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HESI A2 stands for Health Education Systems Admission Assessment exam. The HESI A2 Exam is a 175-question, 5-part examination administered to nursing assistant students. Candidates must answer a minimum of 125 questions correctly to pass the exam. The five parts of the test are study skills, biology and chemistry, math, reading comprehension and writing skills.
Each section is weighted differently. The writing skills section can be either multiple choice or essay questions. Each multiple choice question has five answer choices, only one of which is correct. There are no penalty for guessing on the HESI A2 exam.
The HESI A2 exam and TEAS exam are the two most common requirements to get into nursing school. If you are not a strong test taker, you should consider finding a HESI prep course that can help you prepare. Many of these courses will include full length practice exams to help prepare.
Even if you are a good test taker, you will find many good practice test options to get a feel before test day.
Best All Around ($39.99/mo)
If you’ve been looking for a HESI prep course including practice tests or other HESI exam prep material, chances are you have come across Nursing.com. They have great HESI exam prep products for the entire nursing educational spectrum from pre-nursing to student resources, and finally NCLEX test-prep services.
Nursing.com offers a full HESI A2 Review Course including the following sections:
They have over 500 practice questions that were written by trained question writers. You can access these practice test questions either on their app or via your desktop.
For each question, you will have detailed explanations and will be able to create custom study plans. You’ll also get access to a PDF cheatsheet and get access to a private Facebook group.
Additional features include the ability to watch unlimited video lessons, chat support, access to advanced questions, stats dashboard, and the review of previous HESI A2 practice test questions
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Nursing.com pricing packages are straight-forward, offering a $39.99 per month after your 3-day trial that only costs $1.
They also offer a bundle that includes access to all of their other tools. If you are committed to nursing school, you may want to consider the bundle since they have products that help all the way through nursing school, along with resources to help with the NCLEX.
Best Question Bank ($49.99)
The HESI A2 prep course from Mometrix is a multi-disciplinary offering that combines bite-sized lessons, spaced repetition training using flashcards, thousands of practice questions, and over 100 instructional videos that break down various concepts.
This setup strives to ensure that no matter what learning style works best for you, you can get the most out of the course.
The course can be accessed on desktop or on mobile and is one of the stronger options out there for preparing for the HESI exam.
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It’s priced at $59.99 per month and if you don’t get any value out if it in the first week, then you can apply for a full refund, no questions asked. The sheer size of the practice question bank (2,650+) is worth its weight in gold on its own.
It really is one of the more professional outfits out there and you can tell that by the price. But for someone who is taking the test very seriously and can afford the price tag, this could be the secret weapon that gets you the result that you want.
Great for Practice Tests ($49.99)
The NurseHub HESI prep offering is focused solely on high-quality practice tests that you can use to test your skills and get quick feedback.
The pack includes over 1,900 practice questions with step-by-step answer explanations to ensure that you can squeeze every ounce of value out of each one.
You can take the tests as many times as you want and the detailed scoring system will help you quickly identify weak spots which need further revision so you can study smarter.
The questions are split across all the major topics including math, reading, vocabulary, grammar, biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and physics – giving you a well-rounded practice test foundation.
It’s a great option for practice drills – a crucial part of the preparation process for the HESI exam.
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The test pack costs $49.99 in total and it’s a once-off purchase, so once you have them, you can use them as much as you want. The questions are split across all the major topics including math, reading, vocabulary, grammar, biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and physics – giving you a well-rounded practice test foundation. It’s a great option for practice drills – a crucial part of the preparation process.
Great for Practice Tests ($14.99)
PocketPrep is a popular choice for HESI A2 test prep because of its personalization capabilities.
Using their app, you can create custom exams by choosing your study mode, content areas, and how many questions you want to take. This means that you can tailor your learning experience for your current circumstance and make the most out of your study periods no matter when they are.
They boast in excess of 1,400 practice questions and detailed answer explanations and progress tracking round out a really good offering.
The app has a lot of great functionality including offline mode, study reminders, and in-app support that make it so that no matter where you are, or what device you’re on – you can get your practice in.
From a technology standpoint, this is probably the most advanced offering you’ll find and their mobile apps are really well built and fit for purpose.
They have 285,000 users who’ve gone through their program and that must say something about its effectiveness.
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You can start learning on the app for free, but if you want the premium features then you’ll need to upgrade with an in-app purchase which costs $14.99 monthly, $35.99 quarterly, or $89.99 annually.
Great for Practice Tests ($59.99/mo)
UGO Prep has come at HESI A2 test prep from a slightly different angle by analyzing patterns and trends in past tests in an attempt to reverse engineer practice tests that most closely resemble what you’ll be faced with on the day of the real thing.
Building on that test question bank, they also took things one step further by crafting highly effective learning strategies to apply in each section – that they then package up conveniently in their hesi prep bundle.
Their main focus is for people who want to do really well in the test and so they are focused on small details and optimizing every aspect of the study process.
Their no-nonsense approach to hesi prep has made them a popular choice for high achievers and they have some of the most authentic and realistic test simulations that you could find.
