PCAT Essay

[gds.]

I was just at the Harcourt Assessment website looking for PCAT 2005 exam dates. I found out that they are now grading 😱 the 30-minute essay section of the PCAT. The essays are graded based on a 1 to 5 scale, 5 being the best score. This should be interesting...

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[lazydazy]

The PCAT essay isn't bad. I too was very anxious when I took the PCAT. I took it last Nov. I had no idea that an essay question was going to be on the exam until I sat down and the proctor said so. I was on edge, but once I read the question, I realized that it wasn't going to be so bad. The questions they ask aren't that in depth and there isn't a right or wrong answer. Just try to stay calm & allow time to jot down a few thoughts of what you want to write about. I'd say 4-5 paragraphs is sufficient (i.e. intro, body containing 2-3 main points, and a conclusion).

Good luck, but I'm sure that you'll do fine!

 

[aubieRx]

You mean they didn't grade the jan 2005 essays???

Grading an essay is so objective in so many ways...if you get surly graders that could really be a problem..................

 

[aznpharmgurl10]

When I write essays, I tend to have a lot of scratching out and imputing. Are they going to grade on whether or not I have a messy essay section or do you think they'll just focus more on the content that's written? 😕

 

[aubieRx]

if they can't read it it will probably tick them off. Other than that i think neatness doesn't matter. In the directions i believe it said you could cross things out as long as you specified where the essay continued, etc.

my essay was "should the internet be regulated by the government"

my answer was, in the briefest of summaries, "NOOooo"

 

[Superflyjsc]

So did they grade the jan pcats or no? Cuase i dont see any grading number scale in the mail they sent me. What does that mean? I heard others got grades for their essay but then why didnt i get a grade for it?

 

[aubieRx]

I thought they merged the essay grade into the verbal section grade. meh. I don't really know. Maybe they all got drunk and threw the essays in the trashcan. lol.

 

[BTB]

Yo, somebody the other day posted a link to a .pdf on Harcourt's site that said the essay would be scored on a 1-5 scale, 5 being great & 1 being sucky. If you find that post, notice that the filename of the .pdf includes "0506". This is key: it's going to start being scored for the June 05 & subsequent test dates. The essay WON'T be scored for those of us who took the test in 10/04, 11/04, & 1/05. I called Harcourt about this, and they said that if your schools want to see the essay, they may request it from Harcourt. But Harcourt does not automatically send the essay for those of us who took the 04/05 version.

 

[samfromVA]

Harcourt questions are questions that u see in real PCAT...

 

[deleted158872]

I have the same question, too: does Harcourt post a list of potential PCAT questions somewhere (like AAMC has posted a list of MCAT Q's) ?