Took TEAS 6 today

Published

Specializes in Pediatric Specialty RN.

Hi all,

This is my first post in a few years (different user name back then). After a few fits and starts and twists and turns, I am finally prepared to actually go to nursing school. I have 2 bachelors degrees, but nursing has always been my dream (It's a very long story as to why I didn't do it to begin with!).

Anyway, I took the TEAS today. I was pretty nervous about it because I am 45 and haven't been in a classroom in 15 years and my science classes were long before that!

I scored an overall 80%, which is enough to get into my program. 80% puts me in the advanced level with a national percentage ranking in the 88th%. For my program type, I am in the 93rd%.

I did both pretests online and on pretest A I scored an 85% overall, and on pretest B I scored an 82%. I did better on math on the actual test than the pretest, but worse on the reading and English and the same in science compared to my pretests. However, overall, I'd say that the pretests are very good indicator of what you will actually score.

Breaking it down, I scored an 83% in reading, 88% in Math, 75% in science and 75% in English. The test took me under 2 hours to complete.

On the pretests I was scoring 95-100% on reading and English, so my only thought is I was overconfident in those areas and did not read as effectively.

I am SO relieved that the test is over. I tried the PSB a few years ago and didn't pass the science portion, and I was too intimidated to try again.

I am applying to a diploma program. There are still many in my area (Western PA), and since I have two BS degrees already, doing the bridge from RN to BSN will be pretty easy eventually. I will then have 3 bachelors degrees...but the third one's the charm :)

I'd be happy to answer any questions about the general types of questions on the test. I know that reading the posts here helped me to prepare a lot. The biggest help to me however was the self directed program and practice tests on ATI.

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Congrats on your score!

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Congrats!

Any specific book or study guide do you recommend?

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Congrats on the 80%! It's encouraging to know that other people are taking this test and doing well. I know this differs for everyone, but how long did you spend studying for the TEAS? I have gotten a wide range of responses from some people I know. I want to give myself plenty of time to study before I need to take it in the spring (thinking May) and love hearing how much time others allowed themselves.

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It would be great if you can give me any pointers on how to score well on the Reading and English section because those are the two areas that I am not doing being able to pull up my score. I have been trying to read the book, and have taken practice exams, but for some reason I have not been able to score high on those two areas. English is my second language, and I don't know if that is a hindrance. Any advice would be greatly helpful!

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congratulations!!

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Specializes in Pediatric Specialty RN.
Congrats!

Any specific book or study guide do you recommend?

I did the ATI online study and took both practice tests as well. The practice tests are exactly like the real test.

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Specializes in Pediatric Specialty RN.

I only studied for one week because I was in a hurry to meet an application deadline. I used the ATI online self guided study program and it really helped a lot. My first pre test was a disaster in science, so I focused heavily on science in my studies. English and Reading come more naturally to me so I didn't spend a lot of time studying that, with the exception of subject verb agreement which snagged me every time!

I also had a TEAS app on my phone and peppered myself with questions throughout the day...waiting at a red light, waiting in a waiting room, etc...

The online ATI practice tests are exactly like the real test, so that was helpful during the real test as well.

Good luck!

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It would be great if you can give me any pointers on how to score well on the Reading and English section because those are the two areas that I am not doing being able to pull up my score. I have been trying to read the book, and have taken practice exams, but for some reason I have not been able to score high on those two areas. English is my second language, and I don't know if that is a hindrance. Any advice would be greatly helpful!

I watched a YouTube video about a woman who got a 95% on her exam. She I think she just looked up worksheets online and that helped her to bring up those sections.

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Specializes in Pediatric Specialty RN.
It would be great if you can give me any pointers on how to score well on the Reading and English section because those are the two areas that I am not doing being able to pull up my score. I have been trying to read the book, and have taken practice exams, but for some reason I have not been able to score high on those two areas. English is my second language, and I don't know if that is a hindrance. Any advice would be greatly helpful!

I am a native born speaker of English and I still struggle with things like subject verb agreement and tense agreement, so I can only imagine how someone for whom English is not their primary language might struggle!

Of all of the subjects on the TEAS, English and Reading are my best. So I didn't study much for them with the exception of the things I noted above. I had a heck of a time with subject verb agreement so I studied up on that a lot. The reading sections I found that it was better to actually read the entire passage and then try to answer the questions. I've seen others say that they read the questions first and then tried to find them in the passage, but that didn't work for me - not to mention you miss out on a lot of the information and several questions are about the overall theme of the passage. There were several questions per passage, so it worked best for me to carefully read it the first time and then the questions were answered in order.

It also helped me to do the online study. I went through each section and then did the practice tests. Then it would kick me back to the study to study the things that I missed on the test. I did this 3 times. Also, the practice tests online at ATI are exactly like the real test, which definitely helped as well.

Lastly, I had a TEAS app on my phone that I would study while I was anywhere...

Good luck!

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