Concerned over the HESI... any advice?

I have to take a HESI each semester (4 this semester, med-surg, patho, pharm, and psych) and last semester I took a pedi HESI and maternity HESI and they sucked, not to scare you. But at my school they had to throw out a lot of test questions because they asked about material that we just didn't have enough time to cover in our program... you can't possible know everything. There are study guides and software out there to prepare for HESI but whether or not you want to purchase it is up to you... The one that my school recommended is HESI NCLEX-RN Review manual with Studyware CD. Good luck!

I took the HESI twice before I graduated, and both times it told me I was going to fail, fail, fail the boards. Well, I passed the boards the first time with 75 questions, so I don't know how accurate it is in predicting the board pass rates. BTW, I personally know three girls who took the hesi, passed it with flying colors, and then failed the boards and had to take them at least twice. Our school was talking about making you pass the hesi in order to graduate, and that got shot down pretty quickly. The first time we took the test it was free, and you had the option to take it later if you wanted to. The only thing I liked about that test was the fact that it highlighted your weak areas, so you would have a little better idea of what you should focus on for the boards. I used my saunders book, and mainly did the CD that came with it-much faster than reading every thing. I also did the quizzes in the book and the rationale was really helpful. Some tips I can give you are: know your lab values, remember ABC's, and when in doubt, think about maslow's hierarchy of needs. Take a deep breath when you get a question you have no clue about, and take your time and rationalize it out the best you can. You CAN do it, and good luck to you.