How to tell whether your nursing school wants TEAS, HESI, or NEX
A nursing entrance exam is the filter a program uses before it spends a clinical seat. TEAS 7 is a fixed four-section ticket from ATI. HESI A2 is a packet Elsevier builds to the school’s Department ID. NEX is three 60-minute subject tests from NLN. Scores do not convert. A Boise apartment with two carts open and the admission PDF still in Downloads is how people pay twice.
This guide is how to name the exam, what each vendor actually sells, and the four facts to write before you buy a seat. After the name is printed, sit the matching article: TEAS 7, HESI A2, or NLN NEX. Prep without a dump lives on how to prepare without a dump.
If the PDF already named ATI TEAS 7, stop shopping HESI. Open the four TEAS clocks. If it named HESI A2, open HESI A2. If you still do not know, wait. Pre-nursing prep is the fork, not a third exam. Nursier does not sell TEAS, HESI, or NEX. We do not register you. The vendor your school named collects that fee.
The PDF is the exam
A nursing entrance exam is not a license. It is a filter a program uses before it spends a clinical seat on you. BLS still starts registered nursing from an approved program and a license. The entrance score is the school’s door, not the board’s. If you are still choosing a license, start with how to become a nurse in the U.S..
The honest first document is the current admission packet for the exact cohort you want. Not a 2022 screenshot. Not a Facebook map of “what most schools use.” Not a YouTube thumbnail that says TEAS when your college moved to HESI last spring. Find the line that names the exam, the version, the sections that count, the minimums, the retake rule, and the last date a score is accepted.
If two colleges sit in your commute, keep two packets. Do not average them. A school that wants TEAS 7 at one floor and a school that wants five HESI modules at another floor are two applications. They are not “entrance exam, about sixty.”
TEAS is a fixed ticket
ATI TEAS, Version 7, is one exam with one public shape. Four separately timed sections, always in this order: reading, math, science, English and language usage. 170 questions, 209 minutes, 20 of those items unscored pretest. You can move around inside a section. When you submit it, you cannot return. Unused minutes die with that clock. ATI writes that on TEAS exam details and on the help page about sections and going back.
That is the whole reason a TEAS week is not a HESI week. The ticket does not change because a classmate liked anatomy videos. The school still prints the cut. ATI still reports four bars. We already walked the clocks. Use that page when the catalog named TEAS. Do not restudy it here as if a new exam appeared.
HESI is a packet the school builds
HESI A2 is Elsevier’s Admission Assessment. The institution, not the vendor, chooses which pieces you sit. Elsevier’s own faculty guide is blunt about the setup: once a testing slot is added, faculty select the desired exam sections, and the estimated duration updates from those selections. Read the HESI A2 faculty guide (PDF). A blog list of “the eight HESI subjects” is a menu. Your school already ordered from it.
Three live packets show how far the menu can swing. Do not average them. Do not carry one campus into another building.
- Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston names seven HESI A2 sections for its Pacesetter BSN: math, reading comprehension, vocabulary and general knowledge, grammar, anatomy and physiology, biology, and chemistry. All of those sections must be taken at the same time. Extra pieces such as critical thinking, learning styles, and physics are not reviewed. That school will also accept TEAS instead. It will not accept a HESI score taken for another institution.
- East Carolina’s ABSN HESI FAQ (PDF) says nursing schools choose the subject areas. ECU chose five: basic math, vocabulary and general knowledge, reading comprehension, biology, and anatomy and physiology. The same page tells applicants to ignore chemistry, physics, and grammar in study materials because ECU does not test those.
- Tarrant County College lists the sections it offers at the testing center and then says individual programs decide which of those sections count for an application. Anatomy and physiology may be disregarded if your intended program does not require it. Biology, chemistry, personality profile, learning styles, and critical thinking are not even offered there.
That is three HESI A2 exams that share a vendor and do not share a packet. If you study “HESI” as if it were one national ticket, you will spend November on a module your school will never score, or skip the one it will.
NEX and other names in the catalog
Some catalogs still print NLN. The current National League for Nursing entrance exam is the Nursing Entrance Exam, NEX. NLN’s technical brief describes three computer-based subject tests in one sitting: verbal, math, and science. Each is timed at 60 minutes. All three must be finished to produce a report. Items are multiple choice. Scores are percentile ranks against national reference groups, not a single NLN “pass.” There is no NLN cut score that admits you. The school still decides what it will accept. Start at the NEX technical brief (PDF).
A campus can also retire NEX. Shoreline College’s testing page says it will accept TEAS or NLN-NEX through a stated window and then move to TEAS only. That is one college’s calendar. Yours may be the opposite. Read Shoreline’s NEX page as a method, then open your own PDF.
If the catalog named NEX, do not buy a TEAS dump because the internet has more of those videos. If it named TEAS, do not sit NEX “because a friend said NLN is easier.” A later page on this site will walk NEX the way we already walked TEAS. This page only needs you to see the third door so you stop pretending there are two.
