Curve PCATs?

Started by madawi26
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
madawi26

madawi26

Junior Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Does anyone know whether or not the PCAT scores are curved at all? Thanks.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is the whole point of scoring in percentiles. The entire test is graded on a curve and you are given a percentile based on where you landed on the curve.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
First time PCAT test taker here and I didn't know it was scored in percentiles. Thanks for the helpful response, Einstein. Can you tell me the meaning of the integral of the curve too?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Okay kids, the PCAT is scored using two sets of numbers. One set is a scaled score, and no one, not even Harcourt knows how they come up with that number. The other score is a percentage, which ranks you against everyone else who took it that go round. Say you make a 75%. That means you did better than 75 percent of the people that took it that time. And that's usually the score that everybody look at.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cycloketocaine said:
Okay kids, the PCAT is scored using two sets of numbers. One set is a scaled score, and no one, not even Harcourt knows how they come up with that number. The other score is a percentage, which ranks you against everyone else who took it that go round. Say you make a 75%. That means you did better than 75 percent of the people that took it that time. And that's usually the score that everybody look at.
Click to expand...
wrong wrong wrong
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sASU said:
So whats right right right?
Click to expand...

I suppose this:

"In addition to the multiple-choice subtest scaled scores, your personal Score Report will list five subtest percentiles and a Composite percentile. The percentile score shown on your personal Score Report indicates the percentage of PCAT examinees that made up the norm group—all first-time examinees that took the test between October 1998 and March 2003—with scaled scores lower than yours. For example, an examinee who earns a Composite percentile score of 70 scored higher than 70 percent of the examinees from the norm group on the test as a whole. No percentile is reported for the Writing subtest."

Your percentile rank falls against a norm group of test takers from 98-03, which I've always thought to be odd since they have since changed the test, but I imagine the statistics are probably still identical.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.