Hesi Test Abuse??

mauxtav8r · Sep 20, 2007

The school buys the use of the test. I'm really sorry if you got a bad deal out of this arrangement.

At my school, extra credit points are given for better than average performance on these tests, but you can't get the points unless you have a passing grade on your test average before hand. So, the test can't hurt you but it can help.

Also, the tests written by the nursing faculty at my school were WAY harder (all "analysis" type questions) than the standardized tests we took every semester.

BTW, what is you schools admission policy like? And how is their NCLEX pass rate? If they admit folks who are marginal but have a great pass rate, where did those people go? or did they somehow get a handle on it enough to succeed academically?

Procedures like this are not so much "against" the student, but pro-pass-rate. If you spend years in their school but cannot pass the NCLEX they have not done you any favor. Letting you know asap is better, imho.

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · Sep 20, 2007

i always thought the HESI test was an indicator test to see how one may due later on when taking the NCLEX.
i guess i was wrong~ at felician college in lodi new jersey, this test is used for a much higher purpose. the HESI is now used as the students final exam in certain classes, such as med surge for example.
in the past you would complete the class like normal, and then take the HESI as an exit exam. even though you may have passed the class with flying colors, you would get 3 chances to pass the HESI. if you fail in all three attempts you then fail the class and cant advance. however, (prior to the 3 attempt) if you were to fail they the school would offer "specialized" remedial work to help you on this test.
NOW>>>>>>>>>>> the HESI is used as the final exam in the class, counting as 30% of your course grade. you get one and only one chance to pass, if you fail you must repeat the class. you only get one chance at repeating a course ever in the nursing program, of which the second time around you must obtain an even higher final average.
if just seems as if the school is abusing this HESI test by using it to remove as many students as possible from the program in order to be left with only the elite few to send before the boards, thus insuring an even higher success rate to be advertised.
at over $20,000 a year you would think a school would be more "for" a student then "against"............
what do you all think....

I think it sucks but HESI is here to stay.

Our school won't let you graduate if you don't score 850 or above. It doesn't matter how your grades our in fundamentals, clinicals or lab. More and more schools are doing it. It won't be long before all schools do it, I think.

keishahu · Sep 20, 2007

My school does the same thing. Hesi is the final exam for all the main classes Med-surg, L&D/Peds. We also had to take it for advance Med-Surg. Yes it was worth 30% of the grade but if we passed the class although we failed the Hesi we would need to do remedial. I dont think its a way to weed out the class @ all although I use to have the same thoughts. You'll see when you have to take the dreaded Nclex that the Hesi test has nothing on hesi. Anyway you can do it. I did graduated in May work at NYPH.

Italia13 RN · Sep 20, 2007

We have a HESI after every Clinical rotation... no matter what grade we get on it it counts as 5% of our grade, Thank God , because I consider them to be kinda difficult. The only one that we have to pass with an 850 or higher is our Exit Hesi at the end of senior year! And yes sometimes I do believe that most of the head faculty of the school is out to get us, so that gives me even more power to show them wrong! Good Luck... 8 more months til GRADUATION!!!! Hopefully

PeachyERNurse, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2007

i always thought the HESI test was an indicator test to see how one may due later on when taking the NCLEX.
i guess i was wrong~ at felician college in lodi new jersey, this test is used for a much higher purpose. the HESI is now used as the students final exam in certain classes, such as med surge for example.
in the past you would complete the class like normal, and then take the HESI as an exit exam. even though you may have passed the class with flying colors, you would get 3 chances to pass the HESI. if you fail in all three attempts you then fail the class and cant advance. however, (prior to the 3 attempt) if you were to fail they the school would offer "specialized" remedial work to help you on this test.
NOW>>>>>>>>>>> the HESI is used as the final exam in the class, counting as 30% of your course grade. you get one and only one chance to pass, if you fail you must repeat the class. you only get one chance at repeating a course ever in the nursing program, of which the second time around you must obtain an even higher final average.
if just seems as if the school is abusing this HESI test by using it to remove as many students as possible from the program in order to be left with only the elite few to send before the boards, thus insuring an even higher success rate to be advertised.
at over $20,000 a year you would think a school would be more "for" a student then "against"............
what do you all think....

