TEAS Exam Guide: The ATI TEAS Version 7, Explained Section by Section

PassProfessor’s TEAS program. The 2,009-question TEAS practice bank is built — weighted to the Version 7 sections, with an explanation on every question. Use this guide to plan your path to the exam.

Enroll now — $49

The TEAS, in one paragraph

The ATI TEAS — the Test of Essential Academic Skills, published by ATI (Assessment Technologies Institute) — is the admissions exam many nursing and allied health programs use to measure whether applicants have the academic foundation their coursework assumes. The current exam is Version 7, in use since June 3, 2022. You will see 170 questions in 209 minutes across four separately timed sections — Reading, Mathematics, Science, and English and Language Usage, always in that order. Of the 170 questions, 150 are scored and 20 are unscored pretest items you cannot identify. There is no national passing score: ATI reports your results as percentages and an academic preparedness level, and each school or program sets the minimum it requires.

Who takes the TEAS?

The TEAS is an admissions test, not a licensing exam. The people who take it are applicants — most of them have not started a health program yet.

Nursing program applicants. Many associate-degree (ADN), bachelor of science in nursing (BSN), practical/vocational nursing (LPN/LVN), and RN-to-BSN or accelerated programs require a TEAS score as part of the application, alongside grades and prerequisites.
Allied health program applicants. Programs in fields such as dental hygiene, radiography, respiratory therapy, surgical technology, and other health sciences also use the TEAS to screen applicants, because the exam measures general academic readiness rather than nursing knowledge.
Applicants whose school requires it — and only those schools’ versions of the rules. Whether the TEAS is required at all, which delivery format counts, what score is enough, how many attempts are allowed, and how old a score can be are all decisions your school makes. ATI is explicit that the school decides where and how you take the TEAS, which results it accepts, and what score you need. Two applicants taking the same exam in the same week can be working under different rules because their schools set them differently.

One consequence follows from that: ask your school before you register. ATI warns that its exam registrations are non-refundable and that a registration which does not match your school’s requirements still counts as an attempt and still costs the fee. The checklist in the fees and registration section below is built around the questions ATI itself tells candidates to ask.

The exam, piece by piece

The TEAS is a single sitting made of four sections, taken in a fixed order, each with its own clock. ATI’s published content specifications divide the 150 scored questions among the sections and, inside each section, among subtopics. The unscored pretest items are distributed across the sections as well.

Section (in order)	Questions you will see	Scored	Unscored	Time
Reading	45	39	6	55 minutes
Mathematics	38	34	4	57 minutes
Science	50	44	6	60 minutes
English and Language Usage	37	33	4	37 minutes
Total	170	150	20	209 minutes

Reading — 45 questions, 55 minutes

Reading carries 39 scored questions, 26% of the scored exam. ATI divides them among three subtopics:

Key Ideas and Details (15 scored questions). Summarizing multi-paragraph texts, drawing inferences and conclusions about a text’s meaning and purpose, following written directions, locating specific information, reading charts, graphs, and other visuals, and following a sequence of events.
Craft and Structure (9 scored questions). Separating fact from opinion and spotting bias, working out the meaning of words and phrases from context, and evaluating an author’s purpose and point of view.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (15 scored questions). Using evidence from a text to predict, infer, and conclude; comparing themes across one or more texts; evaluating an argument; and combining information from multiple sources and formats, including media.

At roughly 1.2 minutes per question — with passages to read inside that budget — Reading rewards candidates who read the questions with the passage rather than the passage in isolation.

Mathematics — 38 questions, 57 minutes

Mathematics carries 34 scored questions, 23% of the scored exam, in two subtopics:

Numbers and Algebra (18 scored questions). Converting among fractions, decimals, and percentages; arithmetic with rational numbers; comparing and ordering rational numbers; solving one-variable equations; multi-step real-world problems; percentages, proportions, ratios, and rates of change in real-world settings; estimation and rounding; and working with expressions, equations, and inequalities.
Measurement and Data (16 scored questions). Reading tables, charts, and graphs; evaluating data sets with statistics; explaining the relationship between two variables; calculating geometric quantities; and converting within and between standard and metric measurement systems.

