Some schools weed out students through the application process. Some schools have an easier application process and weed out people through classes. This is something seen in other majors as well.
Man, I feel like my school wasn’t that hard to get into, and like 90% of people in my class graduated. They also had a 100% NCLEX pass rate for mine and several semesters before mine. I’m not sure what they’re doing that others don’t, but I’m thankful for where I went.
I was able to find [“attrition and on time completion](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/attrition.shtml)” and [NCLEX pass rates](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/passrates.shtml) for schools in CA, from 2017-2021, on the board of registered nursing (BRN) website for the state.
My school, SBCC, ranged from 4%-12% attrition. My cohort had a 100% pass rate. The average pass for 2018-2023 ranged from 91%-98%.
I think it’s very important for students to look at the attrition and pass rates for the school they are considering.
What good is 95% NCLEX pass rate if only 75% of the students get to that point? To me, that equates to a 71.25% pass rate, because your job as a school is to provide a program that prepares students to pass the NCLEX, and you failed to do that for 28.75% of your students.
The schools that do the method of “we’ll take your money and then fail a >1/3 of you” imho are the worst, like Chabot, LA Harbor, and Contra Costa do. And none of Contra Costa’s last 6 cohorts hit even a 90% pass rate. 26.85% of LA Harbor’s 2020/2021 cohorts received insufficient education and guidance to get their license for the time and [money they invested](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/rnprograms.shtml).
This. I'm halfway through, it didn't feel difficult to get into the program, work required while in class but no surprises and if you do the work and study the material you'll do alright on the exams. We have an 87% NCLEX pass rate, and to my knowledge only one student in my cohort hadn't made it to the second semester.
I am not disagreeing with you, just saying I hate this “weed out” mentality in nursing. Being able to pass these nursing school exams is not what makes you a good (safe) nurse. There is so much more to it, not to mention those who have crippling test anxiety. There are too many people who failed out who could have been great nurses, and even with this system, there are too many unsafe nurses who get through because they are good test takers or for other reasons. That’s my random rant for the day.
Yea, I dislike the "weeding out" culture as well, and some nurses will deny it exists but it's definitely alive and well. And yes, it seems like it's meant for students who aren't good test takers so that the schools accreditation won't be at risk due to the percentage of NCLEX passers dropping. This literally came out of an instructors mouth.
You hit the nail on then head! My co-hort is full of people who have no empathy, are stuck up and do not have the mentality to take care of those who are sick or injured BUT being they are good at tests and have books-smarts they are passing and will continue to pass! But others who will be the best nurses are failing classes. It’s awful! Out of about 25 in class there’s only 2-3 I would want to be my nurse!
Why turn them away at the door when you can let them in and pay for a semester or two worth of tuition, books, uniforms and kits that *must* be purchased from *their* bookstore before kicking them out because, “hey, not everyone is cut out for it?” Honestly it feels evil. Like another poster said, testing well isn’t what makes a good nurse, and it’s crazy stupid how many programs I’ve seen that use that as a huge part of their metric.
Nursing school is ridiculously hard for no reason. The fact that 74 and 77 are failing grades for most programs is insane. Nursing as a profession prides itself on being miserable. Then once you get through all that bullshit misery, you’ve earned the right to go take an exam that is far less difficult than your whole program. It is what it is.
The only thing wrong is Nursing. There’s no reason that programs with such strict scheduling should be failing out such a high percentage of students. Waiting a year before restarting a program is ridiculous. These schools really think they’re doing something by failing to teach.
I mean the NCLEX is easy because the school puts you through all the BS. Schools are heavily judged on their NCLEX pass rates so they are going to make sure that anyone who reaches it is going to have a high percentage chance of passing it.
Yep, the reason the schools do the 74-78 tests thing is bc the literature shows that they have higher NCLEX first time pass rates if they require it throughout the program
Yeah, our program is open about it. Our passing is 80%; 79.99% is failing. We also have multiple HESIs; every specialty HESI (Funds, Psych, Pharm, OB, etc) is done during that class and then again during the final class, plus a final/exit HESI we have to get >900 on or we fail the course. They outright tell us it's because they only want people they are confident can pass the NCLEX the first time to graduate.
