Nursing school Q: 1 min/1 question?

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Hi everyone!

Question for you! I'm taking NURS299 at UNLV. It's called Nutritional Development Across the Lifespan. Our exams are 45 questions and we have 45 minutes to take them. To me, that's insane. It doesn't seem possible unless there was like a study guide. But there is no teacher to teach in class to go over anything. Voice overs on power points are from another instructor. The instructor that I have I wanted to meet with is very scornful about me wanting to meet with her for questions regarding the material in the book. She's an RN. One of those "I got my degree, I could careless what you want to look up, use google, look it up on google" type of teacher. She sounds like she has this job to give her a break from a real nursing job like research or working with patients.

Anyway, when you were in nursing school, was there a class where exams were a minute per question? Like 45 minutes for 45 questions? It just seems way too stressful.

Specializes in Oncology.

I had classes with pre-lecture quizzes (worth 10% of our final grade). We grabbed the scantron sheet on our way into class, and then right at the start of class, our professor would put the first question up on the overhead and then would change to the next question after 1 minute. If you were late to class, you missed what you missed. Keep in mind that these quizzes were based off of around 100 pages of reading (again, pre-lecture), that required just as much studying as exams, if not more because we had no clue what would be on the quiz.

I can't say that I would teach a class like that, but it wasn't my class to teach. It was my job to learn. Even now, a few years later I still remember stuff that was on those quizzes. Funny how that works.

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That time frame sounds pretty reasonable to me.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

No. In the 1990's we were given a fair chance at exams. That doesn't seem possible.

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Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

No. In the 1990's we were given a fair chance at exams. That doesn't seem possible unless it's multiple choice and you are extremely familiar with the material.

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OP, do you have a reading disability? (Depending on the school) Students with disabilities are usually given more time to complete tests. Though, in the real world, they may not get such luxury - but, there are nursing jobs that are not constantly fast-paced.

If not, then, pretty much what other posters said: Learn the content. The exams may be easier than you think.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
No. In the 1990's we were given a fair chance at exams. That doesn't seem possible unless it's multiple choice and you are extremely familiar with the material.

One is expected to be "extremely familiar with the material" in any type of test.

Have you read all of the responses stating that 1 minute per question is the norm?

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I hated the time limit in school but man when I got to NCLEX I loved that I could finish a 100 question final about an hour. I managed to not overthink my answers on NCLEX even with all the SATA they were throwing at me and the computer turned off at 75 questions. When I took a deep breath and looked at the clock I realized that I'd been there for just under 45 minutes. Thank my instructors for prepping me to critically think my way through a question including reading the question and all answers 3 times then answering and moving on in less than a minute!

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Specializes in Nurse Education.

This testing practice seems pretty standard. I had 1 min per question when I was in undergrad (2002-2006) and am now a professor and follow the same rules. ATI testing is programmed as 1 min per question (unless you have accommodations and require extended test time). It's best to look forward to the end testing goal which is NCLEX ... where if you use the max amount of time for the max potential number of questions it averages out to be 1 min and 15 seconds per question. If the amount of test time is too fast then perhaps you should consider being tested for the need of reasonable accommodations.

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That doesn't seem possible unless it's multiple choice and you are extremely familiar with the material.

It is multiple choice and being familiar with the material is a bit tricky because it's online, self-taught, and the power points don't have the voice overs of MY teacher I'm taking now (when they do come with voice overs that is,). The teacher that used to teach it has hers on them, so why doesn't mine not make her own? It's lazy to use someone else's work and not your own. If a nurse's job is to be an educator, sitting on their ass all day in their office twiddling thumbs during office hours is NOT being an educator. They could maybe make their videos as a presentation as if it were an actual classroom. I'm not even in nursing school yet.

We do get practice questions, but my classmates have said it has nothing to do with what could be on the test. Completely unrelatable to the material. As far as the tests go, I've maybe answered about 4 or 5 questions on my own; the rest is something I didn't even recognize from the book. I read my books and power points and repeat going over them. Maybe I have certain barriers or certain things that bother me in my life that distract me. I'll do a self-analysis and see where I could improve my studying. I indeed do commit to studying. I've heard many things about this class like out of the two books we have to have, one of them is easier to read than the other. The other that isn't easy to read has a bunch of oddly worded jargon that's hard to process in the brain. Students can back me up on this.

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For many of my online classes, a minute or less per question has been the norm.

Regarding your educator "sitting on their *** all day twiddling their thumbs"..... you can either focus your energy on this, or on your studies. Which do you think will improve your chances of moving forward with a decent grade?

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Regarding your educator "sitting on their *** all day twiddling their thumbs"..... you can either focus your energy on this, or on your studies. Which do you think will improve your chances of moving forward with a decent grade?

I've kindly asked to go over some things on my book the beginning of the semester on things I didn't understand. She would respond with "You can meet in my office so we can address your blocking", She can use better vocabulary. Nurses aren't stupid. Just those who purposely lower their character by acting like zoo animal circus freaks. She once asked me when was the last time I had seen a doctor in a school (like middle school or elementary), we were talking about the presence of doctors compared to nurses over the years, and I said,"I have no idea, I never really gave it that a thought", also, I never purposely skipped class to see someone for health problems because I was always healthy and she gave me a look like I was acting stupid on purpose and wasting her time and she spoke to me in a way that kinda got into my skin on purpose.

The rude ass attitude that she has needs to be fixed because if I was an RN now, I wouldn't have anything to do with her and her hateful ass attitude. I wouldn't say hi to her, acknowledge, nothing. Everyone learns differently so excuse me for interrupting her thumb twiddling.

I focus on my studies, not her, there is no one to go to when you have a question you want to ask. I would not anticipate my fellow students in the class to know something. I thought she was nice and had a lot of time on her hands and be welcome for any questions. I like to learn what I'm interested in and the material in this class is interesting, it's just the books are written erratically for literate processing.

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I intend this with kindness and a gentle attitude, have you been tested for a learning disability?

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