Steven Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 As some of you know, I was in Paramedic school and having a few probs. Anyway... I didn't pass my Cardiology Final Exam with an 80% as required in our program. So I had 1 retake attempt, and ended up with a 74% (needed an 80%)... needless to say I got booted out of the program for that. To make things worse, I had an overall grade after that final of approx. 80% in the class, but since I didn't pass the Final Exam, they said they have to give me an F in the class for the first half of the semester. It's written in the policies for the program that way. Well, this was a 10 credit hour class, and that F is going to destroy my 3.48 GPA I had, obviously. My question is if any of you have ever heard of a Paramedic program doing this, and is there anything I could possibly do? This whole experience at this college has *almost* turned me off to EMS, but I won't let them win like that. What irritates me is I went to the Dean of our department, two of my instructors, and 2 or 3 of the lab assistants trying to get help and advice on how to make it through Cardiology. The dean told me he wasn't sure what I could do, and to go talk to my instructor or talk to the college student services. My teacher said to just keep studying and memorizing everything, and the lab assistants just gave some good pointers on how to approach the material. I feel like I studied my tail off, made extensive efforts to discuss my situation with the department, yet they did nothing to help me out (just kept pointing me to other people or telling me useless information), then booted me from the program, and destroyed my GPA. I'm not trying to push the blame off on them, as it was my duty to know the material. So I'm not sure if I'm being a punk about the whole thing, or if I have a legitimate concern? Anyway... I know I presented a lot of info.. but would like to hear from replies about it. Thanks in advance, -S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neb.EMT Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 I was dropped from my old program b/c I was 12 hrs. short on clinical time. My daughter had to have surgery so I missed a day. I contacted the facility prior to my scheduled date and attempted to contact my clinical/field coordinator. She didn't respond to my messages or e-mails until after the deadline. I think I pretty much got screwed. But what can you do? I'm now in a different program (starting over) which I honestly feel is of a higher quality anyways. Just remember, everything happens for a reason. At least I got my I-99 out of it. (And by the way, my average was never below 96 percent.) P.S. Administration was ABSOLUTELY NO help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neb.EMT Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 I was dropped from my old program b/c I was 12 hrs. short on clinical time. My daughter had to have surgery so I missed a day. I contacted the facility prior to my scheduled date and attempted to contact my clinical/field coordinator. She didn't respond to my messages or e-mails until after the deadline. I think I pretty much got screwed. But what can you do? I'm now in a different program (starting over) which I honestly feel is of a higher quality anyways. Just remember, everything happens for a reason. At least I got my I-99 out of it. (And by the way, my average was never below 96 percent.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyM83 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Just for future classes you take: Some colleges have workshops or actual classes on learning study skills. Sometimes if you don't study the correct way (for you), you might study 2 or 3 times as much as everyone else and still get a worse grade. I've seen others in my class do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 That's true... I guess I didn't think much about how I study because I've never had a problem in the past. I've always had a 3.4+ GPA, and finished with 90%+ in FR and EMT-B. Guess it kinda caught me a little off guard is all. Paramedic is a different entity compared to FR and EMT-B, I know, but I thought I'd handle it better than that. Thanks for the advice and opinions so far... I appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmedic393 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Medic school is definatly a different animal alltogether. I'm not sure about the states, but here the standard for ACP school is you get tested once a month for the didactic portion of the program. You get three re-writes for these tests. If you fail 4 tests you are out the door. If you fail 1 re-write you can also say goodby. You get one re-write for the mid-term exam and one for the final, again if you fail the re-write you are out. I don't know what to recomment about your studying. The school definatly should have helped you. Did you get to review your test before re-writing to see where you went wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEorP Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 To make things worse, I had an overall grade after that final of approx. 80% in the class, but since I didn't pass the Final Exam, they said they have to give me an F in the class for the first half of the semester. It's written in the policies for the program that way. Well, this was a 10 credit hour class, and that F is going to destroy my 3.48 GPA I had, obviously. My question is if any of you have ever heard of a Paramedic program doing this, and is there anything I could possibly do? This whole experience at this college has *almost* turned me off to EMS, but I won't let them win like that. Colleges can usually do whatever they want if it's written in the policies for the program. In my PCP program (and I believe many in the province) you could have a 99% in the academic work for the prehospital care class and still fail just for failing your final scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustdevil Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 That's true, and brings up a good point. Go make absolutely, positively certain that the written policies support what they are doing. You never know, you might find something in your favour. They tried to kick me out of nursing school for absenteeism. They literally told me I was out. I went to the college dean of instruction who found that there was no written attendance policy for the nursing department, so he made them reinstate me on the technicality. Of course, you can bet they had a very clear written attendance policy in place by the next semester, haha. But you could find something like that in your favour if you look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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