TEAS reading section: key ideas, craft and structure, and integrating ideas
Written and reviewed by Rebecca Moore, MSN, RN, CEN · 3 min read · Updated October 2026
Short answer
The TEAS Reading section is 45 questions in 55 minutes. ATI splits it into key ideas and details (15 questions), craft and structure (9), and integration of knowledge and ideas (15), with 6 unscored. Expect short passages, directions, labels, and graphics, and questions about main ideas, inferences, an author's purpose, and evidence.
Key ideas and details
These 15 questions ask what a text says. ATI's topics include summarising a multi-paragraph text, making inferences and drawing conclusions, following written directions, finding specific information, reading charts and graphs, and putting events in sequence.
The trap is the answer that sounds sensible but is not in the passage. For a detail question, find the line that supports your answer before you choose it. For an inference, choose the option the passage makes most likely, not the one you would believe anyway.
Craft and structure
These 9 questions ask how a text works. You will be asked to tell fact from opinion and spot bias, work out a word's meaning from context, and judge an author's purpose and point of view.
Purpose questions usually come down to four verbs: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, or to explain how to do something. Fact versus opinion turns on whether a statement could be checked. Words like best, should, and unfortunately often signal opinion.
Integration of knowledge and ideas
These 15 questions ask you to combine and judge. Topics include using evidence to make predictions, comparing themes across two texts, evaluating an argument, and combining data from sources in different formats, such as a passage and a table.
When two sources are involved, work out what each one says on its own before comparing them. When evaluating an argument, look for the claim, the evidence offered, and whether the evidence actually supports that claim.
Pacing the section
At a little over a minute per question, you cannot reread every passage several times. Read the question first, then the passage with that question in mind, and move on from any item that is eating time. Questions based on a graphic, a set of directions, or a label are often quicker than long passages, so do not let one dense text use up the minutes those need. Our free TEAS reading practice questions are timed the same way, with an explanation for every answer.
Common questions
How many questions are in the TEAS reading section?
45 questions in 55 minutes on TEAS Version 7, including 6 unscored pretest questions.
How long are the TEAS reading passages?
They vary, from a few lines of directions or a label to multi-paragraph texts. Some questions use a chart or graph instead of prose.
How do I get faster at TEAS reading?
Timed practice with feedback. Read the question before the passage, and after each set review every question you missed or guessed to see what the passage actually said.