A&P Test was a terrible nightmare

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Sep 28, 2005

First of all let me express to you how sorry I am about your situation. I know how stressful it feels so as a word of advice.....

It has been my personal experience so as a word of advice.........................when an instructor tells you that such and such will not be on the exam.......STUDY IT ANYWAYS!

Now you know how the instructor tests. You know the style etc.......if after emailing him you don't find a middle ground all I can suggest is to put this negative experience behind you and study hard for the lab exam.

Don't focus on how "terrible of a teacher he may be" rather take the challenge in give it your best. If you drop the course you will only set yourself back and must attempt it over again. More than likely you will have to pay for the course regardless so just stay and try your best to "absorb" everything you can so if you do end up taking it over it will be that much easier.

Best wishes to you. Go in with a positive attitude and give it another shot.

stpauligirl · Sep 28, 2005

First of all let me express to you how sorry I am about your situation. I know how stressful it feels so as a word of advice.....
It has been my personal experience so as a word of advice.........................when an instructor tells you that such and such will not be on the exam.......STUDY IT ANYWAYS!
Now you know how the instructor tests. You know the style etc.......if after emailing him you don't find a middle ground all I can suggest is to put this negative experience behind you and study hard for the lab exam.
Don't focus on how "terrible of a teacher he may be" rather take the challenge in give it your best. If you drop the course you will only set yourself back and must attempt it over again. More than likely you will have to pay for the course regardless so just stay and try your best to "absorb" everything you can so if you do end up taking it over it will be that much easier.
Best wishes to you. Go in with a positive attitude and give it another shot.

Thank you for your kind words. I will study for my labtest and give it my best. The thing with some of his questions are that even if I wanted to study for these things they are nowhere to be found in our textbook!!!! That's why I am so upset. Maybe I need a Masters or PHD degree in Chemistry and Biology to pass his course? In my opinion he is an unethical teacher, but I try to hang in there.

MikeyJ, RN · Sep 28, 2005

The problem with A&P is that there is so much information in a chapter, but yet you have no idea what the professor is going to test on. At my school we have two A&P sections with 2 different instuctors, and the classes are totally different because each instructor chooses to emphasize different subject matter.

The key to really kicking butt in A&P is to STUDY EVERYTHING and STUDY ALOT. I would read matieral every night, and if that is not possible then choose one day out of the week to sit down for 4 or 5 hours to sit and review everything you've gone over.

A&P isn't really that hard of a course. It just requires time on the studen't part. Lab is probably by far much easier then the lecture in my opinion. In Lab make sure you spent at least 5 hours a week on studying for it. I find it best to make outlines, and I ask my instructors what we will be tested on so I don't start studying stuff that won't be on my quiz.

Good luck to you and don't give up! :)

Micci · Sep 28, 2005

This just burns me up!!! Really, I feel for you. I am so sick of hearing about instructors who test unethically. Have they forgotten that we pay good money for these classes, many times going into debt, and that the outcome of these classes is our future. The point of a class is to learn, the point of a test is to see if the student has learned the required material. Tests are not supposed to be used to punish or subjugate a student. So far, I have not personally had an instructor who is an unethical tester. But I have known other students who have lost time and money by having to drop a class.

Personally, what I would do is stick the class out. Take a copy of your test to college personel and complain- the dean maybe. Point out that it is impossible for students to know material that neither the teacher nor the textbook teaches on and that you do not appreciate spending money on a course you were eager to learn and need for your degree, only to be toyed with by your professor.

Something that we often forget as students is that we are PAYING CUSTOMERS. We are not slaves to the educational system. It is not like when we were in high school and we were stuck in many ways. We are adults, we are paying adults who have options on where we can take our money. We are also paying them for a service, to teach us the information and skills we need to obtain a career. That is it. We are not there to play mind games or to have our money swindled by over egotistical professors. I think you should complain, but don't go alone, find a few other discouraged students who are ready to drop the class to go with you.

In fact, the way the nursing programs are set up are in some ways unethical, as many do not have the opportunity to finish out their degrees after putting their money into it and obtaining at least the minimum grade requirements.

One last thing, try finding your college on RateMyProfessor and that will give you an overview on professors before you sign up for a class. http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/index.jsp I try to overlook the people who are just mad because they wanted a good grade without alot of work, and look for the comments about how the professor gives out tests, assignments, extra credit and how they lecture..etc.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 28, 2005

Wow! Sounds like the instructor is a real #@%*! I had a chemistry professor once who had written the textbook that we used! He did the same kinds of things. Guess you're not going to be able to trust what this guy says.

Seriously, let an old student give you some ideas, here. Check the chapters in your textbook that the test was supposed to cover and see if a lot of the questions you missed actually did come from the information in them. Look at any tables and the captions on any of the illustrations too. See if you can sit and compare your classnotes with a couple of other students in the same class to see if you are all taking down the same information. Most instructors who know they give hard tests will very arrogantly drop little hints during their lectures about things they are going to test you on in the next exam, so listen closely for little snide remarks this guy might make about a subject he is talking about. If he makes a comment like, "students have a hard time understanding this" start thinking that it's probably going to be on a test because the only way he would know that students don't understand it is if he's tested on it. And, if you are serious about dropping this class, wait until the last possible date to withdraw without getting a grade, so you go through as much of the class as you can and experience taking the tests so you will know what will be on them. The next time you take the class, much of it will be repeated information which will be a big help and you will also know what this guy is going to be asking on his tests since many instructors don't change the questions on their tests that often.

