quantitative section of the pcat

[pharmdtt]

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I took the PCAT last year and used Dr Collins study guide. It helped me alot in all the aspects of the test except quantitative.

I felt like Dr Collins study test materials was the quant section was way too easy compared to the real test.

Any advice on how to pass this session of the PCAT?
Thanks

 

[iBeast]

Same difficulty. Only difference is Collison presents the question in the easiest manner to understand and the PCAT will add more extraneous information with a extra step or two.

If you can finish his quant sections with about 15-20 mins to spare you should be good.

 

[rjosh33]

I took the PCAT last year and used Dr Collins study guide. It helped me alot in all the aspects of the test except quantitative.

I felt like Dr Collins study test materials was the quant section was way too easy compared to the real test.

Any advice on how to pass this session of the PCAT?
Thanks

First off, there is no passing or failing the PCAT. You're given a numerical score based on how many questions you get right.

Secondly, in another thread KiKi1989 laid out a pretty good plan that helped her score in the 99th percentile on QA this past September. That thread can be found here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=861163

In it she mentions making a list of topics you're weak on (probabilities, inequalities, rational functions, whatever) and watching videos online that explain each concept. Personally, I couldn't agree more with this strategy. When I was studying for the PCAT, I went to patrickjmt.com -- a site that has literally several hundred videos on just about any math topic you can think of. He concisely explains the concept in question, as well as how to tackle a couple practice problems, which I found the most helpful.

Of course, this shouldn't be all the studying you do for this section, but it's a real good place to start.

 

[kcwang]

I copy and paste some QA tips I gave few months ago. Good Luck


"(Mentioned before, but very improtant) When you are taking the pcat QA, skip any problem with diagram and long sentences. Only go back to do them when you are finished with the rest.

When doing calculation questions, look through answers for a second to cross out any obvious wrong answer. Sometimes you dont even need to do the calculation because the answer is so obvious among the choices.

Always Simplify.

If you see a number more than 4 digits long, simplify it. For example, 14,369 -> 14000, sometimes even 2 digits, 58 ->60. This will make your life easier. This is especially a must if you see answer choices differ significantly. (ex: a. 1 b. 150 c. 500 d. 4503)

Simplify more
i^8 --> (i^2)^4

Know tricks,

log 1 = 0, log abc = log a + log b + log c etc..

If a problem takes more than 30 seconds to solve, skip it, you're probably doing it wrong (or not fast enough). They love to throw random stuff to throw you off (Practice lot of questions makes you immune to this).

Then there are the technicals, where you really need to know your stuff, like the relationship between position, velocity, acceleration, graphs of sin and cos, derivative of e^x etc..

I will stop right here for now. First time when I took QA, I got 88. Realized it is more about test taking skill and strategy, went back and got 99. "

 

[asianbunny]

I copy and paste some QA tips I gave few months ago. Good Luck


"(Mentioned before, but very improtant) When you are taking the pcat QA, skip any problem with diagram and long sentences. Only go back to do them when you are finished with the rest.

When doing calculation questions, look through answers for a second to cross out any obvious wrong answer. Sometimes you dont even need to do the calculation because the answer is so obvious among the choices.

Always Simplify.

If you see a number more than 4 digits long, simplify it. For example, 14,369 -> 14000, sometimes even 2 digits, 58 ->60. This will make your life easier. This is especially a must if you see answer choices differ significantly. (ex: a. 1 b. 150 c. 500 d. 4503)

Simplify more
i^8 --> (i^2)^4

Know tricks,

log 1 = 0, log abc = log a + log b + log c etc..

If a problem takes more than 30 seconds to solve, skip it, you're probably doing it wrong (or not fast enough). They love to throw random stuff to throw you off (Practice lot of questions makes you immune to this).

Then there are the technicals, where you really need to know your stuff, like the relationship between position, velocity, acceleration, graphs of sin and cos, derivative of e^x etc..

I will stop right here for now. First time when I took QA, I got 88. Realized it is more about test taking skill and strategy, went back and got 99. "

Wow, this is amazing advice. Thank you!

 

[Buk Lau]

First off, there is no passing or failing the PCAT. You're given a numerical score based on how many questions you get right.

Secondly, in another thread KiKi1989 laid out a pretty good plan that helped her score in the 99th percentile on QA this past September. That thread can be found here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=861163

In it she mentions making a list of topics you're weak on (probabilities, inequalities, rational functions, whatever) and watching videos online that explain each concept. Personally, I couldn't agree more with this strategy. When I was studying for the PCAT, I went to patrickjmt.com -- a site that has literally several hundred videos on just about any math topic you can think of. He concisely explains the concept in question, as well as how to tackle a couple practice problems, which I found the most helpful.

Of course, this shouldn't be all the studying you do for this section, but it's a real good place to start.

I'm confused as to why this shouldn't be ALL the studying you do for the Quant section. Aren't you learning and practicing the same math you would learn anywhere else? Just asking because I want to know the best way to study myself.

 

[rjosh33]

I'm confused as to why this shouldn't be ALL the studying you do for the Quant section. Aren't you learning and practicing the same math you would learn anywhere else? Just asking because I want to know the best way to study myself.

Well, I don't consider watching the videos to be good practice. It's a great resource to see how a concept works and how to solve a sample problem, but the student should then find additional sample problems from review books, their own textbook(s), and/or Pearson practice tests (ideally all three) and take time to correctly solve them as well.

This does two things. First, it further reinforces the concept and promotes better understanding, which will make it more likely you can recall the material come test time. I remember a couple questions from the PCAT with concepts from videos I had watched, but hadn't worked any sample problems. I couldn't remember exactly how to solve the problem and ended up having to guess, which was pretty frustrating at the time.

Secondly, working through the problems helps build up the speed you need in order to complete the section on time. Knowing how to work the problems is important, but almost just as important is the ability to solve them fast. For example, you may know how to find an equation's concavity, but can you do two quotient rules in under a minute? Two minutes? Speed and efficiency are important throughout the test, but become a premium on the quant. section. Of course, given that it's the final portion of a 4+ hour exam, it's easy to get bogged down by that point. That's where time spent drilling practice problems will pay off.

 

[xtsukiyox]

Well, I don't consider watching the videos to be good practice. It's a great resource to see how a concept works and how to solve a sample problem, but the student should then find additional sample problems from review books, their own textbook(s), and/or Pearson practice tests (ideally all three) and take time to correctly solve them as well.

This does two things. First, it further reinforces the concept and promotes better understanding, which will make it more likely you can recall the material come test time. I remember a couple questions from the PCAT with concepts from videos I had watched, but hadn't worked any sample problems. I couldn't remember exactly how to solve the problem and ended up having to guess, which was pretty frustrating at the time.

Secondly, working through the problems helps build up the speed you need in order to complete the section on time. Knowing how to work the problems is important, but almost just as important is the ability to solve them fast. For example, you may know how to find an equation's concavity, but can you do two quotient rules in under a minute? Two minutes? Speed and efficiency are important throughout the test, but become a premium on the quant. section. Of course, given that it's the final portion of a 4+ hour exam, it's easy to get bogged down by that point. That's where time spent drilling practice problems will pay off.

👍 I agree with everything you just said. Solid post. 👍

 

[PharmStudent305]

I have Dr.Collins Quant reviews and have found them to be too easy and unrelated to the real test. I havent seen any other PCAT Quant resources from Kaplan or Pearson or Barrons. Anybody know what the best Quant study guide is?? I took the PCAT and got a 99 Bio, 80 Chem, 80 verbal, 60 reading(dont know how??) and an embarrassing 55 in Quant. My composite was a 84.