How horrible

futureRN07 · Dec 15, 2005

I don't understand how such a high amount of people could fail out the first semester. I just finished my second semester in a BSN program and so far only one person has failed out. I agree that it is very hard and takes a lot of study time but I don't think it is that much more difficult than A&P or chemistry. Do you have to have a 3.5-4.0 gpa to get into your program or is it a lottery system? I've heard that schools that admit people through a lottery system have a high failure rate.

NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN · Dec 15, 2005

No it actually goes by GPA. I don't know why so many people have failed, but I know one girl have saved up for 3 years to go to nursing school and she failed also.

SNKerri · Dec 15, 2005

We are a BSN program that goes by GPA for admission and we have a fail rate of about 5-10 per semester so we will start with about 70 people and end with b/w 40-50 at the end of our 2 year clinical portion. I have no idea how many we loose to pre-reqs but I bet its even more. The reason alot of people fail our program is becuase often times one test will be worth 30-40% of your grade and if you dont do well it is difficult to redeem. We find out our grades on christmas eve so I hope noone failed this semester, what an awful day to find out on. :uhoh3:

BrieRN07 · Dec 15, 2005

We just found our final grades from the first smester ADN nursing. There were almost 30 people that have failed the semester! There were 120 of us in August. 12 people dropped out during the semester before the final. There were "only" 108 taking the final. It was so hard. I luckily ended up with a B, but one of my best friends did not make it . She even quit her job, so she can concentrate on nursing school. I feel so sorry for her. She called me sounding very said and told me that she failed and she is afraid to tell her mom. I feel so bad for her, because I know how much she wanted to do this. Did anyone else loose friends because they did not pass?

The same thing happened to a good friend of mine, but she wasn't kicked out of the program, she just had to repeat that semester. Is it like that at your school?

NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN · Dec 15, 2005

In my program you have to wait another year if you decide to go back to the program. We only have once a year admissions. The lowest you can make to pass is 74.6 and my friend has made 73.6. Many students were depending on the final to pass the semester or not to pass it. Unfortunatelly the final was our hardest exam.

Goldenhare · Dec 15, 2005

"Did anyone else loose friends because they did not pass?"

In the 2 years after prerequisites and before graduation (May 2005), we lost just 35% of our class. Passing was (and is) 80%. ADN program. Continued good luck to you! But I am sorry for your friends!

Momto3andNurse2B · Dec 15, 2005

I can certainly identify with you on this one. I just finished the first semester of an ADN program where we do 2 classes per semester (8 weeks each). My CC has 3 campuses, and the one I attend is notoriously difficult. My class started with 42 people, and by the final exam for Fundamentals I, there were 29 people taking the final...12 passed. Now, at the end of Fundamentals II, we are down to 10. Needless to say, there are quite a few in that number who will be missed terribly by me.

I know these numbers sound horrible, and I know that there were those in my class who worked their behinds off and still didn't pass, but I also think that the ones who complained the loudest about it being too hard or that we weren't being taught the material like we should have were the ones who didn't do the work and expected to pass anyway. I hope they all realize what they have to do and make it through when they start over in January.

As for me, I finished the semester today, and now it's on to Med/Surg - GI/GU and Psych next semester.

nurse4theplanet, RN · Dec 15, 2005

I lost one friend the first semester....and two this past semester.....but they are not 'truly lost' because they will always be my friends, nurses or not.

Neither were allowed to repeat because supposedly there was no room but the first friend went on into an LPN program offered by our college and is doing fantastic, my other two friends are still waiting to find out if they have a slot or not to repeat.

We started with 70 that turned into 30 the first semester. We picked up about 10 repeaters the second semester from the class ahead of us. We have a very high drop out rate, but a very high NCLEX first time pass rate

1Tulip · Dec 15, 2005

I graduated 35 (sheesh) years ago. Even then attrition was very high. About a third to a half of students didn't go the distance. The same was true in the three diploma programs in town.

'Twas ever thus. 'Twill ever be.

CRNAhopefulguy · Dec 15, 2005

dang, i feel ya here. i for one was in the program, failed a pre-req and didn't continue on and had to wait a yr to get in. did get in and my class is small, theres only like 60 students and ones dropped without a word of why, got up and left. our school has a lot of pre-req which require 18 credits a semester to do it in 2 and theres a high high amount of people on the 5 yr program. the pre-reqs are there to weed out the ones who are commited and the ones on the fence. you have really work your butt off in order to pass some of them. the one i didn't pass there was a 50% pass percent in that class. It made or breaked u. The exams however in nursing so far are quite hard, average test grades around 80-85 and the final average was a 75. i even stopped working for a few weeks, focused only on studying and still failed, tells u how hard the tests can be.

edit: oh i didn pass the class, just not the final.

pa*rn · Dec 15, 2005

I know what you are saying.....we had 35 in our original class 2 years ago and of the 24 graduating, only 17 of us are from the original 35...the other 7 are people who have joined the class since the first semester (LPN's...students from other programs) BUT....on the other hand, the program has a 100% first time pass rate on NCLEX.