In regards to which practice test to take, I think no one comes close to Pearson.
In viewing Kaplan's practice exams, they are rather far off from the actual exam. If anyone has studied the Kaplan book and then attempted to complete the practice PCAT exam questions from Pearson, you'll see that Kaplan even forgets to cover certain material that is always a surefire to appear on the PCAT. On the basis of that alone, I was disheartened by Kaplan.
I think if you are studying for the PCAT you absolutely hafta buy the Pearson practice exams. And I would recommend buying all 3.
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Just because I already have this information typed out, I wanted to so the correlation between the Pearson practice exam scores and my actual PCAT exam score, as further motivation for test-takers to buy Pearson