It can be kind of scary to have a single test standing between you and your dream of nursing school. But that’s exactly the position that more and more pre-nursing students find themselves in every year as schools begin requiring the HESI A2 Entrance Exam as one of their admission requirements. To add to the confusion, there’s also several other types of HESI tests that are used during nursing school. So what’s the deal? And what do you need to do to be prepared?
First off, you do NOT need to know anything about nursing in order to do well on the HESI A2 Entrance Exam. Many online resources that discuss HESI fail to mention that the A2 exam and the Exit exam are completely different. In fact, the only thing they really have in common is that they were created by the same company.
What’s the purpose of HESI A2?
The purpose 0f the HESI A2 is to try and predict how likely it is that you will succeed in nursing school. In that way, it’s actually very similar to the ACTs or SATs, which try to predict how likely it is that a student will succeed in college. Higher scores on any of these tests are correlated with better performance in school.
You might feel upset or even angry because it seems unfair that a single test could prevent you from getting into nursing school. You might feel like if you were just given a chance, then you could become an excellent nurse despite your test scores…and you might even be right!
The truth is, the HESI A2 can’t perfectly predict if you would be successful or not, it’s just a correlation. A correlation is a type of statistic that shows that two things tend to be related, but one thing doesn’t necessarily cause the other to happen. In the case of HESI A2, that means that if you do well on the entrance exam, then you’ll also tend to successfully complete nursing school. On the other hand, if you do..ahem…less well on the entrance exam, then you’re less likely to successfully complete nursing school. Notice that doing well on HESI A2 doesn’t cause you to do better in nursing school, though.
With claims like that (and research to back up those claims), it’s no wonder that an increasing number of nursing schools are using entrance exams. It might seem unfair, but think about it from the school’s perspective. You know that they get a ton of applications, and that number increases each year. Nursing schools are run by people, and people have limited time. They need some way to quickly narrow down the applications into a more manageable number, so they use a test. If you don’t get the minimum required score, you’re application is automatically rejected. That reduces the total number of applications for nursing school recruiters to review, and (arguably) increases the chances that everyone who is accepted with successfully graduate.
Regardless of how you feel about entrance exams, you’re going to have to take it if your prospective school requires one. And knowing what the purpose is is the first step to doing well on it.
Any questions about HESI A2? Leave a comment below!
Nicole Whitworth is the founder of Your Nursing Tutor. She has a BSN and an MA in Clinical Psychology, and has been a professional nursing tutor for over 12+ years. Nicole specializes in getting nursing students through school confidently and calmly so that everything finally “clicks”. She is also the creator of the Silver Bullet Study System, an easy-to-follow study method that automatically trains your brain to become a nurse at the same time that you study for your normal nursing classes.
My daughter took the Med Surg Hesi and failed it, she had a B in the class. The school uses the Hesi as part of your final, but if you fail the test you must Retrack, take a remediation course and CAN NOT take any nursing classes the next semester until you repeat Med Surg and the remediation course, what this means? NO GRADUATION in May, has to go an extra semester. Absolutely Terrible!!!
My daughter had to take the HESI and part of her final grade in Med-surg. She had an 82 going in, bombed the test with a 62 which pulled her grade to below 75 and she failed the course. My gripe about the fairness of this test is this: if every student in her class gets a different test, how is that really fair? If a student gets a test with questions that are mainly over a unit that was just covered, that information is fresh on their minds. Several people in my daughters class aced their tests and these were people who in regular class tests score lower than my daughter. You can’t tell me that if my daughter was given the same test that they had, she wouldn’t have passed it. She knows she would have. The Hesi is like the ACT or any other test, some are more difficult than others or contain information you actually covered in class. In my opinion, every student in a particular class that has studied the same material should receive the same test if it comes down to scoring well to pass the course.
Can you please explain to me what the difference is between the HESI and HESI A2? My school wants me to take the HESI A2 exam, however I believe I bought the wrong book to study from, it’s called –HESI Admission Assessment Exam Review. I just don’t want to be studying from the wrong book. I just don’t really understand what the difference in between the two. Thanks!
Sounds like you have the correct book. “Admission Assessment” = A2.
Don’t depend on just the Elsiever study guide. It does NOT cover the test. The math, yes, the rest NOT. And I don’t know why they would make a study book and not cover everything in a test they make!
great student, however test make me freeze…….
Totally disagree. These standardized tests are NOT good predictors
of successful students. There are plenty of book smart students that
ace these tests and do horrible in nursing school. Your pre requisites are
the best indicator of how well you will do in nursing school. It shouldn’t be
up to one randomized test. Totally unfair. Lots of students are terrible at
standardized tests but are excellent students.
Hi Jeremy,
Hopefully most schools that use the HESI A2 also take pre-req’s into consideration, because you’re definitely right that those are an important indicator of future nursing school success too.
You are so right. I worked as a PCT at one of NY hospital and surprisingly came across so many Doctors and nurses that didn’t have a clue of what they were doing. Super book smart do not mean a thing. They should focus on creating practice schools instead.
I totally agree. It’s sad to hear this. I’ve passed all my prerequisites and took the Hesi today and didn’t pass. I study the Elsiever. 4th edition which didn’t even have half the the problems that were on the test. Why would they make a study book that doesn’t cover a test that they make?