Give Me Some Tips and Suggestions ^^

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Plowi

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In your experiences, what methods have you used to finish the test on time? Are there any tips I should know about, i.e. is it better to transfer 5 answers over at once? Let it all go people, I could use the advice.

Does the essay count toward composite score?

In your guess, what percent of correct answers must I have to get a good score e.g. 2/4, 3/4, 3.5/4 etc.

You dont have to answer every question Ive posted, Id just like to know more about what Im up against.

Thanks guys,

plowi
 
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I didn't really use any methods for getting the tests done on time, except in the reading section. In that section, I would answer all the questions for each passage before I marked them in the answer book. (just circle them in your test book and transfer all the questions for one passage at once), and that seemed to be helpful. On the other sections, for me it was just a matter of going as fast as I could, and not dwelling on any question that was too difficult to finish quickly.

As I understand it, the essay does not count toward your cumulative score. That way you get a regular score just like the PCAT has traditionally been scored, then you get a separate score for the writing, and each school can decide for itself how relevant the writing section.

Hope this helps, and good luck 🙂
 
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Here's what I did...
I felt nervous about finishing the QA section and the chem section, so what I did was answer each question that I absolutly knew the answer to first. If I even had a slight doubt I skipped the question, but I marked the ones that I knew I could answer if given some time. Then I went back to those questions next and worked on them. THEN I went back and tried to answer the ones that I felt were the MOST difficult. Remember, they don't give you more points for the harder ones. Everything is weighed the same. This means that spending time on a hard problem in the beginning will make it so that an easy question at the end won't get answered.
Make sure you know your nomenclature for organic chem. Also make sure you brush up on your calculus.
 
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Oh, also - about the essay. WORK FAST, they only give you a half an hour. They give you a page to plan what you are going to say, but I felt that if I had used that page I would have run out of time. The essay is out of 5, but I have heard of very few people getting 5/5. I got 4/5, and I finished just in time.
 
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Thanks, that was a very intelligent method youve posted. I may do it. By the way, how long do the toughest QA/Chem questions usually take to answer?
 
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The QA questions take much longer than the chem questions. Most of the chem questions were theoretical (I hate those, I would have honestly rather had to work stuff out, but oh well.) I remember some of the calc questions took quite a while, like there was one that you had to use implicit differentiation to solve it and it took me a while. That was one of the ones that I marked and came back to 😉
I think there are 38 questions and they give you 50 minutes for that section. I could definitely be wrong about that, I took it 3 months ago now and it was so stressful that I tried my best to erase it from memory 🙂
 
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for all sections i had about 5-10 minutes to spare to check my work and make sure i filled in the bubbles with the correct answers. it is no doubt stressful but it can be done. you will probably be exhausted after the test. 😴

i transfered every 10 answers to my answer sheet. you are free to mark on the exam book, so make use of it.
 
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Plowi said:
In your experiences, what methods have you used to finish the test on time? Are there any tips I should know about, i.e. is it better to transfer 5 answers over at once? Let it all go people, I could use the advice.


plowi
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Well, I did the opposite of another poster - I pretty much transferred every answer to the grid sheet as soon as I had it. My reasoning was this - I didn't want to get into a situation where I had a lot of things that I had correct answers to, but then I ran out of time to bubble. I marked with a big obvious mark in the question booklet anything I was skipping. Then, when I went back at the end I could simply look at the grid sheet to see what was not filled in, go back to that marked question in the booket, and that also served as a check to make sure I hadn't made a grid mistake.

I felt that worked well except for the math section, which I did run out of time on. But, even on that one I had at least looked at every question and tried to decide which ones I might reasonably be able to work. And, I gave myself just enough time at the end to fill in every single bubble. That is VERY important. Remember, even if you never looked at the question at all you will still have a 25% chance of getting it right. You should never, never end a section with any bubbles not filled in.
 
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rxlynn said:
Well, I did the opposite of another poster - I pretty much transferred every answer to the grid sheet as soon as I had it. My reasoning was this - I didn't want to get into a situation where I had a lot of things that I had correct answers to, but then I ran out of time to bubble. I marked with a big obvious mark in the question booklet anything I was skipping. Then, when I went back at the end I could simply look at the grid sheet to see what was not filled in, go back to that marked question in the booket, and that also served as a check to make sure I hadn't made a grid mistake.

I felt that worked well except for the math section, which I did run out of time on. But, even on that one I had at least looked at every question and tried to decide which ones I might reasonably be able to work. And, I gave myself just enough time at the end to fill in every single bubble. That is VERY important. Remember, even if you never looked at the question at all you will still have a 25% chance of getting it right. You should never, never end a section with any bubbles not filled in.
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Yah man I agree, 25% chance aint too bad. Beats those Las (or LOSS) Vegas casino odds.
 
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