What the heck is up with nursing school tests??!!

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OK, I just had my first test of my second semester of nursing school. I was thinking that maybe things will be new and the faculty will learn how to write a decent, straight forward test this time, but no......I studied 12 hours last night for the test (they did include a test matrix to guide study) and thought I had everything down pat. Wrong! I missed 21 out of 62 questions! Other people in the class many questions also, ranging from 15-27. One girl did only miss 7. And as you guys may already know, a 75 is passing...and I made a 66. This was a common occurrence last year where the questions were badly written (as in not leading to a clear answer) and the rationales in the key made no sense. Thankfully, I made it through last semester with all As and 1 B, which made me think that maybe I had it down. Wrong! I'm going to need a minimum 6 questions nullified just to pass. And I was thinking I was going to get a least a mid B. :crying2:

Long story short: does anyone else have his problem in their nursing program where the questions to your exams make you go "huh?" And on top of that, included typos and rationales that don't even match up with the supposed correct answer? And then include stuff that you hardly went over in class or in reading? Please don't tell me school has messed up testing skills. Even if they aren't the only, that's still pretty bad.

can someone clarify something for about the question styles in BSN and ASN programs? I would make a new thread, but i think this thread can answer it

in ASN program, its just 1 nursing class thats like 10+ credits, and they have NCLEX style questions.

But in BSN programs, i saw people saying they have more than 1 class. do they have a nursing class too? and are they NCLEX style questions for tests also?

just confused, cuz

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can someone clarify something for about the question styles in BSN and ASN programs? I would make a new thread, but i think this thread can answer it

in ASN program, its just 1 nursing class thats like 10+ credits, and they have NCLEX style questions.

But in BSN programs, i saw people saying they have more than 1 class. do they have a nursing class too? and are they NCLEX style questions for tests also?

just confused, cuz

I'm in a BS program.....and it depends on the term. So, as an example, last spring term, we had 3 classes. Pathophysiology for 3 credits, pharmacology for 3 credits, and Acute Care I for 6 credits (this included both theory and clinicals). Our exams for all three classes consisted of NCLEX style questions. Compared to this term where we took Acute Care II and it was 9 credits (and included both theory and clinicals...I think it was 4 credits theory, 5 credits clinicals).

Hope that helps

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I studied 12 hours last night for the test (they did include a test matrix to guide study) and thought I had everything down pat. quote]

If you did this on top of your normal textbook studying and prep, then you are fine. If your primary method of studying is to wait until the test matrix is released then cram off of that, you are going to have a hard time doing well regardless of the test. I know there exists some sort of non-human mutant that can barely study and excel on nursing school tests, but most of us ain't one of them.

That being said, my program is infested with the same types of issues you mention: confusing questions, unclear or plain bad rationale, questions pulled from untouched areas of the text, and (my personal pet peeve) typos. The overall average on our tests is usually around 85 (barely a B), so it appears we don't have it as bad as you.

Our tests are NCLEX style also, but as you point out, some of my instructors suck at writing good NCLEX questions. I have the review books and do their study questions and find that on the ones I got wrong, there was a clear rationale showing why I got it wrong. Not so on the school exam.

My instructors say they base their questions on the NCLEX style, but they are horrible at it. It appears they take a good NCLEX question from a review book, then change it a bit. Unbeknownst to them, when they changed it they took a question with a good rationale and turned it into a nonsense question.

I'm actually OK with the instructors pulling obscure questions out of the text material. I do the reading so at least I have a shot at knowing or being able to figure out the answer. But when they ask a poorly formatted question, it turns into a guessing game.

The typos drive me nuts. Actually they are more than typos, often the right answer was left off, or answers were duplicated. Once the answers A through G were on the test when the scoresheet only goes to E! I find myself asking, "Did ANYONE look at this test before you handed it out?" Because if anyone did, they might certainly notice these ridiculous errors.

Of course in the end, their final answer is always, "Well, nursing school is hard."

A word about that. Those of us that have been in nursing school for a while know it is hard. We don't have any problem with that and we work our butts off in efforts to rise to the challenge. What gives us fits is when the staff screws up and instead of owning up to it, uses the old "Nursing school is hard" refrain to hide behind.

I could get a trained parrot to sit behind a desk and repeat "Nursing school is hard" to students who point out deficiencies in instruction. I don't need you master's and doctoral graduates for that. I think many nursing school instructors need to leave that phrase behind after the first semester and start owning their practice.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
can someone clarify something for about the question styles in BSN and ASN programs? I would make a new thread, but i think this thread can answer it

in ASN program, its just 1 nursing class thats like 10+ credits, and they have NCLEX style questions.

