Grades are Posted!!

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I took my exam and I passed (84%)!! I'm so excited. The problem is that out of 50 students in my class, only 15 of us passed.

One person got an A and 14 of us got high C's. Everyone else failed. :crying2:

The professor reviewed the exam and curved it. The curve took our class average from a 71% to a 82%. Usually, when exams are curved I never get any points so I didn't even think about looking, until I got a phone call from a classmate.

I checked my grade again and I actually got points added!!! :yeah:I now have a (92%) and I'm over the top!! I called my other classmates and told them to make sure that they check their grades because our average had gone up and we received points.

Well, the problem is......although I had already passed, I received points. Some of my classmates that failed either got a few points or NONE at all. I'm trying to make sense of it. I'm grateful to GOD and I'm not complaining at all. I just feel really bad for them. I just want to make sense of the situation. I feel horrible because I just assumed that we had ALL gotten points. How did my grade go up so much, but my classmates who scored 62%, 55%,71%, etc. not get ANY points?

My classmates are completely distraught and it's going to be a long weekend. Can someone help me figure it out?

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One possible explanation: Your teacher decided to accept multiple answers for certain questions & they either already got those questions right or didn't choose either answer she accepted whereas you went from wrong to right. Congrats!

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Specializes in Hospice.

yep, this happened when i was in school to (not the tons of people failing) but some of the people with really poor grades didn't get bumped. Our teachers only looked at questions that more than 80 percent of the class had missed. I always had one of the higher or mid point grades during nursing school and one of the things i learned after a few test is that nobody really wants to be comforted by somebody who did great. you have stated your sympathy, now just stay silent and let them grieve. kwim?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
One possible explanation: Your teacher decided to accept multiple answers for certain questions & they either already got those questions right or didn't choose either answer she accepted whereas you went from wrong to right. Congrats!

What she said.

Therefore, it is truly not a "curve". The faculty reviews the item analysis, to see what other answers were "popular" responses. But of course, the alternate answer has to be feasible.

Generally speaking, the middle benefits from this. The upper portion of the class usually gets it right to begin with, and the lower portion of the class usually did not get the next best answer correct.

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Specializes in SNF, Med Surg.

I know it is hard when classmates -- friends don't make the grade and you move on and they don't...but you are moving on -- congratulations! I don't know what kind of test it is and I rarely had a professor in nursing school grade on a curve, but I have had other professors do so and how they chose to do so wasn't always so straight forward. You could ask the professor how they derived thier curve if you really want to know...

As for why people with 62% or 55% didn't get any points, maybe 8 points you received wouldn't help them anyway or maybe the teacher is using different criteria.

Also, when I went to nursing school, we weren't allowed to discuss our grades_period_ doing so was a violation of our honor code. They didn't want the nasty competition that grades can cause and because there were different sections of classes they didn't want us to discuss grades so the other sections couldn't stress over if they were doing better/worse than the other section -- they wouldn't even tell you what the class average was so you can ascertain where you fit in it. I never thought it was such a big deal, but now after seeing your post, I guess I do -- knowing each other's grades does create more stress.

Sorry, it's late for me here -- I didn't mean to ramble.

Bottom line: be glad you passed and focus on continuing to work hard and get good grades; don't let this distort your focus. It is unfortunate for your classmates; provide them with some comforting words, but don't let it bring you down -- don't spend too much time dwelling on their situation, that is for them to worry about and fix. I don't mean to sound callous, but I have seen people get sucked into other people's problems and they get so stressed out it affects their grades -- don't let that happen to you.

Again, congratulations and keep up the good work!

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Thanks! That helps to clear the fog. :)

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One possible explanation: Your teacher decided to accept multiple answers for certain questions & they either already got those questions right or didn't choose either answer she accepted whereas you went from wrong to right. Congrats!

Thanks! That helps to clear the fog. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
What she said.