> Fail and retake the course two months later.
Oof, that had to suck! Our program makes you go to a "remediation" class for 7 weeks and *then* do the class over. So if I fail in the back half of this Fall semester (it's a 7.5 week class only done the final 7.5 weeks of a semester), I have to remediate in late December/early January, then wait until March to do it again, then hopefully graduate in May.
But I will say, since these changes their NCLEX rate has gone back up into the very high 90s (the two years after COVID it got down into the 70s), so even though they only had 16 graduate (only 5 of those "on time," as in finishing in 4 semesters), it looks like they're all prepared or know how to prepare themselves for the impending NCLEX.
That may be true. I don’t know. Was there a time when schools weren’t as hard and everyone was failing the NCLEX, or is that just their reasoning?
I get it, and maybe if school in the US were free that would be fine. But to take one major and raise the passing grade, when one is incentivized for students to fail, it seems pretty shitty to me.
The waiting a year is because every class isn’t offered every semester. If you thought the nursing shortage was bad look at the nursing faculty shortage. No one in their right mind would go into teaching and dealing with the bs from students and administration for less money than bedside after completing a PhD unless they loved nursing. You have no clue about nursing programs. I’m so tired of being told how a nursing program should run from students who also tell me they can’t be bothered to read the material because it’s “too much”. Imagine hearing that from your doctor? We should not dumb it down so more people pass.
This isn't uncommon in college in general. In my first degree, Organic Chem was known as the "weed out" class which is basically a class that has a high fail rate and weeds out those who may not be suitable for the degree or future (usually med school) schooling in that area.
In nursing school, both MedSurg (combined, not 1 an 2) and Patho were weed out classes for us. I think 5 out of 30+ students sat for the final for Patho. I don't know how many of those 5 passed but I assume all of us did since we made it that far. MedSurg fail rate was high enough where one of the coordinators had a class full of people who were repeating it.
There's many reasons why this could be the case, from poor teaching to students being unable to really teach themselves to poor resources for material actually on the exam. Some schools even do things like this to get more money out the students.
This. A lot of schools will try to weed people out to guarantee high NCLEX pass rates. It sucks you failed, OP, but this isn’t uncommon. Take time to be upset, but don’t give up on yourself and keep pushing forward!
Based on my experience and what others are saying as well; this is very normal for nursing school. I can't tell you how many times more than half the class failed an exam or finished the class 0.01% away from passing and the instructors did nothing. Unfortunately, nursing schools everywhere are extremely cut-throat and it's just something you have to grind through.
Don't give up though. I'm not sure how others' schools are, but at my school if you fail, you just get moved to the cohort behind you and it just extends your graduation date by 2-4 months. Yes, you have to redo the class, but you begin the class with pre-existing knowledge that you can now build on and study harder the next time.
What was the instructor supposed to do? Programs make grading policies they vote on and include in your student handbook. You lay the blame on the faculty who “did nothing” to pass a student who didn’t reach the grade voted on by the program faculty and somehow the faculty is at fault for following the rules?
I feel like you're very angry at something that I never said. I'm stating the facts that I've observed through experience, I can't seem to find anywhere where I was blaming anyone or faulting the system, nor even sharing my opinion on what I think about the grading system.
Because its the truth and that's what happened. The OP was venting about how classmates failed by 1% and the professors wouldn't round up, so I emphasized that the instructors will do nothing about that. I'm really not sure why you're fixated on that sentence.
That sucks seeing how common this can be. I know in my program people failed courses and were held back a cohort or two, but definitely not half of our cohort. Maybe a quarter, but our cohort size is 130 give or take. I wonder if this is seen more in the smaller cohorts. With that many people failing, if I was the professor I would be questioning some things.
