What Is a Good HESI A2 Score for Nursing School?

“Good” is relative to the programs that will read the report

Passing-score questions ask for the floor. This page asks whether a result is enough for the way those programs actually choose. If you do not yet have the floor, stop and read HESI A2 passing score.

How HESI A2 scores and the composite work

Each academic exam your program assigns gets its own score, and Elsevier’s faculty bands read those scores as percentages. The composite is the average of the exams you completed, according to Elsevier’s 2022 A2 paper. Two points follow from that:

• Your composite only covers your assigned exams. An applicant who sat five exams and one who sat all seven can have composites built from different tests.
• A composite can look strong while one exam sits below a program’s section rule.

Your report in Evolve shows the scores for your sitting. HESI A2 results explains where to find them and when they are released.

Elsevier’s faculty bands, used carefully

Elsevier’s 2022 paper quotes Faculty Scoring Guide language:

• 90–100%: excellent
• 80–89%: very good
• 75–79%: satisfactory for associate or baccalaureate healthcare programs
• 70–79%: satisfactory for many certificate programs
• Below satisfactory: remediation may be needed for program success

Use the bands as a readiness translation, not as “80 always gets in.” A program can set a higher published minimum, use the score as one ranking factor, or require section floors that a composite hides.

“Is 80 a good HESI score?” is therefore incomplete until you know whether 80 is a composite, a Math score, or an A&P score, and whether the school uses that number as a gate, a ranking input, or both. Once you know which number matters, plan review toward that gap in the Passy HESI A2 prep app →.

A practical decision framework

If you are below a confirmed published minimum
The score is not good enough for that application until a retake policy allows another attempt. See HESI A2 retake.

If you meet every confirmed minimum and the program is not competitive
Further testing may not change the decision. Confirm score age and whether they use the highest attempt.

If you meet the minimum at a program that ranks applicants
A higher score can still matter. Ask whether they publish average admitted scores or a points formula. Do not invent a nationwide “aim for 90” rule.

If two programs disagree
Keep a one-row-per-school table. Plan around the strictest confirmed rule that you still intend to use.

After the table exists, put extra practice on the exam that would move a ranking or section floor in the Passy HESI A2 prep app →.

Composite averages can hide a weak assigned exam

Elsevier’s composite averages completed exams. A strong Reading score can lift a composite while Math remains below a section rule. “Good overall, weak Math” is a common reason an application still stalls.

The HESI A2 study guide is the preparation response.

If a section is the problem, review that exam’s missed questions in the Passy HESI A2 prep app → instead of retesting the whole stack blindly.

Program cutoffs change every admissions cycle

A chart of “typical BSN cutoffs” is not Elsevier policy, so no national “good HESI score” list can stand in for a school’s rule. Individual schools publish their own numbers, and those numbers change from cycle to cycle. Read the admissions page for the term you are applying to. A short practice-set percentage is also not a competitiveness signal; it only tells you what to review next.

When the next sitting is justified, continue exam-style practice in the Passy HESI A2 prep app → on the assigned exams, not against a motivational score chart.