PCAT Quantitative Ability

[poptropica]

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I was reading through some of these threads and it seems like there is no single book that nails the math portion of the pcat. But for those of you who scored a 80+ on the math portion, what books did you guys use?

Or are you guys just good math students😀

I know time is a big factor in this section and practicing under timed condition is crucial, I just wish there was some source (or review material) that just has a whole bunch of practice problems.

I already have Dr Collins and it's good but I need some more practice problems.

 

[justhanging]

I was reading through some of these threads and it seems like there is no single book that nails the math portion of the pcat. But for those of you who scored a 80+ on the math portion, what books did you guys use?

Or are you guys just good math students😀

I know time is a big factor in this section and practicing under timed condition is crucial, I just wish there was some source (or review material) that just has a whole bunch of practice problems.

I already have Dr Collins and it's good but I need some more practice problems.

I know the PCAT destroyer has practice problems. I need something like Dr. Collins were they review all the concepts all over again. I feel your pain though cause I've asked this question before.

 

[b1234]

I was reading through some of these threads and it seems like there is no single book that nails the math portion of the pcat. But for those of you who scored a 80+ on the math portion, what books did you guys use?

Or are you guys just good math students😀

I know time is a big factor in this section and practicing under timed condition is crucial, I just wish there was some source (or review material) that just has a whole bunch of practice problems.

I already have Dr Collins and it's good but I need some more practice problems.

Most probably just good at math...

I'd personally recommend a pre calculus textbook.

 

[philapharm7]

I was reading through some of these threads and it seems like there is no single book that nails the math portion of the pcat. But for those of you who scored a 80+ on the math portion, what books did you guys use?

Or are you guys just good math students😀

I know time is a big factor in this section and practicing under timed condition is crucial, I just wish there was some source (or review material) that just has a whole bunch of practice problems.

I already have Dr Collins and it's good but I need some more practice problems.

I feel the exact same way. I have dr collin's but I need more practice. I've been looking for a workbook type of thing. The problem with just using calc or pre-calc text book is that there is too much information. Dr Collin's is good because it narrows the information down to just the important stuff, but I just need more example problems. Please message me if you find a good one!!

 

[57girl]

Has anyone tried PCAT Secrets Study Guide published by Mometrix Media?
http://www.mo-media.com/pcat/

 

[chemguy79]

This is what I did on the test to score at the 99th percentile, 499 scaled score on the Quantitative section of the PCAT.

Once you've taken all of Dr. Collins' tests, look at the problems that you've missed. If you've missed more than 1 problem of a certain type, do some searching on the internet to fix your deficiencies. (I would STRONGLY advice you to take Pearson's practice tests as well.)

I noticed that I was struggling with a few Pre-Calculus concepts, so I went on the internet, checked out a few online Pre-Calculus websites and spent $1.50 buying a text book off of ebay since I figured that an actual text book would have more problems than any study guide. It worked WONDERS for my confidence and my score.

The bottom line is that there isn't going to be one book that you should use to learn the material. You should find out your weaknesses from the practice tests and tailor your studying accordingly. IMO, you're going to be in a heap of trouble if you try to use one study guide in order to comprehensively study for the PCAT.

 

[b1234]

I feel the exact same way. I have dr collin's but I need more practice. I've been looking for a workbook type of thing. The problem with just using calc or pre-calc text book is that there is too much information. Dr Collin's is good because it narrows the information down to just the important stuff, but I just need more example problems. Please message me if you find a good one!!

pre calc text, look at the chapters you need work on, work through example problems, and do problem sets from the ends of those chapters... Just skip the stuff you don't need.

I've never used or even looked at Dr. Collins but - I highly doubt it "narrows information down to just the important stuff" from what I've heard - Dr. Collins is mostly just example problems. This would give you a good feel for what types of problems to expect on the PCAT - but there are plenty of other "important" things... A textbook will actually (attempt) to teach you how to do those things - not just give you problems. PCAT quant section is a joke... the only difficult part is finishing it in the time allotted... With the exception of maybe a dozen questions or so, the entire quant section of the PCAT is (considerably) easier than the math you do in gen chem.

