HESI A2 Reading Comprehension Study Guide

Main idea and supporting details

The main idea is the single point the author is making. Supporting details are the sentences that back it up. A detail can be perfectly true and still be the wrong answer to a main-idea question, which is the trap most candidates fall into at least once.

If a choice is true but covers only one paragraph of a longer passage, it is a detail rather than the main idea.

Inference and interpretation

An inference is what must follow from the passage without being stated in it. The correct answer is always supported by the text; it is just not spelled out. Anything that requires outside knowledge or an assumption the passage does not license is wrong by definition.

Ask what sentence you could point to that makes the answer necessary. If you cannot point to one, it is not an inference.

Author's purpose and tone

Purpose is why the passage was written: to inform, persuade, describe or instruct. Tone is the attitude the writing carries towards its subject. Both are signalled by word choice more than by content, so the adjectives and verbs matter more than the facts.

A passage that presents both sides evenly is almost always informing rather than persuading, whatever the topic.

Text structure

How a passage is organised: sequence, cause and effect, comparison, problem and solution, or description. Recognising the structure tells you where the answer to a question is likely to sit before you start rereading.

Signal words give the structure away. "First" and "then" mean sequence; "however" and "whereas" mean comparison; "because" and "therefore" mean cause and effect.

Drawing conclusions

Combining several stated facts into a judgement the passage supports but does not make. Close to inference, but it usually needs more than one piece of evidence rather than a single sentence.

Check your conclusion against every relevant sentence, not just the one that suggested it. One contradicting line rules it out.

Comparing and contrasting

Identifying how two things in a passage are alike and how they differ. Questions often ask for a difference in a passage that spends most of its length on similarities, or the reverse, so read for the one the question actually wants.

Sketch two quick columns for the two subjects as you read. It is faster than rereading, and it makes the answer obvious.

Vocabulary in context

Working out what a word means from the sentence around it. The tested word usually has a common meaning that is not the one being used, and the common meaning is offered as a distractor.

Cover the word, read the sentence, and decide what would fill the gap. Then pick the closest choice.

Contextual understanding

Reading a statement in light of the passage as a whole rather than in isolation. A sentence can mean something quite different depending on what came before it, and questions are built around exactly that gap.

When a question quotes a line, read the sentence before it and the sentence after it before answering.

Making predictions

Judging what would most likely happen next, or what the author would say about a situation the passage does not cover. The answer has to follow from the passage rather than from what seems reasonable in general.

Reject any prediction that requires information the passage never supplied, however plausible it sounds.

Synthesis and analysis

Pulling information from different parts of a passage, or from a passage and a chart, into one answer. These questions take longer because the evidence is deliberately split up.

Note the paragraph each piece of evidence came from. If your answer rests on only one, you have probably missed half the question.

Critical thinking

Judging the quality of what you are reading: whether a claim is supported, whether evidence is relevant, and whether a statement is fact or opinion. Distinguishing fact from opinion is the version of this that appears most often.

A fact can be checked against the world. An opinion carries a judgement word: best, should, unfortunately, too much.

Point of view

Who is speaking and what position they hold. First person carries a personal stake; third person is usually detached. A passage can also report someone else's point of view without sharing it, which questions frequently test.

Separate what the author thinks from what the author is reporting that others think. They are often opposites.

Theme and symbolism

Theme is the broader idea a passage is really about, beneath its subject. Symbolism is one thing standing for another. Both show up in the more literary passages the A2 sometimes uses.

A theme is a statement about life, not a topic. "Loss" is a topic; "grief changes what people notice" is a theme.

Literary devices

Metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole and irony. You need to recognise them and say what effect they have, rather than only name them, since questions ask why a device was used.

A simile uses "like" or "as"; a metaphor states the comparison directly. That one distinction covers most device questions.

Character analysis

Working out what someone in a passage is like from what they do, say and notice, rather than from a description. The evidence is usually behavioural, and the correct answer is the trait the behaviour demonstrates.

Pick the trait you could defend with a specific action from the passage. Discard any you could only defend with an impression.

Ethical considerations

Recognising the values at stake in a passage, particularly in healthcare contexts: autonomy, honesty, fairness, confidentiality. You are reading for what the passage treats as important rather than deciding what you think is right.

Answer from the passage's own framework. Your view of the ethics is not what is being assessed.