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A primary source is a firsthand account or original material (diary, interview, raw data, original study); a secondary source analyzes, interprets, or summarizes primary sources (textbook, review article, biography).
Tertiary sources such as encyclopedias compile secondary sources. Primary does not mean better — a flawed eyewitness account may be less reliable than a careful secondary analysis, which is why source evaluation is its own skill.
Judging whether an author's claim is adequately supported by relevant, sufficient evidence and sound reasoning, rather than by emotion, anecdote, or faulty logic.
An argument has a claim, evidence, and reasoning that links them. TEAS items may ask which statement would strengthen or weaken the author’s argument — the right answer always bears directly on the claim.
Combining multiple pieces of stated evidence in a passage to arrive at a judgment the author never states directly — a broader cousin of inference.
Conclusions synthesize evidence from across the whole passage, while inferences may come from a single line. Both must be anchored in the text — the TEAS rewards the most conservative reading that the evidence fully supports.
Using evidence in the text plus logical reasoning to anticipate what will most likely happen next or what a person described in the passage would most likely do.
Prediction questions look forward while conclusion questions look at what is already established, but both are graded the same way: the best answer is the one the text makes most probable, not the most interesting one.
The underlying universal message or insight about life that a literary text conveys — expressed as a complete idea, such as 'pride blinds people to good advice,' not a single word like 'pride.'
Themes are rarely stated; they emerge from how characters change and what their choices cost. A single work can support several themes, and TEAS answers reward the one best supported by the passage as a whole.
The four major types of writing: expository (explains or informs), persuasive (argues a position), narrative (tells a story), and technical (gives specialized instructions or procedures).
Technical writing is distinguished by precise vocabulary, numbered steps, and visual aids for a specialized audience. Many real texts blend modes, so TEAS questions ask for the dominant one.
A counterargument is the opposing position an author acknowledges; the rebuttal is the author's response showing why that opposing position is weaker than the author's own claim.
Addressing counterarguments strengthens persuasion by showing the author has weighed both sides. On comparing-passages items, track which claims each author would accept or reject.
Identifying the specific words, lines, or details in a passage that support a given claim, inference, or conclusion.
This skill runs in both directions on the TEAS: given a conclusion, find the evidence; given evidence, find the conclusion it supports. Strong evidence is specific and directly relevant, not just thematically nearby.
Judging how trustworthy a source is based on the author's expertise, the publisher, the date, the presence of citations, and whether the source has a motive to slant information.
Currency matters more in fast-moving fields like medicine than in literature. A credible source names its author, cites its evidence, and separates reporting from opinion.
Connecting words and phrases — however, therefore, in addition, for example, similarly, consequently — that show how an author's ideas relate to one another.
Transitions are the surface evidence of text structure — a passage full of ‘because’ and ‘as a result’ is organized by cause and effect. They also mark where an author concedes a point before refuting it.