How To Predict Questions on the TEAS 6
Wouldn’t you love a crystal ball to tell you exactly what you’ll see on the TEAS 6?
Well, my crystal ball is in the shop at the moment. But do have a formula for you. It won’t tell you the future, but it will help you see the full picture more clearly. Here’s the formula to help you predict questions on the TEAS 6:
Major Concepts + Mini-Concepts = Question Prediction
What exactly does this formula mean? Let’s break it down.
First, you need to know that every scored question on the TEAS 6 links to a specific concept.
Second, you need to know that ATI TEAS has 65 Major Concepts…but the TEAS is longer than 65 questions. This is where the idea of Mini-Concepts comes in.
If you only study the Major Concepts, you’ll miss important details (and not even know it).
If you study only Mini-Concepts, you’ll be completely overwhelmed and miss the big picture.
So what do you do?
You need to understand the relationship between Major Concepts and Mini-Concepts. You need to have the puzzle pieces…and you need to know how they fit together.
When you have an idea of the Major Concepts—and are comfortable with the Mini-Concept details—you can predict the questions on the TEAS 6. You’ll know which questions are likely to be scored, and you won’t be surprised by the vast majority of the questions.
To make this clearer, let’s take a look at an example.
The English section of the TEAS 6 has “analyzing sentence structure” as a Major Concept.
When you look closely, you’ll find that this Major Concept has several smaller Mini-Concept puzzle pieces:
Recognizing simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
Combining independent and dependent clauses correctly
Using 8 specific parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective…) correctly
Combining parts of a sentence, including the subject, predicate, object, and complement
Wow, now this is way more specific!
It’s a lot more work, yes, but now you know the exact areas that you must study. Look at the key terms again: compound-complex sentence, clauses, predicates, parts of speech…can you define all of them? Can you apply their rules?
It’s natural to see the Major Concept of “analyzing sentence structure” and think, “I’m in college, and I can write a sentence, no problem.” This is dangerous. It makes the issue seem simpler than it actually is…and you will be shocked on test day.
After all, you probably instinctively know how to use a dependent clause, but when is the last time you reviewed the rules?
So how many Major Concepts and Mini-Concepts are there on the TEAS 6?
When I was organizing my courses (and making sure I covered everything), I made a handy, dandy spreadsheet. (And, yes, I do make spreadsheets on the TEAS. Don’t laugh!) Here’s a summary of the Major Concepts and Mini-Concepts, completely updated for the TEAS 6:
Section Number of Major Concepts
Number of Mini-Concepts
Number of Scored Questions
Reading 19 40 47
Math 15 61 32
Science 22 80 47
English 9 36 24
Total 65 217 150
What does this chart teach us?
The TEAS 6 has 65 Major Concepts and 217 Mini-Concepts. You could be tested on 217 different concepts. But the TEAS 6 has only 150 scored questions…which means that in order to do well, you will need to over study.
This is why your friend and classmates might see different questions than you did.
The TEAS has 67 more Mini-Concepts than scored test questions!
If you focus on the Major 65 concepts (which is easier to study than 217!), you’ll miss important information and earn a much lower score.
This is why you can feel like you studied hard for the TEAS 6…and still end up with a low score. You probably missed important Mini-Concepts.
For example, English has 9 Major Concepts…but 36 Mini-Concepts. Which ones should you study? Which ones will you see? What is actually important?
The magic prediction formula will help you. When you know the Major Concepts, Mini-Concepts, and their relationships, you can predict what will be on the TEAS.
In my courses, I do this work for you. I’ve studied the material and come up with a system. I teach my students the difference between High-Value Concepts and Fair Game Concepts. High-Value Concepts offer you the most bang for your study buck. They cover the specific questions you are most likely to see—the most important concepts. You must learn them.
Learning High-Value Concepts will increase your score and save you time. You can answer them faster and get them right.
Fair Game concepts identify the areas you might see. They aren’t quite as important, but it’s still good to know them. When you study them, you can give yourself a bonus and boost your score above the average test taker.
When you want to learn more about High-Value Concepts, feel free to check out my courses page. You can sign up—and get a free trial—by clicking here.
To get the score you want on the TEAS 6, you need to know more than the 65 Major Concept. You need to know the details. Good luck!
