Free ATI TEAS 7 Reading guide
October 2026 - Finding Information in a Text Study Guide for nursing students in
Some questions ask only for something the passage states directly. These are the fastest marks in the section, provided you scan for the keyword instead of rereading from the top, and provided you read the full sentence around what you find before you answer.
Recognising a retrieval question
Retrieval questions announce themselves. According to the passage, the author states that, which of the following is mentioned, the passage indicates that — all of these mean the answer is written down somewhere in front of you and no reasoning is required.
That matters for pacing. A retrieval question should take less than the 73 seconds the section allows on average, and the time you save is what pays for the inference and argument questions later.
How to scan
Rereading the passage is the mistake. Locate, then read narrowly.
- Pull the most distinctive word out of the question — a name, a number, a technical term. Ignore common words.
- Run your eye down the passage for that word or an obvious synonym of it. You are pattern-matching, not reading.
- When you find it, read the whole sentence, plus the one before and after. Meaning frequently sits in the neighbouring sentence.
- Answer from what you read, then move on. Do not check the rest of the passage for a better answer.
The correct answer is usually a reworded version of the sentence you found, not a word-for-word copy of it. A choice that repeats the passage's exact phrasing is often lifted from the wrong sentence — the words match, the meaning does not.
The four traps
- True but not asked — a statement the passage does make, answering a question that was not put.
- Right words, wrong sentence — vocabulary copied from a nearby sentence about something else.
- Nearly right number — a figure from the passage attached to the wrong thing, or a total where a part was asked for.
- Outside knowledge — a statement that is true in the world and absent from the text. On a retrieval question that makes it wrong.
Scanning under time
Worked example
Question: "According to the passage, how long should the compression bandage stay in place?" The passage runs eleven sentences and mentions several time periods.
- The distinctive term is "compression bandage", not "how long" — several things in the passage have durations.
- Scan for bandage. Ignore every other time period you pass on the way.
- Read the full sentence containing it, and the next one, in case the duration is given as a follow-up.
- Match the duration to the bandage specifically, and check the answer choices for a reworded version of it rather than an identical phrase.
Scan on the noun, not the question word. The answer will be the reworded choice whose duration attaches to the bandage rather than to any other step described.
Terms to know
- Retrieval question
- A question answerable directly from a stated sentence, with no inference needed.
- Scanning
- Moving the eye over a text hunting for a specific word or figure, rather than reading it.
- Skimming
- Reading quickly for the gist. Useful for structure; not what a retrieval question needs.
- Distractor
- A wrong answer choice built to look right — often by using the passage's own words.
- Signal phrase
- Wording that marks a question as retrieval: "according to the passage", "the author states".
What the TEAS asks most
The same core ideas appear in different wording. If you can answer these without stopping to think, you have what this section requires.
According to the passage, which of the following is true?
Match each choice against the text. Only one will be stated; the rest are true-in-the-world, misattributed, or about a different part of the passage.
Which of these does the author mention?
A checklist question. Scan for each option in turn rather than rereading the passage as prose.
The passage states that X happens when …
Find X, then read the surrounding sentence for the condition attached to it. The condition is often in the neighbouring sentence, not the same one.
Key points
- Retrieval questions need no reasoning — the answer is stated in the text.
- Scan for the most distinctive noun in the question, not for the question word.
- Read the full sentence you land on, plus its neighbours, before answering.
- Expect the correct answer to be reworded; identical phrasing is often bait from the wrong sentence.
- Anything you know but the passage does not say is wrong by definition here.
Review quiz
4 questions on this topic, each with the reasoning worked through. Pick an answer to see how it went, or open the explanation straight away.
Read the passage, then answer the questions below
A tourniquet is a last-resort measure for severe limb bleeding that direct pressure has failed to control. It is applied five to seven centimetres above the wound, never over a joint, and tightened until the bleeding stops rather than to a set pressure. The time of application is written on the patient, traditionally on the forehead, because a receiving team needs it and paperwork gets separated from patients. Tourniquets are painful, and a conscious patient will often ask for the pressure to be released; releasing it intermittently is more dangerous than leaving it in place, and current guidance is that only the team taking over should loosen it.
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Question 1 of 4
According to the passage, where is a tourniquet applied?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Five to seven centimetres above the wound, avoiding joints
The second sentence gives the placement and the exclusion in the same breath. Direct pressure goes over a wound, but that is the measure a tourniquet follows when it fails. The passage rules out joints explicitly, and it never mentions moving towards the torso.
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Question 2 of 4
The passage states that the time of application is recorded on the patient because
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. the receiving team needs it and paperwork becomes separated from patients.
The reason is given in the sentence itself: the receiving team needs the time, and paperwork gets separated from patients. The other three are plausible in the world and simply not in the text — and note that the passage gives no fixed removal deadline at all, which is what makes the third choice tempting.
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Question 3 of 4
Which of the following does the passage mention about tightening a tourniquet?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. It is tightened until the bleeding stops.
The passage says tightening continues until the bleeding stops "rather than to a set pressure", which rules out the first choice using the passage's own words — the exact trap this question type relies on. Staged tightening never appears, and the receiving team is mentioned only as the party who may loosen it.
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Question 4 of 4
According to the passage, what does current guidance say about loosening a tourniquet?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. Only the team taking over the patient should loosen it.
The final clause states exactly this. Intermittent release is named in the passage as more dangerous than leaving it alone, and pain is described as an expected complaint rather than a reason to release. The last choice overstates the text: someone does loosen it eventually, just not the person who applied it.
Put this TEAS topic into practice
Build a set on finding info in a text and use the rationale on every question to reinforce what you just reviewed.
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