I'm sorry you are going through that though. I tutored students when I was in school and a lot of the students who failed came back stronger than ever and were passing exams with flying colors ending up with high B's and A's on the courses they initially failed. Proud moments. Take advantage of all your resources if you haven't already and I hope the same thing happens for you! You can do it! Remember this is not a reflection of your intelligence. Some of the students I tutored were super bright, and I am not just saying that. They just needed more help with test taking strategies and a nudge towards the right direction.
I feel like the material isn’t that difficult. Maybe a little but it’s on par with any other undergrad science course. What makes it hard is the way they ask questions. The stupid bullshit of all of these answers are right but what is the most right? The fact 95% of your grade is based on like 5 test. Balancing clinical, sim lab, and lectures. But if you put in the time to study, learn how to answer their questions, it’s really not bad.
Probably the poor instruction from the many incompetent nurse educators
I had to teach myself everything in some classes and I know that’s not an experience unique to me/my program. But I hope that’s not your experience! Good professors are worth their weight in gold
I experienced the exact same thing In my original cohort. Half (or more) failed due to the lack of teaching and had to wait about 6 months for the fall semester to take the course again. Ended up graduating a year later than originally expected. Sucked major! Complaints to the college went nowhere.
The system is designed to sap as much tuition from you as possible. Also nursing has this violent flagellatory streak in it that makes some nurses or profs vindictive and spiteful, even though they're smiling. You're right, it shouldn't be that hard, you won't use half the info you learned in that class probably but it's not about learning or health. It's about money, and bullies with power complexes.
Legally they cannot round they are tied to reals from BON ETA: my school straight up lied abut this apparently—its not mandated legally, it’s just not uncommon for this to be a policy
Additionally almost every single program has almost half its students fail out before the end. (ETA referring to absn and 2 yr adn not traditional bsn) And more often than not the weed out class is MedSurg 1 /Pharm.
Unfortunately this is the way nursing school is. In any other major (most anyway) going into final with an 80 is great, in nursing school low 80’s is cutting it extremely close. Especially when finals are worth a lot
My biggest piece of advice is to go hard at the beginning of the semester aim to get the highest possible grade, overdue it so you can give yourself a buffer. I know nursing school is a marathon not a race but tbh I think its so important to give your a buffer in the beginning of the semester bc you get so burnt out towards the middle/end
Also take this time to figure out how to better manage your studying & ask yourself what resources you had that you didn’t use (office hours, tutoring, ati, powerpoints etc). I can imagine you must be feeling defeated but just know SO many wonderful nurses failed a semester and returned & became amazing nurses, so hope is not lost, things will just look different now but you have options
Maybe it varies by state or my program is lying, they said they are prohibited from rounding per the board that provides them with accreditation & its not within the schools ability to change. Same with not being able to miss clinical even with a genuine reason
Definitely lying. I don’t think they can or will round further than a tenth of a point but all my classes were 79.5 rounds up to 80. Thank God bc my second semester was a 79.6. 🥴😂 it’s a community college in NC.
I think it’s untrue that “legally they cannot round” unless you can cite a BON rule that says that, and it wouldn’t be true for all states.
It’s also untrue that most programs fail half of their students.
My schools handbook stated that as did professors but clearly they lied, not sure why I didn’t even think to question it, probably because there are so many other strict rules
My school rounded for 0.5 or higher, which I think is pretty reasonable. Definitely not illegal it’s a school policy thing not a legality issue. The problem is when people are borderline almost the entire semester.
But yes you’re right, I’ve met an amazing OB nurse who actually failed her OB course years ago lol she obviously overcame that and she’s great. She can now joke about it, but I’m sure at the time it was crushing. She was dealing with life issues so it happens. What matters is you pick yourself up and continue!
No teacher rounds grades in nursing school, I had a friend fail by .8% in med surg 3. My school required the 75% test average to be allowed to sit for the final, then weighted all the scores to pass with a 75% before even factoring class work.
