I was wondering how the PCAt is scored. I know it is different now in regard to the group your are compared against. Also your percentile is that in comparison to the whole group. in other words do the same amount of people get 25% as 75% since you are compared to the entire group. Also how do school normally look at if you take it twice. Do they take your highest scores from each section like the SAT or is it the overall score?
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
How is it scored?
Started by angel3500
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
This is directly from the PsychCorp CIB booklet:
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 of 70 scored higher than 70 percent of the examinees from the norm group on the test as a whole.
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 of 70 scored higher than 70 percent of the examinees from the norm group on the test as a whole.
nerdystar said:
I was just re-reading this... does this mean that second time PCAT examinees aren't part of the norm that others are scored against??
ndearwater said:
Correcto.
1% of the test takers are assigned to each percentile: 0 through 99.
Percentile scores for each section are done independently based on the distribution of raw scores within that test section.
Then, for the overall score, your cumulative raw score is placed on a percentile scale. The cumulative percentile score is NOT an average of your section percentile scores, but represents your total score relative to other test takers.
Percentile scores for each section are done independently based on the distribution of raw scores within that test section.
Then, for the overall score, your cumulative raw score is placed on a percentile scale. The cumulative percentile score is NOT an average of your section percentile scores, but represents your total score relative to other test takers.
