Pearson Practice Test 4

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WSUWarrior012

WSUWarrior012

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I have heard that practice test 4 is very similar to the real PCAT difficulty. I am concerned about how difficult the reading comprehension is, however. Do you guys think that the real PCAT's reading comprehension is that same level of difficulty or at least slightly easier? I did significantly better on the 3rd practice test so I am very concerned if everyone is saying that the 4th is the most similar to the real deal.
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CofCMarineBiologist said:
I will take test 4 tomorrow and report my results. RC is a struggle after all the other sections. It is hard to retain what was read.
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It really is. Reading comp is not my biggest problem, its the stupid verbal section. Seriously if it wasn't for that section I could easily get a 90th percentile on the real PCAT.
 
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On test 2 and 3 I was able to get between 70-90 on the verbal section. I used the Kaplan method for the sentence completion portion. I would say VA and RC are by far my worst sections.
 
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i will take test #4 tomorrow too. And my exam is within 10 days. My RC and VA are still very very low. I am extremely nervous :panda:

Va: 2-22%tile
Bio: 52-72
Chem: 80-99%
Rc: 4-24%
Qa:60-80%
Comp 42-62
One week before the date, I am thinking of applying to non-Pcat schools now.
 
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I agree. My VA dropped from 70-90 on test 3 to 55-75 on test 4. I felt like the test was difficult overall. I'm not sure how to spend the next week preparing for the Sept. 5th exam.
 
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CofCMarineBiologist said:
I agree. My VA dropped from 70-90 on test 3 to 55-75 on test 4. I felt like the test was difficult overall. I'm not sure how to spend the next week preparing for the Sept. 5th exam.
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I am also taking it on september 5th. I think my best course of action at this point is to just be as prepared as possible for quantitative, chem and bio since those are my best ill just improve on areas i'm not too confident about this next week and hopefully I can pull a 90%ile for each. Verbal I am honestly just gonna do all of collin's verbal practice tests even if they are not the best and i'll look over the ones from pearson and just try to memorize as much as I can. RC i'm really just gonna have to go in there and try to do my best there's not really a specific way to improve on this. And writing I just didn't prepare at all for it yet lol
 
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The passages on the real PCAT are longer by 2 or 3 paragraphs. I had 10 minutes left on each practice and only about 2 on the real test.
 
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I feel so stupid whenever I look at my scores for VA and RC... :( Oh well.. I still haven't taken pearson practice tests 3 and 4. I guess I need to do at least one tomorrow... ugh
 
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WSUWarrior012 said:
Tell me about it. I always feel somewhat confident about the RC but end up getting like 50th %ile
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How are you attacking RC? I think 50th percentile will be very fine with me. :)
And I just gave up on VA.. I don't think it's realistic to expect my score to go up in less than 2 weeks or so..
I just want these stressful days to be over and done already!! D:
 
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willgotoapharmschool said:
Let me know whether you like pearson's or not. I guess I need to read over the section in Kaplan again. Thank you for the advice!
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The method that works best for me is to write the introduction paragraph first, the conclusion second, and then fill in the body. This saves me a decent amount of time to read back over the passage for mistakes and also it allows you to have the two most important paragraphs in my opinion. For the body I choose two to three solutions and briefly elaborate on them. I will let you know how the practice test scores mine.
 
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CofCMarineBiologist said:
The method that works best for me is to write the introduction paragraph first, the conclusion second, and then fill in the body. This saves me a decent amount of time to read back over the passage for mistakes and also it allows you to have the two most important paragraphs in my opinion. For the body I choose two to three solutions and briefly elaborate on them. I will let you know how the practice test scores mine.
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I guess I should try doing that, too. :) For me I have always had problems with the "hook" of the intro. It is just hard to come up with the very first line that will grab readers' attention, and I end up spending about 10 minutes just thinking about how to begin my essay :( so bad, I know...
And yes please let me know how the scores go!
 
