LPN Entrance Exam
When you register for an LPN program, the first thing the school will ask you is to take a mandatory pre-entrance exam/LPN entrance exam (also known as Academic Skill Test (AST) or Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS®)). This test is composed of math, English and science. The science portion may have the following components: Anatomy & Physiology, Biology.
The entrance test is required to be taken by nursing students for admission purposes. Failing to score the required passing grade will result in a re-taking of the exam. In most cases, students have to wait a few months to retake the exam again.
There is a non-refundable fee that you have to pay every time you sit for the exam. The fee usually varies from school to school, but the ballpark figure is around $50. Depending on the nursing school, your exam score may be valid up to two years from your exam date. If you are not ready to start the program right away, you have up to 2 years until you are required to re-take the exam. This exam is not a walk-in kind of test. Most schools have specific dates for the test throughout the year and students are required to complete the required formalities such as: registration, paying fees, etc., at least one week prior to the exam date. You can get detail information from the schools directly. Use our LPN schools directory to find contact addresses.
LPN Entrance Exam Format
The exam is either a paper & pencil or computer based exam. In most cases, it’s computer based. During the exam session, there will be a supervisor in attendance. The exam may take around 3 to 5 hours, depending on developer and provider of the exam. And the number of questions may vary from 150 to 200, give or take. When you practice for the exam, it’s good to aim for 60 seconds per question or less in order to attempt all questions in the allotted time and maximize your score. Usually, students are required to score at least 75% on each subject to pass the exam. Once you answer a question and hit “next,” you are not allowed to come back and review the previous question.
Here is a list of TEAS exam questions coverage and timing:
- Reading assessment (40 Questions to be completed in 50 minutes)
Questions may include:
- Paragraph comprehension
- Passage comprehension and inferences/ conclusions.
- Math (45 questions to be completed in 56 minutes)
Questions may include:
- Basic math problems,
- Metric conversion,
- Word problems,
- Fractions and decimals,
- Algebraic equations,
- Percentages and ratio/proportion.
- Science (30 questions to be completed in 38 minutes)
Questions may include:
- Science reasoning,
- Science knowledge,
- Biology,
- Chemistry,
- Anatomy and physiology,
- Basic physical principles
- General science
- English and Language Usage (55 questions to be completed in 65 minutes)
Questions may include:
- Knowledge of punctuation,
- Grammar,
- Sentence structure,
- Contextual words, and spelling.
How can I prepare for the exam?
To prepare for the exam, you should get one of the LPN entrance exam study guides from your school library or buy one from a book store. The cost is around $40 and it will provide you with a lot of review questions for practice. Exam providers also offer practice tests in order to get you familiarize with the testing environment.
On the exam date, try to reach the test center at least 30 minutes before the exam start time. In most cases, you are not allowed to use calculator for the test, so you should practice the math portion without a calculator.
Exam Result
You will get your exam result as soon as you finish the exam and your school adviser will get in touch with you to discuss what you should do next, based on the results. If you pass the exam, you will continue with the admission process, but if you fail, you will receive a comprehensive plan from the exam provider for your next attempt, pointing out your weakest parts.