School of Nursing courses gate the gradebook behind exams: the average of all your exam scores must reach at least 78 percent before any assignment or quiz points are added to your grade, and the average is not rounded, so 77.9 counts as below the line. The math is a running mean. Each exam is one term in the average, so an early low score is recoverable if later exams pull the number up, and no volume of assignment work substitutes for clearing the exam average first. To find what a final exam must score, multiply 78 by the number of exams, subtract what you have already banked, and the remainder is your target.
The rule, exactly as written
Nursing courses compute a Total Exam Score Average across every exam in the course, and until that average is at least 78 percent, the assignment and quiz points you earn are held out of your grade entirely. There is no rounding step, which is the detail that ends semesters quietly: a 77.9 average is below 78, full stop, and the gradebook treats it that way. The consequence is that exams are not one category among several, they are the switch that turns the rest of the gradebook on. Perfect care plans and flawless discussion posts cannot rescue a course whose exam average sits under the line, because those points are not being counted yet.
The running-average math
Because the gate is an average, each exam moves it by a predictable amount, and that is good news for anyone who stumbles early. Suppose a course has four exams of equal weight. Here is how a single strong finish can rescue a rough start.
| Exam | Score | Running average | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam 1 | 72 | 72.0 | Below the line |
| Exam 2 | 76 | 74.0 | Below the line |
| Exam 3 | 82 | 76.7 | Still below |
| Exam 4 | 90 | 80.0 | Gate cleared |
The average of 72, 76, 82, and 90 is 80, which clears 78 with room, so every assignment point this student earned across the term now counts. The lesson is not to panic at exam one; it is to compute the number you still need and study to it.
What you need on the last exam
The target formula is short. Multiply 78 by the total number of exams to get the points the whole set must total, subtract the sum of your earlier exam scores, and the difference is what the last exam must reach. In the example above, four exams need 312 points in total (78 times 4); the first three delivered 230 (72 plus 76 plus 82); so the final needed 82 to hit the line exactly, and the 90 cleared it comfortably. If that remainder ever exceeds 100, the gate cannot be cleared in that course and the honest move is to plan the retake deliberately rather than chase an impossible score. Run this number after every exam, not just the last one.
What waits behind the gate
Once the average clears 78, the points you already earned on assignments, quizzes, care plans, and discussions are added and your grade can settle where your total work deserves. That ordering is why the smartest nursing students protect exam study first in any week that contains an exam, then hand the written work to a plan that keeps it moving. The written side still matters, it simply cannot post until the gate opens. Lab and clinical components keep their own separate pass requirements as well, so a course with a lab does not collapse to a single number; the grading manual maps how those pieces coexist.
Common misreads students post about
- Believing a 77.9 average rounds to a pass, when the policy applies no rounding
- Pouring effort into assignments while the exam average sits below the line, so none of it counts yet
- Treating exam one as decisive, when the average is recoverable across the full set
- Never computing the last-exam target, then being surprised by a number that was knowable weeks earlier
Where tutoring support fits
This is the two-lane engagement we run most in nursing. On the exam lane, our tutors compute your current average from a gradebook screenshot, set the target for each remaining exam, and coach the content and test technique to hit it, the exams are always yours to sit, we build the readiness. On the writing lane, the drafting desk carries care plans and papers at 24 to 48 hours each so your study hours stay whole for the exam that actually gates the grade. The standard coursework desk runs both lanes together, and the first exam-average read is free.
Know your number before the next exam
Send a gradebook screenshot. We compute your exam average and the target to clear 78, free and same day.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/course-catalog: the official course catalog, source for the School of Nursing exam-average policy
- www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/nursing: Rasmussen's official nursing program pages
- www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/empowered-learning: Rasmussen's official Empowered Learning pages
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules