1/3 of class in danger of failing first semester

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Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

We are approaching our final exam and it seems as if a third of the class is in danger of not making it. Is that normal? The mean average for the class is 77 and passing is 73. Every exam seems to be a life or death struggle, the gnashing of teeth and hysterical crying is enough to make a sane person crazy (OK I am being a bit facetious). How are the rest of you doing? I must say this has been quite a journey thus far!!

Specializes in ED.

Yep! That is quite the norm from what I hear. We started our class with about 60 and lost 20 the first semester for a number of reasons including tests. Some didn't make it by only 1 point! It does get better though.

Yea...that's about the norm. :(

Specializes in Med-Surg.

We've only lost 15% of ours and from what I hear that's NOT the norm, so we consider ourselves blessed.

Specializes in IMC, ICU, Telemetry.

My group lost 50% in the first semester. It was the worst attrition the program has had. Personally I think it's because the pre-reqs didn't do enough to prepare for the challenge of NS - it's a completely different style of learning and testing.

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry.
We are approaching our final exam and it seems as if a third of the class is in danger of not making it. Is that normal? The mean average for the class is 77 and passing is 73. Every exam seems to be a life or death struggle, the gnashing of teeth and hysterical crying is enough to make a sane person crazy (OK I am being a bit facetious). How are the rest of you doing? I must say this has been quite a journey thus far!!

Everything you describe sounds normal, with the exception of the 73% you need. My school requires a 77% pass rate (just recently upped to 80% with the new changes in the NCLEX for the incoming sophomores and all subsequent semesters). It seems that every final exams week for us is the same thing - students sitting there freaking out because they need to get a __% in order to make it through. It stinks, but all you can do is your best (cliche, I know, but true!) Hope you make it!!!

Specializes in Rural Health.

OMG, I think you might just be talking about my school...LOL....only we have to have an 82% to pass.

We've lost a couple due to grades early on the semester (we had a 10 week class) and we have a few more that will be gone after finals next week with the remaining classes. We are even going to loose 1 or 2 because of gen. ed. class that they are failing and it has to be taken by fall semester (and it's not offered in the summer). We've also had 3 not register for fall because "they've had enough". So out of a class of 50, we'll probably end up with about 15 not coming back next year.

They say it's normal......

Specializes in L & D.

I should know better than to read these threads!! I'm starting nursing school in the fall, and I'm scared to death..... I recently met someone who's in the program now, and her only advice was to let go of any need to get A's since it is very rare in the program.

Beth

Specializes in L&D.

This has never been the norm in my school. I feel we had great instructors that did everything they could to pass us all. We graduated with 70 students this semester which mean everyone passed. Some people had to take a semester off here and there due to personal reasons, some had to take a semester over, but we all eventually made it. It pains me to hear how some schools weed out students.

Specializes in L&D.
My group lost 50% in the first semester. It was the worst attrition the program has had. Personally I think it's because the pre-reqs didn't do enough to prepare for the challenge of NS - it's a completely different style of learning and testing.

I think this might be one of the reasons my school has such a high attrition rate. We go through at least 5 full-time semesters before we can even apply to our nursing college. Anatomy, Mico, Patho etc has to be taken before getting in. So, by the time we got in we already knew so much and were good at test taking. Although, of course as you said, the tests are different then science courses etc.

We lost quite a few of our students the first semester, some just didn't feel that it was the right career choice for themselves, others were too overwelmed with the information. When we got into second semester it was like the transition from preschool straight to high school, not to mention going from a nice, caring instructor to a drill sergent from h@ll! We lost a few students the first week of 2nd semester just because our instructor was too scary :crying2:

But now that I look back, I am thankful that I have made it this far!! And, yes, if I absolutley had to, I'd do it all over again.

Our passing grade is a 78 and our class average right now is a 75 :stone and I'm in 3rd semester of an ADN program...

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