Here's advice taking the TEAS Exam - LONG

[RNSuzq1, RN]

Hi All,

I finally took the TEAS Exam tonight (what my school uses for admission into the Nursing Program.) First: Yippee - glad that's over!!!!

Drove 40 miles home in the pouring rain on back country roads, got home at 10pm and found my husband asleep and the 2 youngest watching Sponge Bob Square Pants - geez, he's fired!!! :chuckle Since I'm still very "wired" and it's all still fresh in my little brain - thought I'd pass along some helpful hints to anyone getting ready to take this exam.

There were 4 sections - reading, math, science and english - very glad I read through the study guide several times, it was a great help. English was always my best subject and I read all the time - so to me at least - the reading and english portions were fairly easy. If you're not great at spelling - brush up on your vocabulary (that was a huge part of it).

I spent way too much time pouring over algebra books so I'd be prepared - GRR - that was only a tiny portion of it. They had loads of word problems where you had to add, multiply, divide, subtract, figure out percentages, decimals, etc. It wasn't 10 x 10 type of problems - each problem had many 3, 4 and 5 digit numbers you were dealing with. **** When the Instructor told us we couldn't use a calculator - the entire room let out one big groan.. For those of you that are like me and haven't added anything in your head "since the invention of the calculator" - practice doing some long division, multiplication, addition, etc. - it will really help.

In the Science section of the book (besides the basics) - it covers chemistry, A&P, DNA, electricty, etc. I love A&P and was so ready for that part of it - there wasn't (1) A&P question nor any questions on chemistry, DNA or electricity. I spent 4 hours the other day reading all about electricity - geez what a waste of time that was. Although, I could probably wire a lamp now. :rotfl: Your best bet is to study over the basics and you'll do fine.

For those of you who are ancient like me (I'm 42) and worried about being the oldest one in class - have no fear... There were a few young girls, but most of the people were middle age and a few were middle age a long time ago, hee, hee... There were only 3 guys there and one of them sat next to me - I felt so Special, lol :)

My biggest beef with the exam was the time limit on the math portion. Plenty of time for the reading and science, way more than enough time for the english (65 minutes for that part and almost everyone was done in about 30). The math portion had 45 questions and was definitely the hardest - only 40 minutes was allowed and when he called time - all but one person was still scribbling away. Everyone I talked to said they ended up guessing on the last few questions because they ran out of time (it's that lack of the calculator thing) - darn..

We don't find out our results until the end of next week and won't find out if we got in until late April - good grief, more torture!!! :angryfire I have to take a 6 hour CPR Course this weekend and have a physical next week - the last part of this seemingly endless admission process... Thank God I don't have to study for my physical exam!!! Sorry this is so long - I'm hoping that this might help someone who is still preparing for the test. Good Luck to All of You. SusanNC

[RedSox33RN]

We must be using the same babysitter!

I hope it went well for you. Do you feel good about how you did? I hated that we couldn't use a calculator on the Math portion of the NLN. Tell me where in the real world do they not allow that now, besides testing?!? They even TEACH people how to use calculators now, for goodness sakes.

I agree, there isn't nearly enough time for the math, especially when us ancient souls (yes, I'm one too, at 36!) have to remember all that long division stuff.

I hope the time passes quickly for you. I have to get signed up for a Professional CPR course also. My old CPR certificate expired last year, but unfortunately was just Basic. I think the Red Cross course is an 8hr one.