There is no national passing score for the TEAS or the HESI A2. ATI says so directly: there is no universal passing score, because each nursing or allied health program sets its own minimum. The same pattern holds for the HESI A2 — every published cutoff we could verify came from an individual college, not from the test maker. So the honest answer to "what score do I need" is: whatever the specific programs on your list say they need, in writing, this cycle.
The number that decides your application is not printed on your score report — it is printed on your program's admissions page, and it is usually calculated differently than you expect.
That sounds like a dodge. It is not. Once you understand the three or four ways programs actually use these scores, you can read any admissions page in about five minutes and know exactly what you are aiming at. This article shows you how, using real published policies from named colleges, checked in July 2026.
Is there a cutoff, or is it competitive?
Both, usually — and they are two different bars. Most programs set a minimum score that makes you eligible to apply, then use your score again to rank you against everyone else who is also eligible. Clearing the first bar gets your application read. Clearing it by a wide margin is what gets you a seat.
Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina publishes both bars for its Nursing program, which makes it a clean example. Per its Health Sciences TEAS page, applicants must reach a minimum composite of 59 to be eligible to apply to clinical Nursing, and then earn ranking points on this ladder:
| Wake Tech Nursing — TEAS composite | What it means |
|---|---|
| 0%–58% | Not eligible to apply |
| 59%–70% | Eligible — 0 ranking points |
| 71%–80% | 6 ranking points |
| 81%–90% | 12 ranking points |
| 91%–100% | 20 ranking points |
Read that table the way an applicant should. A 60 and a 70 are worth identical points — zero — even though one looks much better. A 70 and a 71 are worth zero and six. The gaps between tiers are where your study hours pay, and they are not evenly spaced. This is dated, program-specific policy at one college; do not carry these numbers to any other school. Wake Tech also publishes different point ladders for its Radiography and Sonography programs, in the same building, using the same exam.
How do programs calculate the composite score?
Often by averaging your four section percentages themselves — which can produce a different number than the total on your ATI score report. Wake Tech states this explicitly: "The composite score is not the total score that is printed on the score report." Its composite is the average of your Reading, Math, Science, and English and Language Usage scores.
Why the difference? ATI's Total and Content Area scores are equated — adjusted for how hard your particular exam form was, so scores compare fairly across versions. ATI also states that content area scores cannot be used to calculate the total score. So when a program averages your four section scores, it is building a new number by its own rule. Both numbers are legitimate. Only one of them is the one your program uses.
Two practical consequences:
- Do not assume the big number on your report is your application number. Recalculate it your program's way before you decide whether to retake.
- If your program averages sections, a single weak section drags the whole thing. Under an averaging rule, moving Science from 62 to 78 lifts the composite by four points on its own — often a full ranking tier.
Composite minimums vs per-section minimums
Some programs never look at a composite at all. They set floors on individual subtests, and missing any one of them ends the application regardless of how strong the rest are.
Mesa Community College in Arizona is a clear published example on the HESI A2 side. Per its nursing department's HESI page, the current minimum requirements for admission to the Nursing program are 75% on Math and an 80% composite (average) across Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and General Knowledge, and Grammar. Its page also notes that the science modules — Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and Physics — are not administered or used for admission to that program.
That last detail is the kind of thing that saves weeks. A student who studies HESI anatomy and physiology for a month because "everyone says A&P is the hard part" has just spent that month on content that program will not score. Which subtests your school requires is the first question to answer on the HESI A2 — we cover the full eight-subtest map in HESI A2 sections explained.
Three real programs, three different rulebooks
Here is the same category of decision — "how do we use entrance-exam scores" — answered three different ways by three public colleges. All three were checked in July 2026. Treat them as illustrations of how much policy varies, not as targets.
| Wake Tech (NC) — Nursing | Valencia College (FL) — Health Sciences | Mesa CC (AZ) — Nursing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam | ATI TEAS | ATI TEAS | HESI A2 |
| Bar published | Composite 59 to be eligible, then points by tier | Testing office publishes none — the Health Sciences department sets minimums | Math 75%; English composite 80% |
| How it's computed | Average of the four section scores, not the report total | Set by program | Math alone; English composite averages three subtests |
| Multiple attempts | Highest score in each area is used | Set by program | Only the most recent exam is accepted |
| Wait between attempts | Minimum 30 days | Minimum 30 days | Once every 60 days |
| Attempt cap | 2 per calendar year | 3 per 12 months, including tests taken elsewhere | 3 per 12 months |
| Score validity | 3 years before the application deadline | 2 years at the application deadline | 2 years |
Look at the "multiple attempts" row. At Wake Tech, your best score in each area counts, so a second attempt can only help you — retake Science, keep your strong Reading. At Mesa, only your most recent exam is accepted, so a retake that goes badly replaces a passing score. Identical exams, opposite strategies. That single line is worth more to your planning than any generic "good TEAS score" article on the internet.