But in BSN programs, i saw people saying they have more than 1 class. do they have a nursing class too? and are they NCLEX style questions for tests also?

just confused, cuz

I am confused by your question but I will try and answer from what I am gathering.

I am in an ASN or ADN (LOL I can't remember which but they are pretty much the same)

Some of my Pre Reqs they did some of the exams NCLEX style in order to prepare us a little.

My first semester IN nursing school I had 3 classes. One was a math class to prepare you for Dosage and Calculation. These were just regular Math Exams.

My other 2 classes, Pharm and Fundamentals were nursing classes and we had NCLEX style exams. Pharm was 2 credits, (should have been more for all we had to do and time) and Fundamentals was 9 credits. The math was 3.

My second semester they split in half. The first 8 weeks was med/surge and worth 9 Credits I believe (or 8) and all NCLEX style questions and clinicals. This second half of the semester we are in Peds/OB 7 Credits and the NCLEX style as well along with clinicals.

Third Semester we have Pharm again the whole semester, same testing style. Then for half the semester we have Advanced Med/Surge and other half Mental Health.

I don't remember the schedule for 4th semester but we have Advanced Med/Surge 2 and then some other classes.

All the nursing classes outside that math one in my program are the NCLEX type exams. And only 2nd semester do we have one class at a time. I don't see how they could even add more. We have clinical for 10 hours on 2 days a week and class ALL DAY for the other 3 days for the Med/Surge class.

I hope that was easy to understand LOL

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I am in an ADN/ASN program

im just confused because in my nursing program there are 4 semesters, each semester there is only 1 nursing class you have to take to be full credit (10+ credits). so right now im only taking 1 class.

but then i looked at BSN programs, and it looks like they have multiple classes ranging from 3-4 credits each class.

i know that every time i tests in my program, it is always NCLEX style questions testing.

my question is, every time they(BSN) tests, do they have NCLEX style questions (like the ADN) on each of their spread out classes or are they just straight forward normal questions?

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Specializes in ED.
i know that every time i tests in my program, it is always NCLEX style questions testing.

my question is, every time they(BSN) tests, do they have NCLEX style questions (like the ADN) on each of their spread out classes or are they just straight forward normal questions?

I'll try to answer. I'm in a BSN program and we take about 15 hours per semester plus clinicals on top of that so my total hours equal about 28 hours.

In our first semester we take pathophysiology, fundamentals, health assessment, and health promotion. Out of those 4 classes, patho was the only class that did not have NCLEX-style tests. The rest dud. Not every single question on every test were NCLEX style but most of them were.

This semester is pharmacology, med-surg, and psych. All of those test questions are NCLEX-style; well, we might have 5-7 that aren't.

Does that answer your question?

m

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I am in an ADN/ASN program

im just confused because in my nursing program there are 4 semesters, each semester there is only 1 nursing class you have to take to be full credit (10+ credits). so right now im only taking 1 class.

but then i looked at BSN programs, and it looks like they have multiple classes ranging from 3-4 credits each class.

i know that every time i tests in my program, it is always NCLEX style questions testing.

my question is, every time they(BSN) tests, do they have NCLEX style questions (like the ADN) on each of their spread out classes or are they just straight forward normal questions?

My school (BS program) is on the quarter system, not the semester system. So, since it's a three year program, we have 9 terms.

The term I gave the example of above (Spring of sophomore year) we have two 3 credit classes (pharmacology II, & pathophysiology II) and one 6 credit class (Acute I) that is comprised of clinical and theory. So, we had three theory classes with exams. All of the exams were comprised of NCLEX style questions.

So, essentially....every exam I've taken in my nursing program, was an NCLEX style exam. Does that clear it up?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I am in an ADN/ASN program

im just confused because in my nursing program there are 4 semesters, each semester there is only 1 nursing class you have to take to be full credit (10+ credits). so right now im only taking 1 class.

but then i looked at BSN programs, and it looks like they have multiple classes ranging from 3-4 credits each class.

i know that every time i tests in my program, it is always NCLEX style questions testing.

my question is, every time they(BSN) tests, do they have NCLEX style questions (like the ADN) on each of their spread out classes or are they just straight forward normal questions?

It just varies with the school, I am in the same type program as you and also on semesters and I think the minimum credits we have is 4th semester and it's 13 credits. This semester it's 16 credits but only 1 class at a time since they split the semester. First semester 14 credits with 3 classes the whole time.

None of the credits include clinicals as well.

