TEAS 7 English practice test

English and Language Usage gives you 37 questions and 37 minutes, 33 of those questions scored. One minute each is the quickest pace anywhere on the exam, and it sets the character of the section. The content is a short list of rules you either apply without thinking or you don't, so the marks that go missing here are usually taken by the clock rather than by the grammar.

What the English section is

Thirty-three scored items make English 22.0% of your total score. Four of the 37 are unscored pretest items, mixed in and unmarked, so treat every question as if it counts.

It is the shortest section on the exam and, on the standard form, the last — it arrives after about two and a half hours of testing. Sections are timed separately, so nothing saved earlier is available here. The other three sections are on the TEAS 7 blueprint page.

What is actually tested

Conventions of standard English — 12 scored items. Spelling and commonly confused words, homophones such as their / there / they're and affect / effect, capitalization, punctuation (commas in a series, after an introductory element, around an appositive and before a conjunction joining two independent clauses; semicolons and colons; apostrophes; quotation marks and dashes), fragments, run-ons and comma splices, subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement and case, verb tense consistency, and sentence types.

Knowledge of language — 11 scored items. Clarity and concision, formal against informal register and choosing the right one for an audience, transitions and connectors, topic sentences and paragraph organization, which sentence does not belong in a paragraph, the writing process, when a citation is needed, misplaced modifiers, parallel structure, and active against passive voice.

Using language and vocabulary — 10 scored items. Working out a word's meaning from context, prefixes, roots and suffixes with the medical ones prominent (cardi-, -itis, hypo-, -ectomy, brady-), parts of speech, connotation against denotation, precise word choice, figurative against literal language, and multiple-meaning words.

The rules that decide the most questions

Comma splices. Two complete sentences joined by nothing but a comma.

• Incorrect: The clinic opens at seven, the laboratory does not open until nine.
• Correct: The clinic opens at seven, but the laboratory does not open until nine.
• Correct: The clinic opens at seven; the laboratory does not open until nine.

Cover the comma and read each half alone. If both would stand as sentences, a comma cannot hold them, and the fix is a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus and, but, or, so, yet.

Subject-verb agreement across an intervening phrase. The verb agrees with the subject, not with the nearest noun.

• Incorrect: The box of gloves were left on the counter.
• Correct: The box of gloves was left on the counter.

The subject is box, and nothing inside the phrase of gloves can be the subject. Cross out everything between the subject and the verb and read what remains. This cuts both ways, so do not overcorrect: in the results of the study were published, the subject is results and the plural verb is right.

Apostrophes: possession against contraction. An apostrophe marks a missing letter or ownership, and its is the exception.

• Incorrect: The unit changed it's visiting hours.
• Correct: The unit changed its visiting hours. — It's the second change this year.

It's always expands to it is or it has. If the expansion does not read, the word is its. The other half of the pattern is placement: the nurse's station is one nurse, the nurses' station is several.

Why the points go to pace, not knowledge

Sixty seconds a question gives you a simple check: the clock and the question number should stay level. At 12 minutes you should be finishing question 12; at 24 minutes, question 24. On question 9 at the 12-minute mark you are three down, and it does not come back on its own.

The section funds itself unevenly. A homophone or an apostrophe question is a 10 to 20 second answer; a paragraph you have to reorganize can take 90. The fast items pay for the slow ones only if you take them fast, and the usual way to lose a minute here is reading a four-sentence paragraph three times hoping it resolves. It does not.

Two habits protect the pace. Decide by the rule rather than by ear, because "sounds right" fails on exactly the items that are tested. And when you have read the options twice with no progress, take the shorter, more direct version and move — in Knowledge of language the wordy option is wrong more often than right.

How to prepare for this section

Conventions responds fast to drilling. Twelve scored items are governed by about a dozen rules, they do not change, and a few focused hours usually converts most of them. If you are short of time and looking for points, this is where the hour goes.

The other two sub-areas are slower. Vocabulary is partly a memorization list, and the medical prefixes and roots are worth learning once because they pay off in Science too; the medical terminology quiz tests them both ways round. Knowledge of language is judgment rather than rule, so it improves through volume and through reading the explanation on every miss.

Whatever you drill, drill it against a clock at 60 seconds a question. Untimed practice trains the half of this section that was never the problem. The free 30-question diagnostic reports by sub-area, so it will tell you whether your English losses sit in conventions, in language or in vocabulary. The free study guide carries the same weights.

Common questions

Is the TEAS English section hard?

English and Language Usage is the shortest section and the fastest: 37 questions in 37 minutes, one minute each, with 33 of them scored. The content is a short list of rules — punctuation, agreement, word choice, paragraph organization, word parts — which is why people who apply the rules find it straightforward and people who decide by ear find it unpredictable. The usual reason for a low score here is the pace rather than the grammar, because 60 seconds a question is the tightest budget on the exam.

Do you have to write an essay on the TEAS?

No. The TEAS 7 is 170 questions across 209 minutes in four separately timed sections, and none of that time is set aside for writing. The sub-area named "using language and vocabulary to express ideas in writing" is 10 scored questions about writing choices — word choice, register, clarity — not a piece of writing you produce. If your program has told you to expect a written component, that is its own admissions requirement rather than part of the exam, and its admissions office can confirm which it means.

Are all four TEAS sections worth the same?

No. Of the 150 scored questions, Science carries 44, Reading 39, Mathematics 34 and English and Language Usage 33, so Science is worth about a third more than English. The time is distributed differently again: English gets 37 minutes for 37 questions while Mathematics gets 57 minutes for 38. Your total score is the percentage across all 150 questions, so one question is worth the same wherever it sits — about 0.67 points — but a longer section can move your total further.

What is a good score on the TEAS English section?

There is no national passing score, and a program's published requirement is normally a total score rather than an English minimum. Typical totals are 55 to 65 for LPN and PN programs, 60 to 70 for ADN, 70 to 80 for BSN and 80 to 90 or higher for selective BSN programs, against a national average in the 60 to 70 range. English is 33 of the 150 scored questions, so it can move your total by at most 22 points. The number that applies to you is on your program's admissions page.

What happens if you run out of time on the TEAS English section?

The section closes at 37 minutes with whatever you have answered, and because the four sections are timed separately there is nothing to borrow from and nothing carried over. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so a blank costs you exactly what a wrong answer costs and gains you nothing. Running out of time here is usually decided at the halfway mark: at 18 minutes you want to be at about question 18, and if you are several behind, the recovery is taking the quick items quickly rather than rescuing the slow one in front of you.