At my school, we had to take a HESI exam at the end of each class, and a cumulative one at the end of LPN year and RN year. They were NOT counted as part of our class grades. However, we had to score at least 850 on them, or else do some remediation. I was fortunate and did not have to do any remediation, but I think that the ones who did (and took it seriously) benefitted from it. The point is to help us learn what we don't already know so we can be ready for boards! At the end of our RN year, we did the comprehensive HESI exit exam. If we didn't get 850, we had to remediate and take it again. If no 850 that time, remediate more and take it for a 3rd time. Our transcripts are not released until we either pass with 850 or complete taking it the 3rd time (pass or fail.) I think these HESI tests benefitted us, because they were very similar to the NCLEX and gave us lots of practice with that type of testing.
Perhaps you could suggest to your faculty that they use the HESI exams in this way. It was a pretty much all benefit, no down side. They did not affect our GPAs, but we were able to see what we needed work on and do some more studying in those areas. Send me a private message if you want to know the name of my school - we have a good NCLEX pass rate and you could use our program as an example of another way to use the HESI without bringing down GPAs. BTW - we are an Associates Degree program, so I don't know if that would affect your faculty's attitude toward our practices. However, we have a higher 1st time NCLEX pass rate than the 2 BSN programs in my town.
