Why do teachers tr to fail you???

jennifer09 · Apr 5, 2009

I feel your pain. I also don't feel that we should be spoonfed the material but I think it also says alot about your instructor if his fail percentage is so high. We are paying $ for an education and I think they are getting paid to teach us what we need to know. As far as what will happen when your patient is circling the toilet, you can't be taught these things from a book. This will all come with experience. Good luck with your class!!

dianajh73 · Apr 5, 2009

OP - I FEEL YOUR PAIN!! I took Phys last semester with an instructor that was impossible to learn from. He basically read the book to us during lecture - no power point, no graphics or explanation beyond what was in the book. He also tended to get bogged down in minutiae and never stressed what was important to learn and never reviewed anything. Keep in mind, I don't just want to know what is going to be on the test, but I have to believe there are certain concepts that are key things to know for NS, compared to others.

He gave 3 tests, each one was 2-3 hours (no one finished in less than 2.5 hours) of essay questions. the first test was based on the labs, just as he said it would primarily be. the second one, which he said was similar to 1st, had over half the questions taken from book, not related to labs at all. GGGRRRR!!! :banghead: I don't want to be spoonfed, but don't say, "focus on labs" and then test on completely different info, some of which was never even mentioned in lecture!

Because he made the tests so LONG and detailed, they took forever for him to grade. Going in to the final there was still over 40% of the material left ungraded (including 2nd test and term paper), so it was impossible to know how you were doing in the class.

An example of ineffectual teaching: Did not discuss genetics in lecture. In lab he started with basic punnett square, using an odd shortcut that confused even me (I took genetics at University). He went on to roughly lay out 2 trait square. Then Assigned lab question, which he expected people to figure out on their own, included co-dominance which he never even mentioned during his "mini-lecture". All of this was frustrating, but I helped other people in the class and we figured it out. On the final he expected everyone to be able to do a punnett square with 2 traits, one of which was sex-linked. I felt so bad for people who didn't have a clue where to start since the info in the book was 2 paragraphs long and, again, never reviewed how to do these in class or lab, but there it was on final.

I respect that he wanted to make the class challenging so people didn't get in to NS who shouldn't be there, but this class was ridiculous. Ultimately I don't feel I learned nearly as much as I would have with a more effective teacher. Granted part of this was because the previous semester the class was made up of 15ppl while our class had 90 in lecture and I don't think the prof had adjusted his methods accordingly. I managed to get my A, but it was the most stressful, ulcer producing process I could imagine.

I must admit that, at the same time, I was taking Micro from an AMAZING teacher, so there was NO comparison. I left Micro with A LOT more knowledge than phys, even in subject covered by both classes. Should you really learn more about glycolysis and Kreb's cycle from micro than phys??

All due respect to the profs on here - There really are just bad teachers out there. However, saying that, there are also bad students. I HATED being lab partners with the person who was ALWAYS pestering for extra credit. She also called the instructor a B***H because she was late and instructor reprimanded her for it. I don't want you to spoonfeed me. A heads up on what to study is nice, but if you take the time to give me a study guide I SURE don't expect you to give me all the answers to it, that's my job, regardless of what other ppl think.

Sorry for the book but I needed to RANT obviously and this one touched a nerve. I agree that we are all responsible for our own grades, and I don't think my phys instructor "tried to fail" ppl, but I maintain that not everyone is made to be a teacher.

teeniebert, LPN · Apr 5, 2009

Is this a public or a private school? I've been in a community college RN program, and a private trade school LPN program.

NOTE: the following is my OPINION, based on my personal experiences.

The philosophies of the programs seem to be very different. At the community college, nobody seemed to care if you passed or failed. If you pass, good for you, if you fail, well, that's evidence that the program is challenging and ONLY THE BEST make it through. At the trade school, efforts are made to help you understand the material if you're struggling. If you fail a quiz, you're called in to the instructor's office and helped to write a study plan for those areas where you need to work harder. They focus on making sure EVERY student has the information and skills they need to be a safe nurse; at the community college they toss the information out there and the students who catch it, catch it. If you don't catch it, it's up to you as the student to figure out how to navigate the system to get the help you need. I'll admit, I didn't put the effort in to figure that out, but it wasn't exactly advertised that help was available. At the trade school, there is a block of time set aside each week where no classes are scheduled and you can get one-on-one help from instructors or repeat lab exercises until you understand them. It's more about making sure everyone can practice safely than about passing only the best.

