HESI A2: Grammar

The HESI A2 examination stands for Heath Education Systems Incorporated Admissions Assessment and acts as a way to test a student’s potential success in an intense nursing program. The Orvis School of Nursing uses the scores from the exam in their selection process; while your GPA earns you an interview spot, ultimately, the result of your interview and your HESI score determine whether or not you get into the nursing program.

This resource will explain some of the grammatical concerns that are important for you to know on the English portion of the HESI A2. While most people use these points of grammar every day, some people are not confident identifying or putting names to them. That’s why we’re here—through practice and seeing examples of grammar in action, you can become a pro at understanding and naming any type of grammatical function. With that in mind, you can use this resource to:

On the HESI A2, you may be asked to identify which part of a sentence is the subject and which part of a sentence is the predicate. Notice that the subjects in each example are in bold, while the verbs (which are part of the predicate) are underlined.

Most people understand the subject of the sentence as the person/place/object that is undergoing or doing some action. Sometimes the HESI A2 will ask you to identify the subject noun (or noun phrase) in a sentence. When asked to find the subject, look for who or what is “doing” the action in the sentence. Seek out the verb, and then you can figure out which noun attaches to that verb.

Because verbs are technically part of the predicate, it may seem useful to find that first, but once you’ve figured out the subject and verb of the sentence, finding the predicate phrase becomes simple. With the subject in hand, you can reliably assume that the predicate will follow.

Here are some common types of sentences you may see with a variety of subject nouns and phrases.

Now that we’ve found the subject, we can look for the predicate in these sentences.

The predicate tells us about the action of our subject. With the subject, we ask “who” is doing the action, but with the predicate we ask “what” and “how.”

Let’s take a look at our previous sentences to identify the predicate. The verb half of the predicate is bolded, while the actual predicate phrase is underlined.

In sentence 1, the subject “Robert” is completed by the predicate “opened a checking account…” because that last phrase gives us information about “what” action Robert is doing and “how” he is accomplishing the action.

While some sentences, like the first one, will be fairly straightforward, remember that groups of people or things can also be subjects (as in sentence 2), or even inanimate objects like foods, buildings, or locations (as in sentence 3).

Parts of speech

It is also important on the HESI A2 to understand the parts of speech and to understand the different variations within those parts of speech. This section will provide an overview of the different parts of speech.

Some of the following explanations are complex. While you might not be tested on each part of speech, you can assume that you will see some of them in the detailed way they are explained below. It’s useful to have these longer descriptions, then, because they will prepare you for most grammatical situations on the HESI A2.

As a last category to watch out for on the HESI A2, there may be questions asking you to choose between words that are commonly mistaken for other words. We’ve included some of the common mistakes that you might see on the grammar section.

The important thing is to remember the function of these words. “Their” is a possessive pronoun, meaning that it indicates who owns something—an easy mnemonic is to look for the “I,” because if an object belongs to me (or “I”), then it would be referred to as “their object.” “They’re,” on the other hand, is a contraction for “they are,” which can be simple if you remember that the “are” is just tacked on the end of the word (they’re). Lastly, “there” refers to a vague location, but it is easy to remember if you can distinguish the other two first.

”"It’s” is a contraction, short for “it is.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun. With just an apostrophe standing between these two forms, try to remember it like this: just like other possessive words (“mine” or “my”), “its” is a singular word with no conjunction or apostrophe. However, because the word “it’s” has an apostrophe to break it up, we can understand that it is two words connected together by that apostrophe.

This is a common mistake at all levels of education, but you can use this neat mnemonic to remember the distinction: “affect,” the word that begins with A, is the action, or the verb form. If you can remember that, then you can also remember that “effect” must be the noun version.

This one can be tricky, but it comes down to where the direct object (the thing being acted upon) is. If no object is being set down, then “lie” is the word you want (e.g. “He lies down on the sofa”). If there is an object that is being placed on something, then “lay” is the correct choice (e.g. “He lays the poster on the table.”).

Contributor: Aly Sicat

Law School Admissions Test Prep Course

Adam Johnson is the lead instructor for test preparation workshops at UTSA. Adam has over 20 years of experience teaching standardized test preparation classes.

After teaching for several years for a leading test-preparation company, Adam taught English and test-preparation in Valencia, Spain. He has consistently scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests including perfect scores on the GRE and LSAT.

He's not only an expert on the tests that he teaches, but also a devoted and energetic instructor who can communicate strategies to help others improve their scores.

The GRE Test Is Cut in Half: Two Hours and Done

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Some studies have found that the tests handicap low-income and minority students, partly because wealthy students can improve their scores by taking expensive test prep courses. What’s more, the GRE test itself is expensive — $220 in most locations.

Boston University’s School of Public Health said that after it removed its GRE requirement in 2019, the number of Black and Hispanic applicants had increased, with no decline in student performance.

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Duke University, a prestigious private institution in North Carolina, announced last year that it would not require the GRE for most of its graduate programs, extending a test-optional policy that began during the pandemic.

Calling the phenomenon the GRExit, the academic journal Science conducted a survey of 50 top-ranked graduate programs in 2019 and found that 44 percent of molecular biology Ph.D. programs had stopped requiring the scores.

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The decision is likely to place additional pressure on universities to limit or eliminate the use of standardized admissions exams as they move to more holistic admissions policies.