HESI A2 Practice Test
This is a free 15-question sampler in the style of the HESI A2 admission exam. It covers math, reading comprehension, vocabulary and general knowledge, grammar and anatomy and physiology, plus a little biology and chemistry, mixing multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank. Answer all 15 questions, then check your score and read the explanation for every question.
What is 3/4 minus 1/6?
All 15 questions at a glance
Prefer to read before you play? Every question in the sampler is listed below. Answers and explanations stay collapsed until you open them.
1. What is 3/4 minus 1/6?
- A. 1/2
- B. 7/12
- C. 2/3
- D. 11/12
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. 7/12
Rewrite both fractions with a common denominator of 12: 3/4 becomes 9/12 and 1/6 becomes 2/12. Subtracting gives 7/12, which does not reduce further. Adding the two by mistake gives 11/12, the trap answer.
2. A student answers 42 of the 50 questions on a quiz correctly. What percent did the student get right?
- A. 74%
- B. 80%
- C. 84%
- D. 88%
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 84%
Divide 42 by 50 to get 0.84, then multiply by 100 to get 84 percent. When the total is 50 you can also just double it, since 50 goes into 100 exactly twice.
3. An order reads 0.5 g of a medication. The tablets on hand are 250 mg each. How many tablets should be given?
- A. Half a tablet
- B. 1 tablet
- C. 2 tablets
- D. 5 tablets
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 2 tablets
Convert to the same unit first: one gram is 1,000 milligrams, so 0.5 g is 500 mg. Then divide what you want by what you have: 500 divided by 250 is 2 tablets.
4. Complete the sentence.
A nurse charts an assessment done at 4:45 pm. Written in military time, that is _____.
Options for blank 1: 0445, 1445, 1645, 1845
Show answer and explanation
Answer: 1645
After noon, add 12 to the hour and leave the minutes alone, so 4 pm becomes 16 and 4:45 pm becomes 1645. Before noon the two clocks match, which is why 4:45 am is simply 0445.
5. Read the passage: "Nursing programs usually list a minimum entrance exam score, but the score alone rarely decides who gets in. Most programs also weigh prerequisite grades, a personal statement and an interview. Applicants who treat the exam as the only hurdle are often surprised by a rejection." Which sentence best states the main idea?
- A. Entrance exam scores do not matter for nursing admission
- B. Nursing programs weigh several things besides the entrance exam score
- C. Every nursing program requires an interview
- D. Prerequisite grades are the most important part of an application
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Nursing programs weigh several things besides the entrance exam score
The passage puts the exam next to grades, a statement and an interview, so the point is that the score is one factor among several. Choice A overstates it, and the last two claim specifics the passage never says.
6. Read the passage: "The study guide promised full coverage in fourteen days. Three hundred pages later it had reached chapter two, but it had reminded me nine times to stay positive." Which word best describes the author's tone?
- A. Grateful
- B. Sarcastic
- C. Neutral
- D. Alarmed
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Sarcastic
The gap between the promise and the result, plus the jab about being told nine times to stay positive, is mockery rather than a plain report. That is sarcasm.
7. A drug label lists a contraindication. What does that mean?
- A. A reason the drug should not be used
- B. The recommended dose for children
- C. A second drug that strengthens the effect
- D. A sign that the drug is working
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. A reason the drug should not be used
Contra- means against, so a contraindication is a condition or factor that makes a treatment unsafe or unwise for that patient. Its opposite is an indication, which is a reason to use the drug.
8. Complete the sentence.
The patient's abdomen is swollen and stretched tight, so the nurse charts it as _____.
Options for blank 1: depleted, distended, dilated, discharged
Show answer and explanation
Answer: distended
Distended means swollen or stretched by pressure from inside, which is how a bloated abdomen is described. Dilated means widened or opened, and it is used for pupils and blood vessels instead.
9. Which of the following describe something you could observe just by looking at a patient's skin?
Select all that apply.
- A. Flushed
- B. Jaundiced
- C. Lethargic
- D. Cyanotic
- E. Hypertensive
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Flushed, B. Jaundiced, D. Cyanotic
Flushed means reddened, jaundiced means yellowed and cyanotic means bluish, so all three are skin color findings you can see. Lethargic describes how alert and responsive the patient is, and hypertensive is only known from a blood pressure reading.
10. Choose the word that correctly completes the sentence: "The unit ordered ___ supplies this month than last month."
- A. fewer
- B. less
- C. lesser
- D. least
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. fewer
Fewer goes with things you can count one by one, such as supplies, patients or doses. Less goes with amounts you measure as a whole, such as fluid, pain or time.
