Who else thinks that this is unfair?

[EternalFeather]

I swear they're hyping up NCLEX too much that they're forgetting the actual NCLEX.

It is not fair to be denied graduation just because a software which is supposed to be used for studying is used as a tool to determine who graduates nursing school.

HESI is even harder than the NCLEX and its just not fair.

Is it really even 100% evidenced based that people who did at least 850 on HESI exit passed the NCLEX? Every NCLEX review company says that!!

I would ask a faculty member and their response would be that students who used this software have the tendency to pass the NCLEX. Yeah, thats great so are other study sources!

There are other softwares for studying with exit tests. And people who took them regardless if they passed or not, got to take the NCLEX and still passed the NCLEX. They dont even ask for a high score to pass. This "850 predictor" is just absurd!!

I know I sound very bitter mad, but I have the right to be. I spent so much time studying for this elitist type and judgmental testing.

My school, 2 months before graduation decided to switch to HESI. We werent oriented on how to use the software and materials. And they sent us a paper basically saying "You're gonna take this company's exit exam. Pass it to graduate. You get 2 chances or you fail the class. Oh, and since they're saying their national average score is 850, you need an 850 to pass."

Also, they have some peculiar scoring system. Like, 2 people could get the same percentage score but different hesi score. Like 2 people could have 77% but only 1 of them got the "passing score."

My class just took the hesi exit today. only 5 out of 40+ people passed... So, more than a third of the class is going to NOT graduate... We were all depressed, I'm super depressed! It really did a good ******* job of making me and maybe my classmates feel like failures, like stupid, after all the time and effort spent to study for it.

The test was horrible! 160 questions and timed 3hours. It takes at least a minute just to read and comprehend the questions and choices. there are questions with audio and video that are around 1 minute in length and there is loading time to consider. So, do we really get enough time? heck no!

Don't get me wrong. It is a great tool for studying and preparing for the NCLEX, and thats it! Yet, why are schools using it determine who graduates and it seems like every nursing school is jumping the bandwagon - just like my school? This trend is utter crap.

I mean if a faculty or a clinical nurse takes it, they're not gonna get a high score but you know that they are knowledgeable nurses.

I am very frustrated and disappointed due to this issue.

I refuse to let my HESI score determine me.

[ymao2]

I definitely agree with the other posters that you are probably more upset about the way the school prepared you for the hesi exam. My last semester was this past jan-april and it was the first semester where my university implemented the hesi exit exam, but because they were doing this, we were also given information about it from the very beginning. My school pretty much changed the entire curriculum of my last semester to accommodate the nclex and the hesi exam. The online quizzing resource that we had to go through was incredibly difficult, like I would be on the verge of tears cause I could not believe it would be that hard. BUT the hesi was extremely difficult, and from proper preparation we as a class did really really well on the hesi exit. I think our average was like 900, and I got something like 1170 EVEN THOUGH i only got about 73% of the 160 questions right.

the resource I used was EAQ (elsevier adaptive quizzing) if anyone's interested.

[elkpark]

I think it's unfair to implement a change on this so close to your graduation (not making it clear before you matriculated that this would be a requirement for graduation). But, while I don't particularly like the idea of using the HESI as a comprehensive "final exam" that determines whether you graduate or not, I don't think it's "unfair."

Lots of students complain bitterly about schools doing this. If people would be more selective about nursing programs, and refuse to attend schools with this kind of policy (that the HESI determines whether you graduate or not, regardless of how well you did throughout your program), schools that could not attract enough qualified students would have to change their policies. However, too many (IMO) potential nursing students seem to just want to sign up for the most convenient, or cheapest, or quickest nursing program they can find without doing any significant research or looking at the larger picture (and then complaining about the HESI when they're close to graduating).

[Blossom7]

I know your pain. My school use HESI as the final exam of every course and it is 25% of our grade. So far the HESI has become a GPA killer, the exams questions has nothing to do with the course content, and it is impossible to study for it. You need to review test talking skills which is the only thing helping me past my HESI exams. My school has a high NCLEX passing rate and the school said than after taking HESI exams all throw nursing school the NCLEX seems like a "piece of cake." Probably, HESI exams are super stupid and the NCLEX makes more sense.

[AceOfHearts<3]

I don't think it is unfair to require an exit exam to graduate. I think it is unfair that you weren't better prepped/warned. I knew going into my program it was a requirement to pass. My school even requires 900-950 to pass the exit HESI. We took a subject HESI at the end of every course, the same day we took our finals, that was worth 10-15% of our grade (some courses 60% of our grade was determined in a span of a few hours between the final and the HESI). When we took every single exam we were allotted the same amount of time you get per question for the NCLEX- an average of 1.25 minutes if I remember correctly (that was for every quiz, midterm, final, and HESI). I did extremely well on pretty much every subject HESI and scored close to 1000 on the exit one without too much studying. I was used to the HESI style questions by that point and it was great reassurance going into the NCLEX that I had over a 98% chance of passing it the first time around. The exit HESI seemed daunting at first, but I was super glad my school required all that when the NCLEX shut off after 75 questions and I passed it in about an hour.

There have been some studies about the use of the exit hesi.

"A random stratified sample of 5438 student records was obtained, 3084 were from Associate Degree (AD) and 2354 were from Baccalaureate Degree (BD) programs. NCLEX outcomes were known for all but 316 (5.8%) students. The re-validation accuracy of the E2 for NCLEX-RN success was 98.26% for students scoring 900 and above. As E2 scores decreased failure rates increased.Seventy-three (74%) of the 98 schools had exit policies, the most frequent established benchmark score was 90%, and 74% of schools counted the standardized exam as part of course grades. More than 60% of the student remediation strategies were student self-directed, including review based on testing reports." Standardize Predictive Testing: Practices, Policies, and NCLEX-RN Outcomes - Virginia Henderson International Nursing e-Repository

"Using data obtained for the 7th HESI Exit Exam (E2) validity study, the value of Elsevier's online case studies in assisting students to prepare for the E2 and the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) was investigated. Of the 137 randomly selected schools of nursing, 72 (52.55%) participated in the study. The student sample consisted of 4,383 students from associate degree, baccalaureate, and diploma schools of nursing. Findings indicated that the mean E2 score and the NCLEX-RN pass rate were significantly higher for students attending schools that used the case studies than they were for students attending schools that did not use the case studies. Descriptive data indicated that the case studies were most often used for remediation and examination preparation." http://www.professionalnursing.org/article/S8755-7223(12)00134-2/abstract?cc=y=

PS. The questions are weighted, which is why you can get the same % but have a different raw score. I scored a 99.99% conversion factor on both my Pharm I and Med Surg I subject HESIs, but my raw score for Pharm I was 1267 and it was only 1141 for Med Surg I.