When a school accepts either
Some programs will take TEAS or HESI. UTHealth’s Pacesetter page is one. That is not permission to study both until you are tired. Pick one ticket, finish it, and send the score that page will accept. If the school prints different floors for each exam, write both floors before you choose. If it will not accept a HESI taken for another institution, do not reuse a cousin’s eligibility code.
If two schools accept two different exams, you still have two cards. A TEAS score for College A does not become a HESI packet for College B because you “already tested.” Ask each testing office whether they will take an outside score, which vendor account they want, and how old a score may be.
Scores do not convert
A TEAS science bar does not tell you how you would have scored on a school’s HESI anatomy module. A HESI grammar percent does not become a TEAS English bar. A NEX science percentile is not a TEAS science percent. Vendors do not publish a legal conversion table you can carry into advising. Anyone who offers one is selling comfort.
Community-college points worksheets already prove the local math. We showed three of those packets in the ADN points guide: Craven adds TEAS to bonus points, CT State uses a TEAS floor inside a weighted formula, Santa Barbara wants TEAS 7 at a printed percent and keeps the first attempt. Those numbers are local law. They are not a national entrance-exam average. They also do not apply to a HESI building down the road.
We will not invent a “good” score. We will not invent which exam is harder. Hard is the ticket you did not prepare for.
Four facts before you pay
Write them on a card. Ask for email if a word is blank.
- The exam name and version: ATI TEAS 7, HESI A2, NLN NEX, or the exact title the packet printed.
- The section list that counts, and any extras the school will ignore.
- The minimum total, any section floors, and whether they keep the first attempt or the latest.
- The last date a score is accepted for this cohort, and whether an outside testing site will be read.
If two schools named two exams, keep two cards. If one school named both and lets you pick, pick one and finish it. Buying both “just in case” is how November disappears.
Retakes and remote seats stay local
Vendors will often sell you another seat. Your school may not count it. TCC’s public HESI page is one campus example: once every 60 days, and you may test once per application period. Wake Tech’s TEAS FAQ (PDF) is another: twice per calendar year, 30 days apart. NLN’s pricing sheet says the League wants 30 days between NEX attempts unless a school asked for a different frequency. Those are three local clocks. Do not carry one into the other building.
Remote is still the named exam. It is also a room scan. Kids, a second monitor, and a Chromebook that will not lock fail the scan the same way they fail an online-program quiz. If you will sit at the kitchen table, read the proctor room before you pay a remote fee.
We will not invent ATI, Elsevier, or NLN prices. They move by delivery, voucher, and whether the school bills you. Confirm the current register page the packet named.
After you name it
Close the other tab. Sit a short diagnostic in the named exam only. Name the two weak pieces. Work those until you can explain the miss out loud. Then mix. Then time. Official items, if you buy them, stay with the vendor. Unofficial practice will not replace a content outline. It can keep the question style in front of you after a shift.
If the named exam is TEAS 7, use the ATI TEAS 7 guide. If it is HESI A2, use the HESI A2 guide and the school’s section list, not a generic eight-subject menu. If the next task after a score is still a waitlist, stop shopping videos. The points worksheet is the next document. Sit practice questions in the exam you already named. The Nursier editorial team wrote this.
We do not take ATI registration. We do not take Elsevier fees. We do not take NLN fees. We do not take a school’s application fee. Those offices keep those payments.
Common questions
Which entrance exam should I take?
The one the catalog named. If two schools named two exams, you may need two tickets. If one school accepts either, pick one and finish it.
Is TEAS harder than HESI?
They are different exams. Hard is the one you did not prepare for. A TEAS science bar and a HESI anatomy module are not a contest.
Can I study both just in case?
You can. You will usually finish neither. Open the PDF. Close the extra cart. If a second school later names the other exam, start that map then.
My friend used PAX. Is that NEX?
PAX was an older NLN door. Current NLN language is NEX. Confirm the exact title and the current report. Do not study a retired acronym because a sibling sat it in 2019.
Do I need an entrance exam if I already have a degree?
If the ADN or BSN packet names one, you need that one. A bachelor’s in psychology does not retire a community-college filter.
When do I start NCLEX?
After you finish an approved program and the board makes you eligible. Studying NCLEX the week of an entrance exam is how people fail the exam they have this month.
Sources
Confirm live pages. Packets and version numbers move.
- ATI, TEAS exam details
- ATI Help, TEAS sections, timing, and going back
- Elsevier, HESI A2 faculty guide (PDF)
- Elsevier, Admission Assessment Exam Review
- UTHealth Cizik, HESI and TEAS for Pacesetter BSN
- East Carolina University, ABSN HESI A2 FAQ (PDF)
- Tarrant County College, HESI A2 exam information
- NLN, NEX technical brief (PDF)
- NLN, assessment services pricing sheet (PDF)
- Wake Tech, TEAS FAQ (PDF)
- BLS, registered nurses
- Shoreline College, Nursing Entrance Exam (NEX)
Nursier is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ATI, Assessment Technologies Institute, Elsevier, NLN, NCSBN, or any nursing program. TEAS is a trademark of Assessment Technologies Institute, LLC. HESI is a trademark of Elsevier. This article is planning copy. It is not an official exam, and it is not a school cut score.
