Published
I appreciate anyone's input.
I recently completed my RN program at a Community College in New York State. My final GPA was 2.8 but the school won't "graduate" me because I repeated a class and got 77, they were looking for a 78. The last class in the program, can you believe it?
Last week they turned out a few graduates with 2.5 and what not, I have been capriciously kicked to the curb and have nothing to show for my 2.8 after 5 years of night school and $12,000.
Does anyone know if there is any process to still be able to take the NCLEX exam in New York State.
This really isn't fair- I appreciate anyone's suggestions or advice.
Loopholes are why she should read the fine print.. OP if you have the option to appeal and take the class for a 3rd time I feel like you have passed all the other courses and you should qualify for a third attempt at the class. At my school you have 2 attempts to pass and after the second time of not passing you would meet with someone to see if they will allow you to take it a third time. If there is such a policy at your school I don't know why this close graduating they wouldn't let you retake this one last class. Lawyers are good for pushing the fine print.. and I didn't say just jump the gun and sue; I said get them to write the school a letter. Usually legal mail is enough to get people to do what they should be doing in the first place.
Who says they aren't already handling this case as they should be?
I think those who believe a lawyer is the answer to everything would probably enjoy being dragged to court by ALL their patients for something they charted, or didn't chart, or said, or thought they said, or a med they gave or didn't give, or how a family member interpreted what he or she heard.....you get the idea.
Yeah, I'm not sure why the advice to "lawyer up" is being given. If this is school policy, it's policy. A "strongly worded letter" will mean nothing. Why have rules and regulations in place for people to challenge when they've clearly not met the standards outlined in the policy. Of course, I'm also one that can't believe multi-million dollar settlements that tobacco companies have to pay out to people who chose to smoke, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter!
If you didn't "make the grade" that they were looking for to pass, you didn't pass. Therefore you aren't able to graduate because you "failed" the course. Even if by one point. A classmate of mine was required to repeat a course because he "failed" by literally 2 points. He was needed say 368 and he earned 366. It was less than 1%. They weren't going to round any grades up, so he had to repeat.My suggestion is that you find a way to transfer to a different program or find a way to repeat that class at your current program so that you can repeat that course that you "failed" and then you may be able to take the NCLEX.
Those 2.5 GPA graduates obviously obtained passing grades/points throughout the program or they wouldn't have been graduated. And yes, it is very tough when you miss the mark by 1%.
Yep. We had our program exit exam, and we needed a 70% to pass. My classmate got a 69.4. Has to do remediation and retake the exam. She didn't graduate.
OP, this is very tough. I had one classmate fail a class by less of a margin than you and had to wait a full year to retake the class and graduate. One thing I'd suggest, if at all possible, is to request a review of the exam and answer key under supervision of a faculty member. One person I know was able to eke out a couple of points and pass a class when it was discovered that one question technically had two acceptable/correct answers. I'm sorry that your are in this situation and hope that you reach a resolution soon.
I have to agree with everyone else - it has absolutely nothing to do with your GPA or how much money you spent. Passing at my school was 73% and it was 76% if you had to repeat a course. You could only repeat a course once - if you failed another, you were out of the program and since it was so competitive, you have pretty much no chance of being accepted again in the future. A girl in my class had repeated a course already, got over a 76% but last semester was having difficulty again. She had a new baby, a husband and two kids at home, and you could just see the exhaustion in her eyes every time she came to class. For her, it all came down to the final, whether she passed or failed, and she was excited to see her grade posted indicating that she had barely passed. When she came to take the HESI exam, the Prof said "what are you doing here?" - turns out the Prof mixed her last name with someone else's!!! she DIDN'T pass!! can you imagine her heartbreak? so the good news, or at least consoling news, is that you're not the only one - life gets in the way sometimes, but the bad news is you don't have much of a case and you'll have to hope your credits transfer to another program and just try again. good luck!
I would just see if there is anyway you can retake the class a 3rd time. I know that my program had a maximum of two fails before you had to reapply to the program and wait for a spot. Maybe that is why they are giving a hard time? As many others have stated since 78 is required and you obtained a 77, you essentially failed the class. My nursing program used to consider everything below an 80 an F, but then students had issues with their financial aid. They then made anything under an 80 a D just for financial aid purposes. It was clearly stated in our nursing school handbook that as far as our nursing instructors were concerned 79 is an F.
Good luck! I wish you all the best!
I have to agree with everyone else - it has absolutely nothing to do with your GPA or how much money you spent. Passing at my school was 73% and it was 76% if you had to repeat a course. You could only repeat a course once - if you failed another, you were out of the program and since it was so competitive, you have pretty much no chance of being accepted again in the future. A girl in my class had repeated a course already, got over a 76% but last semester was having difficulty again. She had a new baby, a husband and two kids at home, and you could just see the exhaustion in her eyes every time she came to class. For her, it all came down to the final, whether she passed or failed, and she was excited to see her grade posted indicating that she had barely passed. When she came to take the HESI exam, the Prof said "what are you doing here?" - turns out the Prof mixed her last name with someone else's!!! she DIDN'T pass!! can you imagine her heartbreak? so the good news, or at least consoling news, is that you're not the only one - life gets in the way sometimes, but the bad news is you don't have much of a case and you'll have to hope your credits transfer to another program and just try again. good luck!
Oh no!!!! I'd have dissolved into a puddle of tears, straight up! Was she cut then or did they give her a break since they professor made the error?
Unfortunately, this seems to be pretty cut and dry. If you did not meet the acceptable standards set forth by your institution (usually given to you at the beginning of every course), then you did not pass. How close you were to passing won't likely matter either since that 78 was a minimum passing standard, even more so considering this is a second attempt at the course. In this instance, there's nothing capricious about failing the class, because this is the final grade. Talk to the school about it if you can, but go into it with realistic expectations about what they will do for you.
I'm not trying to be mean, but considering your situation, I wouldn't be holding out hope for the BON to make an exception in your case and allow you to test. That's not what they're really for, and doing so would actually be counterintuitive to their purpose, so I wouldn't put too much stock in that approach.
Hopefully, they will allow you to retake it again. However, if they do not, I wish you luck in finding and joining another program to complete your studies. In the future, I recommend meeting with your faculty before the course starts so that you are 100% clear on the school/course grading policies so you never find yourself in this situation again.
EaglesWings21, ASN, RN
380 Posts
Loopholes are why she should read the fine print.. OP if you have the option to appeal and take the class for a 3rd time I feel like you have passed all the other courses and you should qualify for a third attempt at the class. At my school you have 2 attempts to pass and after the second time of not passing you would meet with someone to see if they will allow you to take it a third time. If there is such a policy at your school I don't know why this close graduating they wouldn't let you retake this one last class. Lawyers are good for pushing the fine print.. and I didn't say just jump the gun and sue; I said get them to write the school a letter. Usually legal mail is enough to get people to do what they should be doing in the first place.