How many questions is the HESI A2? One college's published form

One college publishes 55 reading, 55 vocabulary, 55 grammar, 55 math and 30 anatomy and physiology items in five hours — as its own form, for the sections its programs require.

"How many questions are on the HESI A2?" has no single answer, and that is not a dodge — it is how the exam is sold. A nursing program orders the sections it wants, and a testing center publishes the form it delivers. So the honest answer is one college's published form, printed with that college's name on it, plus the rule that decides whether it is your form too.

One college publishes this form. Tarrant County College's testing-center page lists five sections and a count for each: 55 reading, 55 vocabulary, 55 grammar, 55 math and 30 anatomy and physiology items, with an on-screen calculator available during the math section. It gives the sitting as five hours. Nothing on that page says every program sits those sections, and the page says the opposite of a national total in its own words: "Individual programs will determine the sections required for application."

The sections, and what each one asks for

Section	Items in that college's form	What the section asks you to do	This site's guide
Reading comprehension	55	read a passage, then answer for the claim, the detail or the inference	reading comprehension
Vocabulary	55	work out a word's meaning from the sentence around it, or from its parts	vocabulary
Grammar	55	punctuation, agreement, sentence structure, the conventions of written English	grammar
Math	55	arithmetic, ratio and proportion, measurement and conversion, dosage calculation	basic operations · ratio and proportion · measurement · dosage calculation
Anatomy and physiology	30	the body's systems, each with its parts and its job	anatomy and physiology

The counts are that college's, not a specification. Do not add them up: 55 + 55 + 55 + 55 + 30 is arithmetic over one school's choices, and the same page says a program may require fewer sections, so the total would be a number nobody published. The science sections this site also writes — biology and chemistry — appear on that page in the opposite column: that college lists biology, chemistry, the Personality Profile, Learning Styles and Critical Thinking as sections it does not offer. A program that requires biology needs a center that delivers biology, which is a question to settle before you book rather than on the morning.

How long is the sitting

The same page publishes five hours for the sitting as a whole, not a clock per section. A different testing center may publish a different number, and the clock that runs on the day is the one your center published, so read the page of the center you booked instead of trusting a number from a prep site — including this one. What can be done with a published clock is arithmetic: divide the minutes by the items in the sections your program requires and you have your own per-item budget, which is the number that actually changes how you practice.

Can you retake it

Yes or no is set by your program, and one college publishes its rule as an example: "You may test 1 time per TCC application period", and a second sitting must be at least 60 days after the first. Both halves matter, and they do different jobs. The limit is per application period, so a new application resets it. The 60-day spacing sets the earliest date a second sitting can happen — it does not shorten or extend how long a score stays acceptable, which is the program's validity rule, a separate question to ask in the same message. Ask your program for both in writing before the first attempt rather than after it, because the answer decides how much a first attempt is worth risking.

When the result arrives

That college says results are "available 48-72 hours after your test". The window is the center's, not a promise, and a different school may report a different one; some report to the program rather than to the candidate. So the practical question is not only when the score posts but who can see it, and it belongs in the same enquiry as the retake rule.

The delivery route is chosen once

The same page gives two routes — in person at the testing center, or online through a remote proctor — and adds a constraint worth reading twice: "only choose one testing format (either in person or online). You cannot change your testing format once the exam is scheduled." The remote route also means your own camera, microphone and connection, and a connection failure mid-sitting is the expensive kind of problem. If you book the remote route, test the room and the equipment the day before, not an hour before.

What this page will not do

It will not tell you how many questions the HESI A2 has, because no public page states a number that holds for every candidate. It will not convert a practice percentage into a score: scores are reported per section as a percentage, the report belongs to the school that ordered the exam, and no formula on a website can stand in for it. It will not print a passing mark either, because a passing mark is the program's own — the scores page shows two programs' published rules side by side, and they disagree about the number, the sections and the retakes.

What it will do is send you to the study that fits the sections your program actually requires. The ten topic guides answer each section on its own terms, the glossary defines every term those guides teach, and each section has a practice set — all ten are open.

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