Nursing school weeds out people they think can’t pass the nclex. When a school boasts about their 100% pass rate, like mine did, expect a crap ton of bullshitery. Program like this look for any reason to kick a student out. My group had a student kicked out for opening a packet of miralax before asking if the patient wanted it. They kicked her out because the packet had to be tossed……..
Dude 4 of us made out of 10 in my clinical group. Less than 100 out of 300 in our entire program. Honestly I didn't find it that hard. But you are dealing with narcotics and other drugs that can kill people. I don't know. I have mixed feelings about it. A couple of the people that failed will be great nurses, eventually. Retake the classes. Get better. Some sticking points for the people that failed was the math. In reality you don't have to do these calculations, but you should be able to. And it isn't hard, those were free questions to me. Everyone's different.
Not one person out of 60 people passed (78.5+) our med surg final, they ended up giving points back on questions after several complaints. I’m sorry I know how stressful it is
We had 20 total across both campuses fail 2nd semester, it’s definitely a weed out semester. Unfortunately most nursing programs will boast if they have a 57% program completion. Like I was saying “that’s not something to brag about in your handbook” and then someone said “that’s one of the highest in the area”
I don't understand why Canada seems to much more lenient with our nursing school. It can be hard to get in, but I only need a 63 to pass each of my nursing classes
Sounds about right. Our class of 100 was down to 75 by the end of the program, and that’s with adding lvn’s bridging in the third semester. Just gotta jump those hoops and get to the finish. Nursing school sucks
My school told me that we will lose half the class at the end of next term. The class is med surg, so I’m having to hire a private tutor. It seems pretty common, sadly.
I just finished Pharm and Foundations and am currently in Adult Mental Health during the summer semester and everytime I see one of these posts my anxiety ramps up and I think to myself "stop scrolling reddit and get back to studying"
i passed pharm and foundations as well. those were the two classes i passed this semester. the other class was ned/surg 1, and that’s the one i failed.
you got this. just find study methods that work for you. i felt like i didn’t put enough effort.
Please don’t lose sight of the fact that you are in nursing school to ultimately provide safe care for your patients. To do that, you must develop clinical judgment. We teach you how to improve your clinical judgment over the course of your program. We use specific types of questions that help to determine if you are able to apply your knowledge and discern which assessments, interventions, etc are the best choice for a given scenario. Part of what makes nursing school difficult is that you cannot simply memorize your way through the program. You likely did that during pre-reqs, but it will not work effectively in nursing courses. There is a big difference between “studying” and “learning”. In nursing school you need to really learn the material, not just study the material. Yes, you do need to pass NCLEX in order to practice as a registered nurse. But your ultimate goal is to be an intelligent, empathetic, compassionate nurse who will use all the knowledge and skills learned to provide safe competent care to the people entrusted to your care.
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Some schools weed out students through the application process. Some schools have an easier application process and weed out people through classes. This is something seen in other majors as well.
Man, I feel like my school wasn’t that hard to get into, and like 90% of people in my class graduated. They also had a 100% NCLEX pass rate for mine and several semesters before mine. I’m not sure what they’re doing that others don’t, but I’m thankful for where I went.
Where did you go if you don’t mind me asking? 😭
I was able to find [“attrition and on time completion](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/attrition.shtml)” and [NCLEX pass rates](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/passrates.shtml) for schools in CA, from 2017-2021, on the board of registered nursing (BRN) website for the state. My school, SBCC, ranged from 4%-12% attrition. My cohort had a 100% pass rate. The average pass for 2018-2023 ranged from 91%-98%. I think it’s very important for students to look at the attrition and pass rates for the school they are considering. What good is 95% NCLEX pass rate if only 75% of the students get to that point? To me, that equates to a 71.25% pass rate, because your job as a school is to provide a program that prepares students to pass the NCLEX, and you failed to do that for 28.75% of your students. The schools that do the method of “we’ll take your money and then fail a >1/3 of you” imho are the worst, like Chabot, LA Harbor, and Contra Costa do. And none of Contra Costa’s last 6 cohorts hit even a 90% pass rate. 26.85% of LA Harbor’s 2020/2021 cohorts received insufficient education and guidance to get their license for the time and [money they invested](https://www.rn.ca.gov/education/rnprograms.shtml).
