Test question, your thoughts?

ototoxicity. It is a very common side effect.

I had a question on one of my med surg tests about vancomycin and the answer for our test was ototoxicity. My teacher stressed that so much during class.

The plot thickens...

So, we were supposed to get the tests back today, but instead, we got an email saying that everyone but one person failed the test! And the one person who passed got a low C! They're going to give another test on Monday the 21st and encouraged everyone to study harder. I am absolutely baffled. Other than this one question, I really thought I did well ont his test. I studied hard and didn't think the test was that difficult and felt really good about it. I emailed the course director and asked her if I could see what I missed or at least meet with her to discuss it because I don't feel like I can "study harder" for next time. Obviously, there is something that I'm missing.

On the up side, I got to spend the day in Angio today and loved it! It was SO much better than Med-Surg!! :-)

Good luck on the test. My experience, having made it almost to the end of junior year (come on summer!), plus all my life experience before me including 15 years experience as a technical writer, is that nursing program test taking is an art, and deciphering test questions is an altogether additional skill. The better you know the material the better off you will be when it comes time to figure out what the question is actually asking, but do not confuse "ability to answer test questions" with an actual measurement of your knowledge and skill. Buy an NCLEX book and take practice tests. I have learned to look at all questions as puzzles or riddles. I like getting 4.0's and I'd love to get 1 100 on a test but maintaining sanity requires me to be happy with a passing grade.

Good luck on the test. My experience, having made it almost to the end of junior year (come on summer!), plus all my life experience before me including 15 years experience as a technical writer, is that nursing program test taking is an art, and deciphering test questions is an altogether additional skill. The better you know the material the better off you will be when it comes time to figure out what the question is actually asking, but do not confuse "ability to answer test questions" with an actual measurement of your knowledge and skill. Buy an NCLEX book and take practice tests. I have learned to look at all questions as puzzles or riddles. I like getting 4.0's and I'd love to get 1 100 on a test but maintaining sanity requires me to be happy with a passing grade.

I'd definitely agree with that. This situation is a little sketchy. I didn't think this test was all that hard and several others felt the same way. Yet, apparently everyone failed. We're "retaking" it tomorrow. I've NEVER heard of retaking an exam (and I've got some college expereince, I've got a BA and almost a second BS prior to nursing school). They won't give us our scores on the first exam. They said they can't let us see the exam, because they're going to reuse some questions, but they won't even let us see what score we made. Someone said the other day, "If I just missed one too many questions and failed, that's a big difference than if I'd missed a ton." You could only miss 6 questions on the exam and still pass, 7 was failing. I could see that if I missed 7 questions, I wouldn't study as hard for the retake as I would if I'd missed 20.

It's just very sketchy the whole way this has been handled.

BTW, I FINALLY got the instructor to give me a straight answer about the vancomycin question that started this thread. BOTH nephro and ototoxicity were right. She told me she'd messed up the answers and so both answers were correct.

So, what happened with the retake?

Curious...

So, what happened with the retake?

Curious...

I didn't think it was much different from the first test, and that seemed to be the prevailing opinion. However, this time, the grades were much more like they usually are. I got an A and I think a few others did as well. It just adds to the thoughts that there is something shady about the whole thing....

sounds like her original test was bunk and that's why she gave you a retest.

it may have been something simple like asking for one answer then giving two correct answers like you mentioned. Good job on the A!

I would have answered ototoxicity. In fact I think we had a similar question in our 3rd semester. From what I am to understand, ototoxicity is more common than nephrotoxicity (which isn't even listed as a true side toxicity in my pharm book). The bigger issue however is that at high peak levels, hearing loss with Vanco can be permanent. Renal issues from Vanco can be corrected. HTH

sounds like her original test was bunk and that's why she gave you a retest.

it may have been something simple like asking for one answer then giving two correct answers like you mentioned. Good job on the A!

Oh, I forgot, I finally got an answer about the vanc question. BOTH oto and nephrotoxicity were correct. She admitted that she made a mistake and had 2 correct answers. It was like pulling teeth to get that out of her though! Oh well, we took finals earlier this week and just got our grades back. I got Bs in all three classes. Not as well as I had hoped, but at least first year is over!