The TEP is an 80-item, 75-minute multiple-choice test of written English with five parts: Reading Comprehension, Synonyms, Grammar and Usage, Sentence Completion, and Antonyms. To apply you need Form 3908, a $95 fee, and at least 30 college credit hours with a 2.0 GPA. Prepare by diagnosing your weakest part, drilling distinctions per part, and rehearsing against the official sample test under time.
What the TEP is and where it fits
The TEP is a timed, multiple-choice test of written English. It is a prerequisite for the BEI interpreter performance tests, so it measures reading and writing precision, not signing skill.
The Board for Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI) certification program in Texas begins with this written Test of English Proficiency. Under current handbook rules, an applicant generally must pass the TEP before taking a BEI performance test, unless applying for a specialty certificate.
The verified format is straightforward: five parts, 16 items each, 80 items total, all multiple-choice with four options and one correct answer. You have 1 hour and 15 minutes for the test itself, separate from paperwork and instructions.
Prepare directly for written-English comprehension, vocabulary and grammar. Signed-language practice alone does not rehearse the five multiple-choice tasks.
Sources: Chapter 1, General Interpreter Certification Policies and Procedures | Forms and Handbooks (Texas HHS) — Sections 1.2, 1.4, 1.6–1.6.3, 1.7.3; Texas HHSC BEI Study Guide for General Interpreter Certification Candidates (February 2022 revision) — TEP timing paragraph, results/pass standard, and Chapter 4 tested parts
Eligibility and how to apply
You must be at least 18, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, have no disqualifying criminal conviction, and have completed at least 30 college credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.
Those requirements come from the current BEI qualification rules. The 30-credit-hour requirement applies specifically to taking the TEP; higher performance tests carry additional education and prerequisite conditions.
To apply, complete Form 3908 (Test of English Proficiency) and indicate your preferred testing location. Attach a copy of a valid photo ID, an official college transcript showing the completed credit hours, and payment of the $95 fee to HHSC DHHS by check, money order, or cashier's check.
Mail the packet at least 30 calendar days before you want to schedule a test date. If you need a testing accommodation, submit the request with documentation from a certified diagnosing professional together with your application, since requests must be received with the application to be processed.
- Age 18 or older, with a high school diploma or its equivalent
- No conviction that could disqualify you from holding a BEI certificate
- At least 30 credit hours from an accredited college or university, cumulative GPA 2.0 or higher
- Form 3908 plus photo ID copy, official transcript, and the $95 fee, mailed at least 30 days before scheduling
The five tested parts at a glance
Reading Comprehension, Synonyms, Grammar and Usage, Sentence Completion, and Antonyms — 16 items each, weighted equally by count.
Equal item counts mean vocabulary work spans two of the five parts, and Grammar and Usage — its idiom and grammar halves combined — accounts for one fifth of the 80 items. Use the table to decide where your practice time goes, then work through each part below.
| Part | What it asks | Core skill |
|---|---|---|
| I — Reading Comprehension | Passage questions on main idea, details, implications, and tone | Answering only from the passage |
| II — Synonyms | Choose the word closest in meaning to an underlined word | Distinguishing shades of meaning |
| III — Grammar and Usage | Half on idiomatic expressions, half on standard written English | Reading idioms as units; naming grammar errors |
| IV — Sentence Completion | Fill one or two blanks so the whole sentence makes sense | Using logic clues and connectors |
| V — Antonyms | Choose the word most nearly opposite in meaning | Reasoning from a word to its opposite |
Reading comprehension: answer from the passage only
Reading items reward evidence discipline: a correct choice restates or follows necessarily from the passage, while tempting wrong answers overgeneralize, distort, or add outside assumptions.
Questions cover the main idea, explicit details, implications, applications of the author's reasoning, and tone. The official guidance is explicit that answers come from the passage itself, not prior knowledge — so an unfamiliar or technical topic is not a reason to panic.
Two habits from the official strategies pay off immediately. First, read every choice before answering; second, reject answers that are only partially true or that fail to fully answer the question, even when they contain accurate statements.
A reliable self-check: for each wrong choice, name why it fails. Was it unsupported, an overclaim beyond the evidence, or a distortion of a stated relationship? Labeling failures trains you to see the gap between what a passage says and what a choice asserts.
Practice item
Read the passage and choose the best answer. Passage: A county hospital piloted video remote interpreting for overnight shifts, when its staff interpreters were not on site. Over six months, administrators logged that the remote service sometimes failed to connect, yet waiting times for sign-language interpreting at night still dropped compared with the previous system of on-call interpreters traveling in. At the end of the pilot, the hospital kept its daytime staff positions and voted to expand the remote service to additional overnight units. According to the passage, which statement is best supported? A. Video remote interpreting is unsuitable for hospital use. B. The hospital found remote overnight interpreting useful enough to expand despite connection problems. C. The staff interpreters refused to work overnight shifts. D. The hospital plans to eliminate all staff interpreter positions.
Show answer
B
The passage states that the hospital expanded the remote service and kept daytime staff, so B combines two stated facts. A overgeneralizes: connection problems occurred, but the passage reports improved wait times and expansion, not unsuitability. C is unsupported — 'not on site' does not mean refusal. D contradicts the statement that daytime staff positions were kept.
Synonyms and antonyms: separate close meanings
Vocabulary items turn on fine distinctions. When several choices seem plausible, compare shades of meaning, intensity, and tone, and check whether a word has a second meaning you overlooked.
Synonym items ask for the choice closest in meaning to an underlined word; antonym items ask for the most nearly opposite. Both typically involve nouns, verbs, and adjectives with single-word answers, and both reward attention to intensity.
