The reality of HESI scores and who takes them

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

I wanted to report to ya'll about some interesting facts straight from HESI on their scoring explanation sheet that prints out when you print your scores.

Quoted directly from the printout (bolded items are mine, and used to emphasize that the average score is SO close, that it seems to not matter whether one is diploma, adn, or bsn prepared). I find that extremely interesting, and hope you all will too.

"An acceptable level of performance is 850, however, the recommended level of performance is 900 and above for all HESI scores provided.

Each school is responsible for establishing their specific standards related to outcome measures of acceptable HESI scores. Many school choose a certain overall HESI score as a benchmark for progression, and such benchmarks are set at the discretion of the school's faculty and administrators. However, when preparing for the NCLEX, HESI recommends that students seriously remediate any subject area category in which they obtained a HESI score of less than 850.

All test items are weighted according to their difficulty level. If you answer more difficult items correctly, you will get more credit than if you answer less difficult test items correctly. Because of this scoring method, it is highly probably that two students answering the same number of test items correctly will receive different HESI scores because such scores depend not only on how many test items the student answered correctly, but also on which test items the student answered incorrectly.

The Percentile Score Ranking measures your level of performance as compared to the performance of a standard or "norm" group. For this exam, the norm group consists of 37,397 nursing students from all types of RN programs (diploma, associate degree, and baccalaureate degree) who took the HESI RN exit exam in the last 364 days.

The Percentile Score Ranking does not reflect the percentage of test items that you answered correctly. Instead, the percentile ranking is useful for determining how many students in the nation scored BELOW your score.

You scored in the 80.58 percentile rank, which means that you performed better than 80.58% of the nation's nursing students, while only 19.42% of the nation's students had higher scores than you.

Average HESI score- National average and Your student group average

For nursing students in ALL RN programs who took the HESI RN Exit Exam in the last 364 days, the average HESI score was 841, which is reflected at the 50th percentile. For nursing students in your program, the average HESI score was 835, which reflects the 48.35 percentile level.

The average HESI score was 838, which reflects the 49.1 percentile rank for nursing students in diploma programs who took the HESI RN exit exam in the last 364 days.

The average HESI score was 837, which reflects the 49.15 percentile rank for nursing students in ADN programs who took the HESI RN exit exam in the last 364 days.

The average HESI score was 838, which reflects the 49.27 percentile rank for nursing students in BSN programs who took the HESI RN exit exam in the last 364 days. "

(btw, my score was a 958)

HTH answer some questions that are frequently posted on this site regarding HESI exams!

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

just bumping this up for students interested in the HESI exam! :)

[Nurseismade RN]

Hi Leslasic,

Congrats on your high hesi score:)

Could you tell me which workbook/study guide did you use???

[AllyRN82, MSN, APRN]

Great information! Thank you for posting!!!!!!

[onduty23]

my school does eriworld.com

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

I'm glad some of you found this helpful and interesting. I was really interested in this, especially the parts about the scores being within one point for ALL programs, whether diploma, adn or bsn. It really does show that we all get tested on the same information and are expected to know the same stuff, regardless of our degree- we are all RN's in the end.

I took the Kaplan review the week before taking the exit HESI exam. So I didn't study too much other than doing the HESI case studies online.

In the past, however, we had to take a mid-curricular HESI exam and I bought the HESI NCLEX-RN review book (with the green and red cover) and CD with tests on it. I read that book cover-to-cover with the exception of the OB-PEDS section (because we hadn't covered that material yet) and did the tests several times.

I found the HESI book to be extremely helpful, and as others have pointed out here, the gray boxes HESI hints are especially useful. I recommend that book highly!!

One of my friends who took the HESI exit with me had reviewed every single page of notes from 101 all the way through the program in the weeks prior to the exit exam (she didn't take kaplan) and she got a 962.. personally, I'll take my 958 and run! LOL!

Oh, the other thing I found so interesting is that most schools using this as a gauge for passing the program (or continuing) require a score of at least 850, and sometimes 900. If you look at the average scores, it's between 837-838- which doesn't meet that requirement.

Out of my graduating class of 60 (we had 82 going into the final semester and lost 22 ppl), only 20 of us passed the exit exam. They have a total of 5 tries to pass, and then I'm not sure what happens after that. All but one friend of mine failed the exam. Sheeesh! That means that they can't get their provisional licenses! Scary!

[vanurseny, MSN]

I forgot to mention this...I passed my HESI the second time. I'm so happy!!!! The first time i made a 864 and that was because i only used the stupid HESI BOOK. then tthe second time was two months later i believe and i made a 948 and that was because I used the saunders review book in place of the HESI. I used the book outline...not so much the questions. I studied my weak points and the unfamiliar material in that book and I used saunders because of this website! I kept reading how everyone said it helped them so I decided it couldnt hurt. im so glad i have this website to refer to. In my school they give HESI to us in our last semester only. we have never seen it before then. and we get only two chances to pass. we have to make a 900 in order to graduate. i already graduated now and im waiting to take the RN boards in jan. Our school has a very high pass rate for the boards. I cant wait to take the boards and get that obstacle over with!

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

Congrats!

[Pbelle]

I took the HESI the week of Thanksgiving and scored a 915 - we did NOT do any review in our program; in fact, we were instructed to not do any review for this - the staff wanted to know where we would place if we were to take our boards. The highest score I heard of was 1025 in our class.

I didn't think the questions were all that difficult; for me it was similiar to taking my LPN boards from two years ago. There were a few that did throw me for a loop, but now I know where I need to focus on for boards next month.

[NurseSomeday]

I used the HESI book by answering the review questions at the end of the sections in which I was least familiar with and taking the practice tests on the CD. I think taking the practice tests helped me the most. I studied for about 2 hours and made a 1056 with a 96.something percent. Typically, I study tons of hours for each test so I don't know how I passed. I guess I did learn something during the semester! We have to take it again 4th semester to be allowed to take the NCLEX. I hope I pass that one!

[moongirl]

I did not buy a special HESI book. I used my Saunders NCLEX review with CD rom

My Hesi score was 1050, taken last week

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I didn't even study for the HESI cause it did not count for anything and I got a 980. Next semester it counts though so I will be hitting the books, plus I will have my NCLEX.

Swtooth