Lisa,
I am SO SORRY. I know how hard you worked. I know you can do the work (RN or LPN) and I think that asking for reasonable accommodations due to the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are in order. If they would just let you have a calculator you would do very well, I think.
You should go to the school or whoever gives the test and ASK for accommodations - a serparate room if needed, more time, a calculator, non of these things are out of line.
In the real world there are no nurses that I have seen who do math with-o a calculator. None.
The MAIN reason they want you to do problems by hand is to make sure you don't program the calculator to give you other info. So if you offered to let them examine your calculator ahead of time that might sway things your way. Or even to show up with a brand new calculator still in the packaging so that you COULDN'T cheat, that might help.
either way, they are discriminating against you by not giving you accommodations.
BUT if they don't know you need accommodations, then they can't help you. You are not the first person to need them, and you won't be the last.
Take some time to grieve over your test grade. It hurts, I know. then enroll in the LPN program and study for the RN exam - after asking for accommodations.
And find someone to teach you a.) HOW to take tests and b.) how to take THIS test. It doesn't matter how many hours you put into studying if you are doing it ineffectively. There ARE ways to learn to study effectively. I was a national merit finalist - with scholarship - and almost FLUNKED out of college because I didn't know how to STUDY. so I took an "idiot" class (as my friends called it) on how to study. The class was created for jocks, but anyone could take it. It was AMAZING. The Education Dept taught it where i was in school. After that class, my grades were SOOOO much better!
by the way, what would you do to Nichole or Travis if they went into a test this big and DIDN'T ask for accomodations? Just a question.
You really CAN do anything you want to. You just may have to take a slightly different road to get there.
Hugs,
Susie
Sending very gentle hugs and a big bag of treats.
Susie