HESI A2 exam format: the sections, and who chooses them

The HESI A2 does not have a format in the way a fixed paper has a format. Elsevier ships a set of academic sections and lets the nursing program choose which of them to order, so the honest answer to "what is on the HESI A2" has two layers: the sections that exist, and the sections your program counts. This page separates them, because almost every wrong number quoted about this exam comes from collapsing the two.

The sections that exist

Elsevier's own description of the exam walks through the topics and question types found on admission exams, including math, reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, biology, chemistry, and anatomy and physiology — seven academic areas, named in that order. It also ships practice questions for all sections of the Admission Assessment Exam, which is the publisher's own evidence that the sections are plural and separable.

Alongside those, some schools order sections that are not academic scores: one college's page lists the Personality Profile, the Learning Styles inventory and a Critical Thinking section among the sections it does not offer — listing them because they exist, not because it delivers them. Elsevier's own description groups two of those as one family: the personally oriented exams consist of a Learning Style assessment and a Personality Profile, and each of these exams takes only approximately 15 minutes to complete. Whether any of the three is scored is not published on any page we checked, so treat them as optional additions a program may order, with no scoring claim attached.

The exam also comes in more than one edition. Elsevier has published a Next Generation of HESI, and one university's testing page still describes two versions of the HESI A2 examination (version 1 and version 2). This course does not assume which one your program has bought — the difference in length between the two is not published, so no page here quotes one. If you are told the version on the day, that is the version you sit.

There are also three HESI exam families — Admission Assessment (A2), Specialty, and Exit — and only the A2 is an admission test. A page quoting a HESI score, a HESI clock or a HESI length without naming the family may be describing a different exam entirely.

The sections your program counts

This is the layer that decides your sitting. Tarrant County College publishes the general rule in its own words: individual programs will determine the sections required for application — and then publishes what its own testing center delivers, which is reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, math and anatomy and physiology, with an on-screen calculator ... available during testing in the math section. The same page states plainly what it does not offer: TCC does not offer the following sections: Biology Chemistry Personality Profile Learning Styles Critical Thinking.

Two other programs show how far the choice can go:

• University of Arizona College of Nursing requires four sections — reading, vocabulary, math and biology — and says additional sections, such as Chemistry or Physiology, will not be utilized in your score average for the application.
• Baylor University requires Math and English composites, and names no science section at all; its students sit online through ProctorU.

So the same exam can be a four-section sitting at one school, a two-composite sitting at another, and a five-section sitting at a third. A program that requires biology needs a testing center that delivers biology, which is a booking question rather than a study question — worth checking before you pay for a seat.

The clock and the item count belong to the school too

Elsevier publishes no page we could find that states a national item count or a national time limit for the A2. What one school publishes is a form of its own, not a specification: Tarrant County College publishes a form of 55 reading, 55 vocabulary, 55 grammar, 55 math and 30 anatomy and physiology items with Duration 5 hours, and the nursing FAQ from Doña Ana Community College, part of New Mexico State University, publishes you will be given four (4) hours to complete all sections of the exam. Other schools set their own form and their own clock, so neither of those two numbers is the exam's length — and neither is wrong about the school that printed it. How many questions works through the counts, section by section, with the same sourcing.

That is also why no timer runs in this site's practice sets: there is no national clock to run against, and a pace invented here would teach a rhythm no school has published.

How the items are written

Elsevier's own sample questions sit behind a purchase; we found none it publishes free online. The purchase settles the form, not the content: its test-style items are single-best-answer multiple-choice questions with four lettered options, and the publisher states plainly that test items on the HESI Admission Assessment Exam are not specifically derived from this study guide. One college describes the paper it administers as a computerized multiple-choice exam, which is one school's sentence about its own delivery rather than a specification. What this site does is declare its own format the way it declares everything else: the practice items in this course are single-best-answer multiple-choice questions with one correct option and a written explanation after grading, and the questions explain why the other options fail. Each question in this course is written by us, with four options and one best answer — none is copied from any published test-preparation material or from the exam — so the four-option shape is a claim about our own bank rather than about the exam.

How it is sat

The route belongs to the delivery partner rather than to Elsevier, and the partner varies by school. Prometric offers a seat at one of its Testing Centers, or virtually through Prometric's remote proctoring capability, which needs a computer with a camera, microphone and an internet connection. Other schools contract other partners: one college offers in person at the TCC Trinity River Testing Center, or online through ProctorU and warns that you cannot change your testing format once the exam is scheduled; Baylor's nursing school offers its sitting online through ProctorU only.

The two practical consequences: pick the route before you book, because the route usually cannot be changed afterwards, and check the remote requirements before the day rather than discovering them at the scheduled minute. Those are the only requirements the pages we checked state; the center's own page is the one that governs.

One difference matters mid-sitting rather than before it: nothing on the school pages we read promises a review screen. On paper you can leave a question and come back; on a proctored screen, plan on the question you leave being gone. That is the reason the math method on this site asks you to decide-and-move rather than to circle back.

What the format means for study

Three things follow from a program-built exam, and they shape every page on this site:

• Study the sections on your program's list, in proportion to that list. A page that tells you to cover all seven areas equally is selling breadth you may not need; Arizona's four sections and Baylor's two composites are different syllabuses.
• Do not trust a count or a clock copied from another school. The 55/55/55/55/30 form and the 5-hour sitting are one center's configuration. Your email from the center is the authority.
• Expect a screen. Both routes are computer-based — the partner's machine at a center, or your own under remote proctoring — in however many sections your program ordered, with no published per-item pace to plan against. A pace of your own is a fair way to prepare for that: it is not your center's clock, and no page publishes what that will be.

Elsevier also publishes free remediation alongside the exam: Online remediation is a free service to help you identify and work on your areas of improvement after taking a HESI test. That is a program-side resource, not a way to raise a score after the fact, and it is not something this course can unlock or claim to replace.

Where to go next

How many questions takes the section counts apart. Scores and cutoffs covers what the number means, retakes and validity. The study guide maps the ten topic guides, and if you are still deciding between admissions tests, HESI A2 versus the TEAS puts the two side by side from each owner's own pages.

HESI A2 is a trademark of Elsevier Inc. Elk Ridge Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by Elsevier.