If 50% of the class failed an exam..Was it because the instructor failed to teach?

RNin2007 · Oct 25, 2005

I went through the same thing the semester before I started nursing school (which was spring semester of '05...NS started in june). It was microbiology...and my teacher was very young too and brand new to the school. It was the worst semester of my life. I have a very high GPA and have never failed a test in my life. I got a 67% on the first test, and the class average was 62% (only 3 tests for the whole class grade, so it made us all sweat). She was next to impossible to reason with, and I was so afraid I wouldn't pass the class (without it, I could NOT get into NS). I had nightmares about 5 nights a week...I still to this day get a stomach ache thinking about that whole term! I did nothing but study, study, study because I was determined not to let this woman ruin my future. I knew that book inside out and upside down and she couldn't stop me. Her tests were hell...she did NOT prepare us for them. I was so sick of studying micro I coulda puked out my ears...lol. And my house was pretty much a mess.

You can and WILL beat her! You did the right thing by going to the director (I did the same thing...head of science dept) and filed a formal complaint on behalf of many students in our class. Let your voice be heard...be very calm and rational when approaching her superiors...they really don't like it when you appear to be "attacking" them. The calmer you are, the further you will get. I ate up every minute of that instructor's office hour every week and met with her supervisor over 5x that term.

Just to share a small detail...she didn't prepare our cultures right for our lab practicum, so when we all went in to do our final (half of our grade) the entire class could not get ONE SPECIMEN to gram stain. Not a speck. She blamed us all saying we were inadequate...and told us we all failed. Needless to say I walked out of that office and drove to the next town, met up with her supervisor and we found out her mistake that same afternoon. She was going to let the entire class go for the whole weekend thinking they failed. I told her supervisor she needed to make some phone calls...it was her DUTY. There were others in there that needed that class to get into NS as well...they were really upset too. So he told her it was in her best interest to contact the students.

I got an 89% for my final grade in that class.

You are doing the right things. You will beat this. You are an A student...don't forget you have what it takes. Think outside of the box...

~J

NO1_2NV · Oct 25, 2005

Pharm can be tough. Here are a few things I have learned and maybe they will help you. As you are going through your text book, look for the prototype drug for a classification. Once you have this drug, write it up along with what it does, how it does it, dosage, administration, and teaching then on the back of the card write the names of all of the other drugs that belong to the same class. Study the prototype and know it well. Read over the names of the other drugs over and over until you can associate them with the prototype drug. Look for a pharm study guide that asks you test style questions. Get together with a couple of people and quiz each other over and over. Ideally this book would be broken into drug classes so you are not hunting through out the book looking for questions that relate to what you are studying. Straight A's in Nursing Pharmacology: A Review Series by Springhouse seems to be quite popular in my class. I have great sympathy for you. My pharm exam yesterday covered 13 chapters!!! I also know what no direction is like. Good luck and hang in there. Don't let your instructors inability to not organize and teach become your thorn!!!

Luvelyone · Sep 28, 2007

i think you would be wasting your breath to complain to the dean. my class (we are taking med/surg 4) is experiencing something similar. my entire class is struggling. each day, our instructor begins the day telling us how we all are not where she expects us to be and that she refused to bring her teaching down to our level, that we needed to come up to her level. we have never opened the textbook in class, and we usually don't go over any handouts. she teaches by going over past cases in her nursing career and giving out case studies that we review in class. it was pointed out in the syllabus, that it states "each student is responsible for his/her own learning of the material". which basically means the school thinks it's ok for us to pay for classes and end up learning on our own. now, it makes me wish i had taken most of my classes online. jmho.

NC4RN · May 24, 2010

I just went through an appeal because of this same thing. I failed my last class in the program and therefore failed the program. The exams were not testing our knowledge as nurses, as evidenced by falling NCLEX pass rates (10 percentage points in 2 years), and the recycling of out-of-date questions taken from old exams. Half of the class failed each exam. I lost the appeal. I have to wait a year and re-take the course, after going through absolute hell in my appeal. I have learned so much through this process, but mostly this: Keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, study, and pass your tests.

longbow.shelly · May 24, 2010

The new pharmcology instructor is new and quite young, maybe 24 years old and inexperienced in teaching...She told the class at the other school she is teaching at, a lot of people fail...:

Yes. Is this something that faculty finds "admirable?" ~~~Being the teacher that no

one can learn from? How is this a virtue on a resume? All teaching and learning styles aside, it's the teacher's responsibility to TEACH. It's the student's responsibility to DEMONSTRATE. You can't have one without the other. Egads. I empathize with this situation.

If it helps, someone also once told me, even if you have a difficult time learning from someone, it can still be a learning experience. In the real world, you will not always be working with (or learning from) easy personality types, or effective teachers. Even if those people were "A" students themselves (the professors) it may not necessarily translate to bang-up teaching. And I hate :anbd: this advice, but I'm gonna say it, "Adapt and master the situation." It's a lesson in succeeding despite the notion of futility. :twocents:

Best of luck to you and your classmates!:bdyhdclp:

cmw6v8 · May 24, 2010

Yikes, I feel for you! I just finished an online pharmacology class that was a pre-req for an accelerated BSN program (I was on the waitlist for the program, and ended up not getting in, but I am starting a traditional BSN full-time in the fall). I am a second career nursing student and have only taken the other basic pre-reqs before pharm (no pathophys, no fundamentals, nothing).

I really struggled in pharmacology because there is a lot of material to memorize--so many drugs!! I had a decent instructor compared to you: she definitely told us what to focus on to a certain extent, and after the first test you could kind of predict what questions she might ask. Even though it was a really hard test, she was very accessible as an instructor and welcomed questions.

I would recommend asking LOTS of questions in class--this will send her the message that you are genuinely there to learn. Put your past troubles behind you and become fascinated by the material (or at least act like it, for your own sake). I wouldn't even be afraid to tell her that you are struggling and ask for recommendations for a tutor or ways you can narrow the scope of your studying. What I wouldn't do is complain. If there's bad blood between you and her (and or the dean), sort it out--go to her office hours and explain your concerns and ask her what *you* can do to get ahead in the class. Don't ask her to do something for you, ask her what you can do to help yourself and maybe you'll get somewhere.