Yep, HESI really sucks. It counted for 40% of my final Med-Surg II grade (we lost 2 people because of that one). We also had to take a HESI for Fundamentals (10% of final grade), Pharm (10% of final grade), and Psych (20% of final grade). We're also taking one for Peds (30% of final grade), and OB (30% of final grade) at the end of this semester. We have a final cumulative HESI that we have 2 chances to score 850 on or we don't graduate. As if nursing school isn't stressful enough without having these extra HESI hoops to jump through:banghead:.

november17, ASN, RN · Sep 20, 2007

The school I graduated from has a 96% average pass rate for the NCLEX, only 3 people out of 48 "failed" out (plus a few dropped for personal reasons), and we never took the HESI.

It sounds to me like schools are using the HESI as a quick fix for when they have classes that do crappy on the NCLEX and the BON investigates. I don't think the HESI is a replacement for good curriculum, which it seems like some schools are using it for (to weed out the people that are unlikely to pass the NCLEX). I took the NCLEX and passed, but Ive seen some of that HESI stuff and I don't think I could pass that.

puddingpie · Sep 21, 2007

I don't think that is right at all- I did not pass any of the HESI's while in school, well not exactly, I passed the last one with an 880 which was our exit exam- and I had 1 month to study for it (fialed it the first time with a 721 -the school would not release our information to the BON until we passed it up to 3 times, if we still failed it, we were required to take KAPLAN or another RN NCLEX review course.

I passed the NCLEX with 75 questions- I'm sure that blew their minds completely and I was a B/C (mostly C's which is 80%) student.

I highly recommend the HESI Review book with the CD for success and throughout school it is a great source!

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2007

Sounds to me as if the instructors are getting lazy and dont want to either make the test or spend time grading the test. What a way out,, to administer a test via computer and have the computer grade it for you.

Shows great resource but im afraid they are only showing students how to get out of doing it the real way.

Some of the older school nurses would complain that we newer nurses are getting a free ticket because we dont have to sit a 2 day NCLEX exam like they did. So i guess technology moves forward.

peyton013 · Dec 14, 2008

Here's one for everybody. our school just changed their policy on Hesi. Used to only be worth 5 points toward your final grade, if you passed you got an extra 5 points toward your final grade in clinical, in you failed it could not hurt you, if you where failing clinical at the time you took hesi, hesi could help bring your grade up to a passing grade of 80% or better. Well our nursing board thought the students where not studying for the Hesi so they raised the points to 15 point. So our hesi is now worth 15 points.

This past week I sat down with my instructor and she told me I was passing with better than an 80%, that next day we had the hesi test, I am not good at test taking, I was not nervous, I'm just not good with test, we have one chance at it, 850 or better. I failed, and because I failed and even though I was passing with better than an 80%, hesi brought my grade BELOW the 80%, now failing. Because I am now failing clinical, failed hesi, and yes everyone this was my first hesi ever, one more semester left.....

the school kicked me out of their nursing program! This was my first time doing this clinical, i was NOT repeating it! I had passed all my other classes, and had one semester to go, and about over 20,000 in financial aid no job cause all my time went toward scool and this is what I got out of hesi

SO YES, I AGREE WITH YOU. HESI ABUSE ALL THE WAY! I DONT THINK THIS IS FAIR AT ALL.

Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Dec 15, 2008

I suspect it is all pretty simple, and has nothing to do with the students' best interests.

The schools want to protect their statistics. They want a high pass rate on the NCLEX. The brings all sorts of good consequences for the school. Sooooo, they use the HESI (so I suspect) to both weed out students, and prime students for the NCLEX. That way, their pass rate looks good when it is time for the NCLEX.

My school used the HESI as a mandated practice exam; and a diagnostic for themselves. The next class, they started using it towards grades and graduation.

peyton013 · Dec 15, 2008

I agree with you totally! but what the schools not realizing when they do this, is that in return, while they are making themselves try to look good with stats on the NCLEX, they are taking a bigger down fall in return, as in my case because I am not the only one this has happened to! Last semester our standers got raised as far as our passing percentage, it used to be 77%, it is now 80%, why because students from our school are failing boards, now there is this hesi, while people only got 5 points before, now we get 15, since we have been getting 15 stundents grades have been affected and have been failing becuase of this. And student have been failing so much because of thi hesi test ok, that for next semester, AND THIS I NOT A JOKE!, that school have to cancel more than half of their second semester and third semester clinicals because so many student failed between first and second semesters on the hesi.

So now look at the hesi and decide, is it really worth risking that much academic failure in between? because someone is gonna notice, cause I have and I have an appt. with the dean next week per, her request. Now wait till all that failure goes public, then see if it is all worth it, cause for that schools sake, I can bet it wont be.

I'm sure there is a better way they can go about it with out screwing their studentd so badly!