Last Minute Questions

[CPham]

As Test Day is approaching, I seem to come up with more and more questions for each section! If someone could answer them, it would be greatly appreciated!
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WRITING
1. Should paragraphs be indented?

VERBAL
2. Is there a faster way to deal with sentence completion?

BIOLOGY
3. Microbiology seems to be emphasized on Dr. Collins's PCAT Prep. Based on previous exams, is there many microbiology questions regarding bacteria, viruses, their diseases, and immunology?

CHEMISTRY
4. How in-depth does the VESRP theory go (e.g. molecular and electronic geometry)? It is difficult to grasp the concept of bond angles and the shapes the molecules make.

5. What about knowing solubility rules?

6. What types of reactions from organic chemistry are tested?

READING COMPREHENSION
7. What is your best method of dealing with the reading comprehension section?

8. Do you read the passage or the questions first? Do you guide an object across lines to help you? Do you jot down mini summaries on the laminated paper after each paragraph?

QUANTITATIVE
9. Would you suggest reviewing integration by parts?

10. What about implicit differentiation?

11. How would you "triage" this section to determine which questions to do "now" or "later"?
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Hopefully by asking these questions, other people will get some of their questions answered!

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[CPham]

Bump

 

[Girlinthewindow]

WRITING
1. Should paragraphs be indented?
I don't think so.

VERBAL
2. Is there a faster way to deal with sentence completion?
What I do is try to answer the questions without looking at my options, and then match my answers with whatever is closest in the options. It hasn't slowed me down much, but then again, I have practiced this method over most of the verbal practice exams that I have taken so 2-3 days prior to the exam might not be enough time for you to change your methods.

BIOLOGY
3. Microbiology seems to be emphasized on Dr. Collins's PCAT Prep. Based on previous exams, is there many microbiology questions regarding bacteria, viruses, their diseases, and immunology?
I hope that there aren't many diseases questions, because aside from a few genetics diseases, and a few bacterial and viral diseases I'm not so optimistic on how well I'd do on those.

CHEMISTRY
4. How in-depth does the VESRP theory go (e.g. molecular and electronic geometry)? It is difficult to grasp the concept of bond angles and the shapes the molecules make.
I would try to just draw them out and memorize them. A lot of the time you could estimate them based on how many molecules/atoms are bonded to the central atom.

5. What about knowing solubility rules?
What about it? Like dissolves like is what you should have embedded in your brain.

6. What types of reactions from organic chemistry are tested?
From what I know: substitution, elimination, addition (knowing mark and anti-mark), ox/red, acid/base, and addition to aromatic compounds. I don't believe I missed anything here. Writing this off the top of my head at work, so I might have missed 1 or 2 types.

READING COMPREHENSION
7. What is your best method of dealing with the reading comprehension section?
I can't answer this because apparently I stink at RC -- that Pearson #4 3rd exam was brutal enough to destroy my confidence in RC.

8. Do you read the passage or the questions first? Do you guide an object across lines to help you? Do you jot down mini summaries on the laminated paper after each paragraph?
I just read the questions prior to reading the passage.

QUANTITATIVE
9. Would you suggest reviewing integration by parts?
I doubt that there will be questions on that, but better to be prepared I guess.

10. What about implicit differentiation?
More this than the last one.

11. How would you "triage" this section to determine which questions to do "now" or "later"?
Basically if you stink at trig but are good at calc, then do trig later and calc now -- or vice versa. In other words, this depends on what you are strong and weak in.

 

[CPham]

Many thanks!

 

[CPham]

Also, how many passage-based questions will there be for biology, chemistry, and quantitative? I have heard that there will possibly be more than 1 passage per section. So does that mean that one passage may be experimental and the others graded in each section?

 

[AAlk143]

Chemistry and Biology will each have two passages with 4 questions for each, so 8 questions for each section will be experimental. BOTH passages are experimental from what I understand. When I took the pearson pact tests, the passage questions did not count towards my score.

As for quantitative, there is no real way to KNOW which questions will be experimental. If I don't know how to do the question within 5 seconds, I put any answer, flag it, and save it for last. The experimental questions are usually the story problems that seem impossible to do within a minute.

 

[CPham]

Chemistry and Biology will each have two passages with 4 questions for each, so 8 questions for each section will be experimental. BOTH passages are experimental from what I understand. When I took the pearson pact tests, the passage questions did not count towards my score.

As for quantitative, there is no real way to KNOW which questions will be experimental. If I don't know how to do the question within 5 seconds, I put any answer, flag it, and save it for last. The experimental questions are usually the story problems that seem impossible to do within a minute.

That is good to know that the 8 questions in chemistry and biology will not count. Hopefully, knowing this will save an adequate amount of time. For the quantitative section, which I believe the time constraint is ridiculous, using that 5 second rule sounds like it may work. It is similar to triaging in which you determine which questions to do "now" or "later". Thank you so much for the tips!

 

[jarab012]

For organic rxns I would also know the carboxylic acid derivatives and how to make them. Ex: Esterification, soponification, etc.

 

[Mimrose]

From what I've seen on online practice tests, the writing area that they give you for writing your essay is pretty basic so I doubt you'd have to indent, but I'd leave space between paragraphs to help it be easier to read.