How to do well on both the TEAS & the HESI.

CarolynNAC1 · Sep 1, 2015

Honestly, it's just all about time management. For me, being a full time student while trying to study for the Teas and KAT is hard, but not undoable. You could balance studying for the Teas every other day, and vice versa for the Hesi (while balancing your school work on top it). It will be hard and stressful at times, but just try to look at the big picture and to always remind yourself of what you are doing it for.

Also I started studying this past July for my exams but I don't have to take neither of my tests until January. Intially, I thought that I couldn't balance school with trying to study for multiple material at the same time. But I found that once you have learned all the material in advanced (5+ months) that your priorities will start to change, because you may feel that since you've already studied and learned one material that you should go on to tthe next material, devoting all your time to that. Hence, studying for the nursing exams would be put on the back burner.

So I recommed to start studying 3 months before you take either exam and then the last 3 weeks should be all review.

ThatOneDude822 · Sep 7, 2015

I don't have any experience with HESI, since none of the schools around me accept it. But I have taken the TEAS twice, so hopefully I can help you there.

I think the biggest things with the TEAS are getting the time limits down (especially with the math section) and understanding how the questions are worded. In my opinion, the questions are worded similarly to SAT style questions. They seem like they're trying to trick you, but if you pay attention, it will become clear what they are asking. Also, be careful for questions that ask things like "which word does NOT belong." Don't get a question wrong because you missed the "not."

As far as the content goes, I think you should be fine, especially if you're almost done with prereqs. You KNOW the content for the most part. TEAS asks a lot of high school level questions (and the science section has a few basic A&P questions, but they aren't bad). The TEAS is really going to test you more on how you can use basic concepts to come up with a solution, rather than testing you on the content itself. It's not trying to test WHAT you know, as much as it's trying to test HOW you USE what you know. For example, the test doesn't care if you know what the word "defenestrate" means. Instead, it wants to test if you can use it correctly in a sentence.

In other words, most of the content will be review. What you will have to LEARN is how to apply that content.

I would purchase the ATI manual and take the practice exams to become familiar with the format of the test, and get an idea of how they want you to apply your knowledge. The first time I took the TEAS, I got an 84% without studying (which was dumb of me to not study for it). The second time I took it, I had studied all the sections I got wrong the first time. I ended up getting a 94%. The ATI study manual definitely contributed to that raise in my score. I mean, it's released by the company that MAKES the exam, so you can't really go wrong with it. You can get in on Amazon for about $20-30 in new condition, so it's not very expensive either.