🎓 ATI TEAS 2026: There Is No Passing Score

Here is exactly how the ATI TEAS works, and how to pass it, in just a few minutes. The TEAS is the entrance exam for nursing and allied health programs. It is written and scored by ATI, Assessment Technologies Institute, and the current edition is Version seven. You take it on a computer, either at a school or a testing center, or at home with a remote proctor.

Most questions are multiple choice, but Version seven also uses other formats: select all that apply, fill in the blank, ordered response, and hot spot. The whole exam is one hundred seventy questions in two hundred nine minutes. That is three hours and twenty-nine minutes of testing time. But only one hundred fifty of those questions are scored.

Twenty are unscored pretest items that ATI is trying out for future exams, and you cannot tell which ones they are. So never write off a strange looking question. Answer every single one as if it counts, because you have no way to know. The exam has four sections, and each one is timed separately.

Reading is forty-five questions in fifty-five minutes. Mathematics is thirty-eight questions in fifty-seven minutes. Science is fifty questions in sixty minutes. And English and language usage is thirty-seven questions in thirty-seven minutes.

Look at that last one. Exactly one minute per question. It is the shortest section, and it is the tightest on time. Now the part that surprises almost everyone.

There is no national passing score on the TEAS. ATI does not set one. In ATI's own words, each school sets its own cut score. What ATI sends your program is a score plus an academic preparedness level: below basic, basic, proficient, advanced, or exemplary.

Most programs want you at proficient or above. So before you plan a single hour of studying, ask the program you are applying to for their number. That number is your target, not a percentage you read online. Here is where the points are.

Science is the largest section, fifty questions, and inside it, human anatomy and physiology alone is eighteen of the forty-four scored science items. Biology is nine, chemistry is eight, and scientific reasoning is nine. Anatomy and physiology is the single biggest topic on the entire exam. If your study time is limited, that is where it goes.

One more practical detail that catches people out. A four-function calculator is provided, on screen for the computer version and by the proctor on paper. Four function means add, subtract, multiply, and divide. There is no fraction key and no square root key, and you may not bring your own calculator.

So practice converting fractions, decimals, and percents by hand, because the calculator will not do it for you. Let's do three real questions. First, science. Blood leaving the right ventricle enters which structure next?

The answer is the pulmonary trunk. The right ventricle pushes oxygen poor blood out toward the lungs, and the pulmonary trunk is the vessel that carries it there. The aorta only ever receives blood from the left ventricle. Second, mathematics.

What is five eighths written as a percent? Sixty-two point five percent. Five divided by eight is zero point six two five, and moving the decimal two places to the right gives you sixty-two point five percent. This is exactly the kind of question that four-function calculator makes you set up yourself.

Third, English and language usage. Here is the sentence. The patient's fever broke overnight, she was discharged the next morning. Those are two complete sentences joined by nothing but a comma.

That is a comma splice, and the correct fix is a semicolon in place of that comma. Not the word however, and not simply deleting the punctuation. So, how do you prepare? Tip one.

Drill full length practice tests until you are well above your program's cut score, not scraping it. The TEAS is timed section by section, so practice against the clock, especially English and language usage at one minute per question. Tip two. Master anatomy and physiology first.

The body systems, their organs, and what each system actually does. Eighteen scored questions ride on it, more than any other topic on the exam. Learn the systems as systems, not as a pile of isolated facts. Tip three.

Log every miss with the reason you missed it, then re-drill only those, and weight your time toward the sections that carry the most questions. Science and reading are ninety-five of the one hundred seventy questions between them. Tip four. Read every question all the way to the end.

Reading and English items turn on a single word: except, not, best, primarily. And on a select all that apply question, judge each option on its own, as if it were its own true or false question. Quick recap. One hundred seventy questions, two hundred nine minutes, four separately timed sections.

Only one hundred fifty count, and you cannot tell which. There is no passing score, because your school sets the cut. Anatomy and physiology is the biggest topic on the exam. And the calculator does four things only.

You can practice all four TEAS sections free at quibank.com/en/teas, in English, Chinese, or Spanish, with no sign up.