Math at Broward College

labrador4122, RN · Dec 8, 2009

i've been hearing horror stories (well, okay, reading here on these forums..) about the math quizzes at broward. something like: there's a quiz at the beginning of every class and if you fail one question you fail the quiz and are kicked out of the program.that is correct.
that sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. ridiculous, but very true-- you are only allowed to fail 4 credits, a lecture class is 3 credits, and a clinical lab class (which is where you take the math quizz at the beginning of the semester) is 2 credits. so if you fail a lecture class-- you can take it again, pass everything, and then later if you mess up on the math, then you are out of the program no matter if you are in your last semester of the program.
please someone tell me what these math quizzes are, what classes we take them in, how often, how hard they are, what's typically on them, and a book or books that would be helpful to get and study. do a search on broward college website on nursing math, there you should find a link for the math.
i'm taking nursing pre-req's this semester and next and then hopefully will be admitted to the nursing program! good for you!! :) anyone take prof s.p. for bsc1085 (central), c.a. for bsc1085l (central), s.m. for chm1032 (south), or v.c. for hcp0130 (central)? if so...do you have their syllabus and how were they??
thank you everyone!!!!!

i did pre-reqs at mdc. and did only nursing at bc. so i am not aware of the teachers there. but you should look into the site, ratemyproffessor.com and pick your teachers based on the reviews.

the math tests aren't that bad-- they are 7th or 8th grade level... its very nerve wrecking when you are only allowed to miss one question out of ten, you are not allowed to use a calculator (which in the nclex-rn exam you are allowed).......... to every other nursing student that i spoke to from different schools all of them were allowed calculators, and they could miss 2 questions in the exam....... they said at nova they give them 3 chances for the math exams, with calculators.

EmmyBee · Dec 8, 2009

i've been hearing horror stories (well, okay, reading here on these forums..) about the math quizzes at broward. something like: there's a quiz at the beginning of every class and if you fail one question you fail the quiz and are kicked out of the program.

just to clarify, the quiz is at the beginning of every new class/rotation. and if you fail the first time, you get to try again. but if you fail that second attempt, then they will withdraw you. you can't do clinicals at the hospital if you didn't pass the math for that rotation.

at south, we had the math class a total of 4 days, the first two weeks of school. the math exam was held on that last friday. the book we used was dosage calculations: a ratio-proportion approach (i think 2nd edition...whatever was new in may), by gloria d. pickar.

the math is not hard, but like i always say, it's the easy mistakes that get people. and of course the fear of knowing you can only miss one question, doesn't help to ease anyone's mind.

but they give an hour to do ten questions. so i find that if i do all ten problems 3 to 4 times each, during that hour, starting from scratch (not looking at the way i worked it already), it really helps. i always find at least one mistake that i would have missed, had i not gone over the problems again.

alisonelizabeth · Dec 9, 2009

i did see, however, on broward's website, that if you fail a nursing exam twice, you are withdrawn from the clinical lab and required to complete a remediation class before trying the class again--so it seems you're not kicked out of the entire program?

definitely going to get that pickar book and start studying now..

EmmyBee · Dec 9, 2009

i did see, however, on broward's website, that if you fail a nursing exam twice, you are withdrawn from the clinical lab and required to complete a remediation class before trying the class again--so it seems you're not kicked out of the entire program?
definitely going to get that pickar book and start studying now..

that's pretty much it. so far we haven't had anyone fail a clinical. but for those who either failed the math or a lecture class, they all had to do some form of remediation class and in some cases, take a tabe test. so for those students, they are not banned from the program at this point. but it's just a matter of them completing the required remedial classes, then being able to get a seat for the semester where they left off.

i've heard about some of my classmates starting in january (if seats are available). but one of my friends had to take the math and i think an sls class. whatever it was, the two classes overlapped by one hour....like one ended on wednesday at 3pm, but the other class started on wednesday at 2 pm. they wouldn't let him miss that hour. so now he has to wait for the next class (can't remember if it was math or sls) and they said the earliest he could try to get back in the program is august 2010.

so even though you are not officially "kicked out", failing a class or the math can really set you back. it sucks!

alisonelizabeth · Dec 9, 2009

This is all after taking Pharmacology and Math for nursing though, right?

EmmyBee · Dec 9, 2009

This is all after taking Pharmacology and Math for nursing though, right?

Are you asking if it's the procedure once you pass pharm and the math class? We took both (pharm and math) during our first semester, along with NUR 2020 and NUR 2000L.

I'm not aware of anyone failing the math exam after the second attempt (from the math class itself). So I'm not sure what the procedure would be for that.

And as far as the pharm goes...I only kept in touch with one person who didn't pass it. They withdrew him from GI/GU, that he was registered for, but didn't start yet. And he was actually able to get into the very next pharm class (within weeks). All he had to do extra was 12 hours of clinical review in the lab.

