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HESI A2 · Biology section

HESI A2 Biology Practice Test: Molecules, Cells, Genetics, DNA and Classification

Practice set 1 has 20 HESI A2 biology questions on biological molecules, cell structure, cellular respiration and photosynthesis, mitosis and meiosis, genetics, DNA and protein synthesis, the classification of living things, and enzymes, on an exam-style screen. Check each answer to see the explanation and a note on every option; a one-table biology study guide follows further down. Schools publish the section's details (Texas State Technical College lists 25 biology items plus 5 pilot items). These questions are free, with no sign-up.

Practice sets

HESI A2 biology practice sets

Three sets of biology questions. Each opens on an exam-style test screen, one question at a time: answer, select Check answer, and see the correct answer, the explanation and a note on every option before you go on. Untimed, and your progress is saved in this browser.

Set 01Free

20 questions

Biological molecules and enzymes; cells and how they get energy; cell division, genetics and DNA; classification of living thingsNot started
Set 02Free

20 questions

Biological molecules and enzymes; cells and how they get energy; cell division, genetics and DNA; classification of living thingsNot started
Set 03Free

20 questions

Biological molecules and enzymes; cells and how they get energy; cell division, genetics and DNA; classification of living thingsNot started

Set 1 spreads its 20 questions over eight topics; the topic cards below show how many fall in each group. The biology section of Practice Exam 1 suggests about 60 seconds a question; your school or testing site sets the real timing (Texas State Technical College's library guide suggests 25 minutes for 25 biology items plus 5 pilot items). When the sets feel easy, take the full-length HESI A2 Practice Exam 1, with each section on its own clock.

Sample HESI A2 biology questionFrom practice set 1, with the answer and a note on every option

Which bond joins adjacent amino acids in a polypeptide?

Answer: A peptide bond

Peptide bonds link amino acids along a protein backbone. Phosphodiester bonds instead link nucleotides in DNA and RNA.

Why each option is right or wrong

A hydrogen bond: This confuses a folding interaction with the covalent backbone linkage.

An ionic bond: This confuses side-chain attraction with the bond linking adjacent amino acids.

A peptide bond: Correct. A peptide bond connects the amino group of one amino acid to the carboxyl group of another.

A phosphodiester bond: This assigns a nucleic-acid backbone bond to a protein.

Biological molecules and enzymes · Biological molecules

Content

What the HESI A2 biology section covers

Schools describe the A2 biology section on their own pages. The practice sets here draw on the topics below, in four groups that run from molecules to whole organisms.

Questions
25
In Practice Exam 1 here; two schools list 25 plus 5 pilot items
Suggested time
25 min
Your school or testing site sets the limit
Per question
60 s
At the suggested time
Calculator
None
In this section of the practice exam
Set 1 here: 5 of 20 questions

Biological molecules and enzymes

The chemistry the rest of the section rests on: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, the small units each is built from and what each does; then enzymes, the proteins that speed up reactions, and what heat or the wrong pH does to them. Some questions here describe a molecule and ask which one it is; others ask how an enzyme works or what changes its activity.

  • Biological molecules
  • Metabolism and enzymes
Set 1 here: 6 of 20 questions

Cells and how they get energy

The parts of a cell and their jobs, from the nucleus and ribosomes to the Golgi apparatus and mitochondria; how plant, animal and bacterial cells differ; how substances cross the membrane; then where each stage of cellular respiration happens, what fermentation yields without oxygen, and how photosynthesis stores the energy that respiration releases.

  • Cell structure and function
  • Cellular respiration and photosynthesis
Set 1 here: 7 of 20 questions

Cell division, genetics and DNA

Mitosis and meiosis compared by the cells and chromosomes they produce; dominant and recessive alleles worked through Punnett squares, with codominance, incomplete dominance and X-linked traits; and the path from DNA to RNA to protein, including how to read codons and what a mutation does to the protein.

  • Mitosis and meiosis
  • Genetics and heredity
  • DNA and protein synthesis
Set 1 here: 2 of 20 questions

Classification of living things

How living things are grouped: the three domains, the kingdoms of eukaryotes, the ranks from kingdom to species and two-word species names, what makes two populations one species, and why viruses are not classified as living things. Questions here often give an organism's traits and ask where it belongs.

