My nursing program has a bunch of different instructors who lecture on different topics, then they all write their own test questions on their topics. We have required readings on each topic, powerpoints from the lecture of each topic, and required questions to answer on the topics in our required Davis NCLEX review book. I read every page in the book and take notes and make outlines merging info from the pp and text. I also do the Davis NCLEX questions.
My problem is: We had a test today (which went bad for the majority of students). I found out that about 15 questions (out of 50) came straight out of the Lipincott NCLEX review book. I really think this is unfair for 2 reasons: The few people who just happen to have bought the Lipincott book and use it to study got all of those answers right. The rest of us got most of those answers wrong because either a)the information in the question was not ANYTHING we focused on during our lectures and b) the answers we had to choose from seemed to use different rationals for the correct answer than I think the info from the text would suggest.
I don't usually complain, but come on. I think the practice of instructors taking questions DIRECTLY from a review book that we are not required to use is lazy. Even if it's not laziness, it's something I'm pretty sure isn't fair and I don't agree with. I am in a 2 year ASN program and the point is keeping my high GPA so I can get into a good BSN program. I will worry about NCLEX when it's time.
Please tell me if you agree/disagree, or if you are aware that this is common. If it is, I guess I should just suck it up:)
Thanks!
BTW, I graduate in 3 weeks and this is the first I've heard that instructors do this.
This is easy. Get a lippincott book that way you can pass the nursing exams and NCLEX. Kill two birds with one stone. Nothing to get upset over. If this bothers you, can't wait to see how you will do in nursing.
Seriously. This is a non-issue. You are 3 weeks from graduation and you are complaining about this? I just can't.
Writing a good test question is very difficult, especially when the questions are at the application or higher level. In my limited experience, there are many more problems with questions written by the instructors than there are with the questions from the books' test banks or from NCLEX review books. Those questions have all been reviewed and analyzed, tested out and used over and over again. Sure, there are some absolute duds, but those are usually easy to show your instructors that there is something wrong with the question itself.
Regardless of where the question came from, if you were well prepared, you should be able to answer the question. Now, the problem comes in if a test question uses a different lab value or something like that from what you were taught. But, the nice thing is that those are easy fact issues and can be pointed out and then the instructor can adjust if necessary.
It's not lazy and it's not unfair. Study your materials and do practice questions and you should be just fine.
Nope, I don't think it's unfair. A student about to graduate should be able to apply previous knowledge to new scenarios...doesn't matter where the question came from.
No, I don't think it's fair, and I would probably say something. I sure as heck would not want to be the patient of a nurse who may have passed nursing school because they memorized questions from an NCLEX book.
Do you really think all they did was 'memorize' the questions in the book? They didn't learn anything after (most likely) getting it wrong and reviewing the rationales?
It is extremely lazy and unprofessional for your professor to be using questions from a book that he/she is well aware students are using to study for the NCLEX. It's not like you are sophomores or juniors, you are seniors about to graduate who are probably doing hundreds of those questions a week.
Try writing a test question, with a good stem, one definitive answer, and 3 plausible distractors that are not dead givaways, yet obviously wrong in some way or another. Distractors that are not even close to being feasible, wherein a student will find something in their text, notes or online that will justify their answer, where we will be forced to give them credit for.
Then, do that 49 more times, then 3 or 4 more times for the whole semester.
If a question in an NCLEX study book is a good question, and tests exactly what you need it to test, why not use it? There's a reason questions in these books start to look alike: they are important concepts that students need to master.
We go over NCLEX questions each class for my NCLEX prep. Every single time a question from one of the newer edition NCLEX books pops up the entire class says 'SKIP'. I never said that 'all they did was memorize the question' but I can certainly say that a good majority of them remember the answer because they just studied the question.
As for creating a test question--I'm sure it isn't easy. But there is no reason these professors cannot use another resource that is not EXTREMELY easy for students to access.
We go over NCLEX questions each class for my NCLEX prep. Every single time a question from one of the newer edition NCLEX books pops up the entire class says 'SKIP'. I never said that 'all they did was memorize the question' but I can certainly say that a good majority of them remember the answer because they just studied the question.
As for creating a test question--I'm sure it isn't easy. But there is no reason these professors cannot use another resource that is not EXTREMELY easy for students to access.
Ultimately, that is the point. The likelihood of ever seeing a question from an NCLEX study guide on the actual NCLEX is slim to none. So, the purpose of doing those questions is to learn, not the specific question and answer, but to learn the rationale behind the question. Those rationales can be used in other questions in the future.
