Took the A2 today!

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Specializes in critical care.

Took the A2 today! I was surprised by it, actually. It genuinely was a measure of stuff accumulated in my brain. The last few weeks I've been peeking through old textbooks and reading study guides and really none of that prepared me, but I'm okay with that. I noticed there was a massive emphasis on cellular biology. It surprised me, too that biology seemed to focus more on a&p stuff and chemistry had a lot of cell biochemistry. Math had a ton of fractions and ratios, which, frankly, I loved. I scored lowest in a&p and vocabulary. I expected that with a&p, but not vocabulary. I know where I screwed up- the words I didn't know so well, I picked defining words that were the same part of speech, overriding my gut instinct that a noun might be the right definition for a verb, etc. I didn't realize that until well over halfway through and you can go back and change answers :( My school only allows one time taking the A2, so I'm hoping my composite of 93% is strong enough. The class average that HESI shows is 83%, so I'm feeling good. :)

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Wow! You did really well...I've read that a lot of people have scored low with A&P and Vocab, those two are very tricky.

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Congrats on the great score!!! I need to take the HESI A2 within the next couple months and I am dreading it! I am using the evolve reach study guide since this is the one my school recommended. What study guides, if any did you use? What type of words were on the vocab part? and what type of questions were on the chem part? Sorry to pick your brain but I am so curious and everyone I ask that has taken it has a different answer! So worried about this test, it can make or break me for my nursing application...:no:

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which sections did you have to take and do you know your individual scores for each section?

and Nikki, it is not a hard test. I am retaking it in a few weeks because my GPA was so low that my 89% on hesi was not enough to get in. The only thing i used is that guide you stated above. I also went back through my A&P notes and made outlines for each section. The A&P section consists of basic, simple questions, but the questions are scattered throughout so many sections and are very random, so that is what makes it a little more difficult. chemistry is basic. Like middle school level. you need to know all about electrons, protons, neutrons. you need to have a basis on what chemical reactions look like, properties of water, some basic cell information. you do not need a periodic table. the vocab is by far the most difficult part just because the words are so random, but there are 5-10 words from the hesi study guide on the actual exam, so be sure to read through them all!

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Specializes in critical care.

Yeah the vocabulary was ridiculously random. I didn't use the hesi guide. I mostly used FloridaTrail2006's website. I got 100 on chemistry, 98 on math, 96 on reading comprehension, 92 on grammar and biology, and 88 on a&p and vocab. I'm wondering.... Does anyone know if the class averages are out of those applying to your school only, or if they're everyone who has taken it nationwide?

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your school only. my class average was 85

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Specializes in critical care.

Wow, that makes me feel a lot better then! Line by line I scored at least +10% more than every average except vocabulary! You just made me a happy girl!

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Took the A2 today! I was surprised by it, actually. It genuinely was a measure of stuff accumulated in my brain. The last few weeks I've been peeking through old textbooks and reading study guides and really none of that prepared me, but I'm okay with that. I noticed there was a massive emphasis on cellular biology. It surprised me, too that biology seemed to focus more on a&p stuff and chemistry had a lot of cell biochemistry. Math had a ton of fractions and ratios, which, frankly, I loved. I scored lowest in a&p and vocabulary. I expected that with a&p, but not vocabulary. I know where I screwed up- the words I didn't know so well, I picked defining words that were the same part of speech, overriding my gut instinct that a noun might be the right definition for a verb, etc. I didn't realize that until well over halfway through and you can go back and change answers :( My school only allows one time taking the A2, so I'm hoping my composite of 93% is strong enough. The class average that HESI shows is 83%, so I'm feeling good. :)

For Biology, can you explain a little more in regards to what you meant by "cellular biology" and that the questions focused on a&P stuff? Also, if the biology portion focused on a&p, what sort of questions were on a&p?

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@Dizzymoose, I took it over the weekend. I found that there was a lot of questions about diffusion, mitosis/meiosis, functions of organelles, differences between animals & plants cells.

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@Dizzymoose, I took it over the weekend. I found that there was a lot of questions about diffusion, mitosis/meiosis, functions of organelles, differences between animals & plants cells.

Thank you, thank you! I've been focusing on those topics, so I'll continue and incorporate general biology themes as well.

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Specializes in critical care.
@Dizzymoose I took it over the weekend. I found that there was a lot of questions about diffusion, mitosis/meiosis, functions of organelles, differences between animals & plants cells.[/quote']

I'm glad you answered because its been a year and I can't remember now!

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@ixchel -

It was only after I had sent the original post that I saw the year was '12 rather than '13. Thank you for still replying, but I figured the info would be long forgotten. Hope you did well and you're in the program of your choice!

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