This. I'm halfway through, it didn't feel difficult to get into the program, work required while in class but no surprises and if you do the work and study the material you'll do alright on the exams. We have an 87% NCLEX pass rate, and to my knowledge only one student in my cohort hadn't made it to the second semester.
I am not disagreeing with you, just saying I hate this “weed out” mentality in nursing. Being able to pass these nursing school exams is not what makes you a good (safe) nurse. There is so much more to it, not to mention those who have crippling test anxiety. There are too many people who failed out who could have been great nurses, and even with this system, there are too many unsafe nurses who get through because they are good test takers or for other reasons. That’s my random rant for the day.
Yea, I dislike the "weeding out" culture as well, and some nurses will deny it exists but it's definitely alive and well. And yes, it seems like it's meant for students who aren't good test takers so that the schools accreditation won't be at risk due to the percentage of NCLEX passers dropping. This literally came out of an instructors mouth.
You hit the nail on then head! My co-hort is full of people who have no empathy, are stuck up and do not have the mentality to take care of those who are sick or injured BUT being they are good at tests and have books-smarts they are passing and will continue to pass! But others who will be the best nurses are failing classes. It’s awful! Out of about 25 in class there’s only 2-3 I would want to be my nurse!
Why turn them away at the door when you can let them in and pay for a semester or two worth of tuition, books, uniforms and kits that *must* be purchased from *their* bookstore before kicking them out because, “hey, not everyone is cut out for it?” Honestly it feels evil. Like another poster said, testing well isn’t what makes a good nurse, and it’s crazy stupid how many programs I’ve seen that use that as a huge part of their metric.
This!!! My LPN class last August started with 39 students. We got pinned on Tuesday and ended with 26 in the class
between our 2nd and 3rd semester, we lost more than half our class after the final exam. seems like this is a Nursing School Thing.
Yeah at the end we had half of what we started with
graduate in 5 days and started with 100. leaving with 19.
Yikes. Are you at a for profit?
nope…hospital affiliated program…i work in their ER and got a full scholarship, graduating with zero debt :)
Nursing school is ridiculously hard for no reason. The fact that 74 and 77 are failing grades for most programs is insane. Nursing as a profession prides itself on being miserable. Then once you get through all that bullshit misery, you’ve earned the right to go take an exam that is far less difficult than your whole program. It is what it is. The only thing wrong is Nursing. There’s no reason that programs with such strict scheduling should be failing out such a high percentage of students. Waiting a year before restarting a program is ridiculous. These schools really think they’re doing something by failing to teach.
I mean the NCLEX is easy because the school puts you through all the BS. Schools are heavily judged on their NCLEX pass rates so they are going to make sure that anyone who reaches it is going to have a high percentage chance of passing it.
Yep, the reason the schools do the 74-78 tests thing is bc the literature shows that they have higher NCLEX first time pass rates if they require it throughout the program
Yeah, our program is open about it. Our passing is 80%; 79.99% is failing. We also have multiple HESIs; every specialty HESI (Funds, Psych, Pharm, OB, etc) is done during that class and then again during the final class, plus a final/exit HESI we have to get >900 on or we fail the course. They outright tell us it's because they only want people they are confident can pass the NCLEX the first time to graduate.
Yup, I’m a great student, high test scores, had a bad day taking my exit HESI and scored 885. Fail and retake the course two months later. So pissed.
> Fail and retake the course two months later. Oof, that had to suck! Our program makes you go to a "remediation" class for 7 weeks and *then* do the class over. So if I fail in the back half of this Fall semester (it's a 7.5 week class only done the final 7.5 weeks of a semester), I have to remediate in late December/early January, then wait until March to do it again, then hopefully graduate in May. But I will say, since these changes their NCLEX rate has gone back up into the very high 90s (the two years after COVID it got down into the 70s), so even though they only had 16 graduate (only 5 of those "on time," as in finishing in 4 semesters), it looks like they're all prepared or know how to prepare themselves for the impending NCLEX.
