94 or higher is an A?

My high school graded on a similar scale. I was surprised when I went to college and they had a 10 point scale for grading (100-90, 89-80...). I have no problem with nursing school using what was a "normal" grading scale to me for years anyways.

Also agreeing that this is nursing school, you want everyone to truly learn the material and do well in these classes. Below an 80 really isn't doing well in a class.

My school was 93+ for an A. I worked full time and was a single parent. I had no grade lower than 91 which gave me a few B grades. At first it bothered me to make a B because I'd always been an A student, but I do feel my school prepared us well. Only one failed NCLEX. Back in the day when we had to wait 12 weeks for results. That was a long 12 weeks

I guess I was so shocked by this because a 90 was always an A for me in school. And in some cases an 86 or higher was an A for when I was taking my hardest science classes. So I truly never actually thought that a 94 could be consider an A.

This was my grading scale

[TABLE=width: 301]

[TR]

[TD]A[/TD]

[TD]94 -- 100%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]A-[/TD]

[TD]90 -- 93%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B+[/TD]

[TD]89 -86%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B[/TD]

[TD]85 -83%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B-[/TD]

[TD]82 -80%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]C+[/TD]

[TD]79 - 76%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]C[/TD]

[TD]75 - 73%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]C-[/TD]

[TD]72 - 70%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]69 - 60%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]59% or below[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Yup. Welcome to nursing school where C's are awesome, B's are the new A's, and A's don't exist.

I've found that the majority of programs work this way, often without rounding up either

My program worked this way and no rounding. Which sucked for those who were .1% away from a passing grade. I got all B's.

My program worked this way and no rounding. Which sucked for those who were .1% away from a passing grade. I got all B's.

Yes we've had several fail by less than 0.1 point. One failed the semester by 0.05 points [emoji30]

I am surprised to see so many schools not operate with +/- system. Anything between a 90 and 92 was considered an A minus in my program.

We need an 80 to pass and a 96 ​to get an A

That sounds like my nursing school, but it was a 76 to pass.

[TABLE=class: cms_table, width: 301]

[TR]

[TD]A[/TD]

[TD]96 -- 100%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]A-[/TD]

[TD]92 -- 95%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B+[/TD]

[TD]88 -91%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B[/TD]

[TD]84 -87%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]B-[/TD]

[TD]80-83%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]C+[/TD]

[TD]79 - 76%[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

I know that no one likes to hear old people take about "well back in my days" but when I returned to school in 2006 I was surprised that some of my school mates expected 90% to be an A in college. I also believe that grades are so instructor and school/program specific they are essentially meaningless as a broad comparison. After your first job interview or grad school no one is interested in your GPA, just in your competency.

My ADN program (1990) had a 75% passing benchmark for classwork and unit tests, but final exams had to be 80% or above, and pharm exams each semester had to be 100% within 3 attempts. The rationale was that we needed to prove understanding of at least 80% of the class material since it was cumulative.

My town's public school system no longer uses letter grades. Report cards list the actual number grades earned in each class in grades 5-12. I can track my kids' progress from home via the school website. I wish I could say that the grade transparency has helped prevent grade inflation, but it hasn't. When the benchmarks are set per "common core" and students are spooned information needed to pass high-stakes tests rather than develop strong foundations in core subjects, unit test grades become a kind of "gastric emptying study for spoon-fed concepts," and the semester grade is simply an academic brown book. How else can one explain why a student can pass high school calculus with an A, yet require remedial college math?