ATI TEAS VI: A Detailed Breakdown

SaltyBones

I'm an LVN with one year of experience. I just recently (within the last 3 weeks) finished A&P and Micro.

I took my remote ATI TEAS VI this morning and, while it was still through my school, I had to take the test from home using Proctorio on Google Chrome. I got an 88.7, which is an "Advanced" level of proficiency in the 98th percentile.

Here's How I Passed The ATI TEAS Test...

Study Time

A total of 3 weeks, but I didn't get serious until the last week. I studied religiously for about 8 hours a day for the last 7 days leading up to the test. Here's the breakdown?

Study Tools

ATI TEAS Secrets by Mometrix:

This was a highly recommended resource across the board, and for good reason. It is an excellent review guide as it breaks down the general concepts you need to learn for the test. Just be careful with the science and English language sections. They are very detailed and quite long, so it easy to get intimidated by the sheer magnitude of the material. The 3 practice exams are worth their weight in gold, not just in testing your knowledge of the information, but in improving your test-taking skills as well. I found these practice tests to be just a shade more difficult than the actual exam. I would not have passed without this book.

Khan Academy, Catherine McAllister, Nurse Cheung, and others:

Whenever I run into a concept that I don't fully get just by reading, I go on YouTube to find someone who can explain it to me. These guys are the ones who pop up the most and generally have the best explanations.

Brandon Craft Math:

I would kiss this man if I could. The free TEAS worksheet on his website is pretty much the math portion of the exam.

ATI TEAS Mastery App:

This is an app that you can get for free, but you can also pay for a subscription, which would grant you access to plenty of practice questions and other resources. I got the $12.99/month option, so I was able to answer as many practice questions as I needed.

Literally any free practice test you can find:

I used the ones on the Mometrix website, NurseHub, Test-Guide, and SmartEdition the most. Know that these practice tests (at least for me) were harder than the actual exam, so please don't freak out if you end up not doing as well as you'd like. They're more useful in sharpening your test taking skills (process of elimination, educated guessing, etc.)

ATI Practice Assessment B:

This single assessment was a whopping $50. I never intended to get it, but I caved and bought it last minute, and I'm glad I did. This narrows everything down so much and allows you to focus on the specific concepts you'd need to know for the exam. Based on my individual experience, this was basically a clone of the TEAS. Obviously the questions weren't repeated, but they were on the exact same topics (like two different questions on the same worksheet). They're about the same level of difficulty, so if you do well with this, you most likely will do just fine with the actual exam.

TEAS Breakdown

Reading (80.9%)

I don't know what happened here. The questions were the same as the practice assessment, and actually a little easier than Mometrix. I guess I just choked because it was the first section and I was already freaking out because I was taking the TEAS. You have more than enough time to read through each passage carefully, so don't rush. You'll get everything from long passages with multiple paragraphs, to recipes and office memos.

Focus on finding the main idea, topic sentence, and supporting details of each passage. Know the difference between narrative, expository, persuasive, and technical writing. You will also be asked to pick the logical conclusion, the statement that summarizes the passage, and which statements are fact and which are opinion.

Math (90.6%)

This was my most dreaded subject because I have always, always been terrible at math. My brain just isn't wired for it. How the heck did I get the score that I did? Mometrix, Brandon Craft Math, and Practice Assessment B. The math portion was a mirror image of what's on practice assessment B. In fact, I even found the this to bit a bit easier than the practice assessment.

Know operations with fractions, decimals, and percentages! The majority of questions are on these concepts. Others are on ratios and proportions, a few on basic algebraic expressions, and fewer still on geometry, which was super basic. There was one question about converting from F to C but they do give you the formula. The word problems were also super easy (trust me), and the other conversion questions were pretty straightforward (“How many mL is in 0.5L?”). It's also important to brush up on the order of operations, but I don't remember it featuring very heavily on the test.

This section was surprisingly easier than I expected, and that's saying alot.

Science (89.4%)

This was the hardest section, and the fact that I just finished my A&P and Micro classes really saved me here. Some questions were easy, some were tricky and surprisingly specific, and some I flat out just didn't know the answer to (like what the heck is cephalization?!). I relied on educated guesswork and the process of elimination here more than in any other section. It was definitely heavy on A&P, so the more time you can dedicate to reviewing those concepts, the better off you'll be. Again, Practice Assessment B will give you a pretty good idea on which areas to focus on. I don't remember seeing a whole lot of chem questions, and the ones that were there were very basic.

Some topics worth looking at (other than A&P) are scientific reasoning and the scientific process, elements of a scientific experiment, balancing chemical reactions, knowing the different types of reactions (decomposition, synthesis, single-replacement, etc), and Mendel and his concepts of heredity/genetics.

English (100%)

This section sucked LOL I'm convinced that I only got 100 because of sheer dumb luck. This section tests you on grammar concepts that you haven't had to think about since probably middle school, and that's what makes it so tricky. English and writing have always been strengths of mine, so I relied on intuition and gut feelings more than I probably should have. I recommend really spending some time on this section, and to not do what I did. I still can't figure out how I scored so highly. I won't break down what to review for this section because there are just too many. Just review the English section on the Mometrix book in its entirety.

Other Tips

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Take as many practice tests and answer as many practice questions as possible. Practice really does make perfect, especially with the TEAS.
Give yourself plenty of time to study. There is a lot of material to cover, and giving yourself more time to learn (or re-learn) them will only produce positive results.
Don't let your nerves get the best of you. If you did your due diligence, there won't be much on the exam that will catch you off guard.
When taking the TEAS (or any exam), avoid answer choices that contain absolute statements. They're rarely ever correct. Those typically include words like always, never, definitely, absolutely, etc.
I don't recommend taking the TEAS without taking college A&P first. The amount of material you need to learn will probably kill you if you're encountering it for the first time and you most likely won't do very well on the exam. The TEAS is much too important to chance anything.

That's it!

Sorry if it's so long. I wanted to put in as much detail as possible, as well as address some things that other posts may not have addressed. If for some reason you still have questions, feel free to message me. All of this took a while to type, but if it helps at least one person, it'll be well worth it.

Also, the things described in this post reflect my own individual experience with taking the TEAS and with the study tools I used. Your experience might differ so please take with a grain of salt ?