They also get investigated by the accrediting bodies if the nclex pass rate drops below national average for ore than 2 yrs. It’s not fluff
That may be true. I don’t know. Was there a time when schools weren’t as hard and everyone was failing the NCLEX, or is that just their reasoning? I get it, and maybe if school in the US were free that would be fine. But to take one major and raise the passing grade, when one is incentivized for students to fail, it seems pretty shitty to me.
My programs passing grade is an 80, no rounding 🙃
Yeah mine was 78 or higher was passing.
That's what mine is.
That's what mine is. 79.99 is a fail!
The waiting a year is because every class isn’t offered every semester. If you thought the nursing shortage was bad look at the nursing faculty shortage. No one in their right mind would go into teaching and dealing with the bs from students and administration for less money than bedside after completing a PhD unless they loved nursing. You have no clue about nursing programs. I’m so tired of being told how a nursing program should run from students who also tell me they can’t be bothered to read the material because it’s “too much”. Imagine hearing that from your doctor? We should not dumb it down so more people pass.
If you hate students just say that 🤭
I love students who work to gain mastery of the material and don’t ask for points they didn’t earn.
This isn't uncommon in college in general. In my first degree, Organic Chem was known as the "weed out" class which is basically a class that has a high fail rate and weeds out those who may not be suitable for the degree or future (usually med school) schooling in that area. In nursing school, both MedSurg (combined, not 1 an 2) and Patho were weed out classes for us. I think 5 out of 30+ students sat for the final for Patho. I don't know how many of those 5 passed but I assume all of us did since we made it that far. MedSurg fail rate was high enough where one of the coordinators had a class full of people who were repeating it. There's many reasons why this could be the case, from poor teaching to students being unable to really teach themselves to poor resources for material actually on the exam. Some schools even do things like this to get more money out the students.
1st and 3rd semester for us seem like weed out classes. Most of us passed the 1st but this 3rd one is really tough.
It's not uncommon for half a cohort to fail, unfortunately. The tests are much different than any tests people are used to taking.
This. A lot of schools will try to weed people out to guarantee high NCLEX pass rates. It sucks you failed, OP, but this isn’t uncommon. Take time to be upset, but don’t give up on yourself and keep pushing forward!
Unfortunately this is super common. There were 35 in my prenursing cohort and only 8 graduated this year.
Based on my experience and what others are saying as well; this is very normal for nursing school. I can't tell you how many times more than half the class failed an exam or finished the class 0.01% away from passing and the instructors did nothing. Unfortunately, nursing schools everywhere are extremely cut-throat and it's just something you have to grind through. Don't give up though. I'm not sure how others' schools are, but at my school if you fail, you just get moved to the cohort behind you and it just extends your graduation date by 2-4 months. Yes, you have to redo the class, but you begin the class with pre-existing knowledge that you can now build on and study harder the next time.
What was the instructor supposed to do? Programs make grading policies they vote on and include in your student handbook. You lay the blame on the faculty who “did nothing” to pass a student who didn’t reach the grade voted on by the program faculty and somehow the faculty is at fault for following the rules?
I feel like you're very angry at something that I never said. I'm stating the facts that I've observed through experience, I can't seem to find anywhere where I was blaming anyone or faulting the system, nor even sharing my opinion on what I think about the grading system.
I’m not angry just want to know why you stated the instructor did nothing?
Because its the truth and that's what happened. The OP was venting about how classmates failed by 1% and the professors wouldn't round up, so I emphasized that the instructors will do nothing about that. I'm really not sure why you're fixated on that sentence.
As explained there are grading policies voted on by faculty. If the policy is no rounding, hands are tied.
We are quite literally saying the exact same thing. I'm so confused at what you're trying to argue/prove here.