He just finished that pharm class and passed. So he will have to speak to the dean, to see if they will have room for him in January, to start GI/GU. Other than that, I don't really know if the rules are different for the initial math exam or the pharm class. I guess it also depends on the campus and how much room is available each semester.

alisonelizabeth · Dec 9, 2009

I meant do these math quizzes begin after taking Pharm and math for nurses? I don't see how they can give us math quizzes on dosing without having tought us that first..

EmmyBee · Dec 9, 2009

Yes, you have the math class first. I started the LPN/RN transition in May at south campus. Week one, we had two days of math class. Week two, we had two more days of math class. On that last day (day 4), we had to take our first math exam for the program.

From there we went to GI/GU, and had to take one on the first day. Same thing for Peds. January we'll have to do the same for Psych and so on. I'm not trying to stress you out! LOL I am just saying people shouldn't take them lightly. And from what I have heard and seen so far, some rotations the math is a little trickier than others. You will be fine!

Edited to add~ this is MY experience at SOUTH so far. Not sure how things work anywhere else, or if it is different for the generic students.

alisonelizabeth · Dec 9, 2009

Wow, four days worth of math!! :) Guess I'd definitely better start studying early. Glad to hear most people don't have issues with it, though. Math is not my strong point.

GabbsRN · Dec 13, 2009

At north, we had the math class one day a week for 4 weeks, starting the first week of school. The 4th class we had our test- 10 questions, you can only miss one. If you pass, you're done until nursing process 2. If you fail, you come back next week and try again. If you pass, you're done, etc. If you fail, you take the class over- come back next week. YOu have 3 classes, and on the 3rd class you take a test. You pass, you're done, you fail, you get yet ANOTHER chance and come back the next class. If you fail that one, then you cannot continue onto nursing process 2. YOu will have to retake the math class when it begins again the start of the next semester and you will retrack back in with the nursing process 2 class that semester. Like for our group, which started in Aug, the next math is in Jan. Then nursing process 2 starts in March.

I am a generic student by the way :)

After that, the first day of clinical from here on out you take a math test. Its always 10 questions, you can only miss one, etc. But, if you fail, you just come back next week and get another shot. If you fail that one, then you have to retrack or if its a multiple failure then you're out.

The math is not that bad, and they explain everything in class. I never even bought the book and did fine. The north campus nursing process professor has a math page with practice problems (and answers) and our tests were always just like the practice problems.

A word of advice when taking the test:

You have an hour, and at least for the nursing process 1 & 2 tests, you will be finished way before that hour is up. What I do is I do every problem once, then I go back and do them all again, rereading every word in the problem just in case I missed something. Then I compare my answers. If the answers match, I write that down on the test sheet. If they don't I redo the problem again. Some people I know did the problems 3 or 4 times before writing the answers down on the test sheet. Also, VERY important, at least at north, you will get marked wrong if you do not put mg, tab, gtts/min after your numerical answer. For instance, the problem is asking how many tabs would you give and you figure out its 1 tab, but you just put down 1, it will be wrong unless you put "1 tab". Sometimes it will have a blank line like this: _______ tab , then you can just put the 1 because tab is already written out, but if its just a blank line, write everything. I know someone who failed the math the begining of NP2 because of that, but the rules are the rules and they told us that 100 times already, so it wasn't anything new to us. Also double check all your rounding in your problems and your answers. You have to round at every step of the problem while working it out or you will get the wrong answer in the end. Don't just assume you remembered all the rounding rules. In NP1 you can use the rounding rule sheet. I've heard the other campuses vary on when you can no longer use it anymore, but at north, we get to use it all the way to Ortho/Neuro.

jam911 · Dec 20, 2009

just to clarify, the quiz is at the beginning of every new class/rotation. and if you fail the first time, you get to try again. but if you fail that second attempt, then they will withdraw you. you can't do clinicals at the hospital if you didn't pass the math for that rotation.
at south, we had the math class a total of 4 days, the first two weeks of school. the math exam was held on that last friday. the book we used was dosage calculations: a ratio-proportion approach (i think 2nd edition...whatever was new in may), by gloria d. pickar.
the math is not hard, but like i always say, it's the easy mistakes that get people. and of course the fear of knowing you can only miss one question, doesn't help to ease anyone's mind.
but they give an hour to do ten questions. so i find that if i do all ten problems 3 to 4 times each, during that hour, starting from scratch (not looking at the way i worked it already), it really helps. i always find at least one mistake that i would have missed, had i not gone over the problems again.

just went on amazon thinking that i could buy this book for like 2 bucks like perry potter... wow, it's like 39 bucks, so i f i buy this book, i can use this book in class,, or they will tell me to get another or newer edition