HESI A2 Course Notes

Grammar is a rule-application section. Read the whole sentence, locate the subject and verb, then check agreement, tense, pronoun reference, modifier placement, punctuation, and completeness. The best correction fixes the actual error while preserving the intended meaning.

• Matching a verb to the nearest noun instead of the actual subject.

• Find subject + verb first.

Reading rewards evidence discipline. Main idea = what the passage is primarily saying about its topic. Details support that idea. For vocabulary and inference questions, use the passage—not outside knowledge—as the controlling evidence.

• Choosing the topic instead of the main idea.

• Main idea: ask 'What is the author mainly saying?'

Vocabulary is not just memorization. Use a three-step method: recognize any word parts, read the surrounding context, then test the answer choice in the sentence. Healthcare vocabulary is especially efficient to learn through common Greek/Latin roots and affixes.

• Ignoring context because the word looks familiar.

• Break the word into parts first.

Math is calculation-heavy but conceptually basic. The fastest path is setup discipline: identify the requested quantity, write units, convert before combining unlike units, estimate the answer, then calculate. Fractions, ratios/proportions, percent, and common conversions are high-yield.

• Doing multiplication before parentheses are resolved.

• Write units beside every number.

A&P questions reward structure-function reasoning. Know the major organs, the pathway through each system, and how systems cooperate to maintain oxygenation, circulation, nutrition, waste removal, movement, regulation, reproduction, and protection.

• Reversing medial/lateral or proximal/distal.

• Trace pathways from memory.

Biology is about flows: matter, energy, and information. Know why water behaves as it does, what carbohydrates/lipids/proteins/nucleic acids do, what major organelles do, how ATP is generated, how photosynthesis stores energy, and how membranes control movement.

• Calling all biomolecules sources of immediate energy.

• Biomolecules: learn building block + primary jobs.

HESI chemistry should stay fundamental. Know atomic structure, periodic organization, physical vs chemical change, equation interpretation/balancing, basic bonding, and introductory solution/acid-base reasoning. Use the information given in the item; do not turn a basic chemistry question into an advanced stoichiometry problem unless the data require it.

• Calling every mixture a compound.

• Atomic number = protons.