School using Kaplan % as grade?!

1. Hi
   So I am in my second semester which includes OB and med-surg. Our school just switched to kaplan for our final exams. We take a Kaplan test and get the percentage correct plus out percentile compared with everyone else. They use the percentile to assign a converted score. I think this is incredibly unfair to compare us with nursing students from all over the country!!
   
   Alot of people got lower scores after they converted the score and failed out because of it. I think students should get the score that they EARNED. Do other programs do this? How do I get them to reconsider. We all tried very hard and they should be understanding of that!! Any advice is very greatly appreciated.

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2. 

   About FlutterBy417

   Joined: May '18; Posts: 4

   11 Comments

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3. 
   May 10

   That's actually how it works everywhere. ATI and HESI final exams are the same. This is the standard.
4. 
   May 10

   So if a student gets 70% of questions correct but gets a 60% as a grade because of the conversion how is that fair?
5. 
   May 10

   Some people went up but i think most went down.
6. 
   May 10

   As long as the school is upfront about their policy and applies it across the board, there is no complaint. But all of this should be disclosed at information sessions prior to applying to the school and repeated at the start of the term so that people can make informed decisions.
7. 
   May 10

   Quote from caliotter3

   As long as the school is upfront about their policy and applies it across the board, there is no complaint. But all of this should be disclosed at information sessions prior to applying to the school and repeated at the start of the term so that people can make informed decisions.

   They changed it during the program though! First semester we used hesi and they took our percentile.
8. 
   May 10

   Schools change resources and policies ALL. The. Time.
   
   If you were notified of the policy change, you have nothing to appeal. It is what it is.
9. 
   May 10

   It's based on the difficulty level of the questions missed, especially safety issues. Missing a higher level question is not counted against you as much as missing a lower level question. Most adaptive testing (like the NCLEX) is based on the same idea.
10. 
    May 11

    HI there,
    This happened in my school too. When I came in it was first implemented. Instead of it being our actual grade it was a percentage that applied to our grade and it really knocked us down.
    
    I failed my first class because of it. Since the staff was messy with the syllabus I was able to argue it. A lot of us had the impression that it wasn't counted to our grade but if we got 60% or higher we would get extra credit points ( at least that was how they explained it to us). Then the syllabus said that it wouldn't be counted towards our grade on one page but on another page in one line it said that it would be. I screen shot everything and argued with the director and finally it was lifted.
    
    They readjusted it so that it would only give us points if we did pass. We were required to still take proctored tests with our midterm and final though. It was expected of us to get 60 or above though. We were also required to remediate the test.
    
    I would suggest talking to the director and if you have some people on board with you then do it as a group. kaplan is hard and they don't teach us techniques to engage the questions during class just content.
    
    good luck and i'm sorry for the stress
11. 
    May 11

    This is how my school did it. Instead of thinking how it is unfair (whether it's unfair or not) try to concentrate on improving your scores. You are responsible for your grades. Follow the kaplan decision tree (Assessment/implementation, physical/psychosocial, ABC, expected/unexpected, stable/unstable)
    How to Use the NCLEX Decision Tree - QD Nurses
12. 
    May 15

    Please don't think I'm bragging here: I got 99% for Kaplan medsurg. I went through the Kaplan practice tests and then the remediation for each subject. I read ALL of the information for every question, including the ones I got right. I feel the material not only helped me with the Kaplan exam but also as study material for my medsurg final which was also an A, when my previous test scores were low B or C.
    
    I say all this to help, not brag. If this is the way the testing will be done in the future, you can strategize and prepare for the Kaplan using their resources.
13. 
    May 15

    Kaplan is 5% of our grade. I did the same thing another poster mentioned, did the practice tests on kaptest and remediated every question. It really does help, I tried to do a test a few times a week from day one of the semester. It may seem like overkill, but every percent counts.

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