New here

sharpeimom · Aug 23, 2009

welcome to the allnurses family!:welcome:

we're all so glad to meet you and help in any way we can. the nursing profession is its own family and allnurses is its support group and a fantastic source of information for you to discover as you need it.

welcome to the kinship!

hugs,

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

bluechick112, BSN, MSN, RN · Aug 23, 2009

First of all, welcome! I've found that allnurses.com is a place where people in all different levels of nursing can come and discuss so please don't apologize for not knowing if you should even be registered---of course you should be registered! Allnurses has helped me SO MUCH in my steps toward nursing and I hpoe it does the same for you.

As for your TEAS concerns, I'm here to tell you it is VERY possible to get above a 65%. However, you'll find that most schools nowadays need you to score much higher than what they claim on their websites. Just as an example, Sacramento State's nursing program didn't accept anyone with lower than an 84.7% on the TEAS in spring 2009. Competition is increasing every day and you'll definitely want to strive to do your best on everything.

You mentioned you just recently graduated high school and first of all I think it's wonderful that you already know you want to go into nursing. I also think enrolling as a Medical Assistant will really help you down the road (both in nursing school and when you're job hunting as an RN). I'd like to offer a suggestion which, of course, you don't have to take. You will save a lot of money if you take your prerequisite courses for nursing school at a community college. I'd say a good majority of the people who post on this site will be or already have transferred out of a community college into a BSN program. I personally wouldn't have had it any other way. :) But of course, JUST a suggestion!

Now back to that dreaded TEAS, huh? I personally went into the TEAS without studying. The nursing schools around here allow you take the TEAS anywhere from twice to as many times as you want and they take your highest score. I felt like I needed to go in, take the test, see what it's like and then base how I studied for it off of the results I got back. Well, I got an 83.5% and I can tell you that the math and science sections were the hardest two, with science DEFINITELY topping out as the absolute most difficult section on the TEAS. The math consists of algebra questions, many of which are very simple especially if you're just coming out of high school and it's still pretty fresh in your brain. I took the TEAS after being out of high school for three years and I still got somewhere in the 90s on the math section. Brush up on your percentages, fractions, and decimals as I'd say they're a good majority of the math problems on there. Most of the answers you can rule out using common sense, and most of the problems you can plug in the possible answers given to you (a, b, c or d) and see which one is correct. The biggest problem I've heard people complain about in regard to the math section is the time limit. Once you run out of time, that's it. You can't go back. So if you run out of time and still have 10 questions left to do, that's 10 problems you've missed. So I'd just run through a bunch of practice problems (available on the internet or in the practice books) and make sure you're comfortable.

The science section on the other hand is short, but tricky. There's questions from all over the science world including Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Organic and General Chemistry, Geology (yes, you heard me right!), Biology, and Physics. When I took the TEAS I hadn't even TAKEN half those courses leaving me guessing at a good majority of the questions. I hardly found a way to study for the science section. In fact, I didn't find a way. I just didn't study. I went in to take the TEAS a second time after brushing up on some stuff I knew I didn't do well on the first time around (when I got an 83.5%) like who/whom, some math things, and some extra grammar problems, and went back in and got an 87.6%--still not great, but I guess I'm satisfied :)

I really wish you the absolute best of luck on your TEAS. Try not to stress yourself out over it as that will probably only make things worse. Just do the practice problems available to you (there's a book you can purchase from ATI but I can't vouche for how good it is as I didn't use it) and get some rest the night before your exam!

Coriander, BSN, RN · Aug 23, 2009

Hi and welcome!!! *waving*

Brikkz · Aug 23, 2009

I am thinking of getting the book and it was suggested to me by a friend that I just get a couple of algebra study books from the library instead of the TEAS study guide because that helps.

I did already get a couple algebra books on hold but I didn't think of the science thing.

Well the admissions adviser said that the very least you can get is a 65% for the nursing program in the school to even look at you. So I'm hoping to get a good high score because I gotta beat out about 90 other people for a 30 student class.

Brikkz · Aug 23, 2009

Thanks for the warm welcomes and I just wanted to say I will probably definitely get the study guide from ATI. I just gotta wait a few days.