PCAT July 2014 Changes

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Derozan

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Hey guys, as some of you already know, starting this July the PCAT will be a little different. The Bio and Chem sections will each have 2 passages with each passage containing 4 questions. These 8 questions per subject will be experimental and not count. The Time is increased by 5 mins to do Bio and Chem. What do you think about that change? Would you rather know which 8 won't count so you don't waste your time on them, or would you rather keep the old style?

Also, for the Quantitative Section, the time is increased by 5 mins because they are incorporating word-problems and problem-solving problems. The 8 experimental questions will not be obvious. Lastly, the Verbal section now has no experimental questions, and time is decreased from 30 to 25 mins.

Since we are the first to write this type of format, what will our Percentile Ranks be compared to? Also, does this mean the Dr. Collins and Pcat study guides for 2012-2013 are ineffective? Or will those types of questions still appear?

Thanks.
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From the Blueprint change page, it seems as though you will still be compared to a previous norm group, because that's where the regular questions came from. On that same page it says preparation for the PCAT will not change.
 
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It doesn't seem fair that for the quantitative section they are adding questions which take longer than your typical question and only adding 5mins. For the chem & bio sections, wouldn't it be pretty apparent which questions are the experimental ones since they are passages? That's not a very common type of question for those sections. I don't mind that change though, usually those sections can be finished with plenty of time.
 
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Yea, so I was wondering you can use the extra 5 minutes given to chem and bio for the real questions, and just guess the passages since they don't even matter. I know everyone is taking the same test but the PR score will be compared to people who've taken the PCAT previous years as well.

For the quantitative part, the site says we won't be able to tell which are the experimental ones but I'm pretty sure they'll be the longer problem-solving type questions which you can filter out. I'm not saying don't try on them, but don't take too much time on them since they might not even count.

Kaplan's site mentions that Verbal will no longer have 8 experimental questions which means it is more "critical" to get them right. Why is this so? Even if there was experimental questions in verbal they wouldn't count anyway whether right or wrong, so that statement doesn't make sense to me 😛

I hope the types of questions this July won't deviate much from the Pearson practice tests
 
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Derozan said:
Yea, so I was wondering you can use the extra 5 minutes given to chem and bio for the real questions, and just guess the passages since they don't even matter. I know everyone is taking the same test but the PR score will be compared to people who've taken the PCAT previous years as well.

For the quantitative part, the site says we won't be able to tell which are the experimental ones but I'm pretty sure they'll be the longer problem-solving type questions which you can filter out. I'm not saying don't try on them, but don't take too much time on them since they might not even count.

Kaplan's site mentions that Verbal will no longer have 8 experimental questions which means it is more "critical" to get them right. Why is this so? Even if there was experimental questions in verbal they wouldn't count anyway whether right or wrong, so that statement doesn't make sense to me 😛

I hope the types of questions this July won't deviate much from the Pearson practice tests
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The verbal would be more critical because you can't bank on a hard question most likely being an experimental one. So if you come across a hard one you know it will 100% be graded.
 
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I do not get passage parts for bio and chem. What possible questions are they giing to give for passages??
 
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Going to be taking the Jan 2015 PCAT. Anybody else taking it in Jan, in miami? Great Thread for those of us still gearing up for the pcat.

Anyway, I came on here wondering what changes could have possibly been made to the Pcat recently and wow, to my surprise, a lot of information I didn't even know about. Are these changes from jul still in effect for the Jan pcat coming?

This new information comes as a surprise to me but isn't this a good thing? I can't help but think that getting more time for experimental questions is a good thing. Experimentals are experimentals but your getting more time simply because the experimentals are "passage style". I think a good strategy would be to use that extra time your being given to focus on the ones that you know are more likely to be the "real questions".
 
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IDontHateYou said:
Going to be taking the Jan 2015 PCAT. Anybody else taking it in Jan, in miami? Great Thread for those of us still gearing up for the pcat.

Anyway, I came on here wondering what changes could have possibly been made to the Pcat recently and wow, to my surprise, a lot of information I didn't even know about. Are these changes from jul still in effect for the Jan pcat coming?

This new information comes as a surprise to me but isn't this a good thing? I can't help but think that getting more time for experimental questions is a good thing. Experimentals are experimentals but your getting more time simply because the experimentals are "passage style". I think a good strategy would be to use that extra time your being given to focus on the ones that you know are more likely to be the "real questions".
Click to expand...

Genius
 
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IDontHateYou said:
Going to be taking the Jan 2015 PCAT. Anybody else taking it in Jan, in miami? Great Thread for those of us still gearing up for the pcat.

Anyway, I came on here wondering what changes could have possibly been made to the Pcat recently and wow, to my surprise, a lot of information I didn't even know about. Are these changes from jul still in effect for the Jan pcat coming?

This new information comes as a surprise to me but isn't this a good thing? I can't help but think that getting more time for experimental questions is a good thing. Experimentals are experimentals but your getting more time simply because the experimentals are "passage style". I think a good strategy would be to use that extra time your being given to focus on the ones that you know are more likely to be the "real questions".
Click to expand...
I'm in Miami but I'm taking it on October 28.
 
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I am looking for study partner for PCAT. please contact me on [email protected]

I am also looking for books. please recommend me books and if possible,please guide me about from where to buy those books? if anyone can send me the images of books,that will help me a lot. i already have Kaplan
 
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