How many questions can you get wrong?

[Potential123]

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How many questions can you get wrong on the PCAT to get in a certain percentile? I mean to get around 60% percentile. I know 430+ is usually 90th percentile, but how many questions out of 40 (eight being experimental) do you have to get wrong to be in this percentile rank?

 

[Jibby321]

How many questions can you get wrong on the PCAT to get in a certain percentile? I mean to get around 60% percentile. I know 430+ is usually 90th percentile, but how many questions out of 40 (eight being experimental) do you have to get wrong to be in this percentile rank?

It's a percentile ranking. So you are scored against other testers. So I don't believe you are going to find a concrete answer to this.

 

[AlPacino]

It's a percentile ranking. So you are scored against other testers. So I don't believe you are going to find a concrete answer to this.

Correct. If your are taking it this summer I believe you will be compared to students from 3-4 years ago. I too was wondering this.

 

[KasHfg]

It's a percentile ranking. So you are scored against other testers. So I don't believe you are going to find a concrete answer to this.

Right... but... with the numbers you provided it's an easy math to approximate that...

if ~430 out of 600 to get 90th ---------> 430/600=0.717
that means you have to get ~71.7%
71.7% out of 40 questions is -------> 0.717*40=28.68... so you need about 29 questions right out of 40 to be in the 90th....

to be in the 60th you need around 410-415... so 415/600*40=27.67
so for 60th you will need to get around 27 questions correctly

 

[Jibby321]

Right... but... with the numbers you provided it's an easy math to approximate that...

if ~430 out of 600 to get 90th ---------> 430/600=0.717
that means you have to get ~71.7%
71.7% out of 40 questions is -------> 0.717*40=28.68... so you need about 29 questions right out of 40 to be in the 90th....

to be in the 60th you need around 410-415... so 415/600*40=27.67
so for 60th you will need to get around 27 questions correctly

My interpretation was that your percentile is based on other students and how they scored, and that is how the percentile rank is calculated. Not based on the math alone. But, I may be wrong.

 

[Xeal0007]

Right... but... with the numbers you provided it's an easy math to approximate that...

if ~430 out of 600 to get 90th ---------> 430/600=0.717
that means you have to get ~71.7%
71.7% out of 40 questions is -------> 0.717*40=28.68... so you need about 29 questions right out of 40 to be in the 90th....

to be in the 60th you need around 410-415... so 415/600*40=27.67
so for 60th you will need to get around 27 questions correctly

👍👍😀 thanks. this seems like a good way to approximate it

 

[Xeal0007]

but then again, idk

 

[KasHfg]

My interpretation was that your percentile is based on other students and how they scored, and that is how the percentile rank is calculated. Not based on the math alone. But, I may be wrong.

You are correct, but it turns out that 90th is usually around 430-ish, and so on... so the calculation is an approximation, but just gives you an idea.

 

[Cuoreamima8]

For those who are a little confused about scoring like I was when I took the test, skim this. It's super helpful and will probably answer any scoring questions you may have.
http://www.aacp.org/resources/studentaffairspersonnel/admissionsguidelines/Documents/TechMnl_1A.PDF
The pages near the end with the subtest and composite scaled score/percentile rank tables were especially helpful to me when trying to estimate my percentile rank from a scaled score. You can see how the correlation between ss and percentile are not the same for each subtest..there is a little more room for error on quant/rc then say bio or verbal because people tend to score higher on bio/verbal than quant/rc. Use this to you're advantage and take a look at this document!

 

[Sugoi Travis]

If it makes any of you all feel better, a 422 scaled composite score got me in the 91st percentile composite. At least you'll be able to score 8 points less and still get that coveted 9x composite lol.

I took the test last year in September btw.

 

[arri]

Right... but... with the numbers you provided it's an easy math to approximate that...

if ~430 out of 600 to get 90th ---------> 430/600=0.717
that means you have to get ~71.7%
71.7% out of 40 questions is -------> 0.717*40=28.68... so you need about 29 questions right out of 40 to be in the 90th....

to be in the 60th you need around 410-415... so 415/600*40=27.67
so for 60th you will need to get around 27 questions correctly

This is wrong, the range is from 200-600, so you can't just divide "430" into 600. You must adjust the range by subtracting 200 from the total score - to get your "raw" score.

I'm not sure where all this other stuff came into play, which I can also be wrong. But if you call PCAT they will tell you how the scaled score is calculated. If I remember correctly, I think they told me each question is worth like 3 or 4 points.. but I don't remember =/