Therefore, it is truly not a "curve". The faculty reviews the item analysis, to see what other answers were "popular" responses. But of course, the alternate answer has to be feasible.

Generally speaking, the middle benefits from this. The upper portion of the class usually gets it right to begin with, and the lower portion of the class usually did not get the next best answer correct.

This makes a lot of sense now! Thanks for your input.

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I know it is hard when classmates -- friends don't make the grade and you move on and they don't...but you are moving on -- congratulations! I don't know what kind of test it is and I rarely had a professor in nursing school grade on a curve, but I have had other professors do so and how they chose to do so wasn't always so straight forward. You could ask the professor how they derived thier curve if you really want to know...

As for why people with 62% or 55% didn't get any points, maybe 8 points you received wouldn't help them anyway or maybe the teacher is using different criteria.

Also, when I went to nursing school, we weren't allowed to discuss our grades_period_ doing so was a violation of our honor code. They didn't want the nasty competition that grades can cause and because there were different sections of classes they didn't want us to discuss grades so the other sections couldn't stress over if they were doing better/worse than the other section -- they wouldn't even tell you what the class average was so you can ascertain where you fit in it. I never thought it was such a big deal, but now after seeing your post, I guess I do -- knowing each other's grades does create more stress.

Sorry, it's late for me here -- I didn't mean to ramble.

Bottom line: be glad you passed and focus on continuing to work hard and get good grades; don't let this distort your focus. It is unfortunate for your classmates; provide them with some comforting words, but don't let it bring you down -- don't spend too much time dwelling on their situation, that is for them to worry about and fix. I don't mean to sound callous, but I have seen people get sucked into other people's problems and they get so stressed out it affects their grades -- don't let that happen to you.

Again, congratulations and keep up the good work!

Thank you! And you're right, this doesn't usually occur in Nursing school. I'm in my final semester and there is NO extra credit, points or anything. Your score is your score. This is extremely rare. I suppose it's also extremely rare that only 30% of the class passes an exam. My Professor isn't the curving type by any means, so this is HISTORIC! I'm such the curious type, that I had to know why we didn't all benefit from the points.

Thanks for replying to my message.

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yep, this happened when i was in school to (not the tons of people failing) but some of the people with really poor grades didn't get bumped. Our teachers only looked at questions that more than 80 percent of the class had missed. I always had one of the higher or mid point grades during nursing school and one of the things i learned after a few test is that nobody really wants to be comforted by somebody who did great. you have stated your sympathy, now just stay silent and let them grieve. kwim?

Thank you for your reply. You're right. The exam is over and for those who still have questions, they can make an appointment with the Professor. I won't be able to supply anyone with an answer that they can accept. I somehow got more involved than I needed to be. I just want everyone to be Happy. This is our final semester and it appears that things are falling apart. I really want us to all celebrate together.

My new focus in the next exam. This exam is over with and done. What is,is.

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Weird! I just went through same thing in my class! 10 of us. 8 failed final and 2 passed it! it was BRUTALLY hard - half way I was so ready to walk away because I knew I failed it. High-mid scores were 65, 66, 69, etc...1 C and 1 B...Luckily many of us had high grades going into the final! Next day professor review exam for credibility as the scores, even A-students got 65s! We all gained extra some extra points - not sure how she tallied the extra points or method. In any event ultimately 6 passed the class (including myself...Yaay!! :w00t:) however unfortunately, 4 others who really tried to pass, failed - not a good weekend for them either!

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Thanks for sharing. I'm glad that you passed! Congrats to you!! ;) I don't know how the final scores were tallied or what method she used. I'm sure she will address that next week in class. All in all, I worked really hard and I'm grateful that the work paid off. There's nothing worse than closing yourself off to the world, studying like mad and then failing the exam. I feel blessed but I'm not going to get content. I'm halfway to the finish line and it's anybody's race. On to the next exam content. Again, Congrats to you!! :)

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