Given that it sounds like this is the first time something like this has happened, your instructors must have pulled from lots of other resources than just that one NCLEX book.
Ultimately, that is the point. The likelihood of ever seeing a question from an NCLEX study guide on the actual NCLEX is slim to none. So, the purpose of doing those questions is to learn, not the specific question and answer, but to learn the rationale behind the question. Those rationales can be used in other questions in the future.
Given that it sounds like this is the first time something like this has happened, your instructors must have pulled from lots of other resources than just that one NCLEX book.
Life is unfair? Nice. I'm an adult, by the way, not a 10 year old.
The difference is, that some people have been studying from this other random book so knew the answers, while the rest of us just had to guess.
Why would an instructor NOT write her own questions based on what she taught and the information from our textbook? Instead she chose to use questions from some random review book that didn't line up with the things she taught.
I don't expect instructors to take questions directly from our textbook, because there are no questions in our textbook. It's a textbook. What would seem fair to me would be to make her own questions with information from what we were told to learn (the text chapters).
I assume you've gotten enough responses by now but I want to respond to what you said here (bolded). Those of you who do not own the Lipincott book did not have to "guess"... you had to use the knowledge you've gained over the course of your program to answer the questions. If you're about to graduate, you should be able to answer questions on anything you've learned throughout your program, not just what was specifically discussed in your most recent lectures.
I agree with those who said you should be glad you're getting the chance to practice NCLEX style questions on actual tests. Just because you were under the impression that the teachers wrote their own questions doesn't mean that's so. As others have said, there are far more problems with questions that a random teacher tries to write himself/herself than there are with ones that come from test banks. I had a professor in college who routinely wrote her own questions... and she'd end up having to throw out about 20% of the test because her questions either didn't make sense or she had two equally correct answers and couldn't wrap her head around them. The one that comes to mind was a question that was something like, "Which of the following is true about genetics?" Two choices were "human beings have paired chromosomes" and "children get half their DNA from their father." Needless to say the entire class chose both answers and she said she'd have to go back and "look up" whether or not children get half their DNA from their father. This was a Pediatric Nursing professor. That's something you learn in high school biology.
I'm about half-way done with my nursing program, and I have two semesters left. Our instructors do this all the time. They lecture out of one book: Nursing A Concept-Based Approach to Learning by Pearson, and then, "suggest" that we read ATI Med-Surg, ATI Pharmacology, ATI Mental Health, ATI Maternal Child, etc. They also, "suggest" that we read Saunder's Comprehensive NCLEX-RN Review. They also give us several websites and, "suggest" that we do online learning, online practice tests, etc. On any given test, we have questions from all of these resources, plus information from the lectures given by the instructor. We have fifty question tests, and it isn't unusual to have ten or twelve questions taken directly out of books or websites that aren't required reading for the unit.
At first, I was upset by this practice, and I was angry about the unfairness of it all. Then I realized that this was how my program was going to go, I accepted it, and I moved on. Is it fair? No. Can I change it? No. There's no point in complaining about it when I can't do anything about it. We were told to buy all of these books, but they are not required reading for any unit. You just never know where the questions for a test will come from, and you end up trying to study everything from every book. It isn't fair, but that's how things go.
since the op is not getting the desired answers (even with rationales so well given) s/he appears to have left. alas, having failed to appreciate the difference between recognizing a previously-seen practice test question and actually learning the material in a way that allows for synthesis and reasoning, it appears that s/he will be flunking the main test, the one that comes after graduation, the one where none of the answers are available for memorization ahead of time. not the nclex..... nursing.
At my school, people vie for the biggest collections of NCLEX study books. Also, people find links to review sites and pass them around. As far as the teachers are concerned, it's all fair game. But my school has an NCLEX fixation (no disrespect to NCLEX). They live and die by their NCLEX pass rate. They'll throw people out if they think the precious NCLEX pass rate might be threatened. Of course, their retention rate stinks so eventually the state will get on their ass for that.
Just be real happy that you are almost finished. And congrats for making it!
My pet peeve is that we have teachers who try to write NCLEX style questions without any training in how to write NCLEX questions. You wind up with some really strange answers to choose from, and then the teacher's rationale makes no sense.
I wish I could think of an example of one of the home-grown NCLEX questions, but none comes to mind right now. I read the questions (oh, excuse me "the stem") and then looked at the answers. What is this? Haiku? A fortune cookie? Mad Libs? Sheesh.
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tokyoROSE, BSN, RN
1 Article; 526 Posts
Seriously. This is a non-issue. You are 3 weeks from graduation and you are complaining about this? I just can't.