Raising Quant. Score

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wheelsonfire

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Has anyone significantly raised their QA score when they re-took the PCAT? If so, what methods did you use and what books do you recommend?
I'm studying for this section alone because it was my worst on the Oct. exam & I'm using Kaplan & a GRE prep book to drill questions. Any suggestions?
 
Don't study only for the Quant section! 😳 That's what I did, I managed to raise my Quant score but my other sections suffered. I raised my Quant score 20 points but my chem section went from 79 to 44. I used the Kaplan book and their online tutorial. I'm going to take it again in January so now I've got the CliffNotesReview for Calculus and it has helped refresh my math soo much.
 
I only took the PCAT once, but I did very well (99) on the quantitative section. To prepare, I'd advise you to just keep drilling the practice questions in the Kaplan book (or any other sources you have, but I just used Kaplan). Do the same questions over and over until you can do all of them quickly. Don't just memorize the solutions, but spend some time figuring out the very best way to solve each question as quickly as possible, then pay attention to the shortcuts you've started using.

Try to group the questions together by theme, like all the fraction/decimal questions, all the calculus questions, etc., and teach yourself which particular shortcut is applicable to which type of questions. This way you'll be able to use what you've learned on the new questions on test day. As just one small example, there are a fair amount of fraction/decimal type questions, so make sure you're proficient with cancelling out and simplifying numbers in the numerator and denominator of fractions you're manipulating...like 12/7 x 21/36 = 1/7 x 21/3 = 1 x 1

Hope this helps and good luck with your second attempt!
 
I raised my Quant. score from a 31 to a 57. Basically, I bought some books ("Teach Yourself Calculus" and "Calculus for Dummies) and taught myself basic calc. As for the rest of the stuff, I did all of my calculations for school without a calculator (and then checked my answers against a calculator). I find that I struggled with the basic algebra parts, so I refreshed my memory on how to do simple algebra.
Good luck and I hope this helps!
 
Thanks everyone! Your suggestions were great. I pretty much breezed through the other sections on the PCAT, but my horrible QA score sticks out like a sore thumb. If I raise the QA and take a small hit in the other sections, I think it will be worth it. It seems to me that the QA section carries a lot of weight in the composite score. Maybe I'll find out 🙂
Thanks Again...now I need to get to work on it.
 
wheelsonfire said:
Thanks everyone! Your suggestions were great. I pretty much breezed through the other sections on the PCAT, but my horrible QA score sticks out like a sore thumb. If I raise the QA and take a small hit in the other sections, I think it will be worth it. It seems to me that the QA section carries a lot of weight in the composite score. Maybe I'll find out 🙂
Thanks Again...now I need to get to work on it.

I went into the PCAT the second time worried that I would lose a couple points in some sections because I had concentrated on bringing up my quantitative. But I actually scored higher in all sections; I think the practice/experience alone helps you through the second time.
I raised my quant score from I think 64 to an 82. I just made sure that the types of questions I knew how to do, I could do quickly. It's all about working quickly and accurately. If you are terrible at calculus, just make sure you're awesome at other problem types. 🙂 Good luck!
 
How horrible is horrible? I am just wondering because sometimes it's not as bad as you think...
 
beccala33 said:
How horrible is horrible? I am just wondering because sometimes it's not as bad as you think...

Oh, it's bad. It's below 50 & I've been told that a score that low won't do me any favors.
 
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