Last semester of Practical Nursing.. is this even fair?

rjones416 · Jul 6, 2016

At my school they said you need to pass all 3 comprehensive tests but guess what? A lot of people failed the tests and still passed at the end. I don't think anyone fails pre-grad unless your preceptor reports you for being incompetent or something. The purpose of these tests are to just prepare you for the CPNRE.

loriangel14, RN · Jul 6, 2016

That's about how our last semester was too. I don't see what you think is unfair about it. 75% isn't an incredibly high bar.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jul 6, 2016

if a large % of the students are failing, it is teacher issue...

toronto_nurse · Jul 8, 2016

Hello everyone,
I am currently on my last semester of Practical Nursing at Seneca College and I would just like to share my experience.
In our college, the criteria to pass the final semester would be as follows:
10% - Quiz 1
10%- Quiz 2
40%- Comprehensive Exam 1
40%- Comprehensive Exam 2
TO PASS THIS FINAL COURSE, YOU NEED A 75%.
Aside from this, we need to accumulate 375 clinical placement hours.
Now, I am currently halfway in this semester, juggling clinical placement and studying for those tests at the same time. I have passed the first 2 tests so far and just got the result for my Comprehensive Exam. I FAILED MISERABLY - I got a 68%. In this Comprehensive Exam, every content that was discussed and not discussed were testable. So I was definitely juggling my clinical placement and studying for this "CPNRE like" exam. For some reason, most of the people I know failed as well and (we are talking about students who were doing well from the past few semesters), so it seems like something was wrong.
Question is: Is a 75% average to pass this last course fair? Was the breakdown of the course fair?
How did your college structure your last semester of practical nursing school?
Comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I just reviewed the course outlines from Seneca's website for your consolidation course from both the continuing education and fulltime program. The grading requirements are the same for both sections but the continuing education section required a cumulative 75% for final grade. I would speak to your instructor or faculty adviser in regards to the differences in standards since overall passing grade is normally set at a C.

soccerlady6 · Sep 28, 2016

Hello! I am just wondering something about the consolidation program from a former student! Was it difficult to get the 75%, and also did most people pass the class ? Did they bump anyone up if they didn't meet the exact 75%? Any advice for it? I am worried as I am doing it now!

firlom44, LPN · Sep 29, 2016

Hi soccerlady6,

To be honest 75% was a little high since we all started with only needing 60% to pass every course. In that case, a lot of people struggled. And let's be honest, we were kind of spoon fed since the beginning (by this I mean- instructors giving us reviews on what to study.)

I personally struggled from the start, but you just build on it. Practice a lot of questions and discuss nursing topics with your friends.

I believe we had about 25-30 people who passed 520. I never heard anyone who got bumped up to pass actually.

My advice: focus on your weakness. Let's say if Cardio is your weakness, study that topic. Use every resources you can use.

soccerlady6 · Sep 29, 2016

Thank you for the advice! My cardio/resp test is this week and I am completely scared for it, even though I have been attempting to prepare for a while now... there seems to be so much for it

Sunshine_AB · Dec 20, 2016

Seneca's program has issues that the school is trying to address. You can not compare a full time program to this program simple because most full time programs have high standards from day one and achieving a 60% in pre-grad is equivalent to a 75 at Seneca.

Don't let the 75% discourage you work hard to achieve it and move forward this too shall pass.

Khow89 · Dec 22, 2016

I recently graduated from Seneca and it was a surprise seeing that the passing grade was 75% instead of 60% like before. I think that the reason why they have such a high passing grade is to make sure that those who are graduating are prepared for the the CPNRE. From my own personal experiences I felt that they structured the program in a way where if you made it to the last term, 75% is a reasonable passing grade. So it might be hard to make any appeal unless your ASI mark is really high which shows that you know your material.

Sunshine_AB · Dec 22, 2016

Actually, Seneca's part time program has a lot of issues the school is trying to address. Please note you can not compare that program to any of the full time ones simply because the standard for full time is set high, some students at Seneca unfortunately have given the school a bad name and considering it has the lowest success rate on the CNO exams explains all the changes and 75 % to pass. All the changes are to bring the program up to par with the other colleges.

Sorry I forgot to mention Seneca King and Yorkgate campus programs are very good programs just like any of the other full time programs.

Missha · Dec 30, 2016

I am from Seneca as well, just graduated this June 2016 and finished 520 in April. I was in the part time program as well, they raised it from 70% to 75% for us and we had the exact same requirements but ON TOP of all the quizzes and exams we had to pass an ASI exam with 75% minimum. From what I heard, they removed the ASI exam after our class.

I passed all the quizzes and exams on my first try, and from my class I am only aware of around 10 people out of the 70 that passed. I wasn't really surprised. The problem with the PT program is that the teachers hired for the classes leading up to consolidation are all part-time staff. They only come to campus to do their 3 hours and go, there's not much commitment to the students. A lot of my friends that didn't do well tended to "shop around" at enrollment time for class sections with teachers that were known to be easy markers or ones that give out really good "reviews" before exam time.

My advice to anyone trying to pass the PT Seneca program is to study prep guides and to buddy up with your Preceptor if they're recent grads and ask them how they studied. I do have to say, the Seneca comprehensive exams were a lot tougher than the actual CPNRE, so if you do pass, you'll have a great chance at the CNO exam! :yes: