doctor overhears, and says, "WHY WOULD YOU TELL YOUR PATIENT THAT?

".........................that's what I was taught. :\"

Sad face.

Self esteem: negative a million points.

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