Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam Preparation

The Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam is the pre-employment test for Special Agents in three distinct U.S. governmental departments: Treasury, Homeland Security, and Justice. The exam consists of 5 timed sections that measure cognitive abilities and personality tendencies. 

The online preparation pack offered on this page includes comprehensive Treasury Enforcement Agent (TEA) practice tests to prepare for any question on the exam, each with detailed answers and score reports:

  • Verbal Reasoning Practice tests that sharpen your ability to quickly read and analyze text.
  • Quantitative reasoning practice tests- learn how to efficiently transform math problems into solvable numerical calculations.
  • Investigative reasoning practice tests- practice complex problems and gain insight into logical principles required to solve them. 

Click 'Get Started Now' to start practicing right away, or keep reading to get sample questions and more info about the test.

Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam Practice
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  • Verbal Reasoning Practice
    15 practice tests
    A study guide 
  • Quantitative reasoning practice
    10 math word problem tests
    2 arithmetic-focused tests
    A study guide 
  • Investigative reasoning practice
    101 problems for investigation questions
Shir, Civil Service Assessments Expert at JobTestPrep
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What is the Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam

The TEA exam is a five-part, multiple-choice, timed test. Each section is timed separately. Cognitive abilities comprise the initial three portions of the TEA exam, and personality/behavioral attributes are assessed through biodata in the last two sections.

Cognitive abilities measured include:

The final two parts of the Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam are presented as an Applicant Experience Questionnaire containing 70 items, highlighting your achievements, skills, and experience.

The entire test is scored on the sole basis of the number of correct answers. Since there are no penalties for wrong responses, it is to your advantage to answer every question; guess when necessary.


Verbal Reasoning Questions

The Verbal Reasoning section has 25 questions to be answered in 50 minutes. Verbal Reasoning assesses the ability to recall information, summarize, analyze and draw conclusions, all based on presented information to you. Carefully read the entire paragraph. You will be asked to select the alternative that is supported by the information included within the paragraph, within five options. 

Verbal Reasoning Sample Question:

Read the following passage:

The fossilized remains of two bats were analyzed. One skeleton lacked the claw at the second toe of the forelimb, while the other skeleton possessed the claw. The bat suborder that lacks the claw is called Microchiroptera. Microchiroptera are known to use echolocation, while the other bat suborder, Megachiroptera, do not. Bats that navigate using echolocation eat insects or feed on the blood of animals, whereas bats that do not use echolocation eat fruit, nectar or pollen.

The information above, if true, most strongly supports which of the following?

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The correct answer is:

  1. The Microchiroptera uses echolocation to locate the insects and animals it preys on.

Try to get the myriad pieces of information straight in your head or rapidly put them down on a piece of paper. It will look like this: Micro—no claw, echolocation, insects, and blood; Mega—claw, no echo., fruit, nectar. Now go to the answer choices. A: we can reject this because we can't justify the need for a claw to catch fruit and not an insect. B and E are irrelevant distractors. Regarding D, the Microchiroptera doesn't have a problem getting food so it has no reason to be compensated for not having a claw. C makes sense, also because it brings two characteristics into relation: the ability to echolocate could well explain its ability to locate insects and animals to prey on.

The individual paragraphs contain all of the information that you will need in order to answer the questions, so do not assume any facts that are not contained in the paragraphs. For more practice and tips get the full Treasury Enforcement Agent Preparation Pack. 


Arithmetic Reasoning Questions

In the Arithmetic Reasoning portion of the TEA Exam, you will encounter 20 questions to be answered within 50 minutes. The math questions in this section cover a wide range of functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, ratios, percentages, applying given conversion formulas, angles, area, perimeter and simple algebraic equations.

Numerical Sample Question- Word Problem

Read the following before answering the question:

Juliana is not certain which pizza to order. She can have the medium or large size pizza, with thin or thick dough; replace the regular with hot or garlic sauce; add one topping if she'd like: mushrooms, onions, peppers or pepperoni.

How many different pizzas can Juliana eventually order?

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The correct answer is 60.

In order to solve it, you must figure out the correct number of choices in each category. We have 4 categories:
Size – medium or large = a choice between 2 options.
Dough – thin or thick = a choice between 2 options.
Sauce – regular, hot, or garlic = a choice between 3 options.
Topping - mushrooms, onions, peppers, pepperoni or without = a choice between 5 options.

The overall number of combinations equals a multiplication of the number of options within each category: 2x2x3x5 = 60.


Problems for Investigation

In this section, you'll be asked to answer 30 questions in 60 minutes. You'll be presented with text passages and asked to select statements based on the reasoning and logic in the passage. for example:

Investigation Problems- Sample Question

Read the following before answering the question:

The hospital's nutritionists decided that they would no longer serve patients foods containing raw eggs, such as chocolate mousse since raw eggs could infect patients with salmonella, but they felt secure serving foods containing cooked eggs, such as omelets. Since then, all of the hospital's cases of salmonella occurred after patients had eaten cooked eggs, indicating that, contrary to popular opinion, eating raw eggs is not more dangerous than eating cooked eggs.

The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it:

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The correct answer is:

  1. Presumes, without providing justification, that hospital nutritionists cannot be the most knowledgeable about which foods are safest.

The conclusion reached that eating raw eggs is not more dangerous than eating cooked eggs is based on the fact, stated right before the conclusion, that all of the hospital's cases of salmonella occurred after patients had eaten cooked eggs. But if the hospital had stopped serving raw eggs to their patients, it follows that patients could not possibly get salmonella from eating raw eggs. The only cases of salmonella, therefore, would be from eating cooked eggs. Therefore, the argument's conclusion is faulty.

Answer choice 4 says that if patients had been given raw eggs, the number of cases of salmonella from raw eggs would probably increase significantly.


Practice for the TEA Exam

Your potential for obtaining employment as a Treasury Enforcement Agent depends on your entrance exam score. You have the immediate opportunity to work on TEA practice tests, review a comprehensive Treasury exam study guide, analyze Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam sample questions and answers, and become privy to many testing tips and strategies. This entire preparation process can be achieved through JobTestPrep.

Our Treasury Enforcement Agent practice pack has the following sections:

  • Verbal Reasoning- The pack includes 3 tests, 12 practice units, and a study guide, all of which are accompanied by in-depth, explanations, illustrations, and score analysis, which will help you sharpen your reading comprehension and logical skills.
  • Arithmetic Reasoning- This section assesses your ability to solve problems presented numeric form, which focuses on varying mathematical functions and must be solved without the use of calculators. The pack contains 6 tests offering a range of difficulty levels, 6 practice units, and a study guide.
  • Investigative Reasoning- In order to prepare for this section, which focuses on drawing conclusions from a given set of statements, the pack offers 4 different practice units. While they are not identical to the questions you will encounter on the test, they will help you develop the necessary skills.