HESI question: Please Read all the way.

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Ok. My HESI scores have been as follows: (I recently just "finished" an ADN program this month

1.) 600 (I took the first one when we had three weeks left of our third semester. I admit, I was totally unprepared)

2.) 724

3.) 764

4.) 838. And this is where my question comes into play. (We took this during FINALS WEEK.)

We signed a contract to our student hand book at orientation during the summer before we started. I got a copy of the part about the Comprehensive Exit Exam (we didnt know the name of the exam at that point, or what the passing rate was.) and it states on the 5th time if the student does not pass, your grade changes from an 'I' to an 'F'. Ok.. so its in the handguide. All along, during our first and especially our second year, we hear that we get more than 5 times. We hear that we wont fail, we will just keep taking it until we pass. So here we are, a week before we graduate this month, and theyre like "well, you might as well get another attempt in before graduation, because you'll have more chances". SO, not thinking anything, we took it during busy graduation week, and there are still 17 of us who have not passed it. Now we just found out yesterday that we will be failed out of the program if we fail this next HESI. We wouldnt have taken it so close to the third attempt and during FINALS week had we have known our 5th attempt wasnt our last! I know, I know.... we signed a handguide saying we "knew" this... but all along we were told we weren't really limited to 5 attempts.

Also, we had technical problems with two of the medication administration questions during our fourth attempt (which happened to be V-1 retake... so one of the questions on V-1 was screwed too). It was a question about sliding scale insulin where the chart would not pop-up.. therefore no way to correctly answer the question. Also, another question did not give complete information and was determined that it was messed up too. I know myself, and several other students were in the mid to upper 840s, and one person even got a, no joke, 849.

IF A TEST LIKE THIS IS SUPPOSED TO DETERMINE OUR FUTURE AS NURSES, ISN'T IT WRONG THAT SOME OF US COULD POTENTIALLY PASS IF THESE QUESTIONS WERE ABLE TO BE ANSWERED?? This test is already ridiculous as it is, why should we also be having to deal with TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES on the test?

We talked to our DON, and she said "it wouldnt have mattered, those questions could be worth tenths of a point" She said it wouldn't have even mattered for the girl who was an 849. This is ridiculous. I've only seen whole number scores on HESI results.

Im not trying to be like "wah wah i didnt pass the HESI". We've taken Hurst review, we've studied our asses off. We're being hurt because of inability to PHYSICALLY ANSWER the problem. A technical difficulty. Yet our DON is "no longer entertaining questions about the exam"

Is this right? I know, some might say "well would you sue the school if you failed the NCLEX?"

THIS ISNT THE SAME THING. IM LEFT IN THE DARK, 30K IN DEBT, WITH **NO*** DEGREE. It would be different if i had a freaking degree to show for it. Now Im left with one chance, and several us could possibly pass due to these TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

This is just so irritating and insane. Do I have a case here? Im so sorry if my post is annoying, Im just trying to get input here. It's very upsetting that people could care less.

It seems we should be rewarded a re-take, and not only that, my computer shut off at 152, so i had to wait 20 minutes while we got my test back up, then i missed 4 from 153-160. just very upsetting.

Any advice on this and who we should contact or what we should do?

NoviceRN10

901 Posts

When are you taking it again? It looks like your score goes up each time, so you should be fine. I don't know if you'll gain anything by arguing with the powers that be at your school since you signed the contract.

Specializes in Cardiac.

You said 5 times right? So just figure out what you are doing wrong, and study for the final time.

I took my HESI during a week where we had the 3 other tests, all of them finals. If you are prepared, it won't matter when you take the test.

Doesn't the school give you a printout after you take the test? Find your weaknesses and study them.

Good luck on test #5.

inProgress

24 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Student - LAST YEAR!.

I'm a little confused... Didn't you take your 5th chance already? If you have taken it and they are letting you do another attempt because of technical difficulties then count your blessings and take it. I took my HESI a couple months ago, my strategy was to take it once to test out the questions and how they are formatted and then find out what areas I didn't do well in and fix that. The second time I took it was months later after major studying. As far as "having a case" I don't think so, like you said yourself you wouldn't sue the school if you failed the NCLEX. I don't want to come off harsh but you should have been at that level before the 5th try. : ) good luck!

