What Is the HESI Exam? Everything You Need to Know

Understanding the HESI Exam

The HESI exam, or the Health Education Systems Incorporated Exam is a test made to analyze and evaluate the student’s competency and their skills in the field of nursing. Various nursing schools conduct this test to get insights regarding the student’s potential and success in the field of nursing. 

Based on their assessing criteria and time of conduct, the types of HESI Exams include HESI entrance exams or HESI A2, which are usually taken at the time of a student’s administration in nursing school to anticipate the student’s thriving capabilities in the field of nursing. 

The HESI Specialty exams are conducted during the academic year, mostly the final semester to determine the student’s excellence in the specialties of nursing including medical surgical nursing, pediatrics, maternity nursing, pharmacology, and mental health nursing. 

At last, the student is allowed to attempt the HESI exit exam when they are about to end their nursing school. This exam determines the chances if the student is ready to set their nursing career by clearing their licensure exams including NCLEX-RN or NCLEX-PN exams and identifies the areas for improvement if present. 

This blog provides a detailed answer to What is the HESI exam and explores all the tips and tricks you need to discover regarding passing this exam, through an in-depth HESI exam guide. 

Structure and Format of the HESI Exam

Exam Sections

While Preparing for the HESI exam you need to be well aware of the key sections that include Math, Reading Comprehension, Biology, Grammar, Chemistry, Physics Anatomy, Physiology, and personality traits. However, depending on your institution, they might add or eliminate some subjects from these.

The test is computer-based and you have to answer the multiple choice questions. Through critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a limited amount of time set for each section. 

Let’s take a detailed look at what each section consists of to assist you in seamlessly clearing your Nursing school entrance exams.

• Math: The math section will consist of basic arithmetic, algebra, proportion, and ratios which are essential for calculating drug dosages and metric conversions for injecting drugs. 
• Ready and Language: This text will examine your ability to get a clear comprehension of texts and understand their purpose. Moreover, a wide vocabulary that can contribute to understanding the medical terms and no grammatical errors are necessary to ensure a strong and understandable conversation with the patients. 
• Science Subjects: Subjects include anatomy and physiology which focus on the human body functions and physics, chemistry, and biology will assess your foundational knowledge from the basic chapters.
• The critical thinking section will be the most significant for determining your professionalism in routine decisions and how you make conclusions regarding a scenario. You need to focus deeply on the condition presented and choose the most appropriate answer as an expert nurse.
• The self-examination portion will consist of different approaches to learning and help you choose your preferred study methods and techniques. l 

Scoring System

Most of the Nursing school entrance exams will assign you approximately 6 hours for the completion of the exam. Scores for each subject will be calculated individually. The score is calculated in the form of percentages. 

Although the passing score varies by each institution, most of the schools consider 75 to 80% as a good score for clearing the exam. 

Challenges of the HESI Exam

• Test Anxiety: Test Anxiety is common while Preparing for the HESI. These physical and mental changes of behavior due to stress can affect the test performance of a student. 

Common factors that contribute to anxiety are the fear of not being able to exceed societal expectations, lack of preparation, failed test experiences and the pressure that comes from knowing the importance of the test and how its results can affect the future success outcomes. 

In such a situation, Nursing exam tips for managing anxiety effectively include believing in yourself and constantly reminding yourself that I HAVE GOT THIS! Moreover, you need to get proper sleep and practice relaxation exercises to calm your mind and maintain a stable physical state. 

However, completing your coursework before the test day approaches and preparing yourself in advance is also necessary to ensure that you give your best on the test and are fully confident while attempting the exam.

• Time Management:  Some students aim to complete the whole course but struggle to manage time because of dedicating several hours to one subject that their schedule disrupts. Moreover, students managing part-time jobs along with their studies get exhausted by the hectic schedule and find it difficult to study effectively.

If you are a student struggling with time management issues, online resources like my HESI exam services can assign you an expert exam taker who ensures you clear your online exam on the first attempt with remarkable scores! 

Here is how you can manage time

• Start with allocating time for each section based on the level of difficulty. Complete the subjects that are a nightmare for you at first, then move to the easy ones.
• Strategies for pacing during your Nursing school entrance exams include practicing exam questions and setting a timer to analyze your speed for attempting the questions and improving your pace in the subject you feel weak in. 
• If you feel stuck on a question, don’t invest your time in it. Try moving towards the next question, maybe you will figure out its answer instantly! When you feel like an answer is correct, trust yourself and proceed ahead with it. 

Preparation Hurdles

Nursing school entrance exams demand detailed knowledge in not just one but several subjects including science, English, and mathematics along with plenty of sub-topics integrated in each subject. In such a case balancing preparation with other responsibilities becomes a huge task for students.

Students often take the extensive coursework of the nursing test lightly and while  Preparing for the HESI, they fall for common mistakes such as procrastinating whenever the thoughts of opening books come to their minds, engaging their selves in other distractions despite the unfinished subjects. 

Moreover, in such cases, students also rote memorize everything present in their books instead of understanding the underlying concept. When encountering questions that require intellectual responses, students often get stuck on them.