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willgotoapharmschool said:
Oh also, how are you preparing for the essay section?! I tried one prompt from kaplan practice test 1, and it was BAD. D:
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For RC, I don't really see a way I can really improve on it because reading comprehension is something that I feel like takes years of experience to improve on, not just two weeks. But I plan on reading through the prompt first just so I get an idea of the main ideas and when they were mentioned so I can reference them when I answer the questions. That's really the only way I think I could have a chance on this section. And honestly for the essay, I have no preparation for that. I might just look at some of the topics Dr. Collins mentioned just to get an idea of what to expect. Maybe the last couple days before the PCAT i'll practice writing a few as well as looking in the kaplan book for their advice.
 
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Hey guys does the writing section get factored in your Percentile Rank or is it like some seperate score that wont effect anything?
 
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SportsLover21 said:
Hey guys does the writing section get factored in your Percentile Rank or is it like some seperate score that wont effect anything?
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Separate.

I've heard that most schools don't really care about your writing score that much. If English is your first language, expect a 3 or a 4 (I got a 4 on the July PCAT. Was expecting a 5, but I did run out of time so didn't end my conclusion the way I wanted to).
 
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Thestrugglez said:
Separate.

I've heard that most schools don't really care about your writing score that much. If English is your first language, expect a 3 or a 4 (I got a 4 on the July PCAT. Was expecting a 5, but I did run out of time so didn't end my conclusion the way I wanted to).
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haha that's awesome man. You still got a high score. How in the world do you even format that thing? 3 Paragraphs? Intro, Body, Conclusion?
 
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Anybody willing to share Pearson pcat practice test (Chem and math) with me? I'm taking pcat on Sept 5th.
 
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WSUWarrior012 said:
I have heard that practice test 4 is very similar to the real PCAT difficulty. I am concerned about how difficult the reading comprehension is, however. Do you guys think that the real PCAT's reading comprehension is that same level of difficulty or at least slightly easier? I did significantly better on the 3rd practice test so I am very concerned if everyone is saying that the 4th is the most similar to the real deal.
Click to expand...

no way..i just took the real pcat on july 18th and the reading comp is so much harder on the pcat than they are making on the pearson tests. the passages are significantly longer paragraph length wise and so are the questions. the ones on pearson are straightforward but i remember on the pcat that i was so blindsided after taking that section since i did not expect that at all. i did horrible on reading and it brought down my overall pcat and am retaking sept 5 as well. i have been doing mcat passages from examkrackers verbal 101 passages. i suggest you download a free pdf version or grab a book before friday's test - the mcat ones prep you way better than pearson if we're struggling with it already.

as for verbal, i thought there were a ton of dr. collins analogies but that being said, they switched up the last word in a lot of his analogies so i would suggest to look up definitions if you don't know some of the words because they can ask for a diff synonym and try to trip you up. i thought it was hard but ended up getting a 49 on that which was okay but im not really sure how word roots help me some of the pcat analogies are pretty basic but they trip you up with the technicalities of what they are looking for.
 
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spurs2014 said:
no way..i just took the real pcat on july 18th and the reading comp is so much harder on the pcat than they are making on the pearson tests. the passages are significantly longer paragraph length wise and so are the questions. the ones on pearson are straightforward but i remember on the pcat that i was so blindsided after taking that section since i did not expect that at all. i did horrible on reading and it brought down my overall pcat and am retaking sept 5 as well. i have been doing mcat passages from examkrackers verbal 101 passages. i suggest you download a free pdf version or grab a book before friday's test - the mcat ones prep you way better than pearson if we're struggling with it already.

as for verbal, i thought there were a ton of dr. collins analogies but that being said, they switched up the last word in a lot of his analogies so i would suggest to look up definitions if you don't know some of the words because they can ask for a diff synonym and try to trip you up. i thought it was hard but ended up getting a 49 on that which was okay but im not really sure how word roots help me some of the pcat analogies are pretty basic but they trip you up with the technicalities of what they are looking for.
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Would you say the difficulty of real PCAT's reading comp is similar to the passages from Examkracker's verbal 101? :< Now I am really scared!
 
