DO NOT PUT THE HATE ON YOUR BATCHMATES | MBE2
It's frustrating to learn that the exams had been publicly available long before the mock board exams. At the same time, I want to remind everyone that it isn't necessarily the students' fault if they came across those questions. The material had been publicly accessible for a long time. If some of your classmates found it and studied from it without knowing it would be used in the exam, it's difficult to call that cheating.
BLAME THE DEPARTMENT! BLAME THE PEOPLE WHO DECIDED TO USE THAT TEST BANKS!
The real issue is the decision to use a test bank that had already been circulating publicly. If accountability is needed, it should be directed at the department and those who chose to use those questions.
Everyone sacrificed a lot to get through this journey just to be accused of cheating. It's unfair to automatically label students as cheaters when there was no intent to gain an unfair advantage. If you didn't come across the source, what can anyone do about that? Maybe others simply encountered it while reviewing different test banks, or maybe they were just fortunate enough to study from the same material.
Not placing at the top doesn't make you a failure. If you're disappointed with your ranking, don't direct that frustration toward your classmates. Be honest with yourself and don't be a fcking hypocrite, if you had unknowingly studied the same publicly available questions before the exam, there's a good chance you would have done exactly the same.
At the end of the day, you passed. You're graduating. You made it through nursing school. That's what matters most. What happened during the mock boards does not define the kind of Registered Nurse you'll become. Learn from this experience, improve the process moving forward, and focus on becoming the best nurse you can be.