About McGraw Hill PCAT Exam

[Ruthless]

Just took the McGraw Hill exam at the back of the book and the chem section is just ridiculous. There is just not enough time to do those 48 questions in 30min. Is it just me or people felt this way when they took this particular exam also? How does McGraw Hill Exam compare to the real thing? Thanks for any response!

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[Monsterdaddy]

Just took the McGraw Hill exam at the back of the book and the chem section is just ridiculous. There is just not enough time to do those 48 questions in 30min. Is it just me or people felt this way when they took this particular exam also? How does McGraw Hill Exam compare to the real thing? Thanks for any response!

McGraw's PCAT book is plain awful. Math was way too easy and chem was pretty insane. However, the chem section did teach me something.

The gen chem section seemed to all have a gimmick to solve in under 37 seconds. Look at a ratio or some clue to avoiding making calcs. If you ran out all the calculations it's impossible to finish in under 30 minutes (more like 60 min). If you can spot the gimmicks, it will help in the real PCAT.

Also the McGraw org chem was insanely hard in my opinion but the good news it doesn't seem to match what the Pearson practice PCAT exams ask for so whew!

I did both Pearson practice PCAT chem sections barely using any scrap paper so there were no intense calcs, maybe 1-2 questions tops. Even then, you could almost eyeball the question and run the numbers in your head on most of those. Amazingly, I had time to go back and doublecheck all the questions.

Bottom line, use the McGraw chem section as a test of spotting the gimmicks. And practically ignore all of the org chem questions.

 

[Ruthless]

McGraw's PCAT book is plain awful. Math was way too easy and chem was pretty insane. However, the chem section did teach me something.

The gen chem section seemed to all have a gimmick to solve in under 37 seconds. Look at a ratio or some clue to avoiding making calcs. If you ran out all the calculations it's impossible to finish in under 30 minutes (more like 60 min). If you can spot the gimmicks, it will help in the real PCAT.

Also the McGraw org chem was insanely hard in my opinion but the good news it doesn't seem to match what the Pearson practice PCAT exams ask for so whew!

I did both Pearson practice PCAT chem sections barely using any scrap paper so there were no intense calcs, maybe 1-2 questions tops. Even then, you could almost eyeball the question and run the numbers in your head on most of those. Amazingly, I had time to go back and doublecheck all the questions.

Bottom line, use the McGraw chem section as a test of spotting the gimmicks. And practically ignore all of the org chem questions.

Thanks!!!! That helps a lot. BTW the math in McGraw had absolutely no trig, is that the same on the real one? Most of the math was ridiculously easy but when it comes to timing were they on spot? How does the bio compare and the RC compare?

 

[willrocks]

The McGraw practice exam is certainly lacking, however I think the rest of the book is top notch. I studied from it almost exclusively and pulled off a 97 composite.

 

[pharmRxn]

The McGraw practice exam is certainly lacking, however I think the rest of the book is top notch. I studied from it almost exclusively and pulled off a 97 composite.

comments like this are sick. this book is not supposed to be used for verbal, reading, biology, nor math. you obtained 97 composite because you remember everything from your class. the last time i studied for the pcat i scored below 30 because of comments like this.

 

[Ruthless]

comments like this are sick. this book is not supposed to be used for verbal, reading, biology, nor math. you obtained 97 composite because you remember everything from your class. the last time i studied for the pcat i scored below 30 because of comments like this.

I'm a bit confused because this books was made for the PCAT exam except u r saying that it is not supposed to be used for most of the sections!?

 

[pharmRxn]

I'm a bit confused because this books was made for the PCAT exam except u r saying that it is not supposed to be used for most of the sections!?

if you take the pcat you will see that this book covers the basics of human physiology, so there will be questions not covered in it. each section has a problem. the organic chemistry is more than you need, and the other sections are good but weak. if you remember a lot from your classes then this book is enough. this book doesn't even have vocabs to memorize, it has just roots and useless stuff. this book was revised in 2007 and the pcat became harder in 2009, so this book might not be enough for you. take the pearson practice exams and if you do well then you should be ok.

 

[Ruthless]

if you take the pcat you will see that this book covers the basics of human physiology, so there will be questions not covered in it. each section has a problem. the organic chemistry is more than you need, and the other sections are good but weak. if you remember a lot from your classes then this book is enough. this book doesn't even have vocabs to memorize, it has just roots and useless stuff. this book was revised in 2007 and the pcat became harder in 2009, so this book might not be enough for you. take the pearson practice exams and if you do well then you should be ok.

Good call. There are only 2 pearson practice exams? Is knowing the concepts in those 2 tests enough to insure success on the real one?

 

[Monsterdaddy]

Good call. There are only 2 pearson practice exams? Is knowing the concepts in those 2 tests enough to insure success on the real one?

The Pearson practice tests have problems too IMHO. I thought the bio section asked questions that would not be normally covered in bio classes and they mainly benefitted test takers with clinical experience. i.e. I know what interferon is but I didn't know I needed to know what the types of interferon are and what they were used for.

Nomenclature is a problem that Pearson should recognize. Biology books do not tend to use the term indeterminate inheritance. All my guides and books call it incomplete dominance. Same with calculus, I never saw (f o g)(x) used before. (It is another way of writing f(g(x)) which is what all my books used.)

Another problem was a microbiology answer contradicted what my textbook said. That disturbs me even more!!!

I've taken the GMAT and LSAT and never had a problem with the study guides or the actual material. PCAT is a massive headache from a preparation point of view and Pearson's strict secrecy obsession just makes it worse for test takers. For example, taking the GMAT and LSAT practice tests I could be certain to within 5 percentile of what my scores would be. Here on the PCAT, I am guessing it could be 10-15 percentile depending on how unlucky I am with some of these questions.

 

[Ruthless]

The Pearson practice tests have problems too IMHO. I thought the bio section asked questions that would not be normally covered in bio classes and they mainly benefitted test takers with clinical experience. i.e. I know what interferon is but I didn't know I needed to know what the types of interferon are and what they were used for.

Nomenclature is a problem that Pearson should recognize. Biology books do not tend to use the term indeterminate inheritance. All my guides and books call it incomplete dominance. Same with calculus, I never saw (f o g)(x) used before. (It is another way of writing f(g(x)) which is what all my books used.)

Another problem was a microbiology answer contradicted what my textbook said. That disturbs me even more!!!

I've taken the GMAT and LSAT and never had a problem with the study guides or the actual material. PCAT is a massive headache from a preparation point of view and Pearson's strict secrecy obsession just makes it worse for test takers. For example, taking the GMAT and LSAT practice tests I could be certain to within 5 percentile of what my scores would be. Here on the PCAT, I am guessing it could be 10-15 percentile depending on how unlucky I am with some of these questions.

Ye. I feel the same kind of optimism as you. How are the topscore or achiever exams compared to pearsons?

 

[willrocks]

The pearson practice exams are a good bit easier than the real thing. They are, however, extremely useful to help your pace yourself. And I disagree with pharmRXN, the McGraw book is, IMO, the best book out there.