Feedback Files: Nursing Case Study Grades

The Problem with Proficiency-scale Grading

Often with nursing assignments, you'll see grading criteria like the header image. Instead of the usual grade scale from 0-100, If the professor decides which category your work should be in. If they grade it any lower than proficient, you'll get some feedback and have to try again.

While this is nice because it's difficult to fail these assignments (you get several opportunities to revise and submit it again, with feedback each time), it has a critical flaw: how do you know what "proficient" or "distinguished" means unless you are already proficient in writing these assignments?

In other words, nobody really knows what the professor is looking for except them, and that can change based on how familiar they are with the topic, whether they've had a snack lately, the phase of the moon, and a hundred other things. In other-other-words, they can use this unclear grading system to ask for revisions until they feel like you've worked hard enough, and no other reason. If you don't think professors do that sort of thing, I could tell some stories.

For example I've had two customers in the same course, with the same professor, use our service. They were friends and one had referred the other. We made sure they didn't have the same writer or the same topic, but it was clear that the professor was really giving one student a hard time just based on the tone of the feedback. The writing was the same level, the papers the same length, and I reviewed them to make sure they both touched on all the requirements. One student was graded BASIC, and the other was PROFICIENT. This professor had beef, for some reason. When that happens you just have to deal with it.

Secret Writer Knowledge

Now, the good news is that there's a few easy ways to deal with this system of grading. Here's two strategies that we've learned over the years.

1. In most cases, you WILL need to revise 1-2 times. If the professor's job is to give feedback, they're going to do it. They'll feel like they aren't a good professor if they don't, so they'll find something to change in even the most perfect paper.

And for those Sith Lord type of professors, the point of the grading system is to make you feel like you worked hard. What better way to do it than to make you revise a few times until you're worried about getting it right?

Now that you know a revision is coming, you can plan for it. If an assignment gives you a range, like 3-4 pages, aim for the middle (3.5 pages). Why? Because now you have room for when the inevitable revision comes. Instead of trying to fit it by revising something, you can just add a few sentences about whatever they asked for. Trust me, this is the path of efficiency.

2. In many cases, the professor will just check to see if you met the rubric/criteria. You did read those, right? You should have AT LEAST one sentence touching on each of the points in the rubric. They're easy to miss though, even for the professor (more on that in another article).

If you didn't write it or if the professor doesn't see it and asks for feedback, you're in luck. You can add a couple sentences (because you listened to me about #1) and send it back. Done. The professor feels like they did their job, and you played their little feedback game, so you're a good student.

Some revisions are harder than this. Some are even easier. I’ll go over both in some future articles.