How Minnesota North College uses the HSRT in admissions
Minnesota North College requires Practical Nursing Diploma applicants to complete the HSRT as part of the application, with registration and payment handled in the program portal. The pre-program planner recommends scheduling the exam in January when possible. No minimum score is published on the planner.
No published minimum. Because the HSRT is a required application item, complete it early and aim high — ask the program what scores recent admitted students had.
Retake policy
Contact the Minnesota North College nursing program for the current HSRT retake policy.
About the Minnesota North College nursing program
Minnesota North College was formed by consolidating several northern Minnesota colleges, and its Practical Nursing Diploma lists the HSRT as a required application item (pre-program planner revised December 2025). The planner advises scheduling the exam in January when possible and points to the program portal for registration and payment. Because Minnesota North does not publish HSRT-format practice on the planner, preparing for the reasoning skills the HSRT measures is the applicant's responsibility, and applicants should confirm with the program which HSRT form they will sit. Confirmed in the official Practical Nursing pre-program planner.
About the HSRT exam
The Health Sciences Reasoning Test is developed by Insight Assessment. Unlike the TEAS or HESI, it does not test science, math, or vocabulary. The Standard HSRT reports an overall score plus eight critical thinking skills: analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, induction, deduction, and numeracy. The HSRT-AD form reports six of those skills (it does not report interpretation or explanation separately). Programs choose which HSRT form they administer. The Standard HSRT is 38 questions in 55 minutes, and the HSRT-AD is 35 questions in 50 minutes. Confirm with Minnesota North College admissions which form and time limit you will sit.
Minnesota nursing programs adopted the HSRT after the MANE consortium dissolved, shifting toward holistic admissions models that emphasize critical thinking ability over content knowledge. Research in nursing education suggests that reasoning ability, more than prerequisite GPA, predicts clinical performance and NCLEX success.
How to prepare for the HSRT at Minnesota North College
Because there is no content to memorize, HSRT preparation looks different from TEAS or HESI prep. Effective preparation involves:
- Understanding the skill areas the HSRT reports (eight on the Standard HSRT, six on the HSRT-AD)
- Taking a baseline diagnostic to identify your weakest subscale
- Practicing argument analysis, inference, and logical reasoning with original HSRT-style practice questions
- Completing full-length practice exams under realistic conditions
- Reviewing every wrong answer by skill area, not just overall score
StudyBuddy is a dedicated HSRT prep platform: 1,331 questions across eight skill modules (one per reported skill) and a mixed-reasoning module, 70 interactive lessons, and 10 timed mock exams in the Standard HSRT format (38 questions, 55 minutes). It is designed to build the reasoning skills publicly described for the HSRT. Our questions are original practice material and do not reproduce the proprietary exam. If Minnesota North College uses the HSRT-AD, the same course applies, and the pace per question is about the same (about 86 to 87 seconds).
Registration at Minnesota North College
Registration for the HSRT is coordinated through Minnesota North College's admissions office. You will receive a direct link and access code to the Insight Assessment online testing platform. Do not attempt to register independently, the test requires a program-issued access code.
Contact: minnesotanorth.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Pre-Program-Planner-Practical-Nursing.pdf