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The course is priced at $59.99 per month with an additional charge for flashcards of $14.99. This makes it one of the more expensive options out there, but the scientific rigor and system-based thinking that they’ve brought to the table make it an interesting option to consider, nonetheless.
Best Practice Testing (Lowest price – $34 for 6 months)
With Boost Prep’s HESI A2 practice test and test prep services, you have a couple of options. You can purchase the Core Bundle which includes 4 courses. Those consist of Math, Grammar, Reading, and Vocab, along with 3 full-length HESI A2 practice tests. You can also opt for just the Anatomy and Physiology Review Course with comes with 4 full-length practice tests, finally, you can get a bundle of both plans.
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Boost Prep has two pricing options each gives you unlimited access to the material for 6 months. At $34 and $39 respectively, these are good prices for that amount of access and should be sufficient more most study needs.
The HESI A2 Core Bundle includes four courses including Math, Grammar, Reading, and Vocabulary.
The HESI A2 Core + Anatomy/Physiology is essentially the same thing with the simple addition of the Anatomy and Physiology included.
Best Short Courses ($59.99/mo)
If you are looking for short and to the point lessons, then Study.com is something you should consider. They currently have 16 chapters, all with multiple lessons, covering every part of the HESI A2 test. Each of those sections comes with practice quizzes and then a HESI A2 practice test with questions that apply to the chapter you are studying. This makes Study.com especially useful if you know there are specific sections of the test you need help with.
As with most of the Study.com products, their pricing is straightforward. Pay their plan fee, and get access to all the lessons and online practice tests they have to offer.
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At $59.99/month Study.com is a fair price, but not the best deal you can find. If you know the Study.com platform and enjoy learning with their system, then give them a shot.
Best Free Test Prep (Free)
Union Test Prep offers a range of practice tests that you can use for the HESI A2 exam. What makes them special is that if you’re interacting with the questions on their site, it’s completely free and open to all.
In addition to the questions themselves, they also offer flashcards which are very useful for vocabulary recall, as well as concise study guides for each of the topics which summarize the key learning modalities and provide invaluable study techniques and strategies.
They charge a small once-off fee of $5 if you want to remove ads from your online learning experience, or $5 each for downloads of the tests, flashcards, or study guide.
Alternatively, you could pay a mere $9 upfront to access all of these online and offline immediately.
When it comes to value for money, you won’t find many better options than this. While they might not have as many questions as some other providers, the fact that you can access them so inexpensively makes them a no-brainer to check out.
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Best Free Practice Test (Free)
Test-Guide.com provides a number of free HESI A2 practice tests across all the various topics, including math, vocabulary, grammar, reading, anatomy, and physiology.
These tests are delivered as multiple-choice options directly on their website and can be used for some lightweight revision when needed.
If you’re looking for more support, then you can go with their partner, Boost Prep, whom we reviewed earlier. Their HESI A2 online prep courses cost $34 for the core bundle or $39 for the premium bundle, which also includes physiology and anatomy.
These courses include 3 full-length practice exams and over 900 practice questions. In addition, they have over 250 flashcards for vocabulary training. The price you pay is once-off and it enables 6 months of unlimited usage.
The key focus areas for this offering are the timed practice questions and automatic marking which aims to simulate the exam environment, while also providing short feedback loops for optimal learning and recall.
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The best way to practice for the HESI exam is undoubtedly going to be by taking a prep course that includes practice tests. Ideally whatever course you decide on give you access to many HESI A2 practice tests in order to feel confident when taking the actual test. These courses will help focus on areas of weakness and allow students to get more help than they would get by only taking a test without any feedback or coursework.
HESI A2 Practice tests provide the opportunity for students to become more familiar with the format of the HESI exam before sitting down for the actual exam. Even if you decide not to take a full prep course, taking a practice exam can be a great way to prepare for this test. The benefits include:
A HESI A2 Prep Course is a course that typically includes practice tests and provides you with different levels of preparation for the HESI A2 Exam.
Each HESI prep course is different, but they all have four basic stages that are included within the program: preparation, practice tests and reviews, self-confidence and support and post-successful program.
It all depends on how much time you are willing to put into studying. some people start preparing months in advance while others won’t need much prep at all. The best thing to do is find a couple practice tests to see how much prep you might need. Depending on the results of those tests, you might decide to put more time in with a HESI prep course, or just opt for a few free practice tests.
Obviously, this is a personalized question, but The HESI A2 exam is typically not tough for students that take the right o prep course and practice tests.
The nursing schools themselves decide on the questions that prospective students will test for. There is no minimum passing score by the exam author (Elsevier) for the HESI A2. A Minimum composite score of 75% and a Minimum Individual Exam Score of 70% are required for a student to enter into a nursing program. See HESi scores page for more information. For more information on applying for admission to US nursing program click here. study showed a strong correlation between initial semester coursework grades and ultimately nursing program completion.
If you’ve decided to go to nursing school you may need to take the HESI exam. If that’s the case, and you’re not feeling ready, you have many HESI prep courses to choose from.
Most of the solutions we’ve detailed here are extremely affordable considering what’s at stake. If nothing else, consider finding some free online practice questions to see how well you do. If you find that you don’t score well, circle back, and consider one of these hesi prep services that will increase your chances of getting a good score.