How do entrance-exam scores combine with GPA?
In most competitive programs, your exam score is one weighted input in a points formula that also includes prerequisite GPA, sometimes overall GPA, and sometimes extras like residency, prior healthcare credentials, or completed corequisites. The exam is rarely the whole decision and rarely nothing.
What that means in practice:
- Find the formula, not just the minimum. If a program awards up to 20 points for the entrance exam and up to 40 for prerequisite GPA, you now know where an extra month of effort returns more.
- Your exam score is the input you can still change. Prerequisite grades from two years ago are fixed. A retake window is not.
- Tiers beat decimals. When points come in bands, going from 79 to 82 can be worth as much as a full letter-grade change elsewhere — and going from 82 to 84 can be worth nothing.
- Ties get broken by something. Many programs publish their tiebreakers. It is worth knowing whether yours is a section score, an application date, or a residency rule.
The rules that quietly decide outcomes: retakes, caps, and expiration
Answer this before you book your first test date, not after a disappointing score: how long must I wait to retake, how many attempts do I get, which attempt counts, and when do my scores expire relative to the deadline?
The three colleges above show the range: 30-day or 60-day waits, two or three attempts per year, best-per-section or most-recent-only, and two-year or three-year validity. ATI adds its own layer — its FAQ notes a 14-day retake policy for exams taken through ATI itself, while Valencia counts attempts taken at other institutions or through ATI remote proctoring against your limit there. Your school's rule and the test maker's rule can both apply, and the stricter one wins.
Turn that into a schedule:
- Write down your application deadline first. Everything counts backwards from it.
- Subtract the retake waiting period, plus score-reporting time. That is the real last date for your first attempt.
- Book your first attempt with room for one retake — deliberately, not hopefully.
- Check whether scores you already have will still be valid on the deadline date. A two-year window closes faster than it sounds.
- If only your most recent score counts, do not sit a casual "practice" attempt. Treat every real administration as the one.
How do I find my own program's actual requirements?
Go to the source, in this order, and write it down in one place:
- The program's admissions or selective-admission page, not the college's general testing page. As Valencia's testing office states plainly, the assessment department does not set minimum scores for Health Sciences programs — the department does. Testing pages tell you how to sit the exam; program pages tell you what it has to say.
- The current application packet or information sheet, usually a dated PDF. Check the cycle year on it.
- The points or ranking rubric, if published. This is where cutoffs turn into strategy.
- An email to the health sciences advisor for anything ambiguous — especially which attempt counts and whether an older score is still valid. Keep the reply.
Then build one table for yourself: program, exam, required sections, eligibility minimum, ranking bands, how the composite is computed, which attempt counts, wait period, attempt cap, score validity, deadline. It takes an hour and it replaces months of guessing. If your list mixes exams, our TEAS vs HESI A2 comparison covers how to sequence both without studying twice.
Why we give you a score range instead of a number
Because a single predicted number cannot tell you whether you are safely inside a ranking tier or one bad morning away from falling out of it — and that is the only question that matters when you are targeting a specific program.
Test scores carry measurement error. The same student, equally prepared, does not produce an identical score on two different days or two different forms; that is precisely why ATI equates its scores across forms in the first place. So a practice platform that tells you "you'll score an 82" is claiming a precision that does not exist. A range tells you something true and useful: if your range sits at 78–86 and your target program awards points starting at 81, you are not safe yet. If it sits at 84–91 against the same bar, you are.
Use the range against your program's real bands, not against a number from a forum. Then keep studying until the bottom of your range clears the tier you need — that is what a genuine margin looks like, and it is the whole reason we report ranges rather than promises.
One last thing worth saying out loud: policies change between cycles, sometimes quietly. Every number in this article is a dated example from a named public page, not a rule about your school. Verify yours, in writing, for the cycle you are applying to.