 

[poptropica]

This is what I did on the test to score at the 99th percentile, 499 scaled score on the Quantitative section of the PCAT.

Once you've taken all of Dr. Collins' tests, look at the problems that you've missed. If you've missed more than 1 problem of a certain type, do some searching on the internet to fix your deficiencies. (I would STRONGLY advice you to take Pearson's practice tests as well.)

I noticed that I was struggling with a few Pre-Calculus concepts, so I went on the internet, checked out a few online Pre-Calculus websites and spent $1.50 buying a text book off of ebay since I figured that an actual text book would have more problems than any study guide. It worked WONDERS for my confidence and my score.

The bottom line is that there isn't going to be one book that you should use to learn the material. You should find out your weaknesses from the practice tests and tailor your studying accordingly. IMO, you're going to be in a heap of trouble if you try to use one study guide in order to comprehensively study for the PCAT.

I seem to like the way you explained your technique to aim the studying on concepts I'm having problems in but when you said to search on the internet for problems, are there sites with specific difficulty level of problems as the pcat.

For example, I'm having trouble with implicit differentiation, but when I search for that online the problems seem harder in terms of difficulty.

 

[b1234]

If there is any implicit differentiation on the PCAT - there would be maybe 1 question. That's a bit more advanced than anything I remember being on it. The calc was all simple conceptual or simple polynomial or simple trig fn, etc. single variable differentiation or integration.

 

[chemguy79]

I seem to like the way you explained your technique to aim the studying on concepts I'm having problems in but when you said to search on the internet for problems, are there sites with specific difficulty level of problems as the pcat.

For example, I'm having trouble with implicit differentiation, but when I search for that online the problems seem harder in terms of difficulty.

Hey poptropica,

I thought that this website was pretty helpful for implicit differentiation.

http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/ProblemsList.html

The calculus wasn't too bad, but I had a pretty odd trig derivative (it was squared and some other junk inside of the function) and I actually had an implicit differentiation problem on my exam. I was thinking ... Thanks Dr. Collins!

I have other sites on my PC at home if you need some review with certain concepts!

 

[jnmnh]

I have other sites on my PC at home if you need some review with certain concepts!

I don't suppose you have a resource for logarithms? Based on the 5 or so from that section of the Collins guide, I feel like I need to work a bunch of problems to really internalize the relationships between the terms (as far as log xy and log x/y).

Chemguy, thanks for all the advice you've been doling out this PCAT cycle. Been very helpful.

 

[poptropica]

Hey poptropica,

I thought that this website was pretty helpful for implicit differentiation.

http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~kouba/ProblemsList.html

The calculus wasn't too bad, but I had a pretty odd trig derivative (it was squared and some other junk inside of the function) and I actually had an implicit differentiation problem on my exam. I was thinking ... Thanks Dr. Collins!

I have other sites on my PC at home if you need some review with certain concepts!

Thanks chemguy79. I remember I also had an implicit differentiation problem the last time I took the pcat, but it was very simple equation (not a trig one, I would have freaked out) .

Yeah trig functions are killers, I was always scared of trig (sin, cos) when I took calculus. When ever we did a test in calc I would always hope the derivatives, ant-derivatives, implicit diff, graphs, limits, etc what ever the problem where that they were in numbers.Trig just scares me.

 

[chemguy79]

I don't suppose you have a resource for logarithms? Based on the 5 or so from that section of the Collins guide, I feel like I need to work a bunch of problems to really internalize the relationships between the terms (as far as log xy and log x/y).

Chemguy, thanks for all the advice you've been doling out this PCAT cycle. Been very helpful.

Hey there!

I'm glad to give out advice because I wish that I would had had such help when I was studying for the PCAT.

Here are good websites that explain the relationships:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/algebra-ii-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

http://math.la.asu.edu/~surgent/logs.pdf

Good practice:

http://www.zweigmedia.com/RealWorld/calctopic1/logs.html