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Well, it's that time of the year again when PCAT examinees rush to their mailboxes every day hoping to receive those elusive PCAT score reports.To assist future PCAT test takers, it would be best if there was one thread where people can view or request other opinions on their own PCAT scores rather than having to search multiple threads with obscure titles. So, here goes (this is a work in progress
)! Please, please, please keep the score reports and "Yay! I got my scores!" to this thread.Note: If you really know how the scoring works and just want an opinion on your scores, then just go to Section V in the second post in this thread.
Thread Outline
I. Your Score Report
II. Your Scores
III. The popular "Are my scores good?" question.
IV. The popular "Do I need to retake the PCAT?" question
V. The Final Verdict
VI. Your Score Versus Your School's Average
I. Your Score Report
You should receive a regular, letter-sized envelope with about a sheet or two of paper. One that them should be a plain sheet with your scores. Basically, this sheet lists each scaled score with the accompanying percentile score for each section followed by your composite score which is a percentile based on the averaged scale score from the five sections. You will see your writing score separate from the other sections. Rather self-explanatory to me......
II. Your Scores
You mostly want to focus on your percentile rank, most particularly the composite score. That is the number that adcoms focus on during the primary review that determines if you get an interview. Some schools may go in-depth into your scores, but that composite score is the first tell.
Just as a reminder, your percentile score distinguishes your performance from examinees from a 1998-2003 standard testing group. However, adcoms compare your score to everyone in their applicant pool. Simply put, a 70th percentile means that you performed better than about 70% of the examinees during the aforementioned 1998-2003 period. The higher the score, the better off you will be.
Addendum: There have been many questions on SDN inquiring about the nature of the three-digit scaled scores one finds on the score report and how that score is used to get one's percentile score. To be honest, nobody outside of relations with Harcourt understands the system or even the true number of questions needed to earn a 90th percentile or any other score. Perhaps this is best explained in a hypothetical situation. After each exam, Harcourt examines the pool of test takers and derives a scale that corresponds to a scaled score. One earns a certain scaled score based on the number of correct questions answered. This scale is different between examinations and between sections to account for the slight differences in difficulty across test dates and perhaps even test forms within the same testing date. Te scaled score one gets corresponds to the aforementioned 1998-2003 pool. Based on past research on this forum, it seems that a 400 in any section will result in a 50th percentile and a 430 is "worth" the same for every testing date for example. Therefore, one is being compared to that standard testing group but any changes in the exam now versus back then is accounted for through the derivation of a new scale that accounts for that. It's just that the number of correct questions needed to earn a certain scaled score fluctuates and is determined for each PCAT administration separately. So, nobody really knows how many questions need to be answered correctly in order to be in a certain percentile.
III. The popular "Are my scores good?" question.
The most prevalent question that examinees have after receiving their scores is whether the scores are good enough for admission into pharmacy school. That leads to the corollary question to whether the examinee should retake the PCAT. Before we continue, it's best to establish some guidelines. The criteria I am about to present is not a strict rule. It is based on generalizations of PCAT worthiness at schools. This is just advice.
First of all, averages are just that = averages. Just because you don't make your school's PCAT average doesn't mean your application is doomed. People get in with low PCAT scores due to a number of reasons, like:
- Having a high GPA with great pharmacy experience and LORs
- Having a great interview
- ..and...having great "contacts" in the adcom, like a dad or someone
So, I think a better gauge for "competitiveness" is through the competitive range. Simply put, this range represents the majority of the school's incoming class. Ideally, you want a score that is at least in the range occupied by the middle 50% of students that takes out the top 25% PCAT students that get in and the bottom 25% who get in due to the other factors I mentioned earlier. Since each school has different distributions, I roughly set a range of five percentiles plus or minus the school's PCAT average. So for a school with an average of 80, the competitive range is about 75-85. Your score is competitive in that range, but it doesn't stand out from other applications nor is it a blemish on your application. Remember, I am speaking in general.
IV. The popular "Do I need to retake the PCAT?" question
You need to consider your whole package as it affects the answer to this question:
- Your stats (GPA, pharmacy hours worked) and LORs
- Your interpersonal ability needed for an effective interview
- Your writing skills (PCAT writing score, school-specific essays, PS)
- Your "contacts"
