HESI exit exam

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I passed it, thankfully. But it is a requirement at my school. You get 4 chances to pass. You need a 900 the first time and 850 thereafter. The thing is that only I'd say 25 of our class of 70 has taken it so far, and of the 9 people I've talked to (including myself) only 2 have passed. 2!!! I don't really think this thing reflects people's knowledge. And I know that lots of people that are failing are failing with 680-720 scores. It's not like people are scoring 870s and shouldn't have a problem with the retake. I would hate to see several of my friends fail it several more times and end up having to repeat 4th semester. I'm very happy I passed it, yet at the same time I'm very empathetic that many of my classmates may not make it unless they can greatly improve their scores.

Do you all think schools should make these tests mandatory for students to graduate? I really don't. The NCLEX is already there to ensure the protection of the public. Having to pass 2 exams seems redundant and adds more stress to an already stressed body/mind. At my school it was just mandated that you have to pass it to graduate. It used to be that you'd take it (twice if not passed) then that would help your studying for the NCLEX. But if you didn't pass it by the 2nd try you still graduated. I think they should go back to that.

Thoughts?

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

I took the HESI exit exam in May 07. We had a total of 3 times to pass the exam with a score of 900. It was horrible because if you didn't pass the exam, even if you had straight A's in NS, you failed and had to repeat the entire semester!

Talk about stress.

On top of that we still had regular exams to take. It was an exam every week...I think they were 75 questions on average. And they covered like 300 pages of stuff. We also had reports to do and we had clinicals to attend to.

I don't remember the numbers now but, I do remember that not many people passed the first attempt. I was so sure I did okay...yeah, I made a 733.

Second time a few weeks like, maybe 3 or 4 weeks, same situation. I made a 725 or something similar...regardless, my score went down. And I had studied my butt off.

Third time, I finally passed. I made around 933 (I think). Anyway, I was in that room for hours. I practically took the whole time because I knew this was my last chance. How horrible is it to not know if you're going to graduate litereally a month before graduation?

Few people passed the third time. It looked like most of us weren't graduating. All of the "really smart" people were struggling too.

But in the end most of us passed. Probably 90% of us passed.

It was the worst test ever.

The reason we had to take it...to ensure our success on the NCLEX and to give our school high pass rates.

Did I think it was fair to place so much emphasis on one test that could make or break you? At the time...there was no way I thought it was fair...but, I did give me a good perspective when I took the NCLEX and passed on the first time.

It was stressful sure, but once you've gotten over that hump it doesn't even matter. Just focus on passing. Study from the CDs, study from the Kaplan, study from all of your NCLEX books and from your text books. Take it one day at a time and pass...

I was up all night, weird hours studying. Guzzling coffee, eating all kinds of crap for energy to study. I went to class in scruffy clothes and fell asleep at home in my jeans. It's hard, but you gotta do it....most of us did.

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At my school we had to pass the HESI exit exam to graduate, too. We had to do 1000-5000 NCLEX questions based on our previous HESI scores and our GPA's, too. I passed the exit exam on the first try, but I thought it was hard. It made the NCLEX seem easy. I agree that this requirement is to keep the school's NCLEX pass rates high. My advice to anyone who has yet to take the HESI exit is to do as many NCLEX questions as you can, and then do even more! I think that is what helped me the most.

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Specializes in Public Health, Med Surg, HIV Care.

Does anyone think this might be nothing more than a way to artificially boost a schools NCLEX pass rate? At my school we had to do ATI every semester, then we had an ATI comprehensive exam at the end. But, nobody was held back for not passing the ATI comp. I think people had to re-take the test (at home), but that was it. Our first-time NCLEX pass rates aren't the absolute best (mid to high 80s). At the same time, about 90% of the class goes straight through the program to NCLEX on-time.

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We had to take Hesi and make a 900 to exit nursing school. We only had 17 in our class in last semester and only 6 passed on the first try, luckly I was one of them. I can say it is very demanding to know that you have finals, and HESI and a math comp test all in one week... IT really took a toll on our class. On the second try only 1 person passed and now they have only one more attempt but they have to take a live review before they can take the test the last time, if they make below 900 on the last one they have to retake last semester, which really sucks because some of them are "A" students, me on the other hand, I was a solid "B" student and passed with a 1034.. go figure who would have known.... But I take NCLEX tomorrow.. pray for me and hope I do as well with it as I did HESI..

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We had to take Hesi and make a 900 to exit nursing school. We only had 17 in our class in last semester and only 6 passed on the first try, luckly I was one of them. I can say it is very demanding to know that you have finals, and HESI and a math comp test all in one week... IT really took a toll on our class. On the second try only 1 person passed and now they have only one more attempt but they have to take a live review before they can take the test the last time, if they make below 900 on the last one they have to retake last semester, which really sucks because some of them are "A" students, me on the other hand, I was a solid "B" student and passed with a 1034.. go figure who would have known.... But I take NCLEX tomorrow.. pray for me and hope I do as well with it as I did HESI..

If you take the NCLEX tomorrow, spend today being good to yourself! I went and got a massage and got my hair done. Don't study today. You already know everything you need to know. I packed a bag with granola bars, juice, bottled water, a sweater, and ibuprofen. I was ready to camp out and take every single question!:D I really lucked out and got only 75. Don't be alarmed when the screen suddenly goes completely blank. That means you don't have any more questions to do, not that you did something bad! Good luck! If you can pass the exit HESI, you'll do fine.:yeah:

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I face the same situation. You said you just passed Hesi. What nclex book or course do you use? I am taking the third Hesi in a couple of months. Please help!!!!

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I used the Saunders review and NCLEX 4000. They were both good. The Lippincott is too easy.

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HESI exit is not the best predictor of passing the NCLEX!!!!! I did not pass it....I took the NCLEX and passed the first time with 75 questions!

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