Pearson practice test really close to actual PCAT?

[paptropica]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hey guys just a quick question,

Is it me or was that Pearson practice test from Harcourt website just way to easy? It seems so basic and based on very basic general knowledge. I purchased both of the practice test but only took the first one.

Is this really the PCAT, or they pulling out only all the easy questions to put on the practice test.

I heard the Harcourt practice test is closest to the actual exam.

 

[PistonFan531]

I did not think that the math and bio sections were easy. Not easy at all.

 

[Dezixn]

Hey guys just a quick question,

Is it me or was that Pearson practice test from Harcourt website just way to easy? It seems so basic and based on very basic general knowledge. I purchased both of the practice test but only took the first one.

Is this really the PCAT, or they pulling out only all the easy questions to put on the practice test.

I heard the Harcourt practice test is closest to the actual exam.

I took both practice tests the 2 days before the june pcat this year and thought the practice ones were pretty simple and easy for the MOST post. Granted I knew I would have to brush up on a few things in math/chem after, but even so I thought it was easy. It ranked me in the 80-100 percentile bracket on the practice test.

Then I went and took the real thing and thought it was significantly harder. And that's not just because I was doing the real thing. I'm not one to get nervous or be affected much by testing so that's not why...

 

[woods1]

I took both practice tests the 2 days before the june pcat this year and thought the practice ones were pretty simple and easy for the MOST post. Granted I knew I would have to brush up on a few things in math/chem after, but even so I thought it was easy. It ranked me in the 80-100 percentile bracket on the practice test.

Then I went and took the real thing and thought it was significantly harder. And that's not just because I was doing the real thing. I'm not one to get nervous or be affected much by testing so that's not why...

The practice tests are much easier compared to the real test!!!! It's kind of frustrating..by the way, i have a quick question regarding the reading comprehension section of the PCAT....How did you guys prepare for that section? I can't really find anything PCAT related with many passages and then questions afterwords. I'm retaking the PCAT and the verbal and my reading comprehension scores are below average! I guess I'm just trying to find good sources for this sections...any hints or suggestions?

 

[diastole]

Hey guys just a quick question,

Is it me or was that Pearson practice test from Harcourt website just way to easy? It seems so basic and based on very basic general knowledge. I purchased both of the practice test but only took the first one.

Is this really the PCAT, or they pulling out only all the easy questions to put on the practice test.

I heard the Harcourt practice test is closest to the actual exam.

I thought it was pretty close to the real thing. If you think the test was easy, then you will probably do pretty well on the real thing. I did think the second exam was harder than the first but I took them last cycle so they may have made some changes.

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

I feel I did pretty well on the Reading Comprehension portion on the June PCAT. I have always been decent in this area but in the last number of years the difficulty level of my reading material hasn't been very high. The practice passages in the Kaplan PCAT book seemed hard for me to follow and that worried me.

So, I began reading out of scientific medical journals for about fifteen minutes a day. The idea is to get use to reading material that requires total concentration to even have a chance at understanding what they are talking about. I did that for fifteen minutes a day for about two to three weeks. At the same time I took about three to four reading comprehension sample tests...used them from the Kaplan PCAT books and GRE workbooks I found at the library. Essentially I was doing a test every week.

I felt comfortable on this section for the June PCAT but for the August PCAT I have made the decision to purchase Examkrackers 101 Reading Comprehension Passages for the MCAT. With so many passages available it will allow me to do two or three a week until the exam. The level of difficulty of these passages for the MCAT should be substantially harder than needed but I figure I will be 150% prepared for the next exam. Good Luck!

 

[Vdot]

I think the practice tests are a VERY ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF THE PCAT. DO NOT ATTEMPT THE PCAT WITHOUT TRYING THE PRACTICE TESTS.

 

[jjfree]

I took the practice tests a few days before the actual test, and scored in the upper range of what they predicted on their composite scores. The most important benefit was the practice. If you use different pcat books, you will notice they all vary in difficulty, which doesn't make much since. For instance, the math in the Kaplan book is way too simple. I think the pearson test is closest thing you can get.
Also, after the pearson tests were graded it helped me a lot to analyze every question and see how I could have answered it quicker, in other words I looked for guessing hints.

 

[Namishin]

From someone who took multiple practice tests and the PCAT twice, I would say the practice tests are significantly easier. However, they are still very useful tools.

They give you a sense of the time management you'll need on the test and ask questions in the format of the test so you can attune yourself correctly. If you're struggling with practice tests, you definitely need to study more. If you're not, well, keep studying.

 

[mug3n]

Mixed I think.

Last year anyways for the June PCAT, I bought the practice (I'm sure they change it every year and don't sell the same ones, at least I hope they don't) and found that the quantitative was much harder than the real thing (there were actually quite a few difficult problem solving Qs on the practice, most Qs on the real thing last year were very straightforward although I wish Pearson would keep in mind that students of all nationalities take this test because I had no idea how many ounces = 1 gallon. True story. Ended up guessing 5-6 questions and still managed to rack up a 94% yay).

However I thought chemistry was loads easier on the practice than the real thing (there was more general chem in the practice test for whatever reason so that gave me the false perception that I could study less for orgo which of course ended up killing me in that section).

Other sections were comparable between the practice and real thing. So all in all a good representation of your knowledge if you take the practice to gauge yourself. Especially for reading comprehension, I thought the practice gave me a good check of what I was in for, I made so many stupid mistakes on the practice and it tanked my subsection mark but on the real thing I managed to be careful and got an 80.

 

[bugg]

.