Failed my first exam...in Pharmacology <long>

[justme1972]

Last semester in Pharmacology I, we were given 6 exams and no final.

Each exam had 25 questions, we had a review, read the assignments (which were small reading assignments), I got 23 or a 24 on each test.

This semester, they decided to change everything.

Now, they decided that that would have 2 exams and a final...yeah, I flipped out over that too.

They told us they were not going to have a review anymore...but would give us PPP, and set us up on a WebTutor, through the publisher, on Blackboard...the WebTutor was only set up a week before the exam.

Originally, we were supposed to be able to take the exam anytime we wanted to in the testing room as the exams were automated and not everyone would get the same exam......that would have been anytime Monday through Friday.

This past Monday, we had a major exam over Labor and Delivery..this was the Monday AFTER we had clinicals on Thurs through Sunday...12 hours each shift....THEN on Monday after our exam, we were informed with LESS than a 48-hour notice, that we would not have the rest of the week to prepare, but would have to take a written version of the exam at 9:00 am on Wednesday....oh yeah!

This was over 4 chapters.

Hardly anything I studied was on the exam...and when I reviewed the exam with my professor after the test, things that appeared on it were very obscure..like a single sentence at the bottom of a page that wasn't highlighted, boldfaced, NOTHING to indicate it was anything special, nor emphasized in the section we were reading...just some random fact that in my mind, wasn't even important.

I thought it was just me until I asked around...there were 30 questions on the exam...you had to get 24 right to pass.

I missed 8.

Just about everyone I talked to missed either 8 or 10...I only talked to 2 that passed, and both of them still missed 5 questions.

They do an analysis on the exam and average grade....there is no doubt in my mind that the average grade will be below failing.

I can't believe they changed the program this drastically....we had an astronomical amount of reading to do...and the exam wasn't even on the main points, it was random, almost trivia-like questions...like "Where does the hormone Oxytocin is produced"...which is in the anterior pituitary I think....but who the hell cares?

That isn't anything an RN can change!...I studied the adverse reactions, how to monitor it, how to assess it, what all it's used for, what to do if you have an oxytocin overload...how you correct it, what all can happen if you don't, I could have wrote an essay on it....you think a SINGLE question about any of that was on there?

HECK NO!!!!!

Does anyone get the feeling that they WANT us to fail?

[goodstudentnowRN]

I want to believe that some Instructors feel very important when they try to fail students. I know there is nothing to gain from this ego but they do it anyway. Some of my friends who have been through the same crap eventually see these instructors as educated fools who are trying to prove a point. Most times they have very low selfesteem and do these things to feel better about themselves. Do not say a word to that teacher because you might be sorry, just go with the tide and study harder. I can feel your pain dear.

[justme1972]

I try to be very, very honest with myself when reviewing how I did on an exam.

If I had another month to study, I would have got the same grade.

I asked my teacher, "What can I do differently to remember things like that....out of 100+ pages of reading...something that didn't seem important when I read it...how do you know it is if the chapter/section doesn't emphasize it?"

Her skilled answer? "I don't know what to tell you".

Oh yeah...that helped ALOT!

[Shenanigans, RN]

For some strange reason, we have a "fail quota" at our school. Essentially, they have to fail a portion of students so it doesn't look like its too easy.

I've been on the recieving end of this quota, as one assignment I failed by one mark, and I saw on my assignment that I'd been picked up for several spelling errors and the page number was in the wrong place. However, other students in my class had the same spelling quirks and their page numbers were way off being the right place, and we'd been marked by the same person?

How the heck does that work?