HESI Tips?

You're preparing for it by putting what you have learned into application. The questions are mostly application type. You're gonna use your critical thinking skills to answer each question. Some questions are scored higher than the others. Just review for your finals. The knowledge you'll learn from your review will be used for the HESI. If you do good Mr. R. or Mr. O will give you extra points on your final test grades.

Yes, I agree with the above poster. I asked my instructor about ways to prepare for the HESI, which we are taking on Tuesday, and she basically said that we should have learned what we need to know in the duration of our fundamentals class.

My instructor must be right. I scored 1045 on my HESI!

The questions are application-type questions, much like the actual NCLEX-RN, but I have had HESI reps tell me the HESI is way harder. There is a HESI review book for the NCLEX-RN but honestly I didn't think it helped me that much. You're better off just practicing NCLEX-style questions from an NCLEX book.

I had to take 4 different HESI exams - Med-surg, critical care, leadership/management and an exit exam (which was basically like a comprehensive exam - everything from med-surg to leadership/management, peds, OB, psych, gero). All were very hard in my opinion but I scored high on all of them except for the med-surg one, I only did so-so on that one. I didn't study much for them, but that's because my school doesn't place as much emphasis on the HESI exams as other schools.

Our score on the med-surg exam determined our precepting placement. Both the critical care & leadership/management exams counted for 5% towards my final grades in their respective classes. For the exit exam, we had to score above an 850 and if not, then we had to do remediation with a HESI exam course and then take version B of the exam at a later date for more practice.

The HESI is used to test your knowledge. It is to show the likelihood of how well you will do on the NCLEX exam. Passing the HESI with flying colors does not mean you will pass the NCLEX, however. You still need to study!

Good luck!

I have only taken the Fundamentals HESI so far but I also thought it was pretty tough. The majority of the people in the class have scored in the failing range. I agree that NCLEX questions are probably the best way to prepare. The format of the questions is very similar.

I took the foundations HESI (hesi, Hesi, whatever it is) a couple of weeks ago. It was deemed our "comprehensive final." The whole premise of the test really ****** me off, but it's more of an administrative peeve than anything.

The questions were quite clear for that particular subject, and they were mostly concise as well. They were applied in nature, but I didn't think they were difficult. I got 922/1000 on it. No studying. You can't study short-term for application, IMO.

The questions were much simpler than the National Registry EMT-Paramedic exam if you've got any familiarity with that.

Edit: Oh, I guess the OP wanted tips. If I'd read and/or paid any modicum of attention to our mobility/immobility/activity unit in class I'd have done better. There were about four questions out of the 55 total that dealt specifically with items of that nature. I think I missed three of them, lol.

The questions were quite clear for that particular subject, and they were mostly concise as well. They were applied in nature, but I didn't think they were difficult. I got 922/1000 on it. No studying. You can't study short-term for application, IMO.

Are you sure your exam was only out of 1000? I'm just curious because ours was out of 1350 and I was under the impression that the Fundamentals HESI was the same for everyone; I could be wrong though.

Are you sure your exam was only out of 1000? I'm just curious because ours was out of 1350 and I was under the impression that the Fundamentals HESI was the same for everyone; I could be wrong though.

Ours was out of 1100 and it had 55 questions.

I guess they're not all the same then.. thanks for the info.

FWIW, ours also had only 55 questions but was scored to 1350.

You know, I would have thought it was the same too. Strange.

Did you buy your test code in a DVD case that had only a little green card in it?

Yup, same DVD case with the little green card.

Well, I'm pretty sure it was 1000. I could be wrong. I don't really care since I passed it. I do know it wasn't 1350, or I'd have flunked out with a 922, lol.