00:01
So you may have noticed nursing school is not
only difficult in itself, it's also
difficult to get into.
00:07
Isn't that fun? So after you complete all of
your prerequisites, you are likely going to
need to take something called a nursing
school entrance exam.
00:14
Not all schools do require them.
00:17
Some will waive it for a certain GPA, but I
would say the majority of schools do
require you to take some sort of entrance
exam.
00:26
There are two common entrance exams in the
United States.
00:29
We have the HESI and the TEAS.
00:32
The HESI stands for the Health Education
Systems Inc.
00:35
and the TEAS is the Test of Essential
Academic Skills.
00:38
Both of these exams test general knowledge
you learned throughout high school, as well
as basic math and science information.
00:46
In most cases, you do not get to pick which
nursing school entrance
exam you will actually take.
00:53
Nursing schools just kind of pick which
tests they want to do and take and let you
know which one that you need to show up for.
01:00
Some schools will require you to take the
entire entrance exam, and some will require
just a few subjects.
01:06
If you are applying to multiple schools, you
will likely have to end up taking both exams
because different schools may require
different exams, different exam
subset types.
01:16
So if you are unsure, and you're just trying
to get ahead of things, you're going to want
to study for the entire HESI exam rather
than the parts or
subparts of each one.
01:27
And why just that one?
Let me explain.
01:30
The HESI covers seven academic sections:
reading comprehension, vocabulary,
grammar, math, biology, chemistry and
anatomy and physiology.
01:38
In contrast, the TEAS covers four academic
sections: reading, math,
science and English language usage.
01:46
Since the HESI is the more comprehensive
test, it covers more
healthcare focused knowledge, and it
includes topics also included in the TEAS.
01:55
Most people recommend that you study just
for the HESI if you're going to be taking
both. Aside from the subjects included,
there are a few other
differences between the tests.
02:06
The HESI has 350 questions and takes about 4
hours to
complete, whereas the TEAS has 170 questions
and takes about three and a half
hours to complete.
02:17
The HESI costs about $70 to take and the
TEAS costs about $100.
02:21
And in terms of difficulty, it's usually
pretty hard to say which test is actually
more difficult. The HESI covers more topics,
but since there are more questions, you can
actually get more questions incorrect and
still pass, giving you a little bit of
wiggle room. The TEAS covers a more general
knowledge, but it's kind of difficult to
study for general knowledge when it's
supposed to be general knowledge that you
just have. And since you have fewer
questions, you actually have less wiggle room
in terms of how many questions you can get
wrong while still being able to pass the
exam. But how do you actually study for
these exams?
This is going to be like most nursing school
exams.
02:58
This is going to come down to practice
questions, reading and rationales.
03:03
The more practice questions you do, the
better.
03:05
I would recommend some type of study
program, whether that be a study
book or an online course.
03:12
Just make sure you knock out those practice
questions, read every single
rationale for the ones you got right and
wrong, and get a really good night of sleep,
honestly, the night before the exam versus
cramming because your brain
loves having rest and being able to actually
think, and it won't remember the stuff
you study the night before anyway.
03:33
Are you ready for another little time hop
here?
Because now you've taken your entrance exam.
03:37
It's magic, just like that.
03:38
Perfect. And you passed.
03:40
Go you. So now let's look at how to spiff up
your application to make you look
like the perfect candidate for your desired
nursing school.