Is HESI a good Judge for the N-Clex success?

Nursing Students Student Assist

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So we are finishing up Block 1 and our program has us take the HESI as part of our Final Exams each semester they said that the HESI is actually a good marker for N-Clex success, does anyone have an opinion or experience here? Just curious on how others see it? I actually did really well which made me VERY happy but there were others who really studied hard and had little success and that made me sad. I am a cheerleader wanting my entire class to succeed all the time and wanted to see if I could encourage them! :yeah:

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They are constantly telling us at our school how most students performance on the HESI correlates to how well they will do on the NCLEX. One professor of mine even said that the HESI is supposed to be harder than the NCLEX but I'm not so sure about that.

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I have taken nclex-pn (for lpns) and HESI comp for RN and found HESI to be much harder...

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Specializes in Nursing Education.

There have been multiple research studies that show that the HESI is highly correlated with NCLEX success...meaning that the higher you score on HESI, the more likely you are to pass NCLEX.

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If those multiple research studies are true, then I guess that is the reason why HESI is harder than the NCLEX. However, I find it troubling that most schools use this as a tool to weed out 'bad' students yet these schools do not really help students prepare for the HESI and their curriculums are not geared towards passing the HESI. I wish all schools just use this as a tool to assess whether the students need to enroll to an nclex-rn review or not.

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Specializes in Nursing Education.

Yeah, I think that in general nursing schools are in a transition period right now...more and more are starting to use HESI (or another exit exam) to decide whether students can graduate. They often do this to help improve the probability that students will pass NCLEX first try, which in turn makes the school's official pass rate look better.

I completely agree, though, that if many students are failing HESI, then that indicates an underlying problem that needs to be addressed in the curriculum. I hope that as nursing schools start seeing these results that they come to this realization, and begin trying new ways to teach the material BEFORE the exit exam rolls around.

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I know at my school HESI remediation is part of the package for the exit exam. So, if someone doesn't do well the first time, they go through the remediation coursework and then take it again. While this of course does help the school keep their first time pass rate up....it's not a stretch to see how it helps students actually pass on their first time as well.

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Specializes in Nursing Education.
I know at my school HESI remediation is part of the package for the exit exam. So, if someone doesn't do well the first time, they go through the remediation coursework and then take it again. While this of course does help the school keep their first time pass rate up....it's not a stretch to see how it helps students actually pass on their first time as well.

Definitely! Just out of curiosity, what is your school's policy if students fail the second time? And does your school usually have a lot of students failing the first time, or just a few?

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Definitely! Just out of curiosity, what is your school's policy if students fail the second time? And does your school usually have a lot of students failing the first time, or just a few?

I'm not a senior yet (one more year!), but from what I've heard from friends, I think they actually plan for students to need to take it at least twice. I don't know how many pass it after the first time, but I heard that 95% pass it by the second time (the first is taken 3 months before graduation and students are encouraged to treat it as a diagnostic of what areas they need to work on, the second is taken 2 months before graduation). If they fail a third time, they're required to do a Kaplan review (at they're expense) and take the exam again. No diploma until they pass. Last year, I think 2 students (out of 50+) had to do that.

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@CuriousMe: How many chances do you get to pass the HESI? In our school, they ask you to take the HESI 3 days before the graduation. If you don't pass it, you don't graduate and you can retake it approximately 1-2 months after the 1st HESI. When you fail the second time, you can take it the 3rd time after you to finish a 9 month "audit" from the college, which means you have to go back to school again. If you fail the 3rd time, you're gone, say goodbye to your dreams of becoming a nurse...

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@CuriousMe: How many chances do you get to pass the HESI? In our school, they ask you to take the HESI 3 days before the graduation. If you don't pass it, you don't graduate and you can retake it approximately 1-2 months after the 1st HESI. When you fail the second time, you can take it the 3rd time after you to finish a 9 month "audit" from the college, which means you have to go back to school again. If you fail the 3rd time, you're gone, say goodbye to your dreams of becoming a nurse...

3 times before graduation.....they start like 3 months before graduation.

After graduation, you can continue to take it....at your own expense....and you have a year to pass it.

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That's good, at least you're given unlimited chances for a year. Goodluck!

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