TEAS 7 pH/acid and base

This topic was requested by a student. Pls note that this video is part of a chemistry less in TEAS 7. I moved it up the schedule in response to the request. Balancing chemical reaction video: • TEAS Science Review: B...

[@sarahh1305]

Having not taken chemistry yet, would you suggest that we memorize each element for typical acids and bases? In the practice questions, seeing the choices with simply H in them to me, suggested that they were acids when they turned out to not be. Is there a way to recognize acids and bases without knowing each element individually? I just happened to know that NH was a base only because that's one of the few elements I do know, but without the OH group in there, I wouldn't have otherwise picked it as a base, most likely.

[@professoryu5571]

That's a great question! I have to say that it can be very challenging if you have never taken chemistry before. Without having all the basic foundation, if I were you, I would spend some time memorizing the comment elements in typical acids and bases. I honestly think it's a good "investment" of time/energy because there are more chemistry questions in TEAS 7 than TEAS 6 and you will have to be somewhat good at chemistry to do well with classes in nursing school (I'm surprised the program(s) you are applying for does not require chemistry as a pre-req). There are not many acids out there so remember them first and others are likely to be non-acids. For bases, follow the metal rule I mentioned in the video and memorize a few metal elements and the common bases (including NH3 which you know). Make some post-it notes and look at them at least once a day and you will start picking them up in a few days :-) Hope this helps and let me know if you have any further questions!

[@ItsJustMe-xq4or]

After reading through the new TEAS study guide and going through the practice tests and finding errors, it concerns me that when it comes time to take the actual exam students may answer a question correctly but get it incorrect due to all the errors. No one would even know. Alarming.

[@professoryu5571]

That's a reasonable concern. I sometimes have typos in my materials but I was working alone and I was in a rush to get the TEAS 7 materials out to students when ATI first announed switching to TEAS 7. But I'm hoping that ATI, as a national organization, would have multiple people check and validate their test banks, and that errors are not as common as those in the study manual... 🤔

[@ThuyLe-dt9qc]

Good evening Professor, I have a question about amylase. Is it broken into simpler sugars which is monosaccharides?

[@professoryu5571]

Great question! I feel many textbooks do not go into detail on this - they just say amylase digests starch to simple sugars. Actually amylase only breaks down starch into maltose, which is a disaccharide. Other enzymes (maltase) in the digestive tract will further break down maltose into glucose, which is a monosaccharide. Hope this answered your question. Let me know if you have any other questions :-)

[@ThuyLe-dt9qc]

@@professoryu5571 Thank you so much for your answer, Professor! That is why I feel confused when doing question #49 of your science practice test 1 from Etsy. It asks about the monomers of amylase if it is broken down and the key is amino acids. Could you help me with this question?

[@professoryu5571]

@@ThuyLe-dt9qc You are welcome! The reason you are confused is because the question in the practice test is about what monomers make up amylase - not what amylase breaks down its substrate (e.g., starch) to. Amylase is a protein (almost all of the enzymes are proteins with a small number being RNA). The building blocks/monomers of all protein molecules are amino acids. So when amylase molecules are broken down to smaller molecules, they "disintegrate" into amino acids. When amylase functions as an enzyme, it's function is to break down starch to a simpler disaccharide. Hope this cleared thing up and don't hesitate if you have any further questions about this topic! :-) Just be sure to read the question carefully in the future so you don't get wrong because of misunderstanding. Good follow-up question!

[@ThuyLe-dt9qc]

@@professoryu5571 I got it. Thank you so much for your clarification! It helps me a lot.

[@professoryu5571]

@@ThuyLe-dt9qc Absolutely!Glad it helped. Let me know if you have more questions :-)

[@brittney2586]

Hello, Just wanted to comments that I have taken the teas and have asked me about some calculations and need to see which one is correct If I can remember correctly it wa something like this - ( the pH of 3 is 10 times more acidic than the pH of 10) which are Im still confused on.

[@professoryu5571]

Thanks for sharing and it was a good question! My guess is that the number was not that different - 3 vs 10 (you will see why - too many zeros to handle, LOL). It might be like 3 vs 5, or 2 vs 5. Just remember that 1 number difference, like 2 vs 3, 4 vs 5, or 9 vs 10, it's 10 times difference in hydrogen ion concentrations. So pH of 2 would have 10 times H+ than pH of 3 (the smaller number means it's more acidic). For a difference of 2, like 2 vs 4, 5 vs 7, 8 vs 10, just add the same number of zeros which would be two zeros - essentially 100. So pH of 2 would have 100x more H+ than pH of 4 (4-2=2). If the number difference is 3, then add three zeros, which would be 1000. So pH of 2 has 1000x more H+ as pH of 5 (5-2=3). Hope this helps. Next time you will get it right!! :-)

[@brittney2586]

@@professoryu5571 Thanks so much for the detail reply!! I get it now :) and yes I think I did saw a bunch of zeros which is what made me confused at first.

[@professoryu5571]

@@brittney2586 Fantastic! Nothing makes you feel better than understanding a chemistry question (with some math too), LOL!

[@brittney2586]

@@professoryu5571 yes!!

[@professoryu5571]

@@brittney2586 💪👍