Mathematics allows the most time per question of any section — about 1.5 minutes — and a calculator is built into the exam for every section, though this is where you will use it most. Personal calculators are not allowed, so the arithmetic habits that matter are setup and checking, not calculator tricks.

Science — 50 questions, 60 minutes

Science is the largest section on the exam: 44 scored questions, 29% of the scored total, in four subtopics:

Human Anatomy and Physiology (18 scored questions). The largest single subtopic on the TEAS. ATI’s objectives cover the general orientation of human anatomy and the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, nervous, muscular, reproductive, integumentary, endocrine, urinary, immune, and skeletal systems.
Biology (9 scored questions). Cell structure, function, and organization; how genetic material relates to protein structure; Mendel’s laws of inheritance; the basic macromolecules; and the role of microorganisms in disease.
Chemistry (8 scored questions). Basic atomic structure, the physical properties and changes of matter, chemical reactions and the conditions that affect them, properties of solutions, and acids and bases.
Scientific Reasoning (9 scored questions). Scientific measurements and measurement tools, applying logic and evidence to an explanation, predicting relationships among events, objects, and processes, and applying the scientific method to an investigation.

Because anatomy and physiology alone accounts for 18 of the 44 scored Science questions — more than Chemistry and Biology combined (17) — a study plan that treats the four Science subtopics as equal usually misallocates its hours.

English and Language Usage — 37 questions, 37 minutes

The final section carries 33 scored questions, 22% of the scored exam, in three subtopics:

Conventions of Standard English (12 scored questions). Standard spelling, punctuation, and correct sentence structure.
Knowledge of Language (11 scored questions). Using grammar to make writing clear, judging whether language fits a given audience and rhetorical context, and developing a well-organized paragraph.
Using Language and Vocabulary to Express Ideas in Writing (10 scored questions). The elements of the writing process, and determining word meaning by analyzing word parts.

English is the fastest section on the exam — about one minute per question. It is also the last section, taken after more than two and a half hours of testing, which makes pacing practice for it worth more than its question count suggests.

Question formats: not everything is multiple choice

Most TEAS questions are standard multiple choice with four options and one correct answer, some of them built around charts, exhibits, or graphics. Per ATI, approximately 20% of the exam uses alternate item types, a set of formats Version 7 introduced to test whether you understand a concept rather than only recognize an answer:

Multiple select (select all that apply). Five or six options, of which two or more are correct. The question ends with the words “select all that apply,” and you earn the point only by choosing every correct option and none of the incorrect ones.
Fill-in-the-blank (supply answer). You type the answer — text or a number — with no options offered, following the formatting instructions in the question exactly.
Ordered response. You drag four to six options into the correct order. The question counts as correct only if every option lands in the right place.
Hot spot. An image with two to five clickable areas; you click the area that answers the question. ATI notes these are often used where locating a structure or point is itself the skill being tested.

Every question on the TEAS is scored correct or incorrect. There is no partial credit — a multiple-select question missing one correct option scores the same as one left blank — and there is no penalty for guessing, so an unanswered question is always a wasted one.

Pretest questions, section clocks, and the break

Three structural facts shape test day:

Twenty questions do not count. The 20 unscored pretest items (6 in Reading, 4 in Mathematics, 6 in Science, 4 in English) are questions ATI is evaluating for future exams. They are indistinguishable from scored questions, and there is no strategy for them other than treating every question as if it counts.
Each section has its own clock, and time does not transfer. A section’s clock starts when you open it. Finishing early does not add time to the next section. Within an open section you can move back and forth and flag questions to return to; once you submit a section and move on, you cannot return to it. When a section’s time runs out, it closes automatically and unanswered questions score as incorrect.
There is one break. After you finish Mathematics, you may take a 10-minute break, in person or remote. It does not use any of your 209 minutes; the Science clock starts only when you begin that section.

You must complete all four sections in one sitting to receive a total score and an academic preparedness level. If one section goes badly, there is no single-section retake — improving a score means retaking the whole exam.

