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

Nursing Students General Students

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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.

Got the final grades in on Friday. I ended up making a B in The Art and Science of Nursing (the class I bemoaned about here) and an A in the other nursing course. I also made an A in two other general education courses that I had to take. So that leaves me with a grand total of 3 As and 1 B for the semester. :) Yay! That makes me happy. A B is what I wanted and a B is what I got. So happy to pass!!!!!!!!

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The tests do not allow for investigation or questioning, two hallmarks of critical thinking. Our instructors do not even clarify questions during the test. We are always told, "do not ask 'what if' questions." If you have a creative mind, theory classes in nursing school do not seem to be the place to exercise it! I have to say that if anywhere, clinical is where you practice most of your critical thinking skills---and that still depends on the instructor you have. :)

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The tests do not allow for investigation or questioning, two hallmarks of critical thinking. Our instructors do not even clarify questions during the test. We are always told, "do not ask 'what if' questions." If you have a creative mind, theory classes in nursing school do not seem to be the place to exercise it! I have to say that if anywhere, clinical is where you practice most of your critical thinking skills---and that still depends on the instructor you have. :)

They are testing synthesis and clinical judgement.... prioritization in canned situations.

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Do you know where I can find these websites? I'm in nursing school, thought I could use the help to boost my grades. Thanks, hope to hear from you.

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Do you know where I can find these websites? I'm in nursing school, thought I could use the help to boost my grades. Thanks, hope to hear from you.

What websites are you looking for?

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Looking for a website where they might help you with the kind of test questions in nursing school. Just finished up a class that I didn't do great in. The questions never seemed like anything I was prepared for. I know their critical thinking questions, but I guess what I'm asking is, is there a website where I can improve on these questions, these logical reasoning critical thinking questions? Thank you!

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Looking for a website where they might help you with the kind of test questions in nursing school. Just finished up a class that I didn't do great in. The questions never seemed like anything I was prepared for. I know their critical thinking questions, but I guess what I'm asking is, is there a website where I can improve on these questions, these logical reasoning critical thinking questions? Thank you!

I suggest buying an NCLEX book, so you can practice that type of question.

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