TEAS 7 English & Language Usage Practice

What this section actually tests

English and Language Usage is the shortest section: 37 questions in 37 minutes, 4 of them unscored. The scored questions sit in three areas. Conventions of Standard English covers punctuation, grammar and agreement - commas, apostrophes, sentence boundaries, verb tense, pronoun agreement and parallel structure. Knowledge of Language covers style and sentence craft: choosing the clearest transition, cutting wordiness and keeping a sentence concise. Using Vocabulary covers choosing the word that fits the meaning and register of a sentence.

Question types you will meet

• Punctuation - decide where a comma, apostrophe, colon or semicolon belongs, or remove one that is wrong.
• Grammar and agreement - match subjects and verbs, or pronouns and their antecedents.
• Sentence structure - repair a fragment, a run-on or a misplaced modifier.
• Transitions - choose the connective that signals the right relationship between two ideas.
• Concision - select the version of a sentence that says the same thing in fewer words.
• Vocabulary in context - pick the word that carries the intended meaning, not merely a related one.

Where marks are lost

• Answering by ear. Spoken English tolerates constructions that written Standard English marks as errors, so a sentence can sound right and still be wrong.
• Choosing the longest or most formal option on style questions, when the section usually rewards the shortest clear version.
• Fixing the wrong problem in a sentence - correcting the verb when the fault was the punctuation, which leaves the real error in place.
• Judging transition and vocabulary options word by word instead of reading the whole sentence for meaning.

How to use these ten tests

The section moves quickly, so practise it in one unbroken sitting and keep to about a minute a question. Every question carries an explanation naming the rule involved, so after each test group your mistakes by rule - comma use, agreement, transitions - rather than by test. Retake the tests freely: on a second run, read only the explanations for the rules you previously missed, then take a fresh test to confirm the rule now holds under time pressure.