Admission Assessment Exam Review PDF Free Download

Of three study guides I used, this was the 2nd most important. Also, I just finished my exam two hours ago with a total score of 94.8%, so I’ll try to summarize what kind of questions I got, as I run through the relevant sections. Also, my test had no chem or physics, there will be no review of those sections. Before I get into the individual sections, I highly recommend you AUGMENT this book with online quizzes/flashcards, and most importantly – the HESI downloadable mobile app. It’s very worth the $10-12 for the expanded app. You can do a few questions a day, or sit down for a marathon 100-question session. They’ve got almost 2000 questions, generated randomly, and it was my #1 resource. Back to this book:

MATH – My score – 100%. Also, it’s not all multiple choice like in your practice exams, sometimes you free-write the answer yourself. I skimmed this chapter to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything, but I’m pretty good at basic math, so if you are as well, there is nothing to fear from the HESI. If you are not, then review fractions and ratios – the bulk of the questions looked like – “9:54:: x:96,” with some variation. Lots of “express 0.076 as a fraction.” One question was screwed up because they didn’t put brackets around a section of the algebra equation, but based on the answers I was able to figure out what they were trying to ask. Another word problem involved “a maximum of 25 students to a class, figure out how many teachers…round to the nearest whole #.” The final answer was 52.36, and I considered writing “53,” since the classrooms had a max, but I went with 52 and got it right. There is a calculator built into the exam, so no need to work on long division.
READING COMPREHENSION – My score – 90%. As expected, 50 questions, spread across about 10 passages. This one’s pretty tricksy, there are a lot of questions that have more than one plausible answer. Know how HESI defines a conclusion vs supporting idea vs main idea, it comes up a lot and may differ from how you and I define those terms. There will be some easy questions, but they’re more than balanced out with head-scratchers and dead-ends. HESI appears to be sold on the notion of finding the BEST answer, even if it looks wrong, it may still be the best in light of the other answers.
GRAMMAR – My score – 94%. Grammar’s not intuitive for a lot of people. If it’s not your thing, review the heck out of this chapter. I felt confident, so I spent almost no time here. The exam section is mostly what sentences get wrong, or how to best fill in the missing word given the sentence and context. I didn’t get asked once about which word was the “participle” or “misplaced modifier” or “predicate,” etc.
VOCABULARY – My score – 96%. BEST TIP – the list in the book is not at all exhaustive, spend time on review sites, make flashcards for the ones you don’t know. Also, they WILL ask which word is spelled correctly, so review your spelling if you’re not comfortable.
BIOLOGY – My score – 88%. Stupid Krebs Cycle vs. Citric Acid Cycle vs. Calvin Cycle. Know that stuff well. Cellular respiration comes up a lot, and sometimes it’s just called “respiration.” The other heavy hitters are Mitosis vs. Meiosis, organelles, transcription/translation, and the fabulous phospholipid bilayer. This book does a good job at covering the basics, but you may want to find more info online if you’re not totally confident in those processes. Oh yeah, hypertonic vs hypotonic solutions totally showed up.
ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY – My score – 100%. Must’ve lucked out on a few of these. Of 30 questions, joints showed up a surprising amount of the time – synovial joints, joint types, etc. I didn’t study individual muscles, but had 3 questions on those. Look for hints in the clue – like when I got: “which quadriceps muscle attaches distally on the left side of the tibia?” I’m totally blank, but one answer is: “vastus lateralis.” Lateralis=side, so why not? Score. The review in the book does a good job here. Don’t clutter yourself with unnecessary detail. As mentioned, some questions seem hyper-specific before you see the clues within. My 30 questions literally covered all 11 body systems, so review them all.
CRITICAL THINKING – My score – 820/1000. We weren’t “graded” on this section exactly, but did receive a score. I read afterward that some schools require a certain score to get in. If that is your school, then good luck. These questions largely involve prioritization/triage knowledge. I had already gotten my CNA certification, and drew on a lot of that knowledge. If you don’t have that, read up on patient prioritization and pathology, but, again, only if you need it.

Hope that helps! Study a little bit every day, and keep your flashcards with you, both filled and blank. Good