The Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS), Version 7, administered by the Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI), is a pre-entry examination used to assess the fundamental academic knowledge and skills of individuals applying to nursing school. The TEAS does not test on any specific area of nursing, but is more of an overall measure of general academic education.
The Test
There are 170 multiple choice questions on the TEAS which generally cover content learned in grades 10-12 in U.S. high schools. Only 150 of the items are scored and 20 are unscored pretest items. A test-taker is given four separate timed tests, totaling 209 minutes, covering the following subjects:
- Science (50 questions)
- This section tests an individual in such subjects as human anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry and scientific reasoning.
- Math (38 questions)
- The Math section consists of problems including numbers, fractions and decimals, percentages, measurements and data and algebraic equations.
- English (37 questions)
- This subcategory tests an individual's knowledge of grammar, punctuation, contextual words, sentence structure, and spelling.
- Reading (45 questions)
- The Reading section asks an individual questions regarding passage comprehension, paragraph comprehension and inferences/conclusions.
Since the TEAS is offered in computer format, results are received immediately upon completion of the test. Scores are sent to schools requested by the test-taker and used in school admission and placement decisions.
