Alright here is the story in as short and brief terms as possible. One of my classes is taught in a lecture auditorium with about 90 seats and 72 students. Exams are given in this auditorium. It resembles a movie theater with rising rows one section is dead center and their are two sections--one to the right and one to the left. Obviously testing under these conditions is "uncomfortable" to put it in one word because if you want to cheat all you have to do is move your eyes..no looking up or twisting of the head is necessary. Most people have their papers covered like hawks.
It became apparent to me after the exam that multiple people were discussing their cheating habits on the exam and those who didn't even bother to open a book received a grade in the high 90's..and how funny is it that so did the person next to the other. I don't really care about what grade everyone gets..it just bothers me that people are cheating on these types of exams. If they can't answer the questions themselves I don't want them standing over my loved one's bed.
As you can imagine because the room is split into three sections it is impossible for the professor to watch all sides at once. When I was in LPN school they were much more strict about adequate room between those that were testing. At least one empty desk between each student and the class wasn't as large.
My question is..should I keep my mouth shut and keep it moving..or is this something that needs to brought to the professors attention. I think that I should bring it up..but if I had to I would want to bring it up anonymously. How do you guys feel because I am feeling a tad bit enraged at the persistent lack of integrity that is demonstrated amongst my classmates.:angryfire
maybe you can't cheat on the NCLEX, but you can get lucky enough to pass
O rly?
I haven't taken it yet, but I'm willing to bet you just ****** off a lot of nurses that prepped for months only to scrape by, or to have to take it a second time.
I haven't taken it yet, but I'm willing to bet you just ****** off a lot of nurses that prepped for months only to scrape by, or to have to take it a second time.
It shouldn't have. It's not an essay test and there's no practical portion. You have answers to select from and when you don't know the answer, you can get lucky and select the right answer or you can be unlucky and select one of the wrong answers. All this illustrates is that it takes more than good test taking skills to become a nurse. My husband is a paramedic, and in addition to a written test they have an *intense* practical portion of the test with simulated patients and a station where a doctor presents them with a hypothetical patient and they have to verbalize everything they'd do. Perhaps if NCLEX included something like that it would be airtight against cheaters, but until then, the right answer is on the screen.
It shouldn't have. It's not an essay test and there's no practical portion. You have answers to select from and when you don't know the answer, you can get lucky and select the right answer or you can be unlucky and select one of the wrong answers. All this illustrates is that it takes more than good test taking skills to become a nurse. My husband is a paramedic, and in addition to a written test they have an *intense* practical portion of the test with simulated patients and a station where a doctor presents them with a hypothetical patient and they have to verbalize everything they'd do. Perhaps if NCLEX included something like that it would be airtight against cheaters, but until then, the right answer is on the screen.
The odds of guessing your way through the Nclex by "getting lucky" is so far remote and asinine that I will prefer to place my odds in the state lottery.
The odds of guessing your way through the Nclex by "getting lucky" is so far remote and asinine that I will prefer to place my odds in the state lottery.
Eh. I guess if you want to get offended, that's up to you. But even if someone cheats their way through school, *some* info is going to be absorbed. If they're cheating to get 90s, maybe they have enough knowledge to be getting barely passing grades. So they might not be "getting lucky" on the entire test but on many questions, which improves probability significantly.
Personally, I don't feel comfortable leaving it to NCLEX alone to weed out cheaters, and would rather follow my school's honor code and report suspicious activity. We're going in to a field where we're to be held to higher ethical standards, so why not start practicing that in nursing school?
Eh. I guess if you want to get offended, that's up to you. But even if someone cheats their way through school, *some* info is going to be absorbed. If they're cheating to get 90s, maybe they have enough knowledge to be getting barely passing grades. So they might not be "getting lucky" on the entire test but on many questions, which improves probability significantly.
Personally, I don't feel comfortable leaving it to NCLEX alone to weed out cheaters, and would rather follow my school's honor code and report suspicious activity. We're going in to a field where we're to be held to higher ethical standards, so why not start practicing that in nursing school?
