Is There A Reason Instructors Do This?

Specialties Educators

Published

I've noticed a pattern since I've been in nursing school ... and it's happened with more than one instructor.

They go out of their way to tell you that something will be on the test and, then, it isn't. Or they'll say you don't need to know something and it shows up on the test. Apparently this is pretty common at other schools, at least according to other posts I've read on this board.

Is there a reason for this? Or, do instructors just want students to fail?

I'm really curious about this from an instructor perspective because, I've noticed a pattern of this with nursing school that I've never seen anywhere else. Usually instructors communicate what they expect of you but ... nursing school instructors often don't do this. In some cases they actually mislead you on what they expect.

It's gotten to the point that I don't trust anything instructors say. I'm just trying to figure out why is this happening.

:confused:

We have been told we are responsible for material (and may be tested on material) presented in class, in texts, from prereq classes, other classes and all other pertinant information. That about covers it :) .

Certainly cuts down on that annoying question of "Will that be on the test?"

SJ

We have been told we are responsible for material (and may be tested on material) presented in class, in texts, from prereq classes, other classes and all other pertinant information. That about covers it :) .

Certainly cuts down on that annoying question of "Will that be on the test?"

SJ

That's fine ... if that's deal. But that's not how it works. They'll be in the middle of lecture and go out of their way to say ... you don't need to know this part for the test ... totally unsolicited BTW. Then it shows up on the test.

And the purpose of this is what? Is there something different in nursing education where this is standard procedure?

:confused:

Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

It has been my experience that instructors who do this are very harried and disorganized. They make the statement in class and then later forget that they said it. It is not intentional. Also, most instructors use test banks. If they don't choose their questions before lecture (which I would advise), then it is easy to "slip up" and choose a question later that covers material that they said would not be tested. JMHO, but hope this helps....

It has been my experience that instructors who do this are very harried and disorganized. They make the statement in class and then later forget that they said it. It is not intentional. Also, most instructors use test banks. If they don't choose their questions before lecture (which I would advise), then it is easy to "slip up" and choose a question later that covers material that they said would not be tested. JMHO, but hope this helps....

Actually it does. Thanks. I notice that a lot of my instructors are disorganized in general. It just never occurred to me that they would be disorganized with test questions ... but that actually makes sense.

Seems like more instructors are disorganized than not, unfortunately.

:rolleyes:

Seems like more instructors are disorganized than not, unfortunately.

:rolleyes:

I had one teacher who was super-organized for my peds class - her outlines followed the chapter content she wanted us to know, and for each test question she put on the test, she had a page # from the book that had that information. So if someone had a question after the test, she could just say, please refer to page # so-and-so, if you have any more questions come to my office and we will discuss it. It made test reviews much less stressful for all of us!

Specializes in Ultrasound guided peripheral IV's..

The ones that get me are the teachers who make up there own questions, and THEY answer it wrong! When I was in school, there was one final that had at least 5 questions that were either worded wrong or had answers that the teacher said were correct, but were proven wrong by the students! After that she would not even discuss any of the other questions we had on that final. Go Figure!

Dan

Of course we want students to fail. That way we will be out of jobs soon.

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