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spurs2014 said:
no way..i just took the real pcat on july 18th and the reading comp is so much harder on the pcat than they are making on the pearson tests. the passages are significantly longer paragraph length wise and so are the questions. the ones on pearson are straightforward but i remember on the pcat that i was so blindsided after taking that section since i did not expect that at all. i did horrible on reading and it brought down my overall pcat and am retaking sept 5 as well. i have been doing mcat passages from examkrackers verbal 101 passages. i suggest you download a free pdf version or grab a book before friday's test - the mcat ones prep you way better than pearson if we're struggling with it already.

as for verbal, i thought there were a ton of dr. collins analogies but that being said, they switched up the last word in a lot of his analogies so i would suggest to look up definitions if you don't know some of the words because they can ask for a diff synonym and try to trip you up. i thought it was hard but ended up getting a 49 on that which was okay but im not really sure how word roots help me some of the pcat analogies are pretty basic but they trip you up with the technicalities of what they are looking for.
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Yeah I have a friend who has the MCAT exam crackers and he let me borrow a bunch of the reading comp practice tests. I think that's probably the best way to prepare for reading comprehension is to be able to do harder problems (like the MCAT passages) so it will make the PCAT passages seem "easier". Verbal I honestly am like anticipating somewhere less than 50th% lol. It's just way to hard to prepare for there are so many words they can pick I just don't have time to really study it. So I am just gonna stick to the Dr. Collins practice tests and look up definitions for the words and hope some of those words come up on test day.
 
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Honestly RC/verbal/writing are the hardest subjects to improve so I'd recommend studying them last. I'm going to do Dr. Collins just for the chance of repeated questions but aside from that I'd spend the bulk of my study time on bio/chem/quant which are much easier scores to raise
 
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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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How do we get these practice tests? Are they timed and computerized or do we get them in mail? Thank you.
 
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belmont3 said:
How do we get these practice tests? Are they timed and computerized or do we get them in mail? Thank you.
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https://tpc-etesting.com/pcatopt/About.aspx
Hopefully this will help you.
They're on the computer and they provide you with a timer, but you don't have to time them if you don't want. They give you immediate feedback after you finish them.
 
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nancyyy said:
please guide me
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Nancy, I've seen you posting everywhere so I'll try and help you.
I used these things and scored a 92 percentile on the PCAT on my first try:
Kaplan study book: http://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-PCAT-2013-2014/dp/1609789288
Barrons test question book: http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-PCAT-6th-Edition-Admission/dp/1438003811
MCAT flashcards: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kap...865&isbn=9781427797865&kpid=9781427797865&r=1
And I didn't actually have this, but my friend did so we shared it a week before the test. This is the Dr. Collin's guide that everyone talks about: http://pcatprepclass.com/register.html#self_study

Good luck.
 
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Test 4 Results:
VA: 37~57% (YIKES...)
BIO: 80~99%
CHEM: 80~99%
RC: 50~70%
QA: 80~99%

Does anyone have recommendations for improving VA?
This was the first full pearson practice exam I have done and I found that in general, VA was a lot more trickier (?) than Dr. Collins if that makes sense.. like it was harder to find the relationships and some were just absurd imo..
 
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lululala33 said:
Test 4 Results:
VA: 37~57% (YIKES...)
BIO: 80~99%
CHEM: 80~99%
RC: 50~70%
QA: 80~99%

Does anyone have recommendations for improving VA?
This was the first full pearson practice exam I have done and I found that in general, VA was a lot more trickier (?) than Dr. Collins if that makes sense.. like it was harder to find the relationships and some were just absurd imo..
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Hey Lulu, just wondering does the pearson practice test that you took with those scores tell you how many you got wrong? also, does it tell you which ones they are and how to fix them?

I'm just curious as to how many you got right from each section in that practice test.
 
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