What TEAS 7 is: four sections, four clocks, one school cut
ATI TEAS 7 is a health-science entrance exam with four separately timed sections: reading, mathematics, science, and English and language usage. 170 questions. 209 minutes. Twenty unscored. Submit a section and you cannot go back. ATI reports four bars. The catalog prints the cut. A Des Moines hallway video with a TikTok composite will not change the 55-minute reading clock the proctor starts at eight.
This guide is the sitting: what lives in each section, why you cannot return, and how to prepare without a mixed pile. The printout lives on how to read the report. Faculty floors live on the cut faculty actually set. If your catalog named HESI A2 instead, open HESI A2. If the name is still blank, wait for the PDF. Pre-nursing prep is the fork.
Nursier does not sell TEAS. We do not register you with ATI. Practice here is unofficial. When you pay for the real seat, you pay ATI through the process your school named.
What TEAS 7 actually is
ATI’s public exam-details page is the clean source. The ATI TEAS, Version 7, measures basic academic skills in reading, mathematics, science, and English and language usage. It is built for adult health-science applicants, not for a license. It is not NCLEX. It is not a nurse aide skills test. It reports the four sections and a total so a nursing program can see whether you are ready for the science year that comes next.
The live shape, from ATI:
- 170 questions
- 209 minutes of testing time
- Question types that include multiple choice, multiple select, fill-in-the-blank numeric, hot spot, and ordered response
- 20 of those 170 items are unscored pretest questions mixed into the sections
Read ATI TEAS exam details and ATI’s help page on sections, timing, and going back before you trust a third-party graphic. ATI writes the exam. Screenshots in a group chat do not.
Four sections, four clocks
The order does not move. Reading first. Math second. A 10-minute break after math that does not eat testing time. Science third. English last. Each section’s clock starts when you open that section.
| Section | Questions | Unscored | Minutes | What ATI says it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 45 | 6 | 55 | Key ideas and details, craft and structure, integration of knowledge and ideas |
| Mathematics | 38 | 4 | 57 | Numbers and algebra, measurement and data |
| Science | 50 | 6 | 60 | Human anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, scientific reasoning |
| English and language usage | 37 | 4 | 37 | Conventions of standard English, knowledge of language, using language and vocabulary in writing |
Those scored-versus-unscored splits are ATI’s own exam-details table. You will not be told which items are pretest. Do not spend the last four minutes hunting for them. Answer the item in front of you.
ATI’s content outline PDF is the longer map: reading is 39 scored items, math 34, science 44, English 33, if you add the scored column. The live exam still presents 170 items including pretest. Use the outline for topics. Use the exam-details page for the clock. Start at the ATI TEAS 7 content outline (PDF).
What sits inside each section
Reading
This is not a literature seminar. ATI wants you to summarize, infer, follow directions, find a fact in a paragraph, read a chart, and keep events in order. Craft and structure is fact versus opinion and words in context. Integration is the “put two pieces together” work. If you miss reading items, you are often rushing the stem, not failing English class.
Math
Fractions, decimals, percents, one-variable equations, ratios, proportions, and measurement. Word problems that look like a med-math cousin without being a dose calculation exam. If you cannot convert a percent in a quiet kitchen, you will not convert it at minute 40 with a proctor in the room. Confirm whether your seat includes the on-screen tools ATI named for that delivery. Do not bring a calculator the packet forbade.
Science
Anatomy and physiology is the heavy bar: orientation of the body plus systems ATI lists in the outline, from respiratory through immune and skeletal. Then biology, chemistry, and scientific reasoning. Programs often stare at this line. A pretty composite with a soft science bar is how people get a polite rejection. Study the systems as if a skills instructor will ask you to point, because one will, later, in a different building.
English and language usage
Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and whether you can choose the sentence that actually says the thing. Thirty-seven minutes for 37 questions is the tightest clock. It sits last, when you are tired. That is not an accident you can negotiate. It is the design.
Why you cannot go back
ATI’s help page is the sentence to tape on the fridge. You can move back and forth inside the section you are in. You can flag. When you submit and move on, you cannot return. Finishing reading in 40 minutes does not give science 15 extra minutes. The unused time dies with the section.
That is why a mixed “do a little of everything” study week fails the real seat. The seat is four closed rooms. Practice the rooms. Then practice the lock.
Four bars, not one mystery number
The score report is four content areas plus a total. The short post on this site, the one about the evening you get the PDF, is still true: name the two lowest bars out loud, then work those. This longer page is the exam that produced the bars. If you have not sat yet, do not study as if there is one number to “beat.”