Just like the grading scale varies from school to school. Our minimum passing lever is 77% at my school, but the State college by me that has the BSN program is on the regular 70% and above, and then we have like Regis I think it is, that is on it's own grading scale as well. Just from reading these boards that varies a lot as well.

So you guys only take 4 different classes the entire nursing program?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I'll try to answer. I'm in a BSN program and we take about 15 hours per semester plus clinicals on top of that so my total hours equal about 28 hours.

In our first semester we take pathophysiology, fundamentals, health assessment, and health promotion. Out of those 4 classes, patho was the only class that did not have NCLEX-style tests. The rest dud. Not every single question on every test were NCLEX style but most of them were.

This semester is pharmacology, med-surg, and psych. All of those test questions are NCLEX-style; well, we might have 5-7 that aren't.

Does that answer your question?

m

Our patho was a Co Req could take it during nursing school (but had to be completed before starting 3rd semester) or before hand nutrition was same was as well, so it was nice to be able to get it out of the way while I was on the wait list and I did the 3 credit Nutrition class since I plan on bridging into the RN. So I did mine before and it wasn't NCLEX style questions either. I did have an A&P teacher that did her tests NCLEX style to try and prepare us. But so far all of my Nursing Classes have had NCLEX style.

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Specializes in Family Practice, ICU.
I am in an ADN/ASN program

im just confused because in my nursing program there are 4 semesters, each semester there is only 1 nursing class you have to take to be full credit (10+ credits). so right now im only taking 1 class.

but then i looked at BSN programs, and it looks like they have multiple classes ranging from 3-4 credits each class.

i know that every time i tests in my program, it is always NCLEX style questions testing.

my question is, every time they(BSN) tests, do they have NCLEX style questions (like the ADN) on each of their spread out classes or are they just straight forward normal questions?

It depends on the program. I'm in an ADN program right now. We take about 3 classes a semester. Here's how it's broken down:

1st LPN semester

  • Nursing Fundamentals w/ med-surg clinicals
  • Pharmacology I
  • Mental Health Nursing

Total credit hours: about 12-14.

2nd LPN Semester

  • Med-Surg Nursing (1st 1/2 semester only)
  • Nursing Care of the Family (2nd 1/2 only)
    • OB w/ clinicals (48 hrs)
    • Pediatrics w/ clinicals (24 hrs)

    [*]Pharmacology II (all semester)

Total credits: about 12-14.

3rd Semester (1st RN semester)

  • Med-Surg Nursing w/ clinicals all semester long (this is the big class that is like 6 credit hours)
  • Pharmacology III

Total credits: around 9.

4th Semester (2nd RN semester)

  • Psychiatric Nursing (basically a retread of the previous mental health nursing, just a little deeper)
  • Nurse Management
  • Preceptorship/Capstone

Total credits: around 9.

And yes, all of our test questions are NCLEX style questions. Our school has a high NCLEX pass rate, and the questions seem challening but only a few every now and then seem erroneously worded.

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I'm in an ADN program as well and took several nursing classes prior to starting the nursing program. So I took micro, pathophys., chemistry, stats, clinical calculation math, nutrition, etc prior to entering the actual 2 year program. Now I'm only in classes with clinicals and pharmacology (which I wish I could've taken prior to nursing school as well but it doesn't work like that). So, while I'm only in two classes this semester, it's a lot of work. We have clinicals for 8 hours/day two days a week and we are in lab/class the other three days. We have to read about 6 - 10 chapters a week and we have to do care maps every week on a patient for clinical as well as other reading for that. So, our Fundamentals class is 10 credit hours I think. But, we don't have to take as many theory classes as the BSN in my area although I will bridge after I have my RN. Hope this helps. It just depends on the school you go to.

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I'm in an ADN program as well and took several nursing classes prior to starting the nursing program. So I took micro, pathophys., chemistry, stats, clinical calculation math, nutrition, etc prior to entering the actual 2 year program. Now I'm only in classes with clinicals and pharmacology (which I wish I could've taken prior to nursing school as well but it doesn't work like that). So, while I'm only in two classes this semester, it's a lot of work. We have clinicals for 8 hours/day two days a week and we are in lab/class the other three days. We have to read about 6 - 10 chapters a week and we have to do care maps every week on a patient for clinical as well as other reading for that. So, our Fundamentals class is 10 credit hours I think. But, we don't have to take as many theory classes as the BSN in my area although I will bridge after I have my RN. Hope this helps. It just depends on the school you go to.

I've heard of some programs that have patho as a pre-req.....ours is like your pharm class....it's part of the program, no taking it ahead of time :-|

Peace,

CuriousMe

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