HESI Completed! My experience...

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Math: 55 Questions

Grammar: 55 Questions

Vocabulary and General Knowledge: 55 Questions

Reading Comprehension: 55 Questions

Biology: 30 Questions

Chemistry: 30 Questions

Critical Thinking: either 30 or 35 Questions can't remember

Stop studying for the Math, Grammar, and Reading Comprehension sections because they are really not in any way challenging. As long as you are literate and can do math at a sixth grade level, you are fine.

The Critical Thinking section was mostly common sense but it did require you to know a little bit of medical terminology. Be familiar with how nurses go about prioritizing and assessing the needs of their multiple patients. Also be familiar with basic nursing ethics e.g. Patient Privacy, HIPPA, drug/medication policies, etc. Having experience with working in healthcare is beneficial, but by no means necessary in order to do well on this section.

The Chemistry was pretty basic as well-I think I had one calculation problem in that section and otherwise just be familiar with the bacic types of chemical bonding and reaction types.

Vocab and General Knowledge was a little more on the moderate level of difficulty. I didn't study for this section a lick because I figured it would test you on commonly used medical terminology and that the vocabulary wouldn't be anything taxing. It turns out this section was a little bit trickier than that: there were a couple of curveballs that involved words I've never seen or heard before. The overall content wasn't anything so difficult that you need worry about failing, it just wasn't as straightforward as most of the other sections.

That just leaves the Biology section. This was the most difficult section for me and I stupidly left it for last, which made it much harder for me to really focus on because at that point I'd been sitting in front of a computer for four hours. I would just say be familiar with solutions-hypertonic vs. hypotonic, diffusion, osmosis, basic cell parts, cell functioning processiong, cellular respiration, fermentation, photosynthesis, transcription, translation, DNA, RNA, and a couple of other various topics that you learned in General Biology. If you know these things comfortably, you will be fine on this section.

I think this covers it! The only other thing I would suggest is that when it comes to the order in which you choose to complete the sections, save the best for last, i.e. get the material you struggle with most out of the way in the beginning when you're thinking clearest and are most focused, then when you're towards the end of your exam and running out of steam, all you're left to face is the material that is easiest for you. Hope this was helpful and good luck everyone!

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Thank you so much for this info. I take the hesi tomorrow and this thread puts me at ease. Best of luck with your journey in nursing!

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