We will not invent a national cut score. ATI does not admit you. The nursing program does. A “proficient” label on an ATI chart is not a seat. A classmate’s 78 is not your catalog. If you already have a report, name the two lowest bars and work those. The ATI TEAS 7 guide is the repair map on this site.
The school cut, not an internet average
Community colleges publish their own arithmetic. We already showed three of those packets in the ADN points guide: Craven adds TEAS to bonus points, CT State uses 25 percent TEAS with a 58.7 percent floor, Santa Barbara wants TEAS 7 at 62 percent and keeps the first attempt. Those numbers are local law. They are not a national TEAS average. Do not average them. Do not carry a 58.7 into a 62 building.
Write four facts on a card before you pay ATI:
- The exam name: ATI TEAS 7, not an older version the school will reject.
- The minimum total, and any section floors.
- How many attempts they count, and whether they keep the first or the latest.
- The last date a score is accepted for this cohort.
If two schools named two different cuts, keep two cards. If one school named HESI, that card is a different exam.
How TEAS differs from HESI and NCLEX
HESI A2 is a school packet. The school picks the sections. Anatomy may come first. TEAS 7 is four fixed sections in a fixed order. They do not share a score scale. A TEAS science bar does not tell you how you would have scored on a school’s HESI anatomy module.
NCLEX is a license exam after an approved program. Studying NCLEX items because they “feel like science” is how people ignore the chart-reading item in front of them. Keep the lanes. The entrance exam is the entrance exam. The license exam is later. The aide skills test is a different building.
Retakes, remote seats, and the catalog line
ATI will sell you another seat if their rules allow it. Your school may not count it. Wake Tech’s public TEAS FAQ is one campus example of a local retake rule: twice per calendar year, 30 days apart, and they do not even give the exam on site. That is one college. Yours may be kinder or colder. Read Wake Tech’s TEAS FAQ (PDF) as a method, then open your own PDF.
Remote TEAS is still TEAS. It is also a room scan. Kids, second monitors, and a Chromebook that will not lock are the same problems we already walked for online programs. If you will sit at the kitchen table, read the proctor room before you pay the remote fee.
We will not invent ATI’s price. It moves by delivery and by voucher. Confirm the current register page ATI publishes, and confirm whether your school’s testing fee is a different checkout.
How to prepare without a mixed pile
Sit a short diagnostic in TEAS 7 only. Name the two weak sections. Work those until you can explain the miss out loud. Then mix. Then time. The ATI TEAS 7 guide is the practice map on this site. Official items, if you buy them, stay with ATI. Unofficial practice will not replace a content outline. It can keep the question style in front of you after a shift.
If the next task after a score is still a waitlist, stop shopping TEAS videos. The points worksheet is the next document. If the next task is a license exam years from now, leave NCLEX alone. Sit practice questions in the exam you already named. The Nursier editorial team wrote this.
We do not take ATI registration. We do not take a school’s application fee. ATI and the college keep those payments.
Common questions
How many questions are on TEAS 7?
170, including 20 unscored pretest items, in 209 minutes. ATI’s exam-details page is the live table. Confirm it before you sit. Tables move when a version moves.
Can I skip around the whole exam?
No. You can skip around inside one section. When you submit that section, you cannot return. Unused time dies.
What is a good TEAS score?
The number your catalog printed, including any science floor. There is no honest national “good.” Internet averages are not admissions policy.
Is TEAS harder than HESI?
They are different exams. Hard is the one you did not prepare for. If the school named HESI A2, study HESI A2.
Do I need TEAS if I already have a degree?
If the ADN or BSN packet names TEAS 7, you need TEAS 7. A bachelor’s in psychology does not retire a community-college entrance exam.
When do I start NCLEX after TEAS?
After you finish an approved program and the board makes you eligible. Studying NCLEX the week of TEAS is how people fail TEAS. Keep the two apart.
Sources
Confirm live ATI pages. Version numbers move.
- ATI, TEAS exam details
- ATI Help, TEAS sections, timing, and going back
- ATI TEAS 7 content outline (PDF)
- Wake Tech, TEAS FAQ (PDF)
- ATI, register for TEAS
Nursier is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ATI, Assessment Technologies Institute, Elsevier, NCSBN, or any nursing program. TEAS is a trademark of Assessment Technologies Institute, LLC. This article is planning copy. It is not the official exam, and it is not a school cut score.