Scoring, explained

ATI reports three kinds of scores, and they are not calculated the same way — which is why the arithmetic on a score report does not always look obvious.

Adjusted individual total score. Your headline result, reported as a percentage from 0.0% to 100%. Total scores are equated: ATI adjusts them to account for differences in difficulty between different forms (versions) of the exam, so scores can be compared from one form to another.
Content area scores. A separate equated percentage for each of the four sections — Reading, Mathematics, Science, and English and Language Usage — reported the same 0.0% to 100% way and adjusted across forms just as the total is. Because each is equated separately, the section scores cannot be combined to calculate your total, and your total is not simply their average.
Sub-content area scores. A percentage for each subtopic (Key Ideas and Details, Numbers and Algebra, and so on). These are a plain percentage of questions answered correctly and are not equated across forms, so ATI cautions against comparing them across different exam forms. Their real use is diagnostic: they show you where your misses concentrate.

The five academic preparedness levels

Next to your total score, your report places you in one of ATI’s five academic preparedness levels:

Developmental — the lowest level, indicating a very low level of overall academic preparedness for health-science content; substantial additional preparation is the expected next step.
Basic — a low level of preparedness; additional preparation on many of the assessed objectives is likely needed.
Proficient — a moderate level of preparedness; preparation on some objectives may still help.
Advanced — a high level of preparedness on the assessed academic skills.
Exemplary — the highest level, indicating very high preparedness on the assessed skills.

The levels describe readiness in general terms. They are not pass marks, and ATI does not attach an admissions decision to any of them.

There is no passing score — your school sets the bar

This is the most misunderstood fact about the TEAS, so it is worth stating the way ATI states it: there is no universal passing score; each program sets its own. A school may set a minimum total score; it publishes its requirement to applicants, and meeting one school’s minimum says nothing about another school’s. That is why this guide names no cutoff numbers: any page that tells you “the TEAS passing score is X%” is describing, at best, one school’s rule as if it were everyone’s.

The practical steps are unglamorous and decisive: find the published TEAS requirement for every school on your list, note whether the school looks only at the total or at section results as well, and set your study target against the most demanding school you are serious about — with margin, because application deadlines do not move when a score disappoints.

Your score report: the Individual Performance Profile

After a proctored TEAS exam, your score report — ATI calls it the Individual Performance Profile (IPP) — is posted to your ATI student account, under the Results tab. It shows:

Your adjusted individual total score and your academic preparedness level.
Your score in each content area, with the national mean and your national percentile rank for comparison.
A Topics to Review list: the objectives you missed, which ATI uses to drive its Focused Review and which makes a precise retake study list if you test again.

Timing depends on the route you tested through. For TEAS at ATI, the report appears right after you finish but is marked Preliminary for about four business days (excluding weekends and major holidays) while ATI validates it; it is final after that period. For exams taken at or through your institution, the score usually posts immediately. For TEAS at PSI, results pass from PSI to ATI and can take up to 48 hours to appear.

The score report is your copy. The transcript is the official record ATI delivers to a school, and the two work differently: TEAS at ATI and TEAS at PSI registrations include one transcript credit, but nothing is sent automatically — you log in to your ATI account, choose the school, and send it from the Results tab (a transcript sent during preliminary status is queued and delivered once the score is final, within two hours of finalization). For institution-proctored exams, the transcript goes automatically to the institution you tested through. Sending your score to additional schools requires additional transcript credits, at $29.99 each.

How long is a score good for?

Schools decide how long they accept a TEAS score for; ATI notes that two years is common. That is a school policy, not an ATI expiry date — a program can accept older scores or insist on more recent ones — so confirm the window with each school before you choose a test date, especially if you are testing well ahead of an application cycle.

