Periodic table?

Started by madawi26
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madawi26

madawi26

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Do we get a periodic table on the PCAT? (Sorry for the dumb question, but I had to ask!)
 
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this exam seems to get sillier and sillier by the minute...

do they really expect us to know atomic weights/numbers...periodic trends, valence e's...etc w/o a periodic table? That would've been cool like 2-3 yrs ago when i was immersed in the stuff...
 
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Don't worry. From what I've seen they provide you with that kind of info if it pertinent to the question.

After the test, just remember: It's five O' clock somewhere! 🙂
 
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just memorize it....i memorized it for my inorganic chem midterm (we HAVE to memorize it) and it is very very useful for the PCAT
 
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celeron_266 said:
just memorize it....i memorized it for my inorganic chem midterm (we HAVE to memorize it) and it is very very useful for the PCAT
Click to expand...

I had to do that as well for an inorganic class, and I did know a lot about general trends and periodicity, however, I recently took the Oct. test and didn't memorize all the elements and did fine in the chemistry section. I don't think you need to memorize all the locations of elements, just the basic trends and locations of common elements.
 
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Don't memorize the periodic table unless you enjoy waisting your NFL season. Most Chem teachers don't even have it memorized. I scored 96 percentile and I don't have half of it memorized. Anyone will tell you that you need to know TRENDS and general characteristics (metals, metalloids, etc). Anything else, molecular weights, nearby elements, will come with the question.
 
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Repeated use of the thing helps. I can say from experience that nobody ever expected me to memorize the weights, and only once was I asked to recite the order from 1-103 in front of a group of elementary school kids. The ACS used to hand out little wallet-sized periodic tables as a promo; I think I still have a stack of them somewhere...

Anyway, I've been through every kind of chemistry class offered (being a former Chem Ph.D. student) and I can tell you that nobody beyond first-semester Gen. Chem. feels the need to hide the Periodic Table from you during exams.

If it helps, I'm betting that the PCAT will only deal with Hydrogen through Calcium, and maybe Iron, Bromine, and Iodine. That's 3 less elements to memorize than there are letters in the English alphabet. The general rule is number x2 equals weight, except that Hydrogen is 1. [That's 1.007947 g/mol for fellow chemistry freaks].
 
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