Did you get a studyguide for the final?

Nursing Students General Students

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Fellow sufferers,

I was suprised to discover that the final, which is comprehensive covering 25 classes over 4 months, has no study guide. I've never taken a class before that had this policy. I think it's ridiculous, but that's pretty much what I thought of the rest of the course. They seem to have sort of made it up as they went along, so I don't think they really considered whether they would need one.

The final won't affect my grade anyway, in fact I'm considering not continuing with nursing at all and concentrating on a medical field, but still I think this is odd to expect students to review 25 classes without knowing what to concentrate on.

I wonder if this isn't a symptom of a program that's outside the norm. Maybe the reason I hate the curicculum so much in nursing is because these are not normal classes.

These sure aren't normal guidelines.

How's your final structured?

No study guide here either... Test covers our whole Maternity textbook, about 1500pgs..

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My final is tomorrow. I was feeling sorry for myself until I read the previous posts. We didn't get a study guide, either, but at least our final isn't comprehensive. We have four tests each semester; each test covers only the material since the last test (which is still a lot--many, many chapters of brain-numbing material).

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No Peeps, no study guide here either. How much is your final worth. Ours is a 100 questions, and worth only 20 pts, so I am not sweating it. Besides, our finals tend to be somewhat simplified....What are you covering in your fundamentals. I have been reading your posts and I can definitely "sense" that you are unhappy at your particular school. If it is any consolation, my first quarter sucked. I couldn't wait to get to the real nursing stuff. Good luck, it sounds as if you will do well.

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All,

Thanks for your responses.

Try to read to the end, I think I make a point.

It does appear as if this is "normal" for nursing classes to not give any guidelines for study. That would explain the incredulous looks I got from the instructors I asked.:devil: It makes me feel that I can never really become a professional in this field.

The various ways that the different programs deliver on the words "comprehensive final" is interesting isn't it?

My school's final is 100 questions over 25 classes of material in a four month span. During this four month span we have had 5 other exams on those 25 classes. One of the exams was a drug calculations test that didn't count towards the GPA but is still part of one of our classes and is "fair game" in the rules of a comprehensive.

I think I'd rather be taking the exam rather than trying to write a fair one over so much material, wouldn't you? Whether it's the instructors going crazy trying to write a fair exam, or the students trying to study everything that was ever written about nursing for a critical test, it is an example of nursing's sadist/masochist synergistic relationships that I have observed.

Nurses are born to suffer the burdens of others and be taught to take pride in doing so, as if it's supposed to be pleasurable. They take abuse from everyone along the timeline of thier careers, and as a general rule are completely powerless to fend off this abuse (masochistic).

Nurses are also born to administer the "rites of passage" to all that would deem themselves worthy of such a masochistic dreamland. Educators are encouraged by this to write theories without scientific merit and shove them down the throats of scientific-minded individuals until they are "cured". The educators write test questions that Mensa members couldn't figure out with an open-book test:rolleyes: and then chastise the students for missing thier "logic". More of the same treatment out on the patient floors where nurses will eat thier young in the same way, giving them an impossible task, and hovering over them waiting for the most vulnerable moment to tear thier flesh down to the soul.:devil: (sadistic)...............and justify it in the same order as the schools do..................."important to know" they'll say.

It will never end. Both the giver and reciever have an emotional need for the other (synergistic).

I think nursing is different than other professions in that the "rites of passage" end in other professions as you are engaged in the process of learning the core material. For med students, once they complete residency, they are completely unreproachable even by thier peers, but even completing intership does away with most of the hazing of med school. In respiratory therapy, the same holds true. The rite of passage ended during my first clinical rotation, where I was doing the job that the pros were doing. The tests were not complicated with the theory/philosophy mumbo-jumbo. There was no other intent but to give you the tools of a professional RT and to call you one among them.

In nursing the sadists need the masochists to punish as much as the masochists need the sadists to punish them. There can be no professionals in this field that can rise above the cycle of life that supports it. The rites of passage can never be complete.

I think this is the reason for not having an outline for a comprehensive final.............which I have received in every other class I've ever taken that was not a nursing class. The simplistic concepts they take to the extreme are an example of sadistic behavior. Testing our "knowledge" of abstract concepts over such a time period with a typicaly vague guideline of "study everything" is certainly unreasonable. The goal then, cannot be to educate, but to condition as a master would to thier slave.

I don't see myself being part of the whole sadist/masochist life cycle. I don't buy into much of what the theorists or holistic philosophers are saying. I don't think like a nurse......apparently. I just don't enjoy learning this. I've had the material laid out on my desk for three days, but I can't seem to retain it.

This is coming from a guy that learned ACLS, and passed it, in three days. I learned rythms by visualization and the algorythms made perfect logical sense after you understood the mechanisms and the pharmacokinetics of the drugs.

Why can't nursing be that crystal clear?

It would not feed the cycle of life that sustains it, that's why.

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Glad to get that off my chest.

I think I've finally clarified what's been bothering me about it.

Phew!

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I just wanted to say that I knew that we would NEVER get a study guide for the final, but after reading all these posts, I asked the lecture professor "why" there was no study guide for the final in nursing and very bluntly I was told, "DO YOU THINK THAT THEY WILL GIVE YOU A STUDY GUIDE WHEN YOU GO INTO THE NCLEX EXAM???????"

much laughter from the class, and 2 very well meaning ladies leaned over to informed me that at least all our exams are "like" the nclex!"

'tis better to keep mouth shut.........

Gator

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Typical sadits comment. Probably handed down from generations of sadits instructors.

And like good masochists, you all probably thought you got what you deserved.

Did the instructor have one of those little whips too? Or did they just use mace at your school?

:chuckle

Geeze, what an a-hole.:devil:

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What's a study guide? I have an Intermediate final tomorrow that is based on the two volume Lewis Med-Surg books and my maternal nursing book, which is about 2000 pages. I'm leaving now. If you don't hear from me tomorrow night, assume that one of the books has fallen on me and is either a) pinching off my trachea or b) punctured my spleen. Good luck to you all. If you see me here later today, waffen031.gifme!!!

Kristy

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Finished my finals up yesterday :D . No study guides were available at all nor were there any reviews by instructors. My friends and I spent 8 hours going over things for med/surg the night before.:eek:

Of course this didn't do any good at all because the exam, while it was "NCLEX" style, had absolutely nothing to do with what was lectured. When approached the instructor simply stated that if it was in the chapters we covered we were "expected to know it". This would have been fine except that our normal 12 week course was squished into 7 weeks because our class was so big they split us up.

So, needless to say, when I took the exam I felt like I hadn't even attended any classes at all. I went into the final with a B and if I pass (the final is worth 30% of the grade) I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I've heard of weeding out, but this is ridiculous!!:(

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Well,

The final is over. I think I did very well, and I don't think I would have had to study at all. It wasn't as vague as the other tests............but ya' know......:idea: It was easy..........:o ...........too easy.......much too easy...........oh my gawwwwd!:eek:

:chuckle

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Ah, Kristy! Love that smiley.

As for the study guide..................ha ha ha ha a hahahahahahah

me neither

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Specializes in Perinatal/neonatal.

Well Well...I did OK! We did end up getting a review sheet and it helped a lot since we were covering so many topics on the final...I made a grade that I can live with and I'm glad to put it behind me. I hope you all do well on your exams! Keep the faith and stay motivated!

~Angie

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