What are the TEAS exams ?

sherilyn321 · Feb 7, 2010

Test of Essential Academic Skills. Not to sound like smartypants, but google.com is totally underutilized!

DoGoodThenGo · Feb 7, 2010

What does TEAS stand for ?

"Test of Essential Academic Skills",

http://www.ccbcmd.edu/selectiveadmiss/TEAS.html

Like the NLN and to some extent the SATs, and other similar exams, the TEAS seeks to measure one's knowledge of various subjects, in this case those that pertain to the areas of study included in nursing programs.

While one can study for such exams, as they mainly measure life long education and if one has areas of severe weakness it could be hard to overcome. IIRC, most TEAS and NLN test sites do not allow caculators, thus if you do not know certian math material such as times tables, order of operations, and in general math up to say the 10th grade level well, you may run into problems.

These exams are not "pass or fail", but rather one receives a score, and that score determines one's ranking. Each nursing program will have a target range they prefer to see in applicants, and use various methods for factoring same into their admission decisions.

Would have to find the bookmark on my computer, but a study was done a few years back linking TEAS (and perhaps NLN) scores on predicting nursing student's passing the NCLEX board exams on their first time, as well as their chances academic sucess in a nursing program. That is to say if one scores low on the TEAS or NLN, one is likely to have low grades in nursing school and therefore have a hard time passing the licensure exam, at least so the theory goes.

Perhaps because of the above, and or other reasons, more and more nursing programs are requiring some sort of educational skills exam (TEAS, NLN, SATs) as part of the application process. For better or worse it seems nursing schools are becoming geared towards the test (NCLEX), and having the highest percentage of a graduating class pass.