Fees and registration, step by step

What the exam costs

Per ATI, the exam fee depends on where and how you take it:

Route	Fee	Set by
TEAS at ATI (remote, proctored by ATI)	$120 plus applicable sales tax	ATI
TEAS at PSI (PSI test center in person, or remote through PSI)	$120 plus applicable sales tax	ATI
TEAS at Institution / TEAS Online at Institution (proctored by a school or testing center)	Varies — set by the school; many are close to the ATI price, some fold the cost into another fee such as an application fee	The school

The direct-registration fee includes one proctored exam attempt, access to your score report in your ATI account, and — for TEAS at ATI and TEAS at PSI — one official transcript credit. Related costs to budget for: $29.99 per additional transcript when you apply to more than one school, a $15 rescheduling fee for exams scheduled on atitesting.com (at least 48 hours before the exam, where a slot is available), and the full exam fee again for every retake. ATI exam registrations are not refundable, except for a documented emergency.

The sequence, in order

Ask your school(s) first. Before paying anything, confirm with each program you are applying to: which delivery format it accepts, whether you register through the school or through ATI, what score it requires, its application deadline for TEAS results, its retake rules, how long it accepts scores, and whether you need a testing accommodation (accommodations are available for every format, but most requests need at least 30 days’ notice). Some schools accept only an exam taken in person on their own campus and will not accept a remote transcript — and ATI gives no refund for an exam your school will not accept.
Create your ATI student account. Every format requires one: it is how you take the exam, receive your score, and send transcripts. Enter your name exactly as it appears on your photo ID, and select your school.
Register and pay. If your school handles registration itself, follow its process. If it sends you to ATI, register at atitesting.com/teas/register and choose the format your school uses, paying by credit or debit card. TEAS at PSI is also paid to ATI; you then schedule the appointment itself with PSI.
Test. Take the exam in the format you registered for — remote with the required proctoring setup, or in person at the institution or PSI center. Remote candidates should check their computer against ATI’s technical requirements before paying: problems with your own equipment or internet are not grounds for a refund.
Send your transcript. Once your score posts — final, not preliminary, for TEAS at ATI — send your included transcript credit to your school from the Results tab of your ATI account, unless you tested through the school, in which case the transcript goes to that institution automatically. Buy additional credits ($29.99 each) for each additional school.

Retakes

ATI sets no waiting period. ATI itself does not require any time between attempts; for TEAS at ATI you may register for another date as soon as you like, subject to your school’s policy.
Your school’s rules govern. Some programs limit the number of attempts per year, some require a set amount of time between attempts, and many have neither rule. Application deadlines can matter more than any of these — a retake that lands after a deadline does a score no good.
Every attempt counts. A scored exam counts as an attempt whether or not you send the transcript, and schools can see your attempt history — the number of attempts is reported on your official transcript. Retaking casually, “to see how it goes,” spends money and adds an attempt to that record.
A retake is the whole exam. You cannot retake one section. All four sections, in one sitting, every time — and each attempt is a new registration at the full price.
Retake with a diagnosis, not just more hours. Your score report’s Topics to Review list names the objectives you missed. A second attempt prepared against that list is a different exam experience from a second attempt prepared the same way as the first.

Test day

Bring the right ID. You need a physical, current, government-issued photo ID — a U.S. passport, driver’s license, or state ID, for example — and its first and last name must match your ATI account exactly. Digital copies, phone photos, student IDs, and work IDs are not accepted. If your ID does not meet the requirements, the proctor will stop your exam, no refund is issued, and you must register and pay again. It is the most preventable way to lose a test day.
Know your section clocks before you sit down. Reading 55 minutes, Mathematics 57, Science 60, English 37 — about 1.2, 1.5, 1.2, and 1 minute per question respectively. Unused time never carries forward, so finishing a section early buys you nothing but the break after Mathematics.
Use the flag button. Within an open section you can flag as many questions as you like and return to them before submitting; the exam prompts you with your flagged count before you leave the section. Once you proceed, that section is closed for good.
Answer everything. There is no guessing penalty and no partial credit. A section that times out scores its unanswered questions as incorrect, so the last minute of every section belongs to filling gaps, not polishing answers.
Use the built-in calculator — and only it. A calculator is built into the exam and available in every section. Personal calculators are not allowed, in person or remote.
Expect your score on ATI’s timetable, not instantly-final. TEAS at ATI scores show as preliminary for about four business days; institution-proctored scores usually post immediately; PSI scores can take up to 48 hours. Plan transcript sends and application deadlines around the slowest step, not the fastest.

