October 2026 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide 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. Read the full guide