Select all that apply questions

[Jweinstein]

So I am working on appealing my final grade for my nursing program. The Dean of the program changed the rounding rule while we were in our 3rd semester so a 74.5 no longer rounds to a 75 which is the required grade for passing. Well in my final semester I ended up with a 74.96 average, I needed just one more question right on the comprehensive final in order to graduate. There was an SATA question on the final that only had 1 correct answer. I thought I read somewhere that in order for a question to apply as a select all that apply there had to be more that one correct answer. I may be grasping at straws at this point but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[FutureNurseInfo]

Not true. Some SATA questions may only have one correct answer. They are designed to trick you since you assume there should at least be 2 right answers. How are you going to appeal your grade?

[Jweinstein]

I've written an appeal letter to the Dean of Students asking to be allowed to review the scantrons from my test. There were several questions on the final that had errors. There was another SATA that had the last 2 answer choices ran together so it looked as if it was one answer choice instead of 2 and the last answer choice was a correct answer. Other students were allowed to review their scantrons but I was not given this option. I'm also bringing up the point that this program has completely changed since I entered the program 2 years ago, we have a new Dean of the nursing program and she has changed the handbook 3 times since she has started.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Most college handbooks are going to include language that indicates they may change. That means your dean of nursing would have been perfectly fine with making the changes.

You did not fail your course by one question. Your academic performance would have borderline for the entire semester. You could have turned things around. I wish you luck with your appeal, but realistically I would not be surprised if it were denied.

[Jweinstein]

I really only had one test grade that was horrible and brought my grade down pretty low, this was due to being in and out of hospital with a sick baby, I had to fight my way back out of that hole. I was told by one of my instructors that I should ask to review my final because there were a lot of bad questions on the test that had to be thrown out and she felt that it was a bad test. How many questions would have to be thrown out or credited for a test to be considered a poor test?

[FutureNurseInfo]

I really only had one test grade that was horrible and brought my grade down pretty low, this was due to being in and out of hospital with a sick baby, I had to fight my way back out of that hole. I was told by one of my instructors that I should ask to review my final because there were a lot of bad questions on the test that had to be thrown out and she felt that it was a bad test. How many questions would have to be thrown out or credited for a test to be considered a poor test?

The only silver lining I see is that since many other students were given an opportunity to review their exams, you should be able, too. Other than that, do not bring up any other issues you think will help you in your reinstating. Like PP said, guidelines and procedures are subject to change without notice, so it in itself cannot be the cause of your failure.

[gypsyjojo]

Why do they have to "trick " us? Can't they just ask an honest application question..that's plenty hard enough and it's using our critical thinking...tricking us is really not assessing our skills.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Why do they have to "trick " us? Can't they just ask an honest application question..that's plenty hard enough and it's using our critical thinking...tricking us is really not assessing our skills.

They are not trying to trick you. It is difficult to write a question that is well worded and contains 2 obviously incorrect answers, one close incorrect, and one correct answer. That is why many instructors use test banks provided by the publisher that is intended to be only distributed to instructors. The problem is the internet. Once a non-instructor gets a copy, it spreads like wild fire on the internet. Once you and your classmates get a copy of the test bank, it negates the validity of the test.

[FutureNurseInfo]

Why do they have to "trick " us? Can't they just ask an honest application question..that's plenty hard enough and it's using our critical thinking...tricking us is really not assessing our skills.

I know this because in my A&P 1 online homework I had many, many SATA questions where only one answer was correct.

[Purple_Clover]

SATA is very hard. It's like 5 questions in one for only the points of 1 question. I doubt your appeal is going to be successful, but maybe it will be. The rules changed and that is that. I don't agree with Rose_Queen that you didn't only fail by one point. That is the whole issue here. I will say, however, that my program requires an 80% to pass, so it could be worse (even though that isn't very comforting)

[Miss.LeoRN]

My school also did this; gave us SATAs with only one answer. It was frustrating but I didn't question it. Not until about two weeks ago when I was using NCSBN to prep for the NCLEX and one of their reminder/tips was that SATA questions have at least two correct answers... Specifically it stated that with SATA questions "more than one response is correct".

But, nursing school kinda does what it wants. Unfortunately you will likely be repeating that semester/class. There was a girl my first semester that had a similar situation, only my program required a 78 and wouldn't round, nor listen to any argument/debate questions (including the really bad ones they would attempt to write on their own!).

[Jweinstein]

The program I was enrolled in allows students to argue questions but it really depends on the instructor that gave the test, some are more lenient than others. After looking at my emails from the instructors one of them sent a link referring us to ways to answer SATA questions which included the link to the NCSBN. I feel if they are going to send us information like this they should work to make sure their questions follow this format. But you are right these programs do what they want and the handbooks are so broad it's hard to appeal anything.