  • Classification of living things

What schools say about the biology section

HESI A2 biology: published facts
SourceWhat its page says
Texas State Technical College (Library Guides)Its HESI A2 study guide puts biology in a science part with chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and physics: 25 biology items plus 5 pilot items, with 25 minutes suggested. Its biology list covers natural selection and adaptation, biological classification, the parts of a cell and the jobs of its organelles, cell differentiation, mitosis compared with meiosis, photosynthesis compared with respiration, DNA and RNA, mutations (only those in germ cells change offspring), genes and chromosomes, phenotype compared with genotype, and Mendel's laws with the Punnett square.
Quincy College (Academic Division of Nursing)Its guide (updated December 2024) lists biology with anatomy and physiology in a science part: 30 biology items, 25 scored and 5 pilot, with 25 minutes. It describes the section as biology basics, water, biological molecules, metabolism, cells, cellular respiration and photosynthesis.
Central New Mexico Community CollegeLists biology among its six sections (grammar, reading comprehension, vocabulary and general knowledge, biology, chemistry and math), without a question count. It provides no periodic table or conversion table, and applicants to its nursing program need 75% on every sub-test and a 75% composite.
Tarrant County CollegeDoes not offer biology or chemistry. Its five sections are reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and math (55 questions each) and anatomy and physiology (30).
Germanna Community College (Academic Center for Excellence)Its guide (updated January 2023) lists six sections: reading comprehension, vocabulary, math, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, and critical thinking. Biology is not among them.

Sources: Texas State Technical College Library Guides, Study Guide: HESI A2; Quincy College Academic Division of Nursing, Preparing for the HESI A2 Admission Exam (PDF, updated December 2024); Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Tarrant County College, HESI A2 Exam Information; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023)

Question formats

How HESI A2 biology questions work

Each question here is right or wrong, with no partial credit. In Practice Exam 1 you can flag a question, see which are still blank and go back to any question in the section until you end it. Testing sites differ here: Germanna Community College's guide says its students cannot skip a question or go back to one they have already answered.

Biology question formats
FormatHow you answerIn set 1 here
Multiple choiceChoose the one correct option of four20 of 20

Every question in set 1 here is multiple choice with four options. Across the biology sets here, most ask you to name a molecule, a cell part or a process, or to pick the statement that describes one correctly; others set out a short situation, such as a cell whose vesicles from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus are blocked or an enzyme moved far from its usual pH, and ask what follows. A few give a cross to work out with a Punnett square, or a short DNA or RNA sequence to transcribe or translate.

Nothing to look up on test day

Central New Mexico Community College, which tests biology, allows no outside materials and provides no periodic table or conversion table, though it hands out a calculator, pencils and paper; Texas State Technical College's library guide mentions its basic on-screen calculator only for mathematics. Check your own testing site's rules. The biology section of Practice Exam 1 here has no calculator, and the few questions in the sets here that need arithmetic, such as a Punnett square ratio or a chromosome count after meiosis, can be worked on scratch paper.

Sources: Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Texas State Technical College Library Guides, Study Guide: HESI A2; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023)

Method

How to prepare for HESI A2 biology

What to study first and how to pace the section, for biology in particular.

  1. 01Learn the four kinds of molecule as a tableFor carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, write the unit each is built from, an example and its job: glucose and starch or glycogen, fatty acids and triglycerides, amino acids joined by peptide bonds, nucleotides in DNA and RNA. Questions often turn on one detail of this table, such as the sugar in RNA, the bond that joins amino acids or how animals store glucose.
  2. 02Pair every organelle with its jobLearn each part of the cell in one line, then follow a protein made for export: a ribosome on the rough endoplasmic reticulum builds it, a vesicle carries it to the Golgi apparatus, which packages it, and the cell releases it by exocytosis. A question that blocks one step, or asks which part a cell would need more of, is quick once you can walk this route.
  3. 03Know where each stage of respiration happensGlycolysis in the cytosol, without oxygen; the Krebs cycle in the mitochondrial matrix; electron transport on the inner mitochondrial membrane, where oxygen takes the spent electrons and most of the ATP is made. Without oxygen only glycolysis runs, so fermentation makes far less ATP. Then set photosynthesis beside it: light reactions in the thylakoids split water and release oxygen, and the Calvin cycle in the stroma builds sugar from carbon dioxide.
  4. 04Draw the chromosomes through mitosis and meiosisSketch a cell with two pairs of chromosomes and follow it through each division. Mitosis ends with two cells identical to the parent; meiosis ends with four cells holding half the chromosomes. Questions often turn on telling sister chromatids (copies of one chromosome) from homologous chromosomes (one from each parent), or on counting chromosomes after a division.
  5. 05Work every cross with a Punnett squareWrite each parent's possible gametes along the sides, fill in the boxes and read the ratios: Tt × tt gives half Tt and half tt, and Tt × Tt gives three dominant phenotypes to one recessive. For codominance both traits show, for incomplete dominance the offspring is in between, and for an X-linked trait remember that a father passes his X to every daughter and his Y to every son.
  6. 06Transcribe and translate on papermRNA matches the DNA coding (sense) strand, with U in place of T; read it three bases at a time from the start codon AUG to a stop codon, using the codon table the question gives. Then practice mutations: a substitution changes one base, while an insertion or deletion of one or two bases shifts every codon after it.
  7. 07Pace at about 60 seconds a questionPractice Exam 1 here suggests 25 minutes for 25 biology questions; your school or testing site sets the real timing (Texas State Technical College's library guide suggests 25 minutes for 25 biology items plus 5 pilot items). Recall questions take seconds, so save time for the crosses and sequences, and make your best choice on a term you do not know rather than stall.
HESI A2 anatomy and physiology practice test, with a table of the body systemsApplying to TEAS schools too? TEAS science practice test, where biology is one of four areas