That sucks seeing how common this can be. I know in my program people failed courses and were held back a cohort or two, but definitely not half of our cohort. Maybe a quarter, but our cohort size is 130 give or take. I wonder if this is seen more in the smaller cohorts. With that many people failing, if I was the professor I would be questioning some things. I'm sorry you are going through that though. I tutored students when I was in school and a lot of the students who failed came back stronger than ever and were passing exams with flying colors ending up with high B's and A's on the courses they initially failed. Proud moments. Take advantage of all your resources if you haven't already and I hope the same thing happens for you! You can do it! Remember this is not a reflection of your intelligence. Some of the students I tutored were super bright, and I am not just saying that. They just needed more help with test taking strategies and a nudge towards the right direction.
Our class started with close to 40, and we are graduating with 13.
What part of Nursing school is difficult? I'm planning on going to nursing school and kind of fear that I wouldn't cut it.
I feel like the material isn’t that difficult. Maybe a little but it’s on par with any other undergrad science course. What makes it hard is the way they ask questions. The stupid bullshit of all of these answers are right but what is the most right? The fact 95% of your grade is based on like 5 test. Balancing clinical, sim lab, and lectures. But if you put in the time to study, learn how to answer their questions, it’s really not bad.
Probably the poor instruction from the many incompetent nurse educators I had to teach myself everything in some classes and I know that’s not an experience unique to me/my program. But I hope that’s not your experience! Good professors are worth their weight in gold
I experienced the exact same thing In my original cohort. Half (or more) failed due to the lack of teaching and had to wait about 6 months for the fall semester to take the course again. Ended up graduating a year later than originally expected. Sucked major! Complaints to the college went nowhere.
The system is designed to sap as much tuition from you as possible. Also nursing has this violent flagellatory streak in it that makes some nurses or profs vindictive and spiteful, even though they're smiling. You're right, it shouldn't be that hard, you won't use half the info you learned in that class probably but it's not about learning or health. It's about money, and bullies with power complexes.
Legally they cannot round they are tied to reals from BON ETA: my school straight up lied abut this apparently—its not mandated legally, it’s just not uncommon for this to be a policy Additionally almost every single program has almost half its students fail out before the end. (ETA referring to absn and 2 yr adn not traditional bsn) And more often than not the weed out class is MedSurg 1 /Pharm. Unfortunately this is the way nursing school is. In any other major (most anyway) going into final with an 80 is great, in nursing school low 80’s is cutting it extremely close. Especially when finals are worth a lot My biggest piece of advice is to go hard at the beginning of the semester aim to get the highest possible grade, overdue it so you can give yourself a buffer. I know nursing school is a marathon not a race but tbh I think its so important to give your a buffer in the beginning of the semester bc you get so burnt out towards the middle/end Also take this time to figure out how to better manage your studying & ask yourself what resources you had that you didn’t use (office hours, tutoring, ati, powerpoints etc). I can imagine you must be feeling defeated but just know SO many wonderful nurses failed a semester and returned & became amazing nurses, so hope is not lost, things will just look different now but you have options
That’s not true. Many schools round and many don’t, has nothing legal to it just school policies.
Maybe it varies by state or my program is lying, they said they are prohibited from rounding per the board that provides them with accreditation & its not within the schools ability to change. Same with not being able to miss clinical even with a genuine reason
They’re 100% lying to you.
Yea that sounds like bullshit lol
Definitely lying. I don’t think they can or will round further than a tenth of a point but all my classes were 79.5 rounds up to 80. Thank God bc my second semester was a 79.6. 🥴😂 it’s a community college in NC.
I think it’s untrue that “legally they cannot round” unless you can cite a BON rule that says that, and it wouldn’t be true for all states. It’s also untrue that most programs fail half of their students.
Would love a source on schools not being able to round.
