TEAS 7 Reading is 45 questions in 55 minutes, 39 of them scored, which makes it 26% of your total
score and the second-largest section on the exam. Every answer is in the text in front of you, so
what separates a 65 from an 80 here is almost never knowledge. It is pace, and it is knowing how
the wrong answers are built.
What the Reading section is
Fifty-five minutes across 45 questions is 73 seconds a question. Six of the 45 are unscored
pretest items, unmarked and impossible to identify, so treat all 45 as if they count.
| Sub-area |
Scored items |
Share of the whole exam |
| Key ideas and details |
15 |
10.0% |
| Craft and structure |
9 |
6.0% |
| Integration of knowledge and ideas |
15 |
10.0% |
| Reading total |
39 |
26.0% |
Sections are timed separately, so minutes saved in Reading are not minutes available in
Mathematics. The rest of the exam is broken down on the TEAS 7 blueprint page.
What is actually tested
Key ideas and details — 15 scored items. Main idea and theme, supporting details, summarizing,
drawing a logical inference, following a sequence of events or a set of multi-step directions,
telling what a text states from what it implies, and using a table of contents, index or headings
to locate information.
Craft and structure — 9 scored items. The author's purpose and point of view, tone and word
choice, what a word means in context, how a text is organized (compare and contrast, cause and
effect, problem and solution, sequence), fact against opinion, primary against secondary sources,
bias, and text features such as headings, bold type and footnotes.
Integration of knowledge and ideas — 15 scored items. Weighing an argument against the evidence
offered for it, comparing two texts on one topic, predicting an outcome, and judging whether a
source is reliable. It also covers every question that puts a document in front of you instead
of a paragraph: tables and charts, nutrition labels, medication labels, timetables and appointment
schedules, maps, floor plans and indexes. This surprises people. A real share of those 15 items are
read off a label or a schedule rather than out of prose.
The wrong answers that cost the most marks
Four patterns account for most of the marks lost here.
| Pattern |
What it looks like |
| Too extreme |
all, never, only, always, proves. A short passage rarely licenses an absolute, or an angry tone word |
| Right detail, wrong condition |
The correct number attached to the wrong group, year, place or treatment |
| Outside the passage |
True in the world, never stated in the text |
| Half right |
The first clause is accurate; the second adds something the text never said |
The second one catches careful readers. Say a passage reports that hand-hygiene compliance rose to
84% on the medical unit after an audit, while on the surgical unit it stayed at 61%. An option
reading compliance on the surgical unit rose to 84% after the audit invents nothing: every part
of it appears in the passage. The number is just fastened to the wrong unit. The defense is to find
the sentence that proves the answer and read the whole clause, including who and when. That holds
for every detail question — if you cannot find the sentence that proves your option, it is
probably wrong.
Pacing, and the question you cannot place
Seventy-three seconds is an average, not a target. A detail lookup or a single cell in a table
takes 30 to 45 seconds. Main idea, purpose and tone questions take 60 to 75. An argument question
or a multi-step graphic can fairly take 90 to 120, paid for by the fast ones.
Check the clock three times rather than continuously: question 12 at about 14 minutes, question 23
at 28 minutes, question 34 at 41 minutes. Five questions behind at halfway leaves 58 seconds each.
That is recoverable, and only one thing recovers it: stop going back to re-read the passage. Most
people who run out of time are re-readers, not slow readers.
For a question you cannot place, the rule is mechanical. At 90 seconds, eliminate down to two
options, choose one, flag it if your form allows flagging, and move. Nothing is deducted for a
wrong answer, and a blank scores exactly what a wrong answer scores, so never leave one empty. Pick
a guess letter before test day and use it without thinking.
How to prepare for this section
Reading moves less under study than any other section. There is no content to learn, so an hour
here buys less than an hour on Science, where naming the structures of a body system converts to
points almost immediately. Reading earns a floor of study time rather than a push: enough to
make the moves automatic, then spend the rest where the return is higher.
That floor is two habits. Take full 45-question sections against a real 55-minute clock rather
than ten questions at a time with no clock, because pace is the thing being trained. Then label
every miss with one of the four patterns above. Never write "careless" — every miss has a pattern,
and one or two will hold most of your losses. Too extreme and half right are option-reading
failures, cured by reading all four options to the end. Outside the passage and wrong
condition are text failures, cured by going back to the sentence.
The free 30-question diagnostic covers all four sections and reports by
sub-area. What you should be aiming at depends on the program: typical requirements are on the
TEAS scores page, and your program's admissions page is the only place to confirm
its number.
Common questions
Is the TEAS reading section hard?
It is not hard in the way a science section is hard: every answer is somewhere in the text in front
of you, and there is nothing to memorize beforehand. What makes it difficult is the clock. Forty-five
questions in 55 minutes is 73 seconds each, 39 of those 45 are scored, and Reading is 26% of your
total score, so the marks are large enough that pace decides them.
Can you go back to a question on the TEAS reading section?
Whether you can flag a question and return to it inside the section depends on the form you are
sitting, so confirm it on ATI's own pages or with whoever administers your exam. What does not vary
is that the four sections are timed separately: once Reading's 55 minutes are gone you cannot return
to it from Mathematics, and minutes you save do not carry forward. Plan on answering each question
as you meet it rather than on a second pass you may not be given.
What is a good score on the TEAS reading section?
There is no national passing score on the TEAS, and a program almost always publishes a required
total score rather than a Reading 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 that sits in the 60 to 70 range. Reading is 39 of the 150 scored questions, so 80% of the
section is about 31 correct. If your program also sets a minimum for a single section, its admissions
page will say so.
What happens if you run out of time on the TEAS reading section?
The section closes at 55 minutes with whatever you have answered, the exam moves on to Mathematics
with its own full 57 minutes, and Reading does not reopen. Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so
a blank scores the same as a wrong answer and gains you nothing. If you can see the time going, spend
the last 30 seconds putting an answer on every remaining question rather than finishing one of them
properly.
Should you read the passage or the questions first on the TEAS?
It depends on what the question asks for, and the quickest readers switch between the two. For a
detail lookup, a table, a label or a schedule, read the question first and go hunting for the one
fact it wants. For main idea, purpose, tone or an argument question, read the passage once at normal
speed first, because skimming for keywords on those produces confident wrong answers. Either way the
budget is about 73 seconds a question, which buys one read and one check, not three reads.