Just passed all my nursing exams for the semester. I get to do this bullshit all over again next week, but right now... I FEEL SWEET FUCKING RELIEF!
The victory was only temporary, unfortunately. We are deep into our most difficult semester yet and current affairs feel a bit more like this:
THIRD SEMESTER COMPLETED! Studied 7 days straight to get an amazing 66% on my final for Advanced MedSurg. To put that in proper perspective: the average for the same exam for the previous class was 60%. I passed the class with a butt-clenching total grade of 76.7%. C's GET DEGREES, BITCHES!
Yeah, D students are basically failing students. But the standard changes depending on what it is. For most nursing schools, you need a minimum of a 76% in any class to continue on. At my school you get two mulligans if you fail something. If you fail a third class you are kicked out of the program (no matter how deep you are in) and have to start all over. The funny thing is that the level of difficulty is so high that you will bust your ass just to maintain a C average. Case in point: we have to take online cumulative tests designed by ATI to help us prepare for our national certification test (the NCLEX). In those tests the passing grade is considered the national average. For the Adv. MedSurg ATI exam I took online, a 67% was actually considered "passing". That means roughly 67% of people who took the test actually failed it. But remember, ATI tests are just "practice" (they still go toward our school grade though). ATI tests are also intentionally harder to really make you work for it. I actually failed my final and ATI practice test for Adv. MedSurg which brought my grade down from a B to barely passing, but that's just all part of the experience. Some students in my class worked hard to maintain a >95% averages in the class prior to finals just so they could slack off for the final and ATI tests. It sounds insane, but this is "normal" for nursing school. It also means that if you've been borderline all semester you are likely going to fail at the end. It gets so emotional at the end of each semester we've started calling the hallway everyone walks down the "Trail of Tears"... it's really that bad. So yeah, the "C's get degrees" mentality is very real in nursing school. It's enough just to survive. Also, it should be worth mentioning too that it was only Adv. MedSurg I barely passed. I actually did very well in my Pediatrics and Mental Health courses (B and A respectively).
Congrats, so where do you stand altogether in finishing up completely? Do you have much more to go through or are you getting close to finishing up?
I have 4 weeks off and then my final semester begins. After graduating from nursing school, then its just a matter of passing my state certification. However, the hardest part is behind me now.