Always follow your school's policies, that should go without saying. I don't think anyone is saying to violate the school's policy however it may be written.
Not offended, actually amused that someone would think luck would have anything to do with a computerized adaptive test.
Lets say you cheated enough to eliminate 50% of the answers leaving you only two choices to choose from. You guess between the two answers...50/50 shot right? The likelihood of being able to repeat a correct answer 75 times correctly is 1 in 26,200,000,000,000,000,000,000
Lets say you only have to guess 50 questions correctly well that would only be 1 in 88,800,000,000,000,000
Guessing is definitely not the way to go.
The Nclex is not a typically test, they are not just seeing how many you answer correctly but which of the questions you are answering correctly.
Always follow your school's policies, that should go without saying. I don't think anyone is saying to violate the school's policy however it may be written.
Actually, a few people have said to keep out of it and that it's none of the OP's business. That's where the whole "let NCLEX take care of it" discussion came from. Perhaps there are schools out there that don't have a clause in their honor code that you are considered an accomplice to cheating if you don't report it when you witness or hear about it, but that's not something I've ever come across in the 5 schools I've attended.
Actually, a few people have said to keep out of it and that it's none of the OP's business. That's where the whole "let NCLEX take care of it" discussion came from. Perhaps there are schools out there that don't have a clause in their honor code that you are considered an accomplice to cheating if you don't report it when you witness or hear about it, but that's not something I've ever come across in the 5 schools I've attended.
All the schools I have attended have never had a hearsay clause in their honor code. They typically and sometimes explicitly said that if you witness cheating you are to report it....not necessarily if you hear about it or think Billy is cheating because he gets an A while sitting next to Sally who also gets an A.
Most honor codes demand that the observing student witness the cheating first hand and first confront the suspected cheater to clear up any misassumptions.
I guess this would be cleared up if the OP would state her school's honor code.
I didn't mean to imply that sheer luck will pass a person through the NCLEX process. And if there are people who I offended by implying that luck had something to do with their passing, I apologize. Everyone takes a guess at a question sometime; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Is that not the advice of the NCLEX test prep courses? To narrow the answers down to the best two and pick from there. If there are people that passed the NCLEX or any other test without one "eeny-meeny-miney-moe" then sincere congratulations to them.
I understand that the odds of guessing correctly 75+ times is ridiculous. But I don't rely on the NCLEX as the final gatekeeper to keep people from getting their license. I resent the fact that my school knows these people are cheating and willing to let them through program and wait for the HESI or NCLEX to weed them out. I'm surprised at this actually. My cc has a good NCLEX pass rate, better than many 4 yr institutions in my area.
I have my EMT and I passed the written portion no problem, but the hands on test, like a previous poster said, is more difficult. It weeds out those who can't perform the physcial tasks of taking care of patients- usually basics like ABCs. Clinicals should do that in nursing programs, but people get pushed along there as well.
Many of the people cheating now, cheated their way into the program, and will continue to cheat and lie in the future.
It really doesn't seem like a big deal to me. It's wrong, sure. But I'd like to think nursing is more then just memorizing text books. They'll need that information in clinicals, and if they don't know what they're doing, they're not going to pass. If they can make it through clinicals, and pass the nclex, then chances are...they deserve their license.
In any case, is there really any reason for you to go out of your way to screw someone else over? The chances of them making it anyways are almost non existant. So theres no real reason for you to make an effort to be the bad guy. You're in nursing school for a reason, focus on your studies and make sure you end up with a license when your time is served. Don't worry so much about taking up crusades against others.
I despise cheaters as well, we have a few in my AP class. In "the real world" there are slacker's everywhere nursing or not. They are cheating themselves!!! Chalk it off; their day will come...
but if you must say something to the instructor, say it in person. you want them people cought so do the 'right' thing and say it in person, no email, or annonimous email. if you think its that important to tell on them, once again, do it in person. i am sure that will give you more satisfaction.
SilentMind
253 Posts
O rly?
I haven't taken it yet, but I'm willing to bet you just ****** off a lot of nurses that prepped for months only to scrape by, or to have to take it a second time.