Passing cut offs

[vonricter222]

Obviously, other nursing students are aware of passing cut offs in nursing school (ex 75% or higher). But I feel like I haven't seen any other nursing programs like mine: for our BSN program, the cut off for passing is 70% and above, however, in some of the classes (not sure why it's only some of them, doesn't seem fair) that's not all. In addition to the 70% cut off in the class we also have to have an average of 70% or higher in the exam section of the class or we don't pass either. If you get a D or F as an average in the exam section, then that is your grade for the course and you don't pass. It seems really dumb to me because I've known many students in our program that have gotten screwed out of this where everything in the class came out to be an A or B yet they were a couple point's shy of that 70% average in the exam section and they don't pass, students who would all make great nurses. Does anyone else have this at their school? I just think it's really stupid. I know 70% is fairly low for nursing programs and seems easy to get for the class overall and exam section. But when it's set up like this, especially when the class had only three exams, it basically says that even if we have one test that we do more poorly on, and everyone has those tests, then we're screwed. Anyone else have this at their school too?

[johsonmichelle]

Mine is 75 percent and they do not round but people still fail every semester. My school makes sure that they prepare us for the n clex so each exam mimics the nclex. Just because the required pass mark is high or low , its not a good indication for whether the school is good or not. Before you attend a school, you should research the nclex pass rate and each semester pass rate. The nclex is getting harder and harder each year so the schools must keep up. Since you signed up to attend that school, you must follow their rules. Thats why I'm attending the adn and not a bsn program because I did not feel like the bsn programs in my area were that good . The community colleges in my state nclex pass rates were much much better too.

[cupcakeluver]

My school is 80% as well. Additional assignments or projects are pass/fail. The only grades that count are the five tests we have each semester. It is hard. I'm hoping that it will enable me to pass NCLEX the first time.

I do get what you're saying. With the system at my school, one bad test grade can screw you. You definitely have to hit the ground running as there is little room for error. It's the nature of the beast that is nursing school.

[nlitened]

My school is 76% and plenty of people still fail. Look at it this way...they want you to retain a certain percentage of knowledge. In my opinion, it's already set low enough. If someone is struggling to retain that 24% of information, then they could possibly put their patients at risk and maybe failing that course and repeating is just what they need.

When it comes to safety and someones life, the standard can never be too high.

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

Mine was 75% for the class, 75% for exams (which were NCLEX prep type of exams, 100% on the med calc exam we took for every class, 100% attendance and a pass in clinicals, and a 90% on the ATI exam for the class (you got a second chance to take both med calc and ATI).

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

My school is 75%. Our grades are weighted with homework and presentations only worth 10% of our grade and exams 90%. That means your homework means very little to your grade. So if you bomb your tests, you are not going to pass the class. It's because of NCLEX. If you don't pass your tests, you are probably not going to pass NCLEX.

[ready2baRN]

Our pass rate is 80% for all test and to pass the class. However they are gracious and do round up if you end up with a 79.5% or higher they will round up to a B but if you get a 79.4% you end up with a c+ and you fail.

All our exams are also proctored and are not pencil and paper exams. We take all our nursing exams on the computer through Evolve/Elsevier and to add salt to the wound you are not allowed to go back to change an answer! Therefore when you answer a question on a exam you better hope and pray you selected the best possible answer because once you click next there is no going back to change it.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

That is a low barrier to pass and if you can't pass the exams are how are you going to pass the NCLEX to actually work as a nurse! Doing well on exams is important for that reason. It is meant to prepare you to pass boards. Obviously more study is needed and some new study tactics. I recommend using board review books/CD's to study for your nursing classes as well as prepare for the board exam.

[VivaLaVespaGirl, BSN, MSN]

Yes. It works the same at our school, though our cutoff is at 76%. Exams are averaged first and if you do not meet the 76%, the didactic portion is not even calculated. It makes perfect sense to me as the exams are what test your practical knowledge of the material, not papers and group presentations.

[turtlesRcool]

I'm trying to figure out how things are weighted in your courses where someone with a D or F average on tests could get an A or B overall. My program wasn't at all like that, and to judge from the replies on this thread, most other programs grade all/primarily on tests as well. I don't remember every course, but do recall that my advanced med-surg class had a midterm, a final, and ATI for 95% of the grade. We had projects/presentations worth a whole 5%. No quizzes, no smaller tests, just big, huge comprehensive ones.

Also, while we had to maintain a C average, those were separate Cs for classroom and clinical portions. There was one classmate who failed out halfway through the program when he flunked our maternity course. He had an A in clinical, but a C- in classroom. I think he was off by two points or something, but he had to withdraw from the program, and sit out a full year until that course was offered again. Interestingly, he took it really well, and when some of us were sympathizing with him, he replied, "no, no, It's fair. I don't want to be a C- nurse, and I wouldn't want a C- nurse taking care of me." I wish him luck because he is a great guy with a wonderful bedside manner.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Gen Ed's at my school were 78%, nursing classes are 80%. My A&P/micro teacher was known as "the gatekeeper" b/c if you couldn't get by him with a 78%, no way were you going to make it in nursing school!! They tried several times to make him require that 80% but he held firm saying he was NOT a nursing instructor, he didn't fall under that rule.

Oh, and NO rounding up, and NO appealing after the fact if you pulled off a 79.998---you failed, cut and dried

[CamillusRN, BSN]

I don't. The minimum for my program is 76% and that's plenty low enough in my opinion. Do you really want people passing nursing programs who don't know 30% of the material?

78% for my program. While we only lost 2 students out of 30 due to failing out of the program, my cohort's 1st time NCLEX pass rate was miserable (in the upper 50%'s). Only the students who were motivated to self-teach and questioned most of the instruction after lecture passed on the first round. I have a strong feeling that the academic structure will be greatly reconfigured over the next few years.

[lardo]

Unfortunately for patients, even getting an "A" doesn't mean you know and understand the material. There are many people who are nurses who probably shouldn't be; as long as you pass, that seems to be all that matters.