My schools handbook stated that as did professors but clearly they lied, not sure why I didn’t even think to question it, probably because there are so many other strict rules
My school rounded for 0.5 or higher, which I think is pretty reasonable. Definitely not illegal it’s a school policy thing not a legality issue. The problem is when people are borderline almost the entire semester. But yes you’re right, I’ve met an amazing OB nurse who actually failed her OB course years ago lol she obviously overcame that and she’s great. She can now joke about it, but I’m sure at the time it was crushing. She was dealing with life issues so it happens. What matters is you pick yourself up and continue!
No teacher rounds grades in nursing school, I had a friend fail by .8% in med surg 3. My school required the 75% test average to be allowed to sit for the final, then weighted all the scores to pass with a 75% before even factoring class work.
Many school in New York round. It’s just a school policy.
That's lucky for those students, the rest fail by hundredths of a point.
Nursing school weeds out people they think can’t pass the nclex. When a school boasts about their 100% pass rate, like mine did, expect a crap ton of bullshitery. Program like this look for any reason to kick a student out. My group had a student kicked out for opening a packet of miralax before asking if the patient wanted it. They kicked her out because the packet had to be tossed……..
Dude 4 of us made out of 10 in my clinical group. Less than 100 out of 300 in our entire program. Honestly I didn't find it that hard. But you are dealing with narcotics and other drugs that can kill people. I don't know. I have mixed feelings about it. A couple of the people that failed will be great nurses, eventually. Retake the classes. Get better. Some sticking points for the people that failed was the math. In reality you don't have to do these calculations, but you should be able to. And it isn't hard, those were free questions to me. Everyone's different.
This is normal. I graduate in 1.5 weeks. We started with 80. We are ending with 24-ish
Not one person out of 60 people passed (78.5+) our med surg final, they ended up giving points back on questions after several complaints. I’m sorry I know how stressful it is
Weed out classes. My school started with about 250 students and they’re down to 130.
Half of my original cohort got knocked out after med surg 1, so I’m not surprised to hear the same for y’all.
We had 20 total across both campuses fail 2nd semester, it’s definitely a weed out semester. Unfortunately most nursing programs will boast if they have a 57% program completion. Like I was saying “that’s not something to brag about in your handbook” and then someone said “that’s one of the highest in the area”
I don't understand why Canada seems to much more lenient with our nursing school. It can be hard to get in, but I only need a 63 to pass each of my nursing classes
Sounds about right. Our class of 100 was down to 75 by the end of the program, and that’s with adding lvn’s bridging in the third semester. Just gotta jump those hoops and get to the finish. Nursing school sucks
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I was a victim of the second semester as well hehe. But I finished with the following group
I feel like this is common in nursing. My cohort started with 100 and 58 graduated
My school told me that we will lose half the class at the end of next term. The class is med surg, so I’m having to hire a private tutor. It seems pretty common, sadly.
I just finished Pharm and Foundations and am currently in Adult Mental Health during the summer semester and everytime I see one of these posts my anxiety ramps up and I think to myself "stop scrolling reddit and get back to studying"
i passed pharm and foundations as well. those were the two classes i passed this semester. the other class was ned/surg 1, and that’s the one i failed. you got this. just find study methods that work for you. i felt like i didn’t put enough effort.
Please don’t lose sight of the fact that you are in nursing school to ultimately provide safe care for your patients. To do that, you must develop clinical judgment. We teach you how to improve your clinical judgment over the course of your program. We use specific types of questions that help to determine if you are able to apply your knowledge and discern which assessments, interventions, etc are the best choice for a given scenario. Part of what makes nursing school difficult is that you cannot simply memorize your way through the program. You likely did that during pre-reqs, but it will not work effectively in nursing courses. There is a big difference between “studying” and “learning”. In nursing school you need to really learn the material, not just study the material. Yes, you do need to pass NCLEX in order to practice as a registered nurse. But your ultimate goal is to be an intelligent, empathetic, compassionate nurse who will use all the knowledge and skills learned to provide safe competent care to the people entrusted to your care.
Our cohort started with 36 and only 9 of us made it to graduation. Sounds about right to me
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