What is YOUR opinion on nursing school exams?

[Frazzled_One]

Hi everyone. So yeah we took some exams this week. The one for Fundamentals of Nursing I didn't necessarily bomb it but I was still unhappy with my grade. But really the test to me made no sense whatsoever and the answers to most of the questions were solely based on someone else's clinical opinion. Any RN of high stature (practitioner, DSN, etc.) would highly disagree with some of the things presented on the exam as being the "best" thing for a nurse to do. How do I know that? Because I have books from highly distinguised nurses and doctors and they are all up to date on what is going on and why is that....well because they are currently in the clinical setting and not just somewhere writing books about past experiences. So the bottom line is....these tests are used to weed people out. Yeah I said it. And to all the "saints" in the forum hold your response because I feel like I can say what I want here.

Ladies and gentlemen, weeding season has begun. They use these tests to weed out people who can not read between the shullbit. The teachers teach from different books than the ones "recommended" for the course. Ha! I've already found my way around that. And also they contradict themselves in lecture because things are so different on exams. They mess with your head by throwing this useless crap in lectures that never shows up on tests. So yes, it is weeding season. I just hope you guys don't get plucked out of your programs. It's a conspiracy with nursing school. Just look at the healthcare industry and then ask yourself also why did half of those instructors decide to become instructors instead of being active nurses. I have one instructor who looks to be about 38-40 years old who said she hadn't worked in the clinical setting in 15 years and her lectures are the very worst lectures because she does not know much nor does she follow the book but then they have the nerve to try and make the tests difficult. That stuff is not critical thinking it is just mindless bs with some of the answers. "They are all right, you just have to choose the best one". The best one according to who? To you, to Lippincott, to Mosby, to who?????!!!!!!! I have done a 4 yr stint in college prior to this and I have taken many a test where you had to utilize critical thinking and nursing school has yet to show me critical thinking. Half of the examples they use for "critical thinking" actually isn't critical thinking at all its just using common sense with a little bit of nursing knowledge thrown in. So yeah Im not fond of the tests that some of these people are giving and I feel it is just a way to weed people out. If you weed people out you have a low graduation class, which leads to a continual shortage in nursing, which perpetuates the problems in healthcare. I just wanted to know what do you guys think or how do you feel about the tests that are given in your program.

[jjjoy, LPN]

Frazzled One - I'm always one to chime in on such criticisms because I too felt that too many nursing test questions didn't test "critical thinking" but instead were more about figuring out good test-taking strategies. Some questions did seem written specifically to ensure that it was impossible for anyone to get 100% except by lucky mistake!

I was remembering how when we got tests back, we weren't allowed to take the test home or to copy down questions, and we only had a few minutes to ask questions, so there was rarely time to thoroughly discuss reasonable concerns about test questions. I understand the reason for such practices, but it seemed to make it too easy for some instructors to avoid considering that maybe there was a problem with the question as opposed to the students just not being prepared or not thinking critically. And often it seemed when an explanation didn't quite seem to make sense, the instructor would just say "if you use your critical thinking, it would make sense." Ugh!

Of course, I'm generalizing. Some instructors wrote better tests than others and some did help made sense of things; but the overall average quality of instruction didn't measure up to other educational/training programs I'd been exposed to. And I was at a reputable state uni program with other strong health science programs.

Many here are responding that their experience has been different, and that's great for them. But it does seem like what you're frustrated about isn't that uncommon either.

Change can be slow, but maybe it will happen! : )

[jjjoy, LPN]

Frazzled - Have you seen this thread? Similar frustrations.

Why is Nursing School So Flawed? - Page 5- Nursing for Nurses

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

To the instructors:

STOP using test banks, stop being lazy and make up your own questions, that way the students won't say "we did not cover that or we never heard about that." I hate it when instuctors can't explain or answer their own test question.

It is not so hard to come up with 100 questions looking at your own notes/lecture. You want the student to write essays using their own words but you don't want to do your own work such as (making up your own test questions) The test bank questions are not even related to our notes.It is not fair to students.

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

To the instructors:

STOP using test banks, stop being lazy and make up your own questions, that way the students won't say "we did not cover that or we never heard about that." I hate it when instuctors can't explain or answer their own test question.

It is not so hard to come up with 100 questions looking at your own notes/lecture. You want the student to write essays using their own words but you don't want to do your own work such as (making up your own test questions) The test bank questions are not even related to our notes.It is not fair to students.

The problem with the bolded statement is that no matter how many times an instructor may cover a particular topic, someone (or several someones) is always going to say "You didn't cover that...That's not in our notes...You didn't tell us we were supposed to know that...", so it doesn't really matter who or where the test came from. It's a mystery to me how 50% of the class can hear something in lecture, the other 50% is in the dark about it, and we all attend lecture on the same day.

[jjjoy, LPN]

It is not fair to students.

Whatever valid complaints you may have about test questions, framing the argument as "It's not fair to students" won't get you very far. It gets lost among other not-so-valid complaints of "it's not fair!" from some disgruntled students.

[CrazierThanYou]

So far, we've had 3 tests. I got B's on the first 2 and a 70 on the third one. The biggest problem with our exams is that they are worded strangely and a lot of them are the "best answer" type of questions.

As far as lecture goes? We don't have lecture at my nursing school. We read the textbook.

[ohcomeon]

ra-tion-al-ize

   [/url]/ˈræʃənlˌaɪz, ˈræʃnlˌaɪz/ show spelled [rash-uh-nl-ahyz, rash-nl-ahyz] show ipa verb, -ized, -iz-ing.

