Correct me if I'm wrong...

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shaq786

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1. Kaplan's GRE prep book has harder verbal and reading than any PCAT problem. What gives? I was expecting them to be similar.

2. Barrons, Cliffnotes, PCAT professor all have easier verbal and reading difficulties than Kaplan's PCAT verbal and reading. So which one is representative in your opinion?

3. My GRE score is at 1100 - 1200, do you think it might be possible to get a 90+ on the PCAT(verbal sections)?

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shaq786 said:
1. Kaplan's GRE prep book has harder verbal and reading than any PCAT problem. What gives? I was expecting them to be similar.

2. Barrons, Cliffnotes, PCAT professor all have easier verbal and reading difficulties than Kaplan's PCAT verbal and reading. So which one is representative in your opinion?

3. My GRE score is at 1100 - 1200, do you think it might be possible to get a 90+ on the PCAT(verbal sections)?


PCAT verbal is WAY easier than GRE verbal. I took GRE and Pcat within a month of each other.

If you did OK on GRE verbal, just do any of the reviews you want(Kaplan, et al).. Just to get your mind in the "analogy" and "which best completes the sentance" mode. The hardest part of the PCAT verbal was reading the passages (usually several paragraphs long) and answering the questions that followed (What was the main idea of the second paragraph? Does the author support or deny the following statement? and other specifics about what you just read). Mostly because it was very time consuming and as we all know the PCAT is a SPEED TEST. I am a very fast reader and I had trouble finishing this section.

I got a 99 in the verbal so it worked out OK. :thumbup:

I used Barrons, by the way. I think it helped. It wasn't THAT much easier. It helped especially just to get my brain thinking in that mode. I can't speak for Kaplan or the others because I only used Barrons. I thought it was pretty close to the PCAT. The reading comp section of PCAT was definately harder than Barron's, I think, but with reading comp you are trying to get better at techniqes, not memorizing word definitions... so the easy reading comp in Barrons was fine. It will still help you hone those techniques. I'm sure Kaplan will do fine also.
 
shaq786 said:
1. Kaplan's GRE prep book has harder verbal and reading than any PCAT problem. What gives? I was expecting them to be similar.

2. Barrons, Cliffnotes, PCAT professor all have easier verbal and reading difficulties than Kaplan's PCAT verbal and reading. So which one is representative in your opinion?

3. My GRE score is at 1100 - 1200, do you think it might be possible to get a 90+ on the PCAT(verbal sections)?
I took GRE about 1 yr ago Score=1200. PCAT=82%. PCAT is WAY easier IMO. I prepared like crazy for GRE, yet almost NONE for the PCAT, for this reason: When I bought a huge PCAT prep book from a prominent test prep co., I become so frustrated because I couldn't solve half of the problems. This made me feel stupid so I basically gave up. I think this is the result they (test prep co.) are hoping for. Hmmm....I wonder why?$?
 
for this reason: When I bought a huge PCAT prep book from a prominent test prep co., I become so frustrated because I couldn't solve half of the problems.

So your saying you could nail those GRE problems and get that 1200, yet the PCAT verbal and reading(from the test prep company) was dominating you? If so, thats strange.
 
I took the GRE a long time ago (1992-yikes), and got 660 English, 780 math. No preparation (except not drinking the night before the test). I overslept and ran across campus in my clothes from uthe previous day. So I test pretty well.

I took the PCAT this year. I bought the Kaplan book to prepare, and panicked because the chemistry especially was completely beyond me. I meant to learn the Latin roots in the English section because I was concerned abouit my vocabulary. I never got around to it. I might have spent a few hours with the book total before just deciding to take the test and see what happens. I wound up with a 99th percentile (including 99th on both English sections). My lowest was biology at 85th. This time I got lost and desperately had to use the bathroom but the plumbing was broken at the test site, and we didn't get a break to walk across campus for a couple of hours.

The English was far easier than the GRE or the SAT. The math was more along the lines of an achievement test. I wonder if to prepare, you might see if there is a Math II achievement book out there. And, it would probably help if you had more than one semester of biology when you took the test. I was having flashbacks to elementary school science to get through. Apparently, my elementary school science teacher was really good - I should track him down and send him a thank you.
 
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