Study guide

HESI A2 biology study guide: the key facts in one table

A summary written for this page, not a list of what the test asks: the molecules, cell parts, processes and rules behind the topics schools list for the section and the topics in the practice sets here, checked against the National Human Genome Research Institute's glossary, MedlinePlus Genetics, the National Cancer Institute's SEER Training Modules and the LibreTexts pages named under the table.

HESI A2 biology study guide
TopicWhat to know
CarbohydratesContain only carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and are built from simple sugars (monosaccharides) such as glucose and fructose. Two monosaccharides bonded together make a disaccharide, such as sucrose (table sugar: glucose and fructose); chains of a few to thousands of simple sugars make polysaccharides. Plants store energy as starch and animals as glycogen (in the liver, for example); plants build their cell walls from cellulose, and some animals build an exoskeleton from chitin
LipidsFats and oils, which store energy: a gram of lipid supplies more than twice the energy of a gram of carbohydrate or protein. A triglyceride is glycerol joined to three fatty acids; saturated fatty acids have straight chains and are solid at room temperature, unsaturated ones have bent chains and are liquid. Phospholipids are the main part of cell membranes: in the bilayer the water-loving (hydrophilic) heads point outward and the water-hating (hydrophobic) tails face the interior. Steroids serve as chemical messengers
ProteinsChains of amino acids (20 kinds are common in living things) linked by peptide bonds into polypeptides. The order and properties of the amino acids set the protein's shape, and the shape sets its job: enzymes, structural proteins, transport proteins such as hemoglobin, signals and receptors, and antibodies
Nucleic acidsDNA and RNA are chains of nucleotides, each a sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogen-containing base. DNA has the sugar deoxyribose and the bases A, C, G and T, in two strands wound into a double helix and held together by hydrogen bonds between base pairs: A with T, C with G. RNA has the sugar ribose, uses uracil (U) in place of thymine and is most often single-stranded
WaterListed by Quincy College; the practice sets here do not test it. In a water molecule the oxygen atom has a slightly negative charge and the hydrogen atoms slightly positive ones, so water is polar and neighboring molecules form hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds make water molecules stick together, give water a relatively high boiling point (100 °C) and make ice less dense than liquid water, so ice floats. Water can dissolve many substances that organisms need
Metabolism and enzymesMetabolism is the sum of an organism's biochemical reactions: catabolic reactions break molecules down and release energy (glucose in cellular respiration), anabolic reactions build bigger molecules (amino acids into a protein). Enzymes, almost always proteins, are biological catalysts: they lower the activation energy a reaction needs, bind their substrate at the active site, are specific to one or a few reactions, and are not used up. Their activity depends on temperature and pH: pepsin works best in the stomach at a pH of about 1.5 and trypsin in the small intestine at about 8, and at high temperatures an enzyme's shape deteriorates
Kinds of cellsProkaryotes (bacteria and archaea) have no nucleus and no membrane-bound organelles; eukaryotes have both. Plant cells have three things animal cells lack: a cell wall, a large central vacuole and plastids such as chloroplasts. Plant cell walls are cellulose, bacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan, and fungal cell walls are chitin
OrganellesNucleus: holds the cell's DNA; nuclear pores regulate the exchange of materials such as RNA and proteins with the cytoplasm. Nucleolus: the site of ribosome formation. Ribosomes: make proteins, free in the cytoplasm or on the rough endoplasmic reticulum, whose proteins travel in transport vesicles to the Golgi apparatus; smooth ER, with no ribosomes, makes lipids among other jobs. Golgi apparatus: processes and packages proteins, especially those to be exported. Lysosomes: sacs of digestive enzymes that break down worn-out cell parts and invaders. Mitochondria: make most of the cell's chemical energy, as ATP. Chloroplasts: photosynthesis. Central vacuole: stores water; when it is full, the plant cell is turgid
Crossing the membraneThe membrane is selectively permeable. Diffusion: particles move from higher to lower concentration. Osmosis: water diffuses through a selectively permeable membrane. Facilitated diffusion: molecules move down their concentration gradient through transport proteins, without the cell's energy. Active transport: substances move against the gradient, from lower to higher concentration, using energy, usually through a transport protein. Endocytosis brings material into the cell in vesicles (phagocytosis, or cellular eating, when the membrane engulfs solid material); exocytosis releases it
