A Study of the Usefulness of the HESI Exit Exam in Predicting NCLEX-RN Failure by Darrell R. Spurlock Jr . and Linda A. Hunt reveals surprising results. The purpose of this research was to identify answers to the following clearly stated questions: 1. Why was the actual NCLEX-RN pass rate lower than predicted based on passed HESI exams? 2. What is the relationship between early HESI exit scores versus final HESI exit scores and NCLEX-RN scores? 3. Do HESI scores significantly predict NCLEX-RN scores? 4. What HESI cutoff scores provide the most accurate NCLEX-RN results? And 5. Does the HESI exam actually reflect the true likelihood that a student will fail the NCLEX-RN? The researchers explicitly stated their hypothesis and identified their variables as HESI pass/fail and NCLEX-RN pass/fail. The relationship that researchers have established between the two is that schools use a progression policy whereby students must pass the standardized HESI exam with a minimum score of 850 in order to graduate and take the NLCEX-RN....