Should I be worried about my HESI score?

[Dezi919]

Hello guys! I was wondering if you guys could weigh in on this. My school gives HESI exams after each semester to see where we are and such. I thought I would do great because I got an B in all classes. I bombed it! They said the recommended score should be 900/class average 837. I got 588 which is 59%. I'm not sure what to think about it. It makes me a little worried. I'm not sure why I did so badly on it. Should I be worried? What should I do? Study how they ask questions since it was a different formats than the personalized tests our instructors give us. By the way, my entrance HESI was 80%.

[hgwalter91]

Start studying the hesi book. Entrance exam means nothing towards nursing knowledge. My school actually requires us to pass the exit hesi of at least an 850 or higher. Only 4 out of 15 of us passed and graduated (the others do graduate till they get that score).

One other source that really helped me was my iPhone app nclex mastery. Tons of base knowledge that you need to know that I saw on each class hesi.

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

While I think the HESI exams are a good resource, they usually don't correlate well with classes. They require you to study specifically for them. Get a NCLEX study guide (most come with a question bank), and study the subject you are about to take out of that.

I use Elsevier (they make the HESI tests) Adaptive Quizzing for NCLEX-RN $99 for 36 months. The questions get harder as you get them right, and you choose which subjects to be quizzed on. I think HESI questions are most like Level 1, so I make sure to complete at least Level 1 (preferably Level 2) for each subsection of the subject I'm about to take. The only thing is that it doesn't have community or management sections so I wasn't quite sure how to study for that except to do case studies that Evolve gave us. I've passed every HESI I've taken with >900 including Pharm, Fundamentals, Med Surg, Peds, OB, Community, and Management. Next semester we take the comprehensive exam, and I'll study the same way.

I also have the HESI NCLEX study guide. I don't like the book (it's too concise and leaves out many details), but the HESI Hints scattered throughout are worth the cost of the book. They almost always show up on the tests.