Cellular respirationGlucose and oxygen give carbon dioxide, water and energy stored in ATP. Glycolysis, in the cytosol and without oxygen, splits glucose into two pyruvate molecules, for a net gain of 2 ATP. With oxygen, the Krebs cycle runs in the mitochondrial matrix and electron transport on the inner membrane, where the spent electrons combine with oxygen to form water and most of the ATP is made: up to 36 ATP from one glucose. Without oxygen, cells use fermentation, which makes only the 2 ATP of glycolysis: human cells can carry out only lactic acid fermentation, while yeast carry out alcoholic fermentation
PhotosynthesisIn chloroplasts, light energy turns carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen: 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2. The light reactions, in the thylakoid membranes, use chlorophyll to capture light and split water, which releases oxygen, and make ATP and NADPH; the Calvin cycle, in the stroma, uses that ATP and NADPH to add carbon from carbon dioxide, and its final product is glucose
Cell cycle and mitosisA cell spends most of its time in interphase, growing and copying its chromosomes. Mitosis follows: prophase (chromosomes condense and the nuclear envelope breaks down), metaphase (chromosomes line up across the middle), anaphase (sister chromatids separate and move to opposite poles) and telophase (new nuclear envelopes form). Cytokinesis divides the cytoplasm: an animal cell pinches in two, while a plant cell builds a cell plate between the new nuclei. The two daughter cells have DNA identical to the parent's
MeiosisTwo rounds of division turn one diploid cell into four haploid gametes (eggs or sperm), halving the chromosome number, from 46 to 23 in humans, so that fertilization restores it. Homologous chromosomes, one from each parent, are separated into different cells; crossing over between them and the independent assortment of chromosomes give each gamete a new combination of alleles and chromosomes. A gain or loss of chromosomes from the normal 46 is called aneuploidy, and it can arise as eggs and sperm form
Genetics termsGene: the basic unit of inheritance; allele: one version of it, and a person inherits one allele from each parent. Genotype: the alleles present, written as BB, Bb or bb; phenotype: the observable trait. Homozygous: two identical alleles; heterozygous: two different ones. A dominant allele shows its trait with one copy; a recessive trait shows only when both alleles are recessive
Inheritance patternsA Punnett square sets one parent's gametes against the other's to give the expected offspring: Bb × Bb gives 1 BB : 2 Bb : 1 bb, so three of four offspring show the dominant trait (a 3:1 ratio). A parent with the dominant trait crossed with a bb parent is shown to be Bb when half the offspring show the recessive trait. Mendel's two laws: the two alleles of a gene separate into different gametes (segregation), and alleles for different genes assort independently (independent assortment). Incomplete dominance: the offspring is in between the two parents (red and white snapdragons give pink); codominance: both alleles are expressed, as in AB blood type. Polygenic traits such as height and skin color are influenced by two or more genes. Fathers pass their X chromosome to every daughter and their Y to every son, so they cannot pass an X-linked trait to a son
From DNA to proteinTranscription, in the nucleus, makes an mRNA copy of a gene; it begins where proteins such as RNA polymerase bind the gene's promoter. The mRNA moves to the cytoplasm, where a ribosome translates it: each codon of three bases codes for one amino acid, brought in by tRNA. AUG codes for methionine and is the start codon; reading continues codon by codon until a stop codon. There are 64 codons, 61 for amino acids and 3 stop signals, so most amino acids have more than one codon
MutationsA mutation is a change in the DNA sequence. Substitution: one nucleotide is replaced by another. Insertion and deletion: nucleotides are added or lost; when the number is not a multiple of three, the reading frame shifts (a frameshift) and every codon after it is read wrongly. Mutations in eggs and sperm (germline) can pass to offspring; mutations in body (somatic) cells cannot
ClassificationThe Linnaean taxa run from the kingdom, the largest and most inclusive, to the species, the smallest; closely related species are grouped in a genus. Each species has a two-word Latin name, genus then species: Homo sapiens. The domain, added above the kingdom, divides life into three: Bacteria and Archaea (single-celled prokaryotes) and Eukarya (protists, fungi, plants and animals). A species is a group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring together in nature
Groups of organismsMost protists can move, using flagella, cilia or pseudopods (temporary extensions of the cytoplasm). Fungi include molds, mushrooms and yeasts (single-celled fungi); most are multicellular. Vertebrates have a backbone (vertebral column) and an endoskeleton of bone or cartilage. Mammals are defined by mammary glands, which make milk, and hair or fur. Viruses are not cells and are not classified as living things: genetic material in a protein coat that can replicate only inside a host cell
Natural selectionListed by Texas State Technical College; the practice sets here do not test it. Living things with beneficial traits produce more offspring than others, and they pass their favorable variations on, so the traits of living things change over time. Darwin called an organism's relative ability to survive and produce fertile offspring its fitness