How to study for this exam

ATI publishes exactly what the TEAS covers — the section weights above are scored-question counts, not suggestions — so a serious plan is built on that structure rather than on general “nursing school prep.”

Set your target from your schools’ published minimums. There is no national bar to study toward. List each target school’s required total (and any section expectations it publishes), take the most demanding as your working target, and add margin.
Give Science its weight — and anatomy and physiology its share. Science is 29% of the scored exam and Human Anatomy and Physiology is its largest subtopic (18 of 44 scored Science questions). For most applicants, this is where the largest block of study hours belongs.
Study Reading as a timed skill. Key Ideas and Details and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas together are 30 of the 39 scored Reading questions, answered at about 1.2 minutes each with the passage in front of you. Practice working from the questions into the passage, and practice evaluating arguments and separating fact from opinion — that is what Craft and Structure grades.
Rebuild Mathematics from the two subtopics outward. Numbers and Algebra (18 scored) and Measurement and Data (16 scored) reward setup: conversions among fractions, decimals, and percentages; ratios and proportions; reading data displays; metric conversions. Drill with a basic calculator, because that is the tool the exam gives you.
Do not leave English for the last week. At 37 minutes for 37 questions, it is the fastest section and the last one you take. Spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and word-part analysis are rule-based material that responds well to steady, spaced practice — and poorly to a single cram session taken while tired.
Practice the alternate formats before test day. Multiple select with no partial credit, typed fill-in-the-blank answers, drag-ordered responses, and hot spot clicks behave differently from ordinary multiple choice. Meeting them first in a practice setting, rather than in a scored sitting, removes a whole category of avoidable errors.
Finish with full, timed, section-by-section simulations. The TEAS is four separate clocks in one sitting, with one break. Only full-length practice teaches the pacing and the stamina the format demands — and shows you, section by section, whether you are above your target schools’ minimums everywhere or only on average.

This program’s TEAS practice bank (2,009 questions — Science 588, Reading 524, Mathematics 455, English and Language Usage 442) is built in those same proportions, with an explanation on every question. The TEAS Exam Prep program page shows the full coverage table and enrollment.

Verified questions

Every question in this program is original — written for PassProfessor from the official exam blueprint, never copied from a test bank or another provider’s materials. Before enrollment opened, each answer key was independently verified: reviewers re-answered sampled questions blind, disagreements were settled against the primary sources, and every numeric answer was recomputed from first principles. Questions whose facts could not be confirmed were removed, and the bank passed a text-overlap screen. Practice exams draw a fresh, blueprint-weighted set from the full bank on every attempt, so no two practice exams are the same.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the TEAS? Per ATI, the TEAS Version 7 exam has 170 questions: 150 scored and 20 unscored pretest items mixed into the sections so candidates cannot tell them apart. Reading contributes 45 questions, Mathematics 38, Science 50, and English and Language Usage 37, and the total time limit is 209 minutes across the four separately timed sections.

What is the passing score for the TEAS? There is none at the national level. Per ATI, there is no universal passing score — each school or program sets its own minimum and shares it with applicants. Your score report places your total in one of ATI’s five academic preparedness levels (Developmental, Basic, Proficient, Advanced, Exemplary), but no level is itself a pass mark; your schools’ published requirements are the standard that applies to you.

How is the TEAS scored? Per ATI, you receive an adjusted individual total score, a score for each of the four content areas, and sub-content area scores, all reported from 0.0% to 100%. Total and content area scores are equated — adjusted for difficulty differences between exam forms — so they cannot be used to calculate one another; sub-content scores are a plain percentage of questions answered correctly. Every question is scored right or wrong, with no partial credit and no penalty for guessing.

How long do I have for each TEAS section? Per ATI, the sections are separately timed and always run in the same order: Reading, 45 questions in 55 minutes; Mathematics, 38 in 57 minutes; Science, 50 in 60 minutes; and English and Language Usage, 37 in 37 minutes — 209 minutes in total. Time left over in one section does not carry into the next, and a 10-minute break is available after Mathematics without using any testing time.