A&P was made very hard in the school I went to as a way to weed out students from the nursing and respiratory therapy programs.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Sep 28, 2005

Thank you for your kind words. I will study for my labtest and give it my best. The thing with some of his questions are that even if I wanted to study for these things they are nowhere to be found in our textbook!!!! That's why I am so upset. Maybe I need a Masters or PHD degree in Chemistry and Biology to pass his course? In my opinion he is an unethical teacher, but I try to hang in there.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way about my professor this semester. Well she is an MD (retired) and swear she's setting us up for med school. It's like Hello?? let me learn this first......LOL!

Seriously though, I do think you did the correct thing in approaching the instructor. He needs to share the wealth and clue you all in as to where the heck he is getting his questions from.

Best wishes to you and let us know what he says. :balloons:

stpauligirl · Sep 28, 2005

The problem with A&P is that there is so much information in a chapter, but yet you have no idea what the professor is going to test on. At my school we have two A&P sections with 2 different instuctors, and the classes are totally different because each instructor chooses to emphasize different subject matter.
The key to really kicking butt in A&P is to STUDY EVERYTHING and STUDY ALOT. I would read matieral every night, and if that is not possible then choose one day out of the week to sit down for 4 or 5 hours to sit and review everything you've gone over.
A&P isn't really that hard of a course. It just requires time on the studen't part. Lab is probably by far much easier then the lecture in my opinion. In Lab make sure you spent at least 5 hours a week on studying for it. I find it best to make outlines, and I ask my instructors what we will be tested on so I don't start studying stuff that won't be on my quiz.
Good luck to you and don't give up! :)

The probalem is with him that he takes things out of the scope of the covered material on his tests, he doesnt stick to what is in the chapters but takes things from god knows where....how can anyone prepare for that? It's like out of a sudden you are confronted with the question "How do you build an atomic bomb" and then gives you 5 different choices written in Chinese. I am soooooo frustrated.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2005

Can you figure out where any of his odd ball questions on the test came from? Lecture, textbook, some other source he might have off-handedly mentioned?

Your last post brought back a memory of my physiology instructor (he was a different one from the anatomy one) I had. He was such an interesting, charming person. One day we got him talking about something of interest that had nothing to do with physiology. We must have spent at least half the class time on it. He actually put a couple of questions about the subject on our next test! He told us they were kind of like bonus points for the people who had shown up for class that particular day because those who had skipped class had no clue as to what the questions meant! He was just a cool dude.

Race Mom, ASN, RN · Sep 29, 2005

If you want to be able to back up an argument that he said he wouldn't test on such and such, make sure to include that in your notes. Preferably right in the text you're writing. Then highlight it so you can find it easier. Ask someone else in your class to do the same thing, so that you have back up. If you write it, as though it is material, then it wouln't look as though you added it later. We will not be tested on osmosis. Then I would go back to him after the test, and ask him why he tested on something he told us we didn't need to study. Maybe he will at least stop bluffing.

** I just added the osmosis thing in there to show how there would be no way of adding that in the middle of your notes, so he needs to explain his reasoning.**

If I made no sense, it's because I'm on my 2nd Miller Lite. Had 2 tests today. Micro lab and Micro lecture.

Lisa

stpauligirl · Sep 30, 2005

If you want to be able to back up an argument that he said he wouldn't test on such and such, make sure to include that in your notes. Preferably right in the text you're writing. Then highlight it so you can find it easier. Ask someone else in your class to do the same thing, so that you have back up. If you write it, as though it is material, then it wouln't look as though you added it later. We will not be tested on osmosis. Then I would go back to him after the test, and ask him why he tested on something he told us we didn't need to study. Maybe he will at least stop bluffing.
** I just added the osmosis thing in there to show how there would be no way of adding that in the middle of your notes, so he needs to explain his reasoning.**
If I made no sense, it's because I'm on my 2nd Miller Lite. Had 2 tests today. Micro lab and Micro lecture.
Lisa

Thank you for the GREAT idea! Now that I also survived his insanely difficult lab test(BTW I made an 85 on his lecture test, highest score) I should have a couple of stpauligirl beers also....Micro is still ahead of me....how hard is it? Does it help that I already took Chem?

Have a wonderful weekend and "Prost" :beer:

Race Mom, ASN, RN · Sep 30, 2005

I don't know if chem helps. They cover some basic chem/biology stuff in chapter 2 (most books) but my prof (and many others) skip the whole chapter. My best advice to you is to ask others who they took for micro, and the ones that say "take his/her class!" are the ones you should take. That's how I found my professor, and he is awsome. Lets us know what to REALLY study for the test, gives us old tests as a study guide, talks to us like we have no clue about microbiology (which we don't and that is the way they should teach!!!!!!). I actually enjoy the class and don't have to study too much. I've done well in all my classes, but have really had to work for the A. Not so much with this one, but we just started, so that could change on Monday!

Good luck!

Lisa