Practice Tests

[Schnotty]

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I have been taking practice exams out of the Barron's study guide, and so far I have only taken the verbal and reading comp. I got 86% right on the verbal and 90% right on the reading comp. How can we convert this to percentile or is there another way we can gauge how we are doing? Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Farcus]

barron's practice guide is the worst guide ever its inept and its too easy on a lot of stuff. They don't ask you how many electrons is in a carbon atom on the pcat...

 

[Schnotty]

Let me rephrase - how many questions can we get wrong out of 48 to be in the 90th percentile? From my understanding, each section has 48 questions... so I am just wondering if there is a way to gauge what percentile range I am in by the number of questions I am getting wrong.

 

[Farcus]

There is no way to tell you can't simple divide because its all relative to what everyone score from the past few years since 2003. Once again i suggest you don't use barron... The only good estimate I know of is kaplan's final test and midterm if you taken the program. From what I seen the scores are all very close to the real PCAT score.

 

[mug3n]

Go to the Pearson site and buy the practice test(s). It's not cheap (2 for $57, one for $30 I believe) but what's a better practice test than the company that actually writes the PCAT?

 

[Farcus]

Go to the Pearson site and buy the practice test(s). It's not cheap (2 for $57, one for $30 I believe) but what's a better practice test than the company that actually writes the PCAT?

agrees 😉

 

[jccrew]

so out of all the practices tests, do you guys think that pearson's tests are the closest to the actual pcat(esp math and chem)? or is there anything else that you would prefer? and are the percentiles that they give you reliable?

sorry for having so many q's, but i just don't want to spend all that money when there's something else better.

 

[homeslice]

so out of all the practices tests, do you guys think that pearson's tests are the closest to the actual pcat(esp math and chem)? or is there anything else that you would prefer? and are the percentiles that they give you reliable?

sorry for having so many q's, but i just don't want to spend all that money when there's something else better.

Pearson's practice tests are definately the closest to the actual pcat, especially considering a lot of the questions from them are from old pcats. If I remember right the percentile they give you for the practice test has a range of 20 which is pretty big, but all of my scores on the actual pcat were within this 20 percentile range, so I would say it is fairly accurate.

 

[tprice108]

so if I have the kaplan book and i do the final test, out of each section (roundabouts, because there is no way of knowing) how many questions should i be getting right to be in the 80 to 90 percentile? 75% right, 95% right, 50% right?? Myself along with the starter of this thread would like to gauge how well we are doing....

 

[mug3n]

There is no way to tell. Obviously the more you get right the better, but it's really hard to say whether or not 80% of a section right or 90% of a section right would net you in the 90th percentile. It's all relative to the PCAT takers from the last 4-5 years.

The best thing you can do is just aim to do the best you can, rather than aim for "I need to get X many questions out of Y right so I can get in the Zth percentile" type of mindset.

 

[sparklypharm]

I just purchased the harcourt tests (the practice ones)
I"m wondering if you can go back and look the mistakes / explainations / questions after you've finished the tests?? Or do they not let you refer to the m again at a later date?

Thanks guys😛

 

[Farcus]

I just purchased the harcourt tests (the practice ones)
I"m wondering if you can go back and look the mistakes / explainations / questions after you've finished the tests?? Or do they not let you refer to the m again at a later date?

Thanks guys😛

ditto i need to know this too, i'm purchasing it by end of the week.

 

[ffpickle]

ditto i need to know this too, i'm purchasing it by end of the week.

my understanding from reading it when signing up is that you CAN do this. Maybe I should call to confirm though?

re: Barron's- i think the questions there are too basic (at least in the general work section, ie. not the practice tests)

 

[RxAnder]

my understanding from reading it when signing up is that you CAN do this. Maybe I should call to confirm though?

re: Barron's- i think the questions there are too basic (at least in the general work section, ie. not the practice tests)

You can DEFINITELY go back in and see everything: questions, 4 choices, your answer and the correct answer. It stays available until the end of the exam year - so that's end of Jan 2009. And you don't have to complete any section or exam in one sitting, but they recommend it -test stamina can become an issue.

On a side note, I lost my internet connection once. No problem. It saved the questions that I had answered and allowed me to continue on.

Also, use a seperate timer. If you accidently hit the browser back button instead of the back button for the previous question it messes up the clock.