Sources for this table: LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.10: Carbohydrates; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.11: Lipids; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.5: Phospholipid Bilayers; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.12: Proteins; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Peptide; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Nucleotide; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Base Pair; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Ribonucleic Acid (RNA); NHGRI Talking Glossary: Antisense; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.19: Water and Life; LibreTexts Human Biology, 3.10: Chemical Reactions in Living Things; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.17: Enzymes; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 1.18: Enzyme Function; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Enzyme; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Cell; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.3: Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.11: Plant Cell Structures; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 7.3: Prokaryote Structure; MedlinePlus Genetics: What is a cell?; NCI SEER Training: Cell Structure; NCI SEER Training: Cell Function; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.8: Cell Nucleus; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.9: Ribosomes and Mitochondria; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.10: Other Cell Organelles; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Golgi Body; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Lysosome; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Mitochondria; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.1: Osmosis; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.13: Diffusion; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.14: Facilitated Diffusion; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.15: Active Transport; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.17: Exocytosis and Endocytosis; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.26: Cellular Respiration; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.27: Glycolysis; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.29: Electron Transport; LibreTexts Human Biology, 5.10: Fermentation; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.30: Fermentation; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.20: Chloroplasts; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.23: Photosynthesis Summary; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Cell Cycle; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Mitosis; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.35: Mitosis and Cytokinesis; LibreTexts Human Biology, 7.3: Mitotic Phase: Mitosis and Cytokinesis; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Meiosis; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.37: Meiosis; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Chromatid; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Crossing Over; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 2.39: Genetic Variation; MedlinePlus Genetics: Can changes in the number of chromosomes affect health and development?; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Gene; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Allele; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Genotype; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Phenotype; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Dominant Traits and Alleles; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Recessive Traits and Alleles; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 3.4: Mendel's Laws and Genetics; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 3.6: Punnett Squares; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 3.7: Non-Mendelian Inheritance; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Codominance; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Polygenic Trait; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 3.11: Mendelian Inheritance in Humans; MedlinePlus Genetics: What are the different ways a genetic condition can be inherited?; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Double Helix; MedlinePlus Genetics: How do genes direct the production of proteins?; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Promoter; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Codon; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 4.6: Genetic Code; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Mutation; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Substitution; NHGRI Talking Glossary: Frameshift Mutation; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 5.1: Linnaean Classification; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 5.22: Origin of Species; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 8.3: Protist Characteristics; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 8.8: Fungi; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 12.3: Vertebrate Characteristics; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 12.26: Mammal Characteristics; LibreTexts Introductory Biology (CK-12), 7.7: Virus Characteristics; LibreTexts Human Biology, 9.2: Darwin, Wallace and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

