TEAS English Language Practice Test & Study Guide

English TEAS Test and Study Guide

The Test of Essential Academic Skills, or TEAS, exam was designed by the Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI). This exam was created to test students' knowledge and skills for the purpose of entering the field of health science. Many different schools use this exam as a requirement for admission to particular programs, such as nursing or allied health programs. This means that students must meet or exceed a school's set score on the TEAS to be admitted to their health science program. Therefore, most test takers are in or have graduated high school and are preparing for an undergraduate program.

The TEAS exam is designed to test students' basic academic skills in several subject areas. Students must complete sections in math, reading, science, and English and language usage. Each portion of the exam has its own number of questions and time requirement. The entire TEAS exam consists of 170 questions that must be completed in 209 minutes.

Specifically, the English TEAS test is intended to test students' knowledge and proficiency of the English language. It is important for students to complete adequate TEAS test English prep, such as using a TEAS test English practice test and study materials, to pass the exam as quickly as possible and gain admission to their program of choice. Below, we will examine details of the English TEAS test.

TEAS English Language Review

The TEAS English test is designed to test students' understanding of the English language and its usage. The exam is broken up into 3 different sections, as well as a section with some pretest questions. Students will answer questions pertaining to the areas of:

• Conventions of standard English
• Knowledge of language
• Vocabulary acquisition

As mentioned, students should take the appropriate amount of time to study in order to save time and be admitted to their program of choice as quickly as possible. The ATI suggests that students plan for at least 6 weeks of study time to properly prepare for all sections of the exam. Depending on a student's strengths and weaknesses, they may need to dedicate more or less study time to the English section. However, the English section is the smallest section of the TEAS exam, and therefore, students may not want to focus on the TEAS English test entirely.

To help them study for the English TEAS test, there are a wide range of available resources. For example, the ATI website offers a range of practice assessment packages for a fee. Students can complete TEAS English practice tests within these packages and online assessments. An English practice TEAS test will help students get an idea of the type of questions that are on the exam, as well as how they need to balance their time for the section. An English practice test TEAS can also help students monitor their study progress and see which content areas they need to continue studying.

What is a TEAS Test Passing Score?

There is not typically a set passing score for the TEAS exam. This is because each school sets its own qualifying score for admission. Therefore, students taking the TEAS exam should conduct research and know the admissions requirements for their school(s) of choice.

Although there is not a set passing score, students usually need to earn a minimum of 54% on each subject area of the TEAS exam. Each school also has its own retake policy that outlines how many TEAS exam attempts are allowed per year. Usually, this number is about 3 attempts per year. Some schools may also require students to wait at least 30 days after their initial test to retake the exam.

After taking their exam, students may receive their scores immediately or within 72 hours of testing. Typically, students who test online at an on-campus location can see their scores immediately. Those who test at a PSI National Testing Center may need to wait up to 3 days to get their scores.

Score reports for the TEAS show a total score, content area scores, and sub-content area scores. All of these scores range from 0 to 100%. The total and content area scores are equated. This means that scores are based on the percentage that students get correct but are adjusted for different editions of the exam. The sub-content area scores are not equated and are simply a percentage of questions that students answer correctly.

What English Questions Are On the TEAS Test?

As mentioned earlier, the English TEAS test will ask students about questions pertaining to the conventions of standard English, their knowledge of language, and their vocabulary acquisition. Within each category, students will need to answer certain types of questions. Each category has a specific number of questions, which will be discussed in more detail below.

The conventions of standard English section will ask students about the structure and use of English. Specifically, students may answer questions about topics such as punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure.

The knowledge of language portion of the test covers topics related to writing and using the English language to communicate. For example, students may need to understand the difference between formal and informal writing and how to structure paragraphs. This section also goes into detail about grammar and the different parts of speech.

Finally, the vocabulary acquisition section focuses on a student's vocabulary. Not only will students need to know various vocabulary words and how to use them in context, but the test may also ask about using word parts to figure out what a word means.

To prepare for the exam, it is suggested that students study topics such as:

• Punctuation rules
• Grammar rules
• Spelling rules
• Prefixes
• Suffixes

How Many English Questions Are On the TEAS Test?

Although the entire TEAS exam consists of 170 questions, the English TEAS test only contains 28 questions. All of these questions are multiple-choice questions that require students to choose the best answer out of 4 possible options. It is suggested that students read through all of the answer options, eliminate those that are obviously wrong, narrow it down to one or two answers, and choose the most direct, best answer.

Test takers have a total of 28 minutes to complete the English TEAS test. This time allotment is continuous and is not broken up across the different sub-content areas. Out of the 28 total questions for the section, students will answer 9 questions about the conventions of standard English, 9 questions about the knowledge of language, and 6 questions about vocabulary acquisition. Students will also complete 4 pretest questions.

The other sections of the TEAS exam make up the other 142 questions to add up to 170 total questions. The Reading test has 53 questions that must be completed in 64 minutes. The Mathematics section has 36 questions that must be completed in 54 minutes. Finally, the Science test has 53 questions that must be completed in 63 minutes. All TEAS sections must be completed in 209 minutes.

Sections of the English TEAS Test

As discussed, each section of the English TEAS test has a set number of questions. These questions are designed to test students' knowledge in various areas of English. Therefore, each section will have its own types of questions.

The 9 questions in the conventions of standard English section are intended to test skills with punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. On specific questions, students may need to choose sentences with correct punctuation, figure out if sentences are simple or compound, find words that are misspelled, identify words that need to be capitalized, and label parts of speech.

The 9 knowledge of language questions examine students' writing skills and ability to use English. Questions in this category may test students' ability to find sentences that best express a particular idea and identify sentences that are written correctly (ie subject/verb agreement and noun/pronoun agreement). This section may also have test takers identify different parts of an organized paragraph, such as choosing the best topic sentence for a paragraph or determining the order of different sentences.

The 6 questions in the vocabulary section of the test will ask students about the meaning of different words. Test takers may need to identify synonyms for words or choose the correct definition of a given term.

Expert Contributor

Christina Flores

Christina Flores, BSN has 4 years of experience in nursing. She has worked as both an RN and as a Prenatal Care Coordinator. To earn her certification, Christina passed the NCLEX and TEAS exams. Christina obtained her BSN from Valparaiso University.