NStiger88 · Apr 5, 2009

teeniebert-- its a public bsn program. many of the teachers do want to help in anyway possible, its just a select few who dont want to give the time to concentrate on certain material or give minute clues as to what the test will primarily be on. i guess that this teacher in particular is more like your rn program

ChicagoICU_RN · Apr 5, 2009

And upon what pray tell, are you basing this opinion?[/quote']
not at all...my nursing100 (a class for people not in the nursing program yet) teacher's exact words "believe it or not, in nursing school instructors WILL weed out the weak"

libnat · Apr 5, 2009

I hear the same thing.

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Apr 5, 2009

OP- My nursing instructor has told us on occassions that she will purposely make the questions more challenging. Not because she wants us to fail but because she wants us to be competent nurses who she would want to care for her family. She also wrote this on the board once- " Calm seas never make a skilled sailor" which is very true ! Breezing by in AP or any other course will never make us a good nurse. I'm not saying you want to breeze by, however I LEARNED A LONG time ago that there are no hand outs in nursing school... some teachers are good and will go the extra mile and some teachers won't and we are left on our own... either way its up to us to teach our selves and keep up with the material.... I've seen questions on exams that I thought literally came out of no where... it wasn't review in class, don't remember it being in the readings, however some times we just have to go through the process of elimination. Good luck and learn from it. I know I have.

cursedandblessed · Apr 5, 2009

i'm not going to get into whether they're out to fail people or not, only they know. i know nursing school is hard!! but here goes my tips for better grades in nursing school:

in pathophysiology of a disease/condition--what i need to know:

1. what went wrong to cause the problem?

2. what tests determine it?

3. what makes it better? drugs kind/type, procedures?

4. common nursing dx.

5. common nursing interventions

for test questions: wth is it asking? what stage of the nursing process is the question asking about? if it's asking about assessment, you pick an assessment answer, not an intervention answer (i've done this so many times it's ridiculous.) or is it just knowlege based?

and always remember your abc's-they come before anything. airway, breathing, and circulation always come before the fact your patient needs new sheets on the bed, or patient teaching.

nclex books help a lot, focus on the sections that you're studying, the two i have are set up that way. many of the questions will sound eerily familiar when you're taking the tests. also, med-surg success is a great tool for me right now.

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Apr 5, 2009

I agree with the above poster. In addition for what we need to know... I also focus on s/s of each disease. For nursing questions: Most of the time we should always assess before intervention. How can we intervene if we don't success first? Once again this is good most of the time , sometimes intervention may come first if its an emergency. Another thing is to focus on what they are asking for and try to eliminate unecessary information. Another thing I also try to do is focus on what the nurse can do first before " calling the Md' We have a lot of questions where call the md is always one of the choices.

cursedandblessed · Apr 5, 2009

thanks i forgot s/s. i have the format written on a card on the other side of the room.

most of our area hospitals are going to the sbar format. so before you call the doc you have to assess the patient. situation-what's happening now, background info-short synopsis of hx/drug allergies/drugs they're on, assessment, reccomendation-what you want done, what you think needs done, or you have no idea.

kcksk · Apr 5, 2009

There is only one time I can say the instructor was not fair. Pharmacology, question and answer came right out of the book. The professor told us we answered wrong--all but one person in the class. We showed her where it was in the book and her answer "The book is wrong." We all left the class thinking, "and we were supposed to know the book was wrong?!?!?!". We lost the battle, she wouldn't give us the points but we thought she should've thrown out the question because the book gave us the answer she told us was wrong. Oh well.

I also had an A&P professor who was so hard--75% of the class was gone by withdrawal date. One test he had questions on from a chapter we hadn't got to yet but he ended up throwing them out. Messes you up when you get a test that is 25% info you haven't been taught yet. A&P II we ended up with a different professor. He was incredibly hard but an amazing teacher. You had to know your stuff, finished with a 97 average and all that info has helped me in nursing school. I can't imagine if I hadn't had him. I thanked him when I ran into him because of the way he made us learn systems and be able to explain them--this last semester has been a lot less difficult. Hang in there.

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Apr 6, 2009

thanks i forgot s/s. i have the format written on a card on the other side of the room.
most of our area hospitals are going to the sbar format. so before you call the doc you have to assess the patient. situation-what's happening now, background info-short synopsis of hx/drug allergies/drugs they're on, assessment, reccomendation-what you want done, what you think needs done, or you have no idea.

wow ! you are right on target. we talked about sbar today in post conference.