11. Which vessel carries deoxygenated blood away from the heart to the lungs?
- A. Pulmonary artery
- B. Pulmonary vein
- C. Aorta
- D. Superior vena cava
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Pulmonary artery
The pulmonary artery is the exception to the rule that arteries carry oxygenated blood: it moves deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. The pulmonary veins are the other exception, carrying oxygenated blood back to the left atrium.
12. Complete the sentence.
Red blood cells carry oxygen bound to an iron-containing protein called _____.
Options for blank 1: albumin, fibrin, hemoglobin, insulin
Show answer and explanation
Answer: hemoglobin
Hemoglobin is the protein inside red blood cells that picks up oxygen in the lungs and releases it in the tissues. Its iron content is why low iron leads to anemia, tiredness and shortness of breath.
13. Which of the following are functions of the skeletal system?
Select all that apply.
- A. Producing blood cells in bone marrow
- B. Storing calcium
- C. Protecting organs such as the brain and heart
- D. Producing bile
- E. Regulating blood glucose
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Producing blood cells in bone marrow, B. Storing calcium, C. Protecting organs such as the brain and heart
Bones make blood cells in red marrow, store minerals such as calcium and phosphorus, and shield organs behind the skull and rib cage. Bile comes from the liver, and blood glucose is regulated by the pancreas.
14. Which of the following statements about DNA are true?
Select all that apply.
- A. It is found in the nucleus of human cells
- B. It is made of building blocks called nucleotides
- C. It carries the instructions for building proteins
- D. It is a type of lipid
- E. It is identical in every species
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. It is found in the nucleus of human cells, B. It is made of building blocks called nucleotides, C. It carries the instructions for building proteins
DNA sits in the nucleus, is built from nucleotides and holds the code the cell uses to make proteins. It is a nucleic acid rather than a lipid, and its sequence differs between species and between individuals.
15. Which of the following is a chemical change rather than a physical change?
- A. Ice melting into water
- B. Sugar dissolving in tea
- C. Iron rusting
- D. Water boiling into steam
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Iron rusting
A chemical change produces a new substance, and rust is iron oxide, something that was not there before. Melting, dissolving and boiling only change the form or state of a substance, so the substance itself stays the same.
What's on the HESI A2
The HESI A2 is not one fixed test. It is a set of separate sections, and each of them is scored on its own. The academic sections are Math, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and General Knowledge, Grammar, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and Physics. There are also two non-academic parts, a learning style questionnaire and a personality profile, which are used for advising rather than admission scoring.
Here is the part that trips people up. Your nursing program picks which sections you actually sit, so your required set varies by school. Some programs ask for four sections, others ask for more, and two schools in the same city can require different ones. The time limit and the score you need to pass are set by the program too, not by a single national standard. Read your program's admission page first, then build the study plan around the sections it lists. Preparing for Physics when your school never assigns it is wasted time.
What is consistent is the flavor of each section. Math stays practical: fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and proportions, unit conversions, and reading military time, often wrapped in a healthcare situation. Vocabulary leans on medical-adjacent everyday words like contraindication, distended and flushed rather than obscure literary terms. Anatomy and Physiology is the science section most programs require, and it is usually the one that decides a borderline score.
How to use this sampler
The 15 questions below sample the sections most programs assign: math, reading, vocabulary, grammar and anatomy carry the most weight here, with one biology item and one chemistry item to round it out. The formats vary too, so you get select all that apply and fill in the blank alongside classic multiple choice.
Take it in one sitting, without notes, and keep moving rather than agonizing over any single item. Then read the explanation for every question, including the ones you got right. On a sectioned exam a wrong answer is a pointer to a section, not just a fact. Two missed conversion questions mean you should drill conversions, not memorize those two numbers.
When you are done, compare what you missed against your program's required section list. If your school assigns Chemistry and you guessed on the chemistry item, that is where the next study block goes. If your school skips Chemistry entirely, ignore it and put the time into anatomy.
How StudyPDF builds full practice tests from your own materials
Fifteen questions can show you where you are weak. They cannot get you exam ready on their own, and a generic question bank has no idea which HESI sections your program requires or what your prep book emphasizes.
StudyPDF works from your own material instead. Upload your HESI prep book, your A&P notes or your lecture slides, and Bo, the study agent, builds full-length practice tests from those exact pages. Every question is grounded in your material, and every explanation cites where the answer came from, so you can flip straight to the source when something is unclear. You can regenerate fresh tests as often as you want, focus them on one section like math or anatomy, and track which concepts you keep missing. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.