Students often satisfy their minds by only focusing on what looks easy to them and skipping the tough topics. Furthermore, not being well aware of the test format, skipping practice questions, exhausting oneself with a tough study routine, and sticking to only a few study resources are frequent errors that students make.

Opportunities Provided by the HESI Exam

Attempting the HESI Nursing School entrance exams can offer you numerous benefits in advancing your nursing career, including: 

Improved Readiness for NCLEX

The HESI exam bridges gaps in knowledge, allowing the student to understand the concepts for the NCLEX exam and boost confidence for it. The exam also predicts your chances of passing the NCLEX exam, demonstrating your preparation and comprehension regarding the coursework. 

Students get a better idea of what to expect in the NCLEX exam, including the type of questions and format. This reduces exam-related nervousness and allows students to stay calm during their licensure exams. 

Feedback on Strengths and Weaknesses

The HESI exam also provides score reports that highlight the student’s expertise in the subjects and the weak areas. This allows the students to improve their academic performance and dedicate more time to the subjects that need attention.

Personalized insights offer each student an opportunity to create tailored study plans based on their individual needs. 

Skill Development

The HESI Nursing school entrance exam also develops critical thinking and analytical skills of students which are especially needed during nursing careers and making decisions for patients for improved clinical outcomes. 

Tips for Excelling in the HESI Exam

Prospering in the HESI exam requires a holistic approach that combines efforts through a productive study routine. Implementing these HESI Nursing exam tips can help you gain immense success in this exam: 

• Effective Study Strategies: Creating a study schedule and following it with consistency can help you achieve your daily study goals. Try offering yourself small rewards after reaching each milestone to keep yourself going. 

Relying on self-preparation will leave you confused during the exams and you might struggle to navigate the intricacies of this exam. Therefore, Preparing for the HESI exam through HESI prep books and online resources can offer you an effective HESI exam guide and detailed techniques to excel in this exam. 

• Practice Tests: Practice exams simulate real test conditions. You can catch your weak areas for improvement and assess your preparation for the test. Repetitive mistakes can be fixed through this approach and you can learn to prioritize your team to each subject equally. 
• Joining Study Groups: Studying for Nursing school entrance exams can be a lonely phase. You can feel distracted and depressed by constantly being surrounded by your books. However, collaborative learning serves as a great solution to this problem.

By sharing resources, study ideas, and complex questions, community members can strengthen each other’s studying methods. Moreover, peers can motivate each other and foster a result-oriented studying environment. 

You can save time by taking answers for questions from students around you instead of looking for them and investing yourself in a research process. A collaborative study method can introduce easier techniques to intangible a question resulting in increased chances of high scores.

Resources for HESI Exam Preparation

The digital world has the solution to each problem! Take a look at this HESI exam guide and how you can leverage the online resources for fruitful results in your entrance, specialized, or HESI exit exam. 

• Online Courses and Tutoring: With a small subscription fee or with the availability of free features you can make the most out of online platforms offering targeted preparation. These include study.coms Ace The HESI A2  service which offers you practice questions and flash cards. 

Kaplans HESI A2 prep course is a paid service that offers you video lessons, questions, and quizzes. The extra benefits include a study timetable, HESI Nursing exam tips, and more.

However, if you are too scared of the test and you want to pass at any cost, there are solutions available as well! Just say do my exam for me and we will assign you an experienced exam taker who knows all about the strategies to boost your score and ensures that you pass with flying colors! 

Apps and Flashcards: Popular study aids include HESI A2 practice tests by pocket prep, Quizlets customized flashcards, Magoosh HESI prep with detailed video lessons, and the Anki app with its memorization features which helps you learn complex concepts effectively. 

• Books and Study Guides: The Mometrix HESI exam guide offers you a comprehensive preparation opportunity, by providing more than a thousand difficult questions from each subject, and these questions are crafted by experts who ensure that you enter the exam room with full confidence in answering each question.

Future Trends in Nursing Exams

• Technological Integration: The rapid integration of artificial intelligence in every domain includes innovative solutions in the field of nursing as well.In the future, Artificial intelligence will examine the student’s preparation for their test attempts and provide feedback along with study plans.

This will help students enrich their understanding of the weak areas while Preparing for the HESI exam. 

Moreover, the use of computer adaption testing for the HESI exam will upgrade the test-taking method based on the student’s capabilities. Depending on the student’s skills, each time they answer a difficult question, the test will delve them into further complexities. 

This computer adaptation testing approach is already used in the NCLEX exam and will allow students to get insights regarding their planning. 

Wrapping Up

Attempting the HESI exam provides students a great way to prepare for their nursing career and ahead for their licensure exams. However, while Preparing for the HESI exam, covering the course material might feel like a daunting task to students with weak foundational knowledge or no study support sources. 

Students should leverage online resources and develop effective study habits to pass this exam. All it requires is some efforts, consistency and faith in yourself and constant reminders to yourself that you have got this! However, if you want to build your nursing career but are stuck in the responsibilities of your personal life, there is no need to worry! The online support available through services like do my exam for me and Do my online class can offer you a seamless learning experience and boosted grades effortlessly.