Got my TEAS guide today, science practice tests seem easy???

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I received my official ATI - TEAS study guide today. I took a quick glimpse at the science section and basically it seems heavy on biology and very, very basic for anatomy and chemistry. Basically I knew all the answers to the practice tests based on the biology course which I took recently. Are the practice tests a realistic guide for how the actual TEAS exam is formatted? I thought I had seen elsewhere that the science section was actually tricky compared to the practice tests...is that the case?

If this is really how the TEAS is formatted, maybe I will feel comfortable enough to take it sooner rather than later. However, I have the feeling that things are not as they appear?!?!

Thank you for any input! :-)

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Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

That's really how TEAS is formatted. The ATI practice tests are very close to the actual test (not surprisingly). I took a total of 3 ATI tests (2 from the manual and 1 Online), in addition to 2 practice tests from the McGraw-Hill book. My ATI practice tests average was 91% and I got 93.3% on the actual. I would suggest taking the practice tests in their entirety and under time pressure to best simulate the real test.

If you did really well in Bio/Chem/A&P, the science section will seem pretty basic. Good luck!

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I have the ATI study guide and one of the practice tests was somewhat easy and the other was very difficult. I took the exam two weeks ago and I thought the science was unreasonably difficult. I still scored pretty well, I attribute that to being a good guesser. The exam takes what is explained in the guide and expands on it greatly. I had very few general or basic knowledge questions. I think if you have recently had chemistry and biology you will find it easier if your test is anything like mine was.

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The only science I have had so far is biology which had enough basic chemistry in it that I understood most of the chemistry questions on the practice tests. I just started A&P I this week. I think I will give the TEAS a shot this summer and see how it goes to get a real feel for the exam. I am going to study the guide from cover to cover and do some additional practice exams online. I know the time limit and exam stress will get to me!!! The math is the scary part for me, esp. under pressure!!!

Oh - isn't there a pretest one can take to figure out what they need to focus their studies on?

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Specializes in Psych/Mental Health.

Yes. The ATI Online Practice Assessment Tests (Form A and B) are done online and will give you a report detailing which sections from the ATI Manual you should focus on.

I'm surprised that chemistry you got from a biology course is sufficient without any prior chemistry course. I got questions on finding out # of moles for one of the molecules within an equation, which requires balancing an equation; and which molecule oxidized or reduced, and that required writing out the equation, balancing it and finding out the charges. While they were pretty basic, they weren't taught in the chem portion of Biology but were covered in my General Chem 1 course, and they weren't covered in the ATI Manual either.

Taking the Online Practice would be a good idea. That's probably the closest to the real thing.

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I think the sections in the ATI book are similar to the actual exam, with the exception of the science section. The ATI book doesn't go into the detail that you need for the science section so I would supplement your studying material. When I took the science sections in the ATI book, I scored around 90, then I checked out the McGraw-Hill TEAS Exam book (just 5 TEAS exams and brief descriptions of answers) from the library and scored 68% on the first two science sections. I started to get anxious, but I just reviewed my weaknesses like crazy, using Chemistry for Dummies, my biology & anatomy books, and khanacademy.org. On the last two exams I scored 95% and 80%, respectively, and ended up getting an 85% on the online science section. Honestly, it's a hit-or-miss unless you remember every detail of your chemistry, bio, A&P and microbiology classes. If you have the ATI manual memorized, I would say at best you would score an 85%. The exam goes into some details on some systems, photosynthesis/cellular respiration (what's oxidized &/or reduced, what's anabolic vs. catabolic), translation/transcription (where does each take place, the details of transription process within ribosomes, using condons/anti-codons to identify amino acid sequence), and chemistry.

The online exam is harder than the actual exam, but it gives you a good idea on how to pace yourself. What I didn't like about the online exam though is that it reviews the answer after each question with only one question per page. On the actual exam, there are multiple questions per page.

For the other sections, if you really understand what's in the ATI book, you will do well.

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