Fair?

[RookieRoo]

I would like opinions please on what you think about a practice being enacted by a professor of mine. Basically, she is putting other professors'/classes material on her tests.

Example: last test, there was an ABG question on her test in which we had to interpret ABGs and pick the top priority patient. We had never gone over ABGs in her class, but had gotten halfway through learning them in our med surg class at the time of the test. However, we had only learned how to interpret them on a chalk board, and never interpreted them as applied to a patient before. In addition, we had not yet been tested on them in the med surg class in which we learned them. So, 100% of the class failed the ABG question and she ended up giving it back to us as an extra point, but said she believe it was a fair question and will be putting material from other classes on future exams as well.

In class this morning, she asked how far we had gotten in med surg and what we had covered because she was making her next test and wanted to know what to put on it. We told her what we had covered, but that we were mid-lecture on some things and had also not yet been tested out on them. She stated that she did not care and that if it had been lectured on, it was fair game.

Is this true? Can we really be tested on any material from any class in another class, regardless of whether it has ever been covered in that class? I do understand that in clinicals, we have to put information from all classes together and synthesize it cohesively in order to be able to comprehend the full clinical picture of your patient. However, I was under the understanding that in the classroom setting, the reason we take separate classes and learn material bit by bit is so that we can absorb an overwhelming amount of information bit by bit and learn how to put it together gradually... not all at once.

So, what do you all think? Fair or not fair?

[sterling4466]

Unfair

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

LOL I got half way through the post before I looked at who posted it. I see that she hasn't changed her ways. She did the same thing to my cohort. She needs to coordinate with the med/surg instructor and ask if it would be fair to ask questions on a certain topic.

Unfortunately, that class should be during the last semester (which it will for the next cohort). Once you get through this semester, you won't need to deal with her again. Have faith that the grades will improve as it gets closer to the final. Like I told you before, 75% of my class failed the first test, but most of us ended up with As and Bs by the final grade in that class. The same thing happened in the cohort before mine.

[RunBabyRN]

I agree, not cool.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

yeah, i'm usually on team 'suck it up," and I also do not usually think "fairness" is a good argument by itself, if that makes sense. But what the teacher is doing doesn't make sense from an academic standpoint. If I was teaching the other class, I'd be peeved that she was testing students on my material before I had a chance to do so!

[missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN]

Fair or unfair, you can't change the fact that it happened. You can bring it up to your professor and ask how you can better prepare for future exams. I think if you subtlety let her know that this was not something you had covered, perhaps it will change. Or it may not.

I would be upset as well.

[Reese2012]

I am in a similar situation. I am taking pharm and we are being tested on material that is not coming from our required book in the course. It even states in the syllabus that all prototypes will be tested from book material. Our school is looking into the matter because currently everyone is failing.

[elkpark]

What course is this professor teaching, and why doesn't she have enough content from her own course to construct the exams? I'm sure the faculty teaching the other courses feel that they are capable of testing the students on the content from their courses themselves, without any help from her.

On the other hand, the ability to synthesize and apply information is important in nursing, and I can think of plenty of situations in which there might (appropriately) be "overlap" of exam content among courses.

[RookieRoo]

What course is this professor teaching, and why doesn't she have enough content from her own course to construct the exams? I'm sure the faculty teaching the other courses feel that they are capable of testing the students on the content from their courses themselves, without any help from her.

On the other hand, the ability to synthesize and apply information is important in nursing, and I can think of plenty of situations in which there might (appropriately) be "overlap" of exam content among courses.

She teaches Leadership.

[elkpark]

What would interpreting ABGs have to do with nursing leadership, I wonder??