If 50% of the class failed an exam..Was it because the instructor failed to teach?

TexasPediRN · Oct 17, 2005

Where the students who were complaining they were not prepared complaing because they had not studied enough, or were they complaining because the material was completely different then expected?

Were you told what to study? If so, they I have to say there isnt really an excuse.. (this is in general, im not attacking you so please dont think I am!)

Since this prof. came in mid semester, thats got to be hard. I guess most people were used to how the other professor taught and not this new one..

I think that you should talk to this professor though, and explain this to her. I'm going on the assumption that the style of the test was not what you expected, not the material that was covered?

Changing mid semester is hard, but change in nursing is inevitable. Maybe she can offer a 'make-up' test, or give you a chance to redo your test to gain 1/2 back for each question you got wrong. Thats have i've had a few tests done. Take the test, look up the answer, justify where you got it from or your reasoning, and gain half credit. It helps. See if she is willing to do this. Also explain what you were used to with pharm tests and how the change may be what made a lot of people do poorly.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

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hopefully · Oct 18, 2005

There was a red flag in here. She told the class, "A lot of people pass theory but fail pharm in the other school I teach in. You need to pass pharm to go on." The stuff she lectured about in class was not in the test. She told the class to read the chapters which were 8 long chapters with no focus on what to study for. She gives us these drugs on the test from out of the blue from the book and she expects us to know about 800 or so drugs without telling us to know which one to focus on. And the drugs she told us to focus on were not in the exam. There were a lot of drug questions. If you missed those drug question, a percentage of your grade is down the drain, say maybe 12%. She gave us these questions on the test, she did not even mention. In any case, a person who got straight A's last semester was vocal in complaining to her that the test was not what she expected.

The way I look at it, she is just there for a pay check. If students fail, or a majority of them do, she probably would not care. Dang, now I have to go into Phd level to pass this course..

z's playa · Oct 18, 2005

Definately bring the complaint to the dean or whoever it is in charge. This is pretty new to her too and I'm sure she will make mistakes. This sounds like it could count as numero uno !

Our prof figured out after everyone stayed after for the tutorial with the teachers assistant in one of our classes, that we needed extra time. She didn't want to have to bell curve the exam. It was her first time teaching this class too..so she was able to admit she probably wasn't getting her message across to us...and postponed the exam 1.5 weeks.

Maybe she can bell curve yours? Anyways....definately talk to someone.

Z

TexasPediRN · Oct 18, 2005

hopefully-

Wow. Our pharm class was always integrated with all of our nursing classes, so i've never had a straight out just pharm course.

I think that 8 chapters, and no focus isnt really correct. I would recommend talking to the prof. still, and if nothing changes, I would go to your head of the nursing department and just explain to her that you (and hopefully some other students) have tried talking to this teacher and that her teaching methods are ineffective for 50% of the class, considering this many failed.

I am really curious though, do you remember what kind of drugs she pulled from the book? Like, completely obscure that most nurses wouldnt know it type of drug?

800 drugs for a test is a little outrageous if I do say so myself..

Talk with her, or the head of the nursing department. Let us know!

Race Mom, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2005

How long did your class get lectured on the 8 chapters? What were her lectures about if they didn't cover the material in those chapters?

Woogy

hopefully · Oct 25, 2005

hopefully-
Wow. Our pharm class was always integrated with all of our nursing classes, so i've never had a straight out just pharm course.
I think that 8 chapters, and no focus isnt really correct. I would recommend talking to the prof. still, and if nothing changes, I would go to your head of the nursing department and just explain to her that you (and hopefully some other students) have tried talking to this teacher and that her teaching methods are ineffective for 50% of the class, considering this many failed.
I am really curious though, do you remember what kind of drugs she pulled from the book? Like, completely obscure that most nurses wouldnt know it type of drug?
800 drugs for a test is a little outrageous if I do say so myself..
Talk with her, or the head of the nursing department. Let us know!

We got our exams back today There are only 12 people in our pharm class. I talked with about seven people in my class that were approachable. I do not know about the grades of the other five people because I don't communitcate with those students. Out of the seven students I talked with, six failed with below 75% and one passed with 77%. The 77% was the highest.

I went to the director. And I asked her that maybe the information is not going through because many people failed. She seemed disintereted or maybe irritated at me . I don't know what is going to come of it but I am not hopeful. The pharm instructor had the nerve of saying that the "grades were allright." So maybe this is the end for me. I know her exams are going to be that difficult. I might as well quit now instead of wasting my time, studying for her next exam which is impossible to pass..

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2005

Sounds more like a issue of lousy test questions. Make sure you do some debriefing of yourself. See if you can figure out how you went wrong with the questions that you missed. See if you can figure out if it was the way the questions were worded, or was it just information that you didn't know. Some instructors are very sly in the way they word questions, so really look at what you were being asked and what answer choices you were given. Some very slick instructors will put possible answers on a test because they sound "almost" right in order to trick people in to choosing them without paying attention to what the question is actually asking. They do this to see if you are reading and thinking. Just some advice. . .use all the time you are given for a test. If you finish before time is up, go back and re-read the questions, cover the first answer you picked and see if you come up with a different answer the second time around. Another technique is to try to answer multiple choice questions without looking at the answers and then see if the answer is there. Multiple choice and true and false questions can be made misleading very easily by putting key words in them that trigger your brain to assume a fact you weren't given. Hope that might be helpful for you.

Hoozdo, ADN · Oct 25, 2005

I failed it. I would be happy if I got above 60%. We need 75% to pass. A lot of students told me and complained to the instructor that they were not prepared and my classmates told me they failed it. It is not like I am dumb and ready to get weeded out as how the new pharm instructor looks at it... In theory, and my other nursing classes I am close to 90%. The new pharmcology instructor is new and quite young, maybe 24 years old and inexperienced in teaching...She told the class at the other school she is teaching at, a lot of people fail...If I fail pharm, I don't continue...

I had a second semester pharm class like this too with an instructor teaching the class for the first time. More than 50% were failing though........more like 95% of the students were failing. Something had to be done or the whole class would flunk. She started grading on a bell curve. Actually the instructor starting crying in class when we were all complaining about the failure rate! I felt bad for her actually because it was obvious she was not a good teacher in this particular subject!

Best of luck,

Lu Ann

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2005

Sounds like a bad test. Our insturctors would take a test like that and go question by question and throw out the ones that a large number of people missed.

Pharm is a weed out course, but that sounds dreadful. Good luck.

hopefully · Oct 25, 2005

Sounds like a bad test. Our insturctors would take a test like that and go question by question and throw out the ones that a large number of people missed.
Pharm is a weed out course, but that sounds dreadful. Good luck.

Ouch, I am a pharmacy tech. I have an AA degree in Pharmacy Technolgy. I been thru pharm a lot harder than this but the key was an effective instructor. That is missing here. It is not the students. It is the instructor.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2005

Ouch, I am a pharmacy tech. I have an AA degree in Pharmacy Technolgy. I been thru pharm a lot harder than this but the key was an effective instructor. That is missing here. It is not the students. It is the instructor.

Try not to dispair and keep it in perspective. It's only one test. Now that you know how this instructor is, perhaps you can squeeze by and pass the next one, factor in your other grades. Think positive, because the instructor probably isn't going to go away.

Hopefully, though if there's enough of an uproar there will be curve, throwing out of questions, extra credit next time. One can hope.

Good luck.