CLIFFSTESTPREP: PCAT 5 Practice Tests

[aleemmerani]

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Hey I was wondering what people thought of cliffstestprep: pcat (5 tests). I just started doing the verbal and found it much more difficult than the actual pcat (10/18), which I did fairly well on (the only section I did well on!!)

Is this book perceived to be "harder" than the actual PCAT by anyone else?

 

[MIkeNB]

nope, it's easier than pcat.

 

[SHC1984]

I heard Kaplan is harder then PCAT and Cliffs is easier...not sure if its true or not though.

 

[elizafly]

Kaplan's PCAT is hard, but its chemistry is completely different from the actual PCAT.

 

[Transformer]

Personally, I don't think any one review book gets it "completely right" or is very very similar to the real PCAT exam.

I've taken PCAT practice exams from Pearson, ARCO's, Peterson's, Mcgraw Hill, Cliffs, Kaplan, Kaplan class, MAT, Barons 4th and 5th editions, REA flash cards.

Obviously, the makers of PCAT, Pearson and its 2 online practice tests are the best but is still different from the real thing.

Keep in mind there are 8 experimental questions in each section and some of those questions may catch you off guard. I hope those were the questions I skipped and guessed on.


In regards to Cliff's, their chemistry section was the hardest for me. They require test takers to refer to the periodic table at the end of the book when the real exam does not require this task. All in all, Cliffs helps me recall lots of important science and math skills, and sharpens my test taking skills in terms of time management.

 

[gtpederson]

As a timing tool, the Cliff's Test book is alright.

But don't rely on the answers in the back of the book while scoring. Many of them are wrong.

 

[hokierx]

cliff's verbal is way easy...i felt really unprepared, but did well on the PCAT anyways because i used the REA flashcards
reading has too many general passages, and not scientific ones like the PCAT
math is crap...theres still geometry and stuff on it, and the answer key is all wrong
bio and chem are decent

as far as using it as a timing tool...the cliff's book says that its 35 minutes for each section, and in reality its 30...

 

[aleemmerani]

Just an update!

I found CLIFFSTESTPREP verbal was actually useful --> there were a lot of words which helped me re-learn some roots and pre/suffixes.

Bio was decent since it was kind of a short review after kaplan for me.

Reading comp was tooo general and too broad --> nothing related to scientific articles which require different thought processes to understand than other aticles. I honestly only did the first prac test RC.

CHEM WAS HORRIBLE there was a lot of orgo on it that was never on the actual PCAT.

Math was dece since it reviewed a lot of basic skills which I think helped me on the exam, since I ran out of time and guessed 15 questions on the 10/18 pcat! It was 'easy enough' for me to do it within the time limit so that I gained enough confidence to power through the real pcat.

Overall --> it was dece review book, especially for only 20$.

Kaplan = crap for math and chem

thanks for all your replies and responses =)

 

[Lordhokage]

I stayed away from this book because this was published before the PCAT changes in 2007.