2014 PCAT Experimental GUESSING.

[The Abilenian]

Hello all,

Considering that the 2014 PCAT will contain 8 experimental questions (bio/chem sections) at obvious passage points ... Why not guess and leave more time for other legit questions? Will they be masked? ... Seems counter intuitive from Pearson that they would divulge such information willingly.

Thoughts?

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[BC89]

The way the PCAT is set up on the varying sections, you DO need to "Triage" and put more time on the easier questions. Since there is 8 experimental questions (and I would say it wont be that obvious which ones are experimental) you need to mark passages and move on allowing you to not feel rushed when you return to the marked questions. I would think for something like bio if its going to ask me to find the frequency of a specific allele in a population and yet the next question is merely wanting you to find the best example of facilitated diffusion, why would i spend three minutes on one portion when the next question would take me under 20 seconds? Its just about triaging your passages and deciding whats worth "Now" and whats worth later. I agree, since 8 are experimental it would be good to focus more time on the rest, but if you practice going through what you feel can get done within a 30 second time frame verses another portion that may take longer than anticipated (and very well could be a "decanted" question), I think you'll be surprised how less stressful the standardized test can be. Ive had someone say (who organized a portion on the standardized test in the past) that thats what PCAT wants people to do, and it'll be easier to see who does the critial thinking of triaging and who tries to trump through question by question...

personally, Id rather not have the decanted questions just for the off chance i psych myself out thinking "is this a decoy or not?" lol

 

[HarshR]

I think OP is correct.. I am just thinking about skipping until end, if Ihave time I have time if not then no f...s are given

 

[CPham]

Can someone clarify on how these new "passage-based" questions look like? How obvious will it be? Are they similar to reading comprehension practices? Any examples?

 

[BC89]

Can someone clarify on how these new "passage-based" questions look like? How obvious will it be? Are they similar to reading comprehension practices? Any examples?

similar to the RC section, only not as explicitly long and typically have a figure / graph setup... the ones ive done 4 questions per passage (sometimes i didnt even have to use the passage because its just based on "basic" understanding of the terms they use or table they use). An example is talking about the applications of morphine and its derivative factors. The passage will talk on it and its rules but maybe a questions will be "how many chiral centers does morphine have" which only requires looking at the figure. Others may be blood antibody related questions in bio..sometimes you need to skim through the passage other times not. Since ONLY the experimental questions will come from the passages in bio and chem and not anywhere else randomly in those sections you wont have to worry too much on it. But there will be more than just 8 questions worth of passage questions so you wont know which one to skip. Point being dont worry too much on the passages. But like i said earlier, if you traige you should ok. Still be sure to answer them because alot of people will perhaps just guess and move on. If enough people do that then points will add up for your section in the end lol (probably not that much if any depending on how well you do on the rest of your section(s)). Overall nothing i would consider slaving over in my studies

 

[CPham]

But there will be more than just 8 questions worth of passage questions so you wont know which one to skip. Point being dont worry too much on the passages. But like i said earlier, if you traige you should ok. Still be sure to answer them because alot of people will perhaps just guess and move on. If enough people do that then points will add up for your section in the end lol (probably not that much if any depending on how well you do on the rest of your section(s)). Overall nothing i would consider slaving over in my studies

So if I run into these passage questions, skip for last? Once I go back, attempt to triage and answer in case they do count?

Also, are the passages more difficult to detect in the quantative section?

 

[BC89]

So if I run into these passage questions, skip for last? Once I go back, attempt to triage and answer in case they do count?

Also, are the passages more difficult to detect in the quantative section?

Quantitative has not changed from the past and you have no idea of knowing what is experimental. However, Verbal Ability section will have NO experimental questions and thus less time than before to do them. Since Bio and Chem have an extra five minutes added on for time for their passages, its really up to you how you want to treat them. The one thing to keep in mind simply is that of all of the passages you may encounter in bio and chem (lets say 3 passages with 4 questions each for simplicity sake) you know only the experimental ones will come from these passages you just dont know which of the passages so just be reassured that if you feel that you have TANKED on the passages you know 8 of those questions wont factor into your overall composite score. so yes, if you wanna guess on them and come back later due to time strain you can. I personally triage all the way through my sections when i can just so i keep a "mental diligence" of sequence in my head and not try to anticipate when a passage comes. But as others said on here, if you had to pick an area to save time and lower stress, use the passages for your "guessing" for times sake so you dont neglect the rest of the section. hope that helps

 

[CPham]

Triaging sounds like a good idea. What I am nervous about are the questions in chemistry and quantative that require a lot of calculations. The questions itself may look simple, but once you start doing manual calculations with long division and multiplication, time really adds up. I have been working on the Chemistry practice tests in Dr. Collins's PCAT Prep, and it's a lot of the calculation questions (mainly dealing with stoichiometry) that takes time.

 

[moneyman244]

Called dr. Collins' office for a few questions, eventually I was told the passage questions for bio and chem will not count. He told me "Kaplan is telling their students to not even try them" then he told me that organic is 60 percent of the chemistry section and pearson doesn't always follow the blueprint they provide online. Also said there will be more word questions for the qualitative section(stats, decimal percentage, etc). And I wish I knew this earlier but the HIGHER NUMBERED tests for dr. Collins are the newer, "up to date" tests with questions from recent PCAT exams. Hope this helps!

 

[sunshao]

well i took the class and they never told us about the higher tests being the newer ones lol. they also didnt tell me about the 60% orgo either. I have done most of the practice exams(except 3 mock ones that i have left to do to test my time)

 

[HarshR]

well i took the class and they never told us about the higher tests being the newer ones lol. they also didnt tell me about the 60% orgo either. I have done most of the practice exams(except 3 mock ones that i have left to do to test my time)

Lol..? 60 percentage of orgo?? haha its 30 percentage of organic. I think that guy is just trying to scare you..

 

[moneyman244]

I'm praying that he was indeed trying to scare me, regardless, he's done a fine job. haha

 

[CPham]

To be honest, I am freaking out after the realization that the test is a week from today. I am currently working on the quantative section using Dr. Collins's PCAT Prep. I am overwhelmed by the time strain. It is hard to tell which quantative questions will be the experimentals.

I have been studying since late May. When I first started studying, I took Kaplan's online practice test to determine where I stand in the subjects. After that, I read through all the review packets for Chemistry, Quantative, and Biology. I have worked through the practice tests for Chemistry and Biology. For the verbal section, I read through the "Important Sentence Completion Examples", "PCAT Analogies", and "Analogies Vocab List"--that's it. For the reading comprehension section, I will just try to use the suggestions I have received, such as reading the questions first and skimming. I am hoping that my writing skills that I obtained throughout college will help me with the writing section.

After looking at the pile that I have gone through, it seems like I am about 85% finished with my studying with approximately 100 hours of studying accumulated so far.

In short, I believe that parts of chemistry (especially organic chemistry) and quantative are the most stressful for me, especially when time is factored in.

I hope the saying "you know more than you think" is true!

 

[pulathomas51]

Kaplan is the best way to go, I took the PCAT cold turkey and wasn't happy with my score. Took the Kaplan class, as well as studied my butt off, and almost tripled my score 5 months later. It's just a test, take as many practice exams as you can though. Sitting in front of the computer for multiple hours is a bit rough.