Is my rage justified. My friend just flunked out of her first semester at Charity with a 76 average. 77 is the cut. The failing question (and I don't know it word for word, but here is the general gist of it): An african woman who lives in Africa has an intestinal bug. She believes that by eating pumpkin seeds, the bug will be eliminated. Is this a : religious belief, a cultural belief, is she correct, and few other choices. My friend answered, a cultural belief. As per the teacher: WRONG. First of all, regardless of the question or answer, how is this question even relevant to Nursing? Upon doing her homework and research, she could prove it very much IS a cultural thing. She appealed the question. The woman who wrote the question refused to budge and the committee sided with her. So boom. My freind is out. Never mind she is an excellent student. I am outraged. 44 people apparently missed that stupid, trick, unfair, irrelevant question. When teachers result to trickery on exams, it is so unfair and the students will never win. What can be done about this? This is a power issue and the teacher is getting off on it. People like that have got to go. I am beginning Charity in January. If I wasn't sufficiently terrified before, I certainly am now. Feedback, please.
No, your logic only applies to a curved grading scale.
If all 100 students in a class score above 90% on a straight scale, then they all pass.
Its a good thing the pass for each class is different....In A&P where Im at one needs a C...in Nrsg Theory an A...in Psychology and Sociology a C...in clinical 3's and 4s...In Nrsg Lab an A. If I needed an A in A&P or the other arts there would be no way I or many others would ever pass!!
Nope, I'm not the confused one. And I'm not talking about percenTILE or rank.
Let me clear up your confusion:
Class of 10 students takes an exam of 100 questions. All ten students answer 90+ questions correctly on the test. Therefore, they all score 90+ PERCENT (not percentile) on the test. Thus, they all pass with 90+ percent.
Nope, I'm not the confused one. And I'm not talking about percenTILE or rank.
Let me clear up your confusion:
Class of 10 students takes an exam of 100 questions. All ten students answer 90+ questions correctly on the test. Therefore, they all score 90+ PERCENT (not percentile) on the test. Thus, they all pass with 90+ percent.
The Original Post I was commenting on:
I totally agree with this. Let's just be frank, scoring in the 70s is subpar and shouldn't be accepted in any educational environment, period. No amount of political correctness is going to change the fact that that the bar is just too low in Nursing. I maintain, if you can't score above the 90th percentile, you shouldn't be a nurse.
OK, if you want to talk about it in percentiles, then it depends upon whether you're talking about percentile of test questions or percentile of your class. The post that you quoted did not specify...it just said percentile.
My original post to you pointed out the difference between curved and straight grading scales. If you are discussing test scores graded on a curve (where your highest scoring classmate is the top score and your lowest scoring classmate constitutes the lowest and the rest of the class falls in between), then your test score will reflect your percentile in your class for that test. And it will also reflect your grade on the test (in percentile) since the test scores have been manipulated, so to speak, to reflect the high and low of the class.
If you are discussing tests graded on a straight grading scale (i.e. 90+ correct = 90% on the test), then you are discussing the percentile of the test score. And under that scenario, 100 PERCENT of the class (if they're capable) can be 90% students.
as i understand it, your friend missed 24% of the questions, not just that one. so i'm curious as to why you picked this particular question to be outraged over.
because that particular question must be the one that her friend had a prayer of finding a rationalization for, and getting the instructor to accept the rationalization for that single item would have taken her from a failing to a passing grade on the exam and saved the semester for her. when the instructor couldn't be persuaded, she accused the instructor of leveraging a single exam item into a semester failure rather than face the fact that she had done badly the whole term.
Actually, it's not even your battle to fight: she needs to fight it, and not you. While I can understand you feeling bad for your friend, realize that when you start NS, you're going to have plenty of your own battles to fight. You need to focus on you, as your performance is the only thing you can control.
Also, I agree with the others: it wasn't that one question that broke her, but her entire performance over the semester...otherwise she could have missed that question and still do just fine.
ok, if you want to talk about it in percentiles, then it depends upon whether you're talking about percentile of test questions or percentile of your class. the post that you quoted did not specify...it just said percentile.
you cannot have a "percentile of test questions". you can have a percent test questions, or a percentile of the test scores, but not a percentile of test quesions.
a percentile is always a comparison and ranking between observations, in academic settings this is usually various grades.
my original post to you pointed out the difference between curved and straight grading scales. if you are discussing test scores graded on a curve (where your highest scoring classmate is the top score and your lowest scoring classmate constitutes the lowest and the rest of the class falls in between), then your test score will reflect your percentile in your class for that test. and it will also reflect your grade on the test (in percentile) since the test scores have been manipulated, so to speak, to reflect the high and low of the class.
a grading curve simply tries to fit a group of grades to a normal distribution curve. in addition, percentile distributions do not always fit to a normal distribution curve, even in sets of large data:
if you are discussing tests graded on a straight grading scale (i.e. 90+ correct = 90% on the test), then you are discussing the percentile of the test score. and under that scenario, 100 percent of the class (if they're capable) can be 90% students.
again, you can't have a "percentile of the test score." a percentile requires a ranking and comparison of various scores.
I am one of those "sub par" nursing students who makes C's and B's....I also work 40+ hours a week as a charge LPN running a floor with over 40 residents. I don't have time to study for hours and hours like some of the people in my class who's parents are paying their way or have spouses to pay the bills. I struggle in lecture. I shine in clinical. EKG strips were difficult for me until I was in an ICU watching them. I learn by doing, not by memorizing stuff in a classroom out of a textbook or a piece of paper. But I'm a damn good nurse. Would you rather have a nurse who can recite or a nurse who can act in a situation? (Not saying you can't be smart academically and clinically, of course.) I can handle stress and my crazy schedule, which I think makes me a flexible nurse. I'm very good in an emergency or when the unexpected happens. Now having said that I do agree with the people here who think the OP needs to let go, stay out, and let her friend handle her own situation. One question does not make the semester. She must have done poorly through out the semester. In my school, if over half the students get the question wrong, they will usually give credit for the questions. This happened last test on 2 questions. It doesn't happen often though. I believe about 1/4 of our class makes it through the program. As someone who has failed a semester, my advice would be to suck it up, learn, and move on. Retake the semester and fix what you have to fix to do better. I failed 3rd semester by 2 points so I know how much that SUCKS, but that is life!
roser13, ASN, RN
6,504 Posts
No, your logic only applies to a curved grading scale.
If all 100 students in a class score above 90% on a straight scale, then they all pass.