Today, I just got back home from my orientation for my RN program. It's an ADN program, and after two hours, they had the second year students come in and speak with us and answer questions we had about the program.
The way my college is set up, is it is a single program, that is a collaborative effort of three colleges under a single director. It's an ADN program. So basically there are nursing students on three different campuses.
One of the 2nd year students said that the other two colleges participated in collaborative testing. That when a test was administered, you take it alone, it's graded, and then they are given back to the students...then the students get in groups of four, and they collectively make corrections...you put down the names of everyone in your group on your paper, the group grade is an average, and that is the grade you get...which is usually much higher.
This is the problem.
This student said that College A and B (that did the collective testing), had a 10% dropout rate, while our school (which is supposed to be part of the same program) had 50% fail out of the last semester because they did not participate in the collective testing.
If the dropout rate was that high...would the faculty even TELL the students that? Should I just chalk this up to a nasty rumor?
I am curious...but my instincts tell me that this isn't a question I should ask a faculty member.
Last semester in pediatrics our instructors let us do the same thing also except the group score was not YOUR score. First of all you had to have passed the test to get extra points. Then depending if the group score was 90% you'd get 1 extra point added to your test. so if you passed the test you took individually and received a 76%, add the extra collaberative point your group earned and you got a 77%. Or if your group got a 95% that was 2 points bumping your grade to a 78%, if it was 100%- 3 points. Keep in mind, only those who had passed their test were eligible to receive the extra 1-3 points earned as a group. I am sure what you are talking about is similar to the way our class testing was set up. And surely it's nothing to "notify the newspaper" about.
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
One of my professors tried to do "group testing" for pediatrics/women's health, but we were able to opt out. Of course I chose to take the exam by myself, because most of the other students did not bother to prepare properly. I wasn't going to spend my exam time answering their questions just to boost their grade. In my opinion, group exams do not belong in nursing school. Ultimately you have to take the NCLEX alone, so you might as well get used to it earlier rather than later.
I agree that if group testing and retests are being allowed, this should be reported to someone. I wonder what your state Board of Nursing has to say about this issue; they tend to monitor each school's curriculum and pass rates pretty closely.
This probably doen't answer the OPs question but-Wow, Group testing? What a cop out. So some people pass 'cause the people in their group know the answers? Want them to be your nurse? your families? Not me. I'm not about being overly harsh graders or making anything impossible, but I think that each person should be evaluated as an individual. Afterall, we don't always have a group of others to help us care for our patients or make decisions. Good nurses need to be able to think for themselves, not be taught to be co-dependent.
Why does it matter to you how many graduate? Just do your own thing.
I am much more concerned about the way the tests are graded.
That's a fair question...I've read enough on this website to understand how high the failure rate can be in nursing school. I was mentally prepared to face that.
My concern wasn't so much the fact that our school had a high failure rate, my concern was that our three schools were all supposed to be of the same curriculum, yet two other schools are doing things so drastically different from ours, and their failure rate was substantially lower than ours....IF wha t these students
The state BON even recognizes our program based on it's overall program name...not our individual college. So I can't even research statistics just on my school, because the other two colleges' results are factored in.
Now, that I've slept on this issue last night...I couldn't really think of anything positive these two students had to say about the program, and I'm just going to chalk it up to the fact that I was seated with two pessimists.
I'm lucky enough to not have to work, and I have all of my pre-reqs out of the way, which leaves me to only take the two nursing courses (Nursing 111, and the Pharm course) each semester.
OURN83
127 Posts
Last semester in pediatrics our instructors let us do the same thing also except the group score was not YOUR score. First of all you had to have passed the test to get extra points. Then depending if the group score was 90% you'd get 1 extra point added to your test. so if you passed the test you took individually and received a 76%, add the extra collaberative point your group earned and you got a 77%. Or if your group got a 95% that was 2 points bumping your grade to a 78%, if it was 100%- 3 points. Keep in mind, only those who had passed their test were eligible to receive the extra 1-3 points earned as a group. I am sure what you are talking about is similar to the way our class testing was set up. And surely it's nothing to "notify the newspaper" about.