A six-week HESI A2 study plan, subtest list first

The HESI A2 is not one exam. It is a kit of up to eight subtests, and your nursing program decides which ones you sit. So a HESI A2 study plan starts one step earlier than a TEAS plan does: before you study anything, you confirm your list. This plan assumes about an hour on weekdays and one longer block at the weekend, and it runs a simple shape: fix the list, find your weak subtests, rebuild them, then practise under a real clock.

Week 1: confirm your subtests, then diagnose

Open your program's admissions page and write down exactly which subtests it names, with the minimum score beside each. Most programs require the four academic subtests, Mathematics, Reading, Vocabulary, and Grammar, and then choose among the four sciences: Anatomy and Physiology, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. If you are still working out whether your school wants the HESI A2 or the TEAS at all, settle that first with our guide to TEAS vs HESI.

Every hour spent on a subtest your program does not require is an hour taken from one it does.

Then diagnose. Sit the free full-length HESI A2 practice test with only the subtests on your list selected. It runs each subtest on its own clock and reports a percentage per subtest, the same way Elsevier does, so the result reads directly against your program's requirement.

• Note each percentage and its gap to your cutoff. Many programs look for around 75 to 80 percent per section, but the number your school publishes is the one that counts.
• Pick your two weakest required subtests. They own weeks 2 to 4.
• Book your test date now if you have not. A fixed date turns "someday" into a plan.

Weeks 2 to 4: drill the weak subtests

This is the core of the plan. Each weekday, do one short practice set in a weak subtest and read every rationale, including the ones you got right. At the weekend, take a longer set that mixes your weak subtests together, and re-test the one you drilled hardest that week. When a set exposes a gap the rationale alone cannot close, read the matching lesson in the HESI A2 study guide; it is mapped to the same outline as the questions. If you prefer to warm up one subtest at a time, the HESI A2 hub links free practice questions for each.

Keep a short list of the mistakes you repeat. Patterns in your errors are worth more than your score. And because the subtests are built differently, aim your hours differently:

Physics is the outlier. It is the least commonly required subtest. Do not study it on spec; if it is not on your program's list, drop it and give the hours to a subtest that counts.

• Mathematics: 50 scored questions in 50 minutes. A minute a question, and the paper is arithmetic first: whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and the measurement conversions nursing school will keep asking of you. Drill those until they are automatic and the clock stops being a factor.
• Reading: 47 scored questions in 60 minutes. The roomiest clock of the academic four. Use it: read each passage properly once instead of skimming it twice, and practise naming the main idea before you look at the options.
• Vocabulary: 50 scored questions in 50 minutes. You cannot memorise every word that might appear, but you can learn the prefixes, roots, and suffixes that let you decode a term you have never seen. Word parts are the highest-yield vocabulary work there is.
• Grammar: 50 scored questions in 50 minutes. The same errors recur: subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, comma placement, and confusable pairs. Keep a list of the ones that catch you. The list will be short and the fixes mechanical.
• Anatomy and Physiology: 25 scored questions in 25 minutes. A minute a question, and mostly recall, so the risk is coverage, not pace. Work system by system and re-test each one before moving on.
• Biology and Chemistry: 25 scored questions in 25 minutes each. Short papers, so a few core topics carry real weight: the cell, its division, and basic genetics in Biology; atomic structure, bonding, reactions, and solutions in Chemistry.
• Physics: 25 scored questions in 50 minutes. Two minutes a question, the most generous per-question clock on the exam. It rewards working each problem slowly and correctly rather than rushing.

Weeks 5 to 6: rehearse your exact exam

Now switch from learning to rehearsing. Sit a full timed HESI A2 practice test at the start of week 5 and a final one in week 6, your program's subtests in one sitting each time, under conditions as close to the real day as you can manage. All eight subtests together run to 297 scored questions in 335 minutes, and even the four academic subtests alone are about 210 minutes of testing, so stamina is a skill you rehearse, not something you hope for.

• After each sitting, spend a session reviewing only the questions you missed, and read the percentage per subtest, not an average. One weak subtest can sink an application even when the others are strong.
• Between sittings, do light targeted practice in your weakest remaining subtest. Learn nothing new in the final three days.
• The day before the exam, stop. Rest beats one more study session.

By exam day you will have sat your exact exam three times: once to find the work, twice to rehearse it. Confirm your subtest list today, sit the diagnostic this week, and let the percentages set the rest of the plan. Six weeks is enough when every hour lands on a subtest that counts.