Can I go back to a question I skipped? Yes, within the section you are currently in. Per ATI, you can move back and forth among the questions in an open section and flag questions to return to before you submit it. Once you submit a section and move on, you cannot return to it, and when a section’s time expires it closes automatically with unanswered questions scored as incorrect.

Can I use a calculator on the TEAS? Yes, the one built into the exam. Per ATI, a calculator is built into the TEAS and available in every section, though you will use it most in Mathematics. Personal calculators are not allowed, so any calculator habits you build in practice should be built around a basic on-screen calculator.

Can I take the TEAS online? You can, if your school accepts it. Per ATI, the exam is offered as TEAS at ATI (remote, proctored by ATI), TEAS Online at Institution (remote, proctored by the school), TEAS at Institution (in person), and TEAS at PSI (in person or remote through PSI). Some schools accept only exams taken in person on their campus, so confirm your school’s accepted format before registering — the fee is not refunded for a format your school rejects.

How much does the TEAS cost? Per ATI, TEAS at ATI and TEAS at PSI each cost $120 plus applicable sales tax, including one exam attempt and one official transcript credit. Exams proctored by a school or testing center are priced by that institution and vary. Additional transcripts cost $29.99 each, rescheduling an atitesting.com-booked exam costs $15, and every retake is a new registration at the full price.

How do I register for the TEAS? Start with your school: per ATI, the school decides where and how you test and whether you register through the school or through ATI. Create an ATI student account with your name exactly as it appears on your photo ID; if your school directs you to ATI, register and pay at atitesting.com/teas/register for the format your school accepts. TEAS at PSI is paid to ATI, after which you schedule the appointment with PSI.

When do I get my TEAS score? It depends on the route. Per ATI, a TEAS at ATI score report appears right after you finish but stays marked Preliminary for about four business days while ATI validates it; scores from institution-proctored exams usually post immediately; and TEAS at PSI scores can take up to 48 hours to appear in your ATI account, because PSI sends the results to ATI first.

How do schools get my TEAS score? Through an official ATI transcript, which is separate from your own score report. Per ATI, TEAS at ATI and TEAS at PSI include one transcript credit that you send yourself from the Results tab of your ATI account after your score is final; institution-proctored exams send the transcript automatically to that institution. Each additional school requires another transcript credit, at $29.99 each.

How soon can I retake the TEAS, and how many times? Per ATI, ATI requires no waiting period between attempts — but your school may limit attempts per year or require time between them, and every scored attempt counts and appears in your attempt history whether or not you send the transcript. A retake covers the whole exam in one sitting; you cannot retake a single section. Check your program’s retake policy before registering again.

How long are TEAS scores valid? Each school decides how long it accepts TEAS scores; per ATI, two years is common. Because validity is a school policy rather than an ATI expiry, a program can set a shorter or longer window, so confirm it with every school you are applying to before choosing a test date — especially if you test well before the application cycle.

What ID do I need for the TEAS? A physical, current, government-issued photo ID, such as a U.S. passport, driver’s license, or state ID, per ATI. The first and last name on the ID must match your ATI account exactly; digital copies, phone photos, student IDs, and work IDs are not accepted. If your ID does not meet the requirements, the proctor stops the exam, no refund is issued, and you must register and pay again.

What types of questions are on the TEAS besides multiple choice? Per ATI, approximately 20% of TEAS questions are alternate item types introduced with Version 7: multiple select (select all that apply, where every correct option and no incorrect ones must be chosen), fill-in-the-blank (a typed answer with no options), ordered response (dragging options into the correct order), and hot spot (clicking the correct area of an image). None of them award partial credit.

Free study sheet (PDF): Download the ATI TEAS study sheet — anatomy and physiology, biology and chemistry facts, math formulas, and English reference rules on two printable pages

Disclaimer

PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI). TEAS and ATI TEAS are marks of Assessment Technologies Institute; all references to them here are for identification only. This guide is general information about the ATI TEAS Version 7 exam, current as of October 2026; ATI’s publications and your school’s admissions requirements govern if anything here differs from them.