HESI A2 vs TEAS: which exam, and who decides

The HESI A2 and the TEAS are two different admission tests, owned by two different companies, and the choice between them is not a judgment about which is better. It is a fact about your program: a nursing school requires one of them, and you sit the one it names. Some schools accept either; some switch from one to the other on a published date. So the useful page is not a verdict, it is a side-by-side of what each exam is, each fact from that exam's own owner, so you can recognize which one the sentence in your application instructions is talking about.

The two exams, each in its owner's terms

The HESI column is thin on purpose. We found no A2 content specification that Elsevier publishes free — no national item count, no national clock, no cut score — so every number in that column is a school's configuration of the exam, labeled as such. The TEAS column is fuller because ATI does publish its outline: 170 total questions ... which includes 150 scored items and 20 unscored, pretest items, with the four areas and their own clocks. The asymmetry is the first thing to understand about this compare and contrast: one owner publishes the shape of its exam and the other leaves the shape to the school that orders it.

The areas covered

Elsevier's own description of the exam walks the reader through the topics and question types found on admission exams, including math, reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, biology, chemistry, and anatomy and physiology, naming those seven in that order. That is the closest thing to an official content list the A2 has: seven academic areas, of which a program requires some subset. Arizona requires four of them — reading, vocabulary, math and biology — and says chemistry and physiology will not be utilized in your score average. Baylor requires math and English composites and names no science area at all.

The TEAS covers four areas — reading, math, science, English and language usage — with science carrying the largest share of the paper. Where a program requires the TEAS, all four areas are sat; the school's choice is the format and the cut score rather than the list of sections.

So "which exam covers more" is the wrong question in both directions. The A2 can be ordered with seven areas and sat with four; the TEAS is one fixed paper. What your application needs is the list of sections your program counts, and that list exists only on the program's page.

How the sections and the cutoffs get set

On the A2, the school places the order: Tarrant County College publishes that individual programs will determine the sections required for application, and that its own testing center does not offer biology, chemistry, the Personality Profile, Learning Styles or Critical Thinking. A program that requires biology therefore needs a center that delivers it — a booking question, not a study question.

On the TEAS, ATI's own instruction is to contact the school(s) you are applying to before you register, because your school decides where and how you take the TEAS, which results it accepts, and what score you need. Its help page on attempts is equally direct: each completed and scored TEAS Exam counts as an attempt – even if you do not submit your test results. A registration that does not match your school's requirements therefore lands on your attempt record, which is why that check belongs before the booking rather than after it.

Neither exam has a national pass mark. Both cutoffs are the program's, and both are published — or not — by the program.

When a program changes its mind

The choice can move under you, which is why the date on a program's page matters as much as its words. Western Governors University, read on 31 October 2026, is one: in its own words, Effective September 1, 2026, WGU will no longer accept the HESI A2 exam to fulfill the Nursing Entrance Exam requirement. The same paragraph sets WGU's terms for a score already earned, and those terms are WGU's rather than a general rule: If you have already completed and passed the HESI A2 exam, WGU must receive your exam results by August 31, 2026 to be accepted for admission. Additionally, you must meet all admission requirements and be admitted into the program by November 30, 2026, with a future start date to use that score. The page's comparison table then describes the exam it does accept — 170 questions, 209 minutes, in person through PSI -or- online through ATI.

That is one university on one date, and it is not a trend to extrapolate. It is evidence for a habit: check the requirements page for the cycle you are applying in, not the one a forum post quoted two years ago.

Which one should you take

The one your program requires. That is the whole answer, and every other consideration is downstream of it. If the program accepts either, the deciding factors are practical rather than academic: which exam's sections you have already studied, whether a testing center near you delivers the sections your program counts, and how each exam's retake rule fits the deadline you are working to. Both owners let a school set the cutoff and the retake rule, so neither exam is intrinsically more forgiving than the other — the school's rules are what a candidate experiences.

What this page will not do is rank them. There is no published basis for "harder", no difficulty index on either side, and a comparison built on how a test felt to one candidate is a preference dressed as a fact. If you want to know what each exam asks, read each exam's own pages: the HESI A2 format and how many questions the A2 has on this side; the TEAS question count and the TEAS test-day checklist on the other.

Where to practice, once you know

If the answer is the HESI A2, the study guide maps the ten topic guides, the scores page covers cutoffs and retakes, and every free practice set is linked from the HESI A2 hub. If the answer is the TEAS, the TEAS practice test is the equivalent door. Nothing on this site is sold by which exam you pick; the free sets are free on both.

HESI A2 is a trademark of Elsevier Inc. ATI TEAS is a registered trademark of Assessment Technologies Institute, LLC. Elk Ridge Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.