Nursing Exams

Department of Nursing Examsoft™ Test Taking Policy

1. All students in the program will take nursing exams on their own required laptop computer, as detailed in the course outline. Students using testing accommodations (in the Office for Students with Disabilities) will also be required to use their own devices. A mock exam is to be completed as a hardware and software check prior to students taking exams.
2. Students must arrive at the exam site with their laptop fully charged. Should a computer failure occur, faculty will implement item #5 of this policy. It is highly recommended that students also have a back- up battery pack for their laptop.
3. Students will be responsible for downloading the Examplify application to their own devices during week #1 of the first clinical course. This download will only need to be performed once per device.
4. Students will be enrolled by faculty into courses in Examsoft™. Faculty will provide the student with access to the appropriate exams in their courses. The student will receive notification by the faculty prior to each exam, instructing the student to download the exam to their computer for testing. Exams will be available for download at least 24 hours prior to the start of the exam. The student MUST complete this exam download prior to the start of the exam. No additional time for testing will be provided for students who have not completed this download process prior to the exam time.
   1. Nursing exams are high stakes. Waiting until the last minute can impair the chance for you to trouble shoot your laptop for any issues prior to the start of the exam.
   2. Students must download mock exams to complete and upload before each exam to ensure laptops are working properly.
5. Should a student be unable to provide his/her own laptop for testing for any reason, the student will then be expected to take the exam per the course make-up exam policy. If a computer failure occurs during testing and is not able to be rebooted immediately:
   1. Faculty will upload the portion of the exam completed by the student as soon as possible.
   2. The student will complete a comparable set of remaining questions per the course make-up exam policy.
6. Students are not allowed to enter the lecture hall on exams days until admitted by faculty. Attendance will be taken by the proctor prior to the start of every exam. No additional time for testing will be provided for students who are not prepared to begin at the start of each exam. Per ExamSoft, in case of evacuation, students must partially close laptops prior to exiting the classroom. Students have up to an hour to resume their exam with the resume code.
7. Once the student has completed the exam, they MUST upload the completed exam within the time frame specified by the Examsoft timer or by faculty. If a student runs out of time during an exam, due to being late, the following steps will be taken by faculty:
   1. Notify student(s) that they have run out and to turn computer away from view.
   2. Note the question number that the student is on at the cutoff time.
   3. Instruct the student(s) to click through remainder of questions (those answers will be considered wrong).
   4. Confirm grade via Examsoft and Brightspace
8. Students are expected to adhere to professional standards of accountability, responsibility, and academic integrity and honesty. Examples of violations of these standards include but are not limited to:
   • Sharing exam items with other students who have not taken the exam or who are not enrolled in the course
   • Sharing exam passwords with any other student
   • Sharing account password to allow another student to test under their identity
   • Failing to complete ‘reverse download’ of an exam upon faculty request
   • Obtaining or attempting to obtain answers from another student by viewing their computer screen or communicating in any unauthorized manner
   • Attempting to take the exam outside of the proctored area without faculty authorization
   • Providing or attempting to provide answers for another student
   • Cheating of any other nature
   • Using cell phones in the testing area for any reason
   • Recording exam items in any way (i.e. audio, photo, writing down items, etc)
   • Reading the questions aloud during the exam when other students are present in the testing area.
9. Students are required to adhere to nursing course exam procedures as well as the MCC Academic Honesty Policy.

Examination Procedures

Failure to adhere to the Examination Procedures guidelines are considered a violation of academic honesty. Any violation will be subject to sanction.

Preparation of Examinations and Test Items
Constructed by faculty and maintained in software program for examinations.

Administration of Examinations
See ExamSoft Guidelines for Computerized Administration of Exams.

• Students need to bring their individually purchased white board to exams, it should be no larger than 9x12”. The whiteboard must be erased and shown to faculty at the start and end of each exam. If the whiteboard is double sided, only one side may be used during the exam.
• A limited number of whiteboards will be available for student use during exams if they forget to bring one.
• All belongings, including electronic devices, must be placed away from the examination tables (i.e. cell phones, electronic wrist devices).
• Computers will be inspected by faculty at the start of each examination
• Students are permitted to use only the approved Department of Nursing calculator for dosage calculation examinations and NUR214 exam one, all other exams will require the use of the ExamSoft calculator.

HESI Examinations
HESI exams are designed to assess student’s abilities to apply nursing concepts to specific scenarios. Students with testing accommodations, will be offered the choice to take their exam in the testing center with their accommodations. If a student chooses not to take their exam in the testing center, they forfeit their accommodations for the exam.

Post Examination Review

• Exams are considered confidential information. Any communication, verbal or electronic, among nursing students about anything related to an exam is considered a breach of confidentiality.
• Students will receive Strengths and Opportunities Report for unit exams via email. Students may request to review wrong answers only in a one on one meeting with faculty on campus for a maximum of 15 minutes. Wrong answers will not be visible to the student or reviewed via zoom. Students are not permitted to use cell phones, electronic devices, or notetaking materials during exam review.
• Comprehensive review of all unit exams will not be offered. Students may only review the current exam up until the next exam. There will be no review of final exams.
• If a student wishes to challenge an exam question (interpretation, wording, etc.) during exam review, faculty – at their sole discretion – may accept or reject the challenge.
• Students may not challenge any exam questions in which > 75% of class answered successfully, nor may they challenge a question on behalf of other students.
• Adjunct faculty do not receive examinations or answer keys to examinations.

Make-Up Exam Guidelines

A missed exam is scored 0. In the event that the student will miss a unit exam, course faculty must be notified prior to the start of the exam. If a valid reason exists for missing the exam, the student may request to take a make-up exam by making arrangements with course faculty.

Failure to notify course faculty will result in an exam score of 0 and no opportunity to make up the exam. Please refer to the individual course CIS for specific make up exam timeframes during the semester.

Dosage Calculation Competency Exam Guidelines