FAQ

HESI A2 biology: questions people ask

How many biology questions are on the HESI A2?
That depends on your school or testing site: Texas State Technical College's library guide lists 25 biology items plus 5 pilot items, with 25 minutes suggested, and Quincy College's guide gives 30 items, 25 of them scored and 5 pilot, in 25 minutes. The biology section of Practice Exam 1 here has 25 questions with a suggested 25 minutes, about 60 seconds a question; your school or testing site sets the real timing.
What biology is on the HESI A2?
Schools describe the section. Texas State Technical College's library guide lists topics including natural selection and adaptation, classification, cell parts and organelles, mitosis and meiosis, photosynthesis and respiration, DNA and RNA, mutations, genes and chromosomes, phenotype and genotype, and Mendel's laws with the Punnett square; Quincy College's guide names biology basics, water, biological molecules, metabolism, cells, cellular respiration and photosynthesis. The practice sets here cover biological molecules, cell structure and function, cellular respiration and photosynthesis, mitosis and meiosis, genetics and heredity, DNA and protein synthesis, classification of living things and metabolism and enzymes.
Is the HESI A2 biology section hard?
It covers a lot of ground: one section runs from the molecules in a cell to how living things are classified. In the sets here, many questions ask what follows from a change (an enzyme heated, vesicle transport blocked), and crosses and DNA sequences need working out, not just recall. If biology is new or rusty, spend most of your time on cells and their energy, cell division, genetics and DNA, which make up most of each practice set here. The score you need is the program's call; Central New Mexico Community College asks for 75% on each sub-test.
How do you study for HESI A2 biology?
Start with a summary of the whole subject, such as the study-guide table on this page, and learn it in pairs: each molecule with its building block, each organelle with its job, each stage of respiration with where it happens. Then practice the parts that need working: Punnett squares, chromosome counts in mitosis and meiosis, and turning a DNA sequence into mRNA and amino acids. Answer a practice set, read the note on every option you missed, and finish with the biology section of a full practice exam against its clock.
Do all schools require the HESI A2 biology section?
No. Programs pick the sections they need. Tarrant County College does not offer biology at all, and Germanna Community College's guide leaves it out of its six sections, while Central New Mexico Community College, Texas State Technical College and Quincy College all include it. Look up your own program's list first; Practice Exam 1 here lets you choose just those sections on its start screen.
What is a 70% on the HESI A2 biology section?
It depends on where you apply, because each program sets its own minimum, and some set one for each section, not only for the overall score. Central New Mexico Community College, which tests biology, asks for 75% on each sub-test, so a 70% in biology misses its bar even with a high composite. Where the minimum is lower, or biology is not counted, 70% may be enough. Each program's admissions page gives its figure; the HESI A2 practice test page has more on scores.
Is HESI A2 biology like TEAS science?
The content overlaps, but the exams are set up differently. The TEAS has no biology section of its own: its Science section has 50 questions in 60 minutes, and biology is one of its four areas, with 9 of its 44 scored questions beside anatomy and physiology, chemistry and scientific reasoning. On the HESI A2, biology is a section of its own with its own score at the schools that use it (Texas State Technical College and Quincy College both list 25 items plus 5 pilot items). Cells, genetics and DNA help on both exams; for the TEAS side, see the TEAS science practice test page.
Is there a free HESI A2 biology practice test?
Practice set 1 is free, with no sign-up. The biology section of HESI A2 Practice Exam 1 is free too: 25 questions you can take without the other sections, against a suggested 25-minute clock. For a book-length review, Quincy College's guide highly recommends Elsevier's Admission Assessment Exam Review.
Are these real HESI A2 biology questions?
No. Each one is an original practice question, built around the biology topics schools list for the section, and none comes from Elsevier's exams or books. NursePracticeTest is independent of Elsevier. Set 1 spreads its 20 questions over eight topics.

Keep practicing

Next practice exercise

HESI A2 Chemistry, practice set 1: 20 questions on the same screen. Take the sections your school requires first, then come back to the one you find hardest.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Elsevier. HESI® is a trademark of Elsevier and is used here only to name the exam. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Assessment Technologies Institute, LLC (ATI). ATI TEAS® and TEAS® are trademarks of ATI and are used here only to name the exam.

Pages this page relies on: Texas State Technical College Library Guides, Study Guide: HESI A2; Quincy College Academic Division of Nursing, Preparing for the HESI A2 Admission Exam (PDF, updated December 2024); Central New Mexico Community College, HESI A2 Exam; Tarrant County College, HESI A2 Exam Information; Germanna Community College, HESI A2 Nursing Entrance Exam Preparation Guide (PDF, updated January 2023); Western Technical College Library, Nursing: TEAS Prep Guide

Checked against the schools' pages and last reviewed November 4, 2026. Found an error? Tell us.