Hesi Exit Test

According to the HESI website, the test is also made to put the school's curriculum to the test, to see if it's truely preparing the students for the boards.

I myself came from a nursing school where 60% of the students passed the HESI and were able to graduate, and we had an 850 point cutoff. If our cutoff was 900 or even 950 there would've been maybe 12 girls at pinning.

I believe that if less than half the students can pass this Do-Or-Die test, doesn't that mean that the SCHOOL isn't doing it's job?

Is anyone from a nursing school that ties your HESI score to a grade in a specific class? In mine, we have a 10-credit hour MedSurg class that if you fail the HESI 3 times, you get a 10 credit F added to your transcripts. To reapply to the program, you have to also re-take all the 1st Semester final exams. Once in, they have to retake all the 2nd semester classes + clinicals, then re-take the HESI and you get only one shot. If you fail, you can never reapply for the program.

Nice, huh?

We were required to take the EXIT HESI and we had 2 times to take it. Throughout our 2 years at my school after every rotation we would have a hesi and what ever we got on that would count for 5% of our grade. If we didn't pass the exit hesi on the 2nd time I believe the students were required to do 6 weeks remediation , which was pretty much NCLEX questions, but they let them Graduate, THANK GOD! Hesi just gives the school you are going to reassurance that they did their job and you are ready to sit for boards, I mean would you want to go to a school whose pass rate is not high? I wouldn't! So the HESI test didn't really bother me although it was extra stress that I didn't need at the end of the year!

As a matter of fact...the HESI has another purpose, according to their own web site. It's other purpose is to make sure that schools are actually teaching a proper curriculum. How many of us were missing questions on the HESI that were about subject matter we NEVER went over in school? Plenty. How many of us had to use SAT-type answer elimination strategies to even muster a passing grade? Again, many.

I believe schools should be ranked by their HESI pass rate!!!!! I think we'd see a massive change in the curriculum and the quality of the classes. If they're ranked by pass rate of the NCLEX and only graduate students who'll pass, according to the HESI model, a school can legally just have their students play kickball for 2 years, graduate just 1 student who passes the HESI, and STILL CLAIM A 100% PASS RATE and pocket the other 80+ student's tuition with impunity.

My school gives us 3 times to pass with a 900 or we don't graduate. I just took it for the 2nd time and can't seem to get out of the 700's. They just made it a graduation requirement after I was already in my 3rd level. They made us sign a paper saying that we understood and if we didn't sign, we had to leave class immediately. My 1st test was 2 weeks into the semester, so we hadn't even been taught all the material. Now, I just took the 2nd one without all the material being taught, again. Our instructor does everything she can to intimidate us & has told us that if we go to the dean or complain to state board about anything that it WILL get back to her and we WILL be the ones to suffer. Do they go through state board to approve of the Hesi? And- about us all coming together to fight this with an attorney, does it matter that we all signed that paper? I'm sure that is out of the question anyway because if she thought we were fighting it, she would find some other way to make sure we don't pass.
Also- I read the Kaplan book for test taking (twice) and read all the Hesi hints in the NCLEX study guide. I'm thinking it may have hurt me because I was trying to answer every question using the tips, instead of going with what I know. The only thing left that I know to do is answer question after question- all this while trying to study for my 4th test & final exam.

Don't let the staff intimidate you. When it comes down to it, they're all very much accountable for the program they run, and if what they're saying was truely policy, it'd be in writing somewhere. They are just scared for their jobs because if too many students fail, the program is in for disciplinary action itself!

As for the HESI...don't forget to relax and trust yourself. There is no reason to believe that all your work will be for nothing if you don't get through without a bump. You wouldn't have even gotten this far if you were not nursing material!

Well im one Student who managed to keep a GPA of 3.4 and a B plus but failed Hesi because my school got a new chair who decided to raise the passing score from a 850 to a 1000 so as to help the school to become fully accredited I got a 815, 945 ,866 I have perfect attendence and never but once missed clinicals but that did not mattered because now I have to start all over again so who wins and the program was very costly $20000 and I am not rich but now I have no diploma actually it is 15 of us so who is going to be my advocate i am upset and hurt no trrue nurse would do something like this to a new nurse to be

Woah. Tell you what,... If your school requires a score of 1000, and more than half of the class still manages to pass (WITHOUT spending hundreds of dollars on outside tutoring) , what can I say, sounds like the kind of school I wish I went to!

Like I said in a previous post, if the cutoff at my school was even 950, all the girls who graduated would've all fit in the back seat of a hatchback car.

When the nursing boards catch on that the do-or-die HESI policy in nursing schools is producing artifical competancy at huge expense to the students, they will change their ranking system.

That might be true but my first 2 semesters was a nightmare not enough was taught but as a group we got together and helped each other the best part of my 15 months program was the last 3 semesters the instructors were excellent helped alot and then the nightmare happened again in all 5 students made the 1000 so she dropped it to a 950 so 10 other people made it through I totally hate HESI and wish if I could have this exit exam banned like some states have because if there is such a shortage why are these schools taking students money and crushing their dreams if I had seen this coming I would never attended a school with such a high passing average, would you have?

My school uses HESI after each course. We also use exit, but you take the exit once at the beginning of last semester and if you don't get 800 you're required to take a course that goes over test taking strategies. Students who get over 800 are exempt from the course but welcome to take it anyways (which most of us did). You have to get a 850 or greater at the end of the semester to get your diploma. If not, you walk without your diploma and come back and keep testing until you pass. I got 946 in January, took the test taking skills course by my own choice, then got a 978 in May. I don't hate the HESI as much as others seem to, I think it helped me. In my program I think it also helped the students who didn't have great testing skills to get their skills up to par before taking NCLEX. Lots of us have NCLEX-ed from my class, and I haven't heard of one yet who has failed.