How the TEAS 7 proficiency bands actually work
ATI reports a Total Score percentage and one of five proficiency bands. What each band means, how the percentage is built from four sections, and the score your nursing program needs.
Every TEAS score report answers two questions at once. It gives you a Total Score, written as a percentage, and it places that score inside one of five named proficiency bands. Students tend to fixate on the band. Programs tend to read the percentage. Understanding how the two relate is the difference between guessing whether your score is good enough and knowing it.
The one number ATI cares about
Total Score. One percentage for the whole exam, built only from the 150 scored items. The 20 pilot questions never touch it.
Your Total Score is a single percentage that summarises the whole exam. It is built from the questions you answered correctly across all four sections, after the unscored pilot items are removed. Of the 170 questions on a TEAS 7 form, 150 are scored and 20 are unscored trial items that ATI is testing for future exams. You are never told which is which, so the only sound strategy is to treat every question as if it counts.
The five bands, in plain terms
Alongside the percentage, ATI labels your result with a proficiency band. The bands run from Below Basic at the bottom to Exemplary at the top, with Basic, Proficient, and Advanced in between. Treat each band as a shorthand for a range of scores rather than a precise cut point. The band tells an admissions reviewer, at a glance, roughly how prepared you are. The percentage tells them exactly.
| Band | What it signals |
|---|---|
| Below Basic | Foundational gaps across most sections. Real review needed before test day. |
| Basic | Some competence, but uneven. Usually below the line most programs draw. |
| Proficient | Solid, exam-ready command of the material. The band many competitive programs target. |
| Advanced | Strong performance, well above the typical requirement. |
| Exemplary | Top-tier command of every section. Uncommon. |
Your band is a label on a range. The percentage underneath it is what moves you between programs.
Written by the RedRubric editors.RedRubric is an independent study manual and original question bank for the ATI TEAS 7. We write every question from scratch and map it to ATI’s content outline.