ERI Testing

hope3456, ASN, RN · Feb 20, 2006

Hi All Colorado Nursing Students !
This semester my school PPCC started making passing the ERI testing at 4% above the national average as part of our requirement to continue with school. Prior to this we had to take an ERI test at the end of each class but were not required to pass at 4% above the national average to continue with our program. Many students failed this test and now have until Feb 28th to re-take it or they will be dropped from the program (the students I know that failed are very, very good students). We are at the end of our program taking Med-Surg II. I think our school is so worried about their NCLEX passing rates that they are doing this to keep a high %. This doesnt make sense to me since our passing rates in 2005 was 89.5%(very close the 91.4% Beth-El - UCCS the other nursing school in our area & a 4yr school got). The ERI testing doesnt correlate well with any other tests that I have taken and certainly not with any NCLEX study books I have seen nor do they correlate well with any of the classes we have taken even though we take the tests at the end of each class.
Are any of the other Nursing schools in colorado required to take this testing and if so do you have to pass at 4% above the national average to continue ? We were told that this is now a Colorado State Board of Nursing requirement but I have my doubts about whether this is true.
Thanks to anyone who responds !!
Good luck in school too !!
lencialoo almost there - may 2006

I graduated from FRCC (ft. collins) in may '05 and I am not familiar with ERI testing - what exactly does it consist of?

As to the BON requirements, I don't know what they are but a student who just started the frcc nsg program told me that they raised the grading scales starting this semester.....for example an 'A' is over 93% instead of 90% like when i was there. I would suspect this will 'weed out' many since I knew several students in my group who passed certain classes by only 1 point. And according to this student, FRCC did this b/c of the BON.

However, FRCC already had a relatively high NCLEX pass rate, around 90%. The school to be concerned about would be AIMS CC in greeley, their latest graduating class had a 67% nclex pass rate!

lencialoo · Feb 20, 2006

Hope,

Thanks for your reply....it does seem like nursing school is getting harder all the time.

The ERI is a testing company that is supposed to help guide students in studying for the NCLEX. Originally we were only using them to help us to know what areas we needed more work on but the tests never give you exact answers to your questions, they just print out a general guideline of what areas you are at risk. (ie Nursing diagnosis, Inferring Risk, etc)

Our pass rates at PPCC are always fairly high on the NCLEX though, upper 80% or 90%. I've read about other nursing schools using an exit test called the HESI. PPCC uses the ERI exclusively.

You are correct that the grade point scale was raised from 92-100% = A; to 93-100% = A, the other grade points for B and C is still the same I think, with 76% and below failing.

One of the instructors actually took this last ERI test and she said she couldnt even find some of the answers using our Med-Surg text book; she said she thought alot of the questions were really goofy !! All I can say is someone is making BIG money selling this bill of goods to Nursing School Deans :angryfire

lencialoo only 2 more months to go and then we get to take our NCLEX !

uright · Nov 13, 2007

Hi my name is uright and I am looking for someone who has failed nclex more than five times. that can let me no about eri testing does this really help to past nclex. :lol2:

study2Bnurse · Nov 15, 2007

I go to Pueblo Community College, I'm first year. We had to take the ERI for Fundamentals and Pharm.

To pass, we had to achieve the national average or better. If we didn't pass, we could take a second time. Some of my classmates have to take them again because they didn't pass the first time.

Not passing doesn't mean we're out of the program, it just shows our instructors areas that either we as students didn't understand, or perhaps areas that just weren't covered in class.

ERI tests aren't scary, just a little intimidating because there are concepts that we haven't had yet. There are practice tests on the site, which are a good way to get a little experience before taking the ERI.

Good luck!!!

sddlnscp · Dec 3, 2007

My school requires ERI testing to be passed at 4 points above the national average in order to proceed each semester. If the requirement is not met, then the student cannot progress to the next semester. The questions are designed to simulate NCLEX and, so far have been very helpful to the students in my class although many people have had to take the tests multiple times to achieve the required 4 points above national average. However, since our school has implemented this requirement, we have had 100% pass rates for NCLEX exams.

Best of luck! I'm not sure if ERI testing is required everywhere yet, but it is becoming the norm and I don't think it will be going away as it is getting good results from the schools that are using it. Many of the students do not like it, but it really is showing a great improvement in the ability of students to pass boards the first attempt that have graduated from my school.

Our school also has the higher level for grading with 93-100% for an A and anything below 77% is failing.

Best of luck to all who are in nursing school!!! :)

ichibanjohn · Nov 12, 2008

URIGHT, don't waste your time with ERI. It will not help you with the NCLEX. It is a totally different type of testing. The question are asked different. It will only confuse you for the real test. For example in ERI you must assume the meds have been ordered but NCLEX will state that in the question. Our class has wasted:banghead: so much time with those shysters.

ichibanjohn · Nov 12, 2008

I wonder if all schools required students to be above the average on ERI, would that mean only half of all nursing students would graduate?