Seriously?!?!?!

cogath · May 25, 2011

Interesting that your school is doing this at a time when the profession in general is so swamped. In order to make our school more competitive and to up standards and weed out students, the grading scale is changing but in the opposite direction (an A is a now a B, etc).

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · May 25, 2011

Interesting that your school is doing this at a time when the profession in general is so swamped. In order to make our school more competitive and to up standards and weed out students, the grading scale is changing but in the opposite direction (an A is a now a B, etc).

They have been scaling back a lot of things after my semester and making it easier. I am really interested in seeing the NCLEX pass rates in a year to 2 years. With my semester they were going for the National Accreditation so were very tough. But now they got it. They have had a strict grading scale for years, I am very shocked to see they are changing it. They have also had some really tough but great teachers leave. I was pretty happy with my program, but I am glad I went through it when I did. Although it was tough, it was good. I had no problem passing boards within days of graduating. (although at the time I was sure I failed them. lol)

cogath · May 25, 2011

Good for you and your school for challenging its students. We need higher standards in nursing to advance the profession and make it more competitive. We have a lot of whiners when it came to the grade changes. But the way I see it is, the harder we have to work, the more we will know and the better chance of passing the NCLEX and being excellent nurses.

But the issue of grad schools looking at grades across the board is an important concern that you mentioned. Maybe there needs to be some sort of standardized grading scale in schools that have acceditation.

metal_m0nk, BSN, RN · May 25, 2011

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhh....I'd be pretty ******.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · May 25, 2011

Good for you and your school for challenging its students. We need higher standards in nursing to advance the profession and make it more competitive. We have a lot of whiners when it came to the grade changes. But the way I see it is, the harder we have to work, the more we will know and the better chance of passing the NCLEX and being excellent nurses.
But the issue of grad schools looking at grades across the board is an important concern that you mentioned. Maybe there needs to be some sort of standardized grading scale in schools that have acceditation.

I completely agree with having higher standards, like I said, my program was tough but we were well prepared. That is why I am so shocked hey are lowering the grading standards. I am not sure if they are also lowering the minimum passing grade which was a 77%. But they are lowering the percentage needed to get a A and B. It just stinks for those of us that just graduated. It is what it is. I am fine with the GPA needed for the RN-BSN but it's just annoying as all since we can't get our grades to match the new scale! LOL

Trilldayz,RN BSN · May 25, 2011

This would be OK if all schools had the same grading scale.... If not, it's unfair...PERIOD. My school's scale was higher too, and I hated it.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · May 25, 2011

This would be OK if all schools had the same grading scale.... If not, it's unfair...PERIOD. My school's scale was higher too, and I hated it.

I agree, when it comes to grading it would be nice if all schools were on the same system, including if they have like 3.6 or 2.8 instead of only 2.0,3.0 4.0. We have 3 local RN programs with 3 different grading scales. The BSN program is on a 10 point spread. So a 80 for them was a B, but a C for me. Or 77 was our cut off and 70 for them. Other colleges don't know this. It's just frustrating is all. I would love if it was consistent.

Oh well, for my RN-BSN it's all back on the 10 point grading scale and now that I have my RN I don't feel near the pressure. It's go at your own pace and all online outside of a 120 hr clinical.

pitaya · May 25, 2011

The best grading scale I know of is one where 90% is an A, 80% is a B, and anything below is failure. To me, that's still having high standards of at least an 80% to pass, but it doesn't screw up your GPA by making you have a C if you have an 84% or something crazy like that like other schools do. I have never understood the point of skewed grading scales!!! Even one of the local high schools in the rural area I'm from skews their high school grading scale and I think it is a disadvantage to their graduates.

mariposabella · May 25, 2011

Wow that REALLY sucks. Just your luck. Sorry to hear that.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · May 25, 2011

I think it's interesting that the university may have a grading policy in place that the nursing program here doesn't follow. Granted, the nursing graduates do not get to attend graduation with the rest of the university.

70-79 = C

80-89 = B

90-100 = A through the university

in nursing:

78-84 = C

85-89= B

90-100 = A

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · May 26, 2011

I think it's interesting that the university may have a grading policy in place that the nursing program here doesn't follow. Granted, the nursing graduates do not get to attend graduation with the rest of the university.
70-79 = C
80-89 = B
90-100 = A through the university
in nursing:
78-84 = C
85-89= B
90-100 = A

The CC here is on that same grading scale as your university and then the Nursing program has it's own grading scale. But although nursing has it's own Pinning Ceremony, you can also graduate with the college. I did both. (was forced to but glad I did). The University here has the same scale for everyone, including their nursing students. Your programs grading scale is pretty close to ours, 77 was our Minimum passing though and an A was 93% or above.

Well all of that is changing now. Like I said though, the most frustrating part is just that when it transfers to other programs, that's not taking into consideration. Like I would have been fine if the nursing program had it's own standards, but at the end when you graduated the grades transferred over normally.