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 in the actual HSRT-AD format and skill areas is the applicant's responsibility. 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. It measures five critical thinking skills: analysis, inference, evaluation, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning. The exam is approximately 33–35 questions and is typically timed at 50 minutes.
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 six skill areas tested on the HSRT
- Taking a baseline diagnostic to identify your weakest subscale
- Practicing argument analysis, inference, and logical reasoning with HSRT-format questions
- Completing full-length practice exams under realistic conditions
- Reviewing every wrong answer by skill area, not just overall score
StudyBuddy is the only dedicated HSRT prep platform, 1,000+ practice questions across 10 skill assessments, 64 interactive lessons, and 10 timed practice exams, all built for the specific format and skill areas that Minnesota North College tests.
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