Build contrast sets to make the differences explicit. Consider stated, claimed, and alleged: stated is neutral about truth, claimed signals the writer is not endorsing it, and alleged adds the tone of an unproven assertion. For each set, write a sentence where swapping the word changes what a reader would conclude — that sentence is your proof you know the difference.
For antonyms, remember you want 'most nearly opposite,' not a loose opposite, and that a word with multiple meanings may only have its opposite among the choices under its second meaning. Roots, prefixes, and suffixes help when the word itself is unfamiliar.
Practice item
Choose the word closest in meaning to the underlined word. The archivist was meticulous, cataloging every letter and noting even the faint water stain on one envelope. Underlined word: meticulous A. careless B. thorough C. reluctant D. hasty
Show answer
B
B is the closest available meaning: the example describes careful, complete work. A and D conflict with that care. C means unwilling, which is a different quality; detailed work does not tell us whether the archivist was willing or reluctant.
Grammar and usage: name the error, read the idiom whole
Half the grammar items test idiomatic expressions and half test standard written English. For grammar, find the true subject–verb pair before trusting your ear; for idioms, read the expression as one unit.
The errors that survive an ear check usually involve distance or distraction: a plural noun sits between the subject and the verb, or a singular word like 'each' or 'neither' feels plural. Train a two-pass habit — first locate the true subject and verb, then check every opening phrase actually describes someone or something in the sentence.
Idioms are fixed units whose meanings resist word-by-word decoding, and many phrasal verbs are polysemous: 'call off a meeting' means cancel it, while 'call on a student' means select them to answer. Context, not the verb, selects the meaning. When an idiom is unfamiliar, reason from the sentence's tone and consequences instead of translating the literal words.
Practice item
Choose the sentence that represents the most appropriate form of standard written English. A. Neither of the candidates were available for the weekend assignment. B. Neither of the candidates was available for the weekend assignment. C. Neither of the candidate was available for the weekend assignment. D. Neither candidates was available for the weekend assignment.
Show answer
B
'Neither' is singular here, so it takes the singular verb 'was,' which makes B correct; the plural noun 'candidates' sits inside the prepositional phrase and cannot change the verb. A agrees with the nearby plural instead of the subject. C pairs 'neither of' with a singular noun where the 'of' construction requires a plural. D drops the required 'of the' after 'neither' in this construction.
Sentence completion: let the logic choose
Completion items ask which word or phrase best completes the sentence as a whole. Connectors such as 'although,' 'but,' and 'therefore' tell you the direction the missing word must take.
Before looking at the choices, read the full sentence and predict roughly what belongs in the blank. A word like 'although' signals contrast; 'because' signals cause. The official strategies also recommend checking grammatical clues and, for two-blank items, confirming that both parts of one answer work together.
Expect the choices to include words that fit the topic but not the logic. Matching meaning to the whole sentence — including irony or humor where present — is what separates the correct answer from a merely topical one.
Practice item
Choose the word that best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole. Although the committee praised the report's thoroughness, it withheld formal approval, because supporting evidence had not been checked and a few claims still needed ____. A. celebration B. verification C. decoration D. simplification
Show answer
B
'Although' signals a contrast with the praise, and 'withheld formal approval' shows the committee still doubts something. Claims that need checking need verification, so B completes the logic. Celebration conflicts with withholding approval, decoration does not resolve doubt about claims, and simplification would address clarity, not the truth of claims.
Scheduling, results, and retakes
After your application is processed, a testing service mails the TEP to your chosen site and notifies you; you then arrange the appointment with the site. Once the test is mailed, the location and application cannot be changed.
Contact the testing site after you receive notification, since some sites require appointments while others hold general testing hours. Ask about proctoring fees when you arrange the session — some sites charge them, and you pay the proctor directly under the site's own policy.
The test must be taken within 90 days of application or the fee is forfeited, absent a valid reason for delay. HHSC DHHS reports results within 30 days of the test. A passing score lets you apply for a performance test; if you do not pass, you must wait six months from the test date, then submit a new application and fee and meet all eligibility requirements again.
If you must cancel a confirmed appointment, notify HHSC DHHS and the testing site immediately. Rescheduling without an extra fee is possible only with proof of qualifying reasons such as illness, a death in the immediate family, or conditions beyond your control.
A preparation routine you can adapt
Start with a diagnostic, drill your weakest part, and finish with timed mixed practice. This routine is study advice, not an official requirement.
Take a mixed practice set and log each miss by tested part and error type. Use the official BEI study guide's sample questions to understand the tasks, then practise with additional original material.
Drill the part where your error log shows the greatest need: passage evidence for reading, contrasts in word meaning for vocabulary, and sentence structure and idioms for Grammar and Usage. The official 80-item, 75-minute format averages about 56 seconds per item. In a timed rehearsal, allow some of that total time for checking and answer-sheet transfer.
Use the free practice questions on this site to build familiarity between timed sets, and treat each miss as a named error type rather than bad luck. For current testing sites and dates, check BEI Testing Dates and Sites or contact HHSC DHHS directly, since site agreements change.
Sources: Chapter 1, General Interpreter Certification Policies and Procedures | Forms and Handbooks (Texas HHS) — Sections 1.2, 1.4, 1.6–1.6.3, 1.7.3; Texas HHSC BEI Study Guide for General Interpreter Certification Candidates (February 2022 revision) — TEP timing paragraph, results/pass standard, and Chapter 4 tested parts
Sources
Facts checked against official sources: