pcat scorie percentiles

[PharmHopeful3]

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Ok I know this forum is only a VERY small percentage of applicants, but looking at the pcat thread, it seems like a lot of people scored composites in the 90s. This means they did better than 90% of the people taking it, correct?

I've read that the norm group used to score the pcat is from 1999-2003. So if that's true, aren't the percentage scores refering to them? If you get a 90 now, does that mean you scored higher than 90% of the people in your application cycle (approximately)?

Now since pharmacy school is more competitive and higher scores are needed, could it be that you did better than 90% of the people who took it back in 2000, but this year you only did better than 75%?

Sorry this was so long...it just got me wondering....🙂

 

[Wow Strong Armz]

i think its based on the people you took it with with the norm adjusted to the first test takers. so if u got a 90% it means u did better than 90% of those that took the exam in 2000. however i think this site is ridiculous almost everyone here got a 95-99% where are the rest of the peeps

 

[fenixtnlfan]

i think its based on the people you took it with with the norm adjusted to the first test takers. so if u got a 90% it means u did better than 90% of those that took the exam in 2000. however i think this site is ridiculous almost everyone here got a 95-99% where are the rest of the peeps

I was wondering where all the lower scorers were too because they can't all be doing well! Guess they just don't want to tell us, or maybe there is some good vibe about being on this forum that gives you a good score😀

 

[flillia]

Part of it could be that if you have the drive to search out a forum on the internet related to your hopeful field you likely have the ambition to study hard for the rest of your pharmacy things. Some of the pharm hopefuls I've spoken to at my school are insane. I've talked to quite a few prepharmers who don't know that you need to take organic chemistry (isn't that what pharmacy school is for???), many who didn't know that you needed any biology (what does that have to do with drugs anyway), probably a half dozen who, at the end of their first year of prepharm, couldn't name a single pharmacy school, one who picked his school of choice because his buddy (a communications major) said that that school was way easy, and one girl who said that she was dead-set on going to Ferris and then asked me if I was planning on commuting there too (it's a 4 hour drive one way)

People who don't even bother to learn the names of the schools that they're supposed to be applying to in a few months probably don't do too well on the pcat and also probably don't seek out pharmacy discussion forums on the internet.

 

[bignels]

Like said above, there's only a very small percentage of the applicant pool here.

I'm also sure those that did bad would not like to post their scores.

 

[PharmHopeful3]

yeah, all that is definitely true.

I'm just wondering if a 90% today, still means as much as it did when they established the scoring norm back in 1999-2003.

Theoretically, more than the top 10% of people could be scoring 90s and above now.

 

[Knickerbocker]

Theoretically, more than the top 10% of people could be scoring 90s and above now.

It sure seems like it. It feels like the scores are overly pushed on the high end into the 90s, drops off a little into the 80s, and then sharply drops the rest down real quickly. Going by scores here, the spread feels really wrong.

I heard that 85% was an average score. When an 85% if average, I think that shows that the scaling was wrong. My subsection scores are good, but my composite shouldn't scale to a 99. Also, people who get some 90s with a 60 thrown in shouldn't scale to a 97%, IMO. My lowest subsection was a 92. When people have a 60 in something and manage to only be 2% lower than me, it feels like it takes away from my score - a 99 is nearly meaningless.

I'm rambling, but I feel that the scaling screws a lot of people on both ends of the spectrum.