The HESI admission assessment exam is an entrance exam required by many nursing programs prior to admission into the program. It is used to assess your readiness for the nursing program.
Some nursing programs require a certain score in certain content areas or a specific composite score (overall score). For example, many nursing programs want students to score at least an 85% or higher in math, vocab, grammar, reading, and anatomy & physiology or an overall composite score of 75 or higher.
It is important to always check with the program you want to attend for the specific requirements because they are all different.
Video on How to Prep for the HESI Entrance Exam (includes a Study Plan)
What is on the HESI Admission Assessment Exam?
- Math**
- Vocabulary**
- Grammar**
- Reading**
- Anatomy & Physiology**
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics (new section added recently)
- Personality Section (easy section assess if you are introvert/extrovert, feeler/sensor)
- Learning Style (no studying required)
**means these are the most common areas tested on the HESI A2 exam
How to Study for the HESI A2?
- Buy the HESI Admission Assessment Exam Review book sold by HESI (latest edition).
- Start prepping in advance…see when your test is scheduled and start prepping at least 1 month in advance. It is very crucial you give yourself enough time to study because many programs only allow students to take this exam once during a 12 month period (so you want to do your best).
- Tailor your study plan on what content areas you are required to take for the exam. Be sure to check the nursing programs requirements (usually found on their website).
- First, take the pre-test that is included with the HESI admission book and see what areas are your weakest and strongest.
- Start studying your weakest area first:
- For example, if math is your weakest: read this section in the book and practice solving problems. Then take it a step further and find free resources online by practicing math questions (ratios, fractions, metric conversions etc.)
- Grammar, Vocab, and Reading: read the HESI book and practice free quizzes online in these areas.
- Biology & Chemistry: read the HESI book, practice questions, and utilize free resources such as StudyStack.com that contains biology specific quizzes for the HESI.
- Note: if you are worried about this section I recommend the McGraw-Hill’s review guide because it contains great supplementation information on these content areas.
- A& P: read the section in book and pay attention to the HESI hints such as medical terminology, organ system, heart blood flow, cell structure etc. We have free quizzes for anatomy and physiology, so be sure to check them out.
- However, if you are very worried about this section I highly recommend using CliffNotes to help brush-up your basic knowledge on A&P and the McGraw-Hill’s book is great as well.
- Physics: relatively new area that is included in the 4th edition…read this section in the book as well and practice the questions while reading rationales.
Then after studying ( about 1-2 weeks before the exam) take the post-test and see how you improved and re-study the areas you performed poorly on.
More HESI Study Tips
*Recommended books in this post are based on my own personal opinion and experience. If you purchase any books using the provided links through Amazon.com we obtain a commission which helps keep this site going (a free resource for nursing students).