A Little Whiny

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 11, 2014

First of all, I doubt most employers will care one whit what your GPA was in nursing school. Grad schools will care, but the GPA you need is dependent upon their admissions criteria and how competitive it is to get in to their program. So, kick yourself in the pants for bombing a test, but not too hard. If you meet with your instructor and know where you went wrong and, more importantly, WHY you had the question wrong, then you're going to be OK going forward.

I bombed my 3rd Med-Surg test and I was furious with myself for doing so poorly. I'm a 4.0 student and I was stunned. After meeting with my instructor, I realized where I went wrong when answering the questions. I assumed I could only choose an answer if the question stated I had a doctor's order. She wanted us to answer as if it was understood we had doctor's orders for all scenarios. At first, I was thinking "that's not fair!!!", however, I had the opportunity to ask her during the exam and I didn't. I should have asked. What would I do in the REAL world if a situation like that occurred? I'd ask. So, to get mad at her wasn't fair. The blame lied solely with me. I ended up missing a 4.0 in that class by 0.3. Oooh, did that sting! (Dang no-rounding policy!) But, I learned a valuable lesson. I will never again ASSUME anything without asking for clarification.

Do your best the rest of the semester and make your grade the best it can be. When all is said and done, getting a 3.5 instead of a 4.0 dropped my overall GPA by 0.04, so it wasn't that big of an issue. I now have a 3.96 GPA instead of 4.0, but I'm no longer going to fret over it. I want to go to either PA or NP school when I'm done with my BSN and the programs I want to get in to have a 3.0 minimum GPA requirement, but the average accepted applicant has a 3.6 or higher.

All is not lost. Give your pants a break from the kicking

Stacilator · Apr 12, 2014

Thank you thank you :) It aways helps just to have words of encouragement. Next time I will be taking every second of alloted test time to double and triple check ever scantron bubble :)

Stacilator · Apr 12, 2014

It's kind of funny, too, SopranoKris, but this was my third Med Surg exam as well. ahh!

NuGuyNurse2b · Apr 14, 2014

I've been reading a lot on this board from current nurses in the field who say employers don't look at GPA's and I think there needs to be an updating. At my school, they posted positions for new grads at the hospital where we do clinicals - guess what the requirements are? Yup, unofficial transcript and at least 2 letters of recommendation from a faculty member. And we ain't getting the latter when we get a C in the class, even though that lowly C was earned with sweat and tears.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Apr 14, 2014

The difference between that A vs a B is one point spread across all your other course when they figure your average. For example, if you take a total of 10 courses, that will lower your average by 0.10, if it's 15 courses that will be a hit of 0.067 points.

Is that even worth worrying about?

Wave Watcher · Apr 16, 2014

I have never been asked what my GPA was in Nursing school from any of my employers. Thank goodness. I would have vomited and dismissed myself. :yes:

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 16, 2014

Unless the new grad programs in your area use grades as a screening tool, I wouldn't worry too much about grades unless you plan on applying to grad school. Those grad schools may only look back a certain number of units and calculate the GPA for weeding purposes from that, or they may consider the total of your education post high school.