Specializes in OR.

no, we get five attempts period. (but all along the instructors are saying "dont worry you'll get as many as you need")

the dean (who is also receiving a demotion to dean of students because a new DON is coming aboard) is just NOW saying this is the last attempt.

look... it would not be a big deal to me not passing if there were no TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES with the test. we have been trying to tell them about problems on every test not loading right, or not being able to be answered because of graphs not popping up. each test, there has been 1-2 students each time who could have potentially passed because of this.

this time, its more like 5-6... and i happen to be one of them. what, i should just not even give it any concern that because of 2 unanswerable questions i could have passed? would you not be a little irritated if you could have been done with a test but instead now you're on your fifth and final try?

this is what im saying. im not saying "hey pity party for me because i failed." if i got an 838, and there were no technical errors with the questions, then fine, i can live with that. this isnt the case.

Specializes in Cardiac.

My HESI had difficulties as well. I had it just totally shut off for like, 10 minutes. It sucked because I was competeting with a fellow student to be done first.

It happens.

Study hard for this last test so your score isn't so close to the cutoff score.

TessaMae

292 Posts

Last semester, one of my friends failed out of a nursing program with a 76.4....you need a 77 to pass and they round up anything 0.5 or higher. Needless to say, she was pretty mad like you. On the first exam, she did not show her work for the math problems on the actual exam, she showed it on the scrap paper that they collect and staple to the exam, the directions on the exam clearly stated ALL WORK MUST BE SHOWN ON THE EXAM TO RECEIVE CREDIT - so they didn't give her the 5 points. As it turned out at the end of the term, if she had those five points she would not have failed out of the program. To this day, she keeps saying that if they had just given her those points, she would still be a nursing student. The DON, told her this (maybe harsh) "yes if you got those 5 points, you would have passed, BUT if you answered 5 other questions correctly out of the 75 on the exam, you also would have passed". For me, these arewords to live by. I never want to put myself in the position to be that close to failing cause you never know what will happen. I don't want to ever NEED to get a 100 on the final exam..what if my kids are sick the night before the exam??? What if my calculator breaks, what if my mind blanks out???

I think, you should use this last chance as motivation to study your butt off! You HAVE to go in to this "last chance" with a positive attitude and plan to pass. You HAVE to go in there as prepared as possible so that if a couple of questions just happen to not load correctly, or you just draw a blank...it wont make or break you. I hope it goes well, and Good Luck!:up:

morte, LPN, LVN

7,015 Posts

am i missing something? if they said you have five tries at the EXIT HESI, why does the one from 3rd semester count? you cant possiblly take a comprehensive test with less than 75% of the material.......so what is up wit that? as far as tech. dif. perhaps contacting the testing company itself would be more productive.....good luck

goodstudentnowRN

1,007 Posts

Specializes in Telemetry.

Jolly,

I feel your pain. Just study hard for the final exam and you should be okay. It is not nice to have incomsistencies in nursing college. If it were my school, we all would come together and present a case.

Specializes in OR.

actually, this week we all banded together (about 15 of us) and went to the vice president of academic affairs. when we walked in, she asked what we were doing, because she was walking out. she was on her way to a one oclock appointment. we told her we didnt have an appointment, but we had an issue. so she said "well, looks like i have to cancel my one o'clock then, doesnt it?"

we talked with her for an hour. we were hella suprised she took time out of her busy schedule, but strength in numbers is the best thing ever.

to the person who told the story about the girl with a 74.4... i understand if she had the points she would have passed... this is why i explained my story the way i did. im not ASKING to get points. the directions on her paper stated "all math must be shown"

it was there for her to read. it was unfortunate, but it was there.

this is different than INFORMATION NOT POPPING UP ON A CHART that you NEED to answer the question. this is my issue. not with the material itself, but with the questions NOT DISPLAYING CORRECTLY, so we are counted off for them

in my opinion, since people were within a couple of questions of passing, these two questions could have passed 6 of us. this is why we should be afforded another attempt. im not asking to be passed, im asking for that test to be invalidated and for another attempt to be awarded. its too much of an important test for something like THAT to hold us back. im not crying beause i failed. im crying because two questions werent answerable and some of us FAILED BY TWO QUESTIONS. see what i mean? im sure you'd be upset too.

TessaMae

292 Posts

I would surely be upset and i know I would do everything i could to try and let them retake it, just like you are doing. I hope it works out for you!

Bicster

409 Posts

Your time would have been much better spent studying then randomly walking in on faculty and posting on forums about your problems.

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