–verb (used with object) [color=#333333]1. to ascribe (one's acts, opinions, etc.) to causes that superficially seem reasonable and valid but that actually are unrelated to the true, possibly unconscious and often less creditable or agreeable causes.

[color=#333333]2. to remove unreasonable elements from.

[color=#333333]3. to make rational or conformable to reason.

[color=#333333]4. to treat or explain in a rational or rationalistic manner.

[color=#333333]5. mathematics . to eliminate radicals from (an equation or expression): to rationalize the denominator of a fraction.

[color=#333333]6. chiefly british . to reorganize and integrate (an industry).

–verb (used without object) [color=#333333]7. to invent plausible explanations for acts, opinions, etc., that are actually based on other causes: he tried to prove that he was not at fault, but he was obviously rationalizing.

people complain when they do poorly on tests. it is always someone else's fault, the teacher didn't cover the material, the questions are subjective, blah blah blah, but it is really no one else's fault but your own if you did not obtain the grade you were hoping for. hopefully you won't be one of the students "weeded out".

[clucito01]

A big part of being a good nursing student/nurse is be prepared to be blindsided! You never know what is going to happen! I love my fundamentals class and I feel bad for you that you aren't enjoying yours! I hope you begin to enjoy it more!

[citylights89, BSN, RN]

Fundamentals sucked for me too! Don't feel too bad. Then again I didn't read the book like I should have. I do read now that I'm in Med-Surg now and just made a 86 on my first test. However, the test was curved a bit since some questions that were flawed were thrown out. Some people who failed ended up gaining 10 pts because they missed the right questions. I already had a 82 and all I got was a wimpy 4 points. I can't complain, but it sucks when someone makes almost the same grade as you and had originally failed.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

People complain when they do poorly on tests. It is always someone else's fault, the teacher didn't cover the material, the questions are subjective, blah blah blah, but it is really no one else's fault but your own if you did not obtain the grade you were hoping for. Hopefully you won't be one of the students "weeded out".

yeah sorry i disagree. Have you seen some of the questions on our tests? Some questions are just worded very poorly to the point of incomprehension, even on the teachers end so much so they remove those questions. There is a thing as a bad question and no amount of rationalization is going to lead you to the right answer.

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

First I want to address the sentence from the OP "they put all this useless crap in lecture that doesn't show up on tests". Do you honestly think that the only thing you need to know is what shows up on a test? I guess you can just ignore every thing else that they cover in school. But if that were the case, nurses shouldn't need school...just study this one book of questions and answers and POOF you're a nurse! It looks like some people need to mature just a little bit. Responsibility is something that a lot of student don't have. They claim they're "mature", but they are never at fault for anything.

Did EVERYONE fail the test? No, then it's not the teacher's fault. When I was in school, I heard EVERY excuse in the book about how it's based on the teacher's opinion, it's not straight forward, they want us to fail, they want this and that and whatever. I never got a C in a class, despite the fact that more than half the people I started with failed...and if you ask many of the people who graduated with me, they'll say the tests were not bad. But you ask the people who failed, they will scream bloody flippin murder about how unfair it is. If one person can pass, then anyone can pass. What's hard to understand about that? Oh wait, I forgot this excuse.."the only people who passed were the ones who cheated, had the old tests, or guessed".

My question to the complainers(2ndyearstudent specifically since you are always in the negative posts), and to the OP as well..who are you to say whose opinion the answer is based on? How can you define who is or isn't a good student? Who are you to say what's a good or bad question or how many questions need to come from where? The teacher doesn't have to tell you anything about what's going to be on the exam, it's your responsibility to be familiar with every little bit of material available to you. Just because it wasn't covered doesn't mean it's not fair game. Who cares if someone had a 4.0 before, crap happens...deal with it. Some people just aren't good at certain things. Plus if the problem is that bad, tell the dean, do something about it.

My opinion about tests in school...some were difficult, some were not. Some of the ones where the average was in the 60's...I could show you where each question and answer came from. And some students would STILL say we never covered this or that, or that it's just so backwards and unfair.

And really a lot of things are common sense and putting 2 and 2 together. It just seems that some people can't do that. You could go over cardiac stuff in lecture and the teacher will say something as simple as "High potassium causes a tall peaked T-wave". But on the test, they might put something like a potassium level of 5.9, what will the EKG look like. And you'll have a riot of students say "OMG lab values were on the OTHER test in patho last semester, we didn't talk about that in here!" It doesn't matter how simple a topic is, not everyone will get it. Or they might have a picture of an EKG, and the students will say "we only talked about describing it! NOT what it looks like!"

Quote of the day "

“If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.”

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Yeah, having to pick the best answer is kind of weird. You have to do that on the National Registry examination for EMTs (of all levels) as well. I haven't had an NCLEX yet so I can't compare.

However, in class, when teachers make up an exam like that I often think the "best answer" is subjective primarily because they're questions made up and not backed up in any literature.

You have to learn to take tests their way. I don't think most people are going to do things as they would on the test. It's frustrating, yes.

I recall a question asking something about a man who comes in to be seen who's at risk for poisoning in the work place and also appears to have improper nutrition: more than body requirements. The teacher and test wanted you to deal with his fat first. I believe the poisoning issue is more serious. I also believe the question could've been interpreted two ways. 1) He came in for whatever reason and both issues were brought up during the history interview. 2) He came in after some type of work place accident and is a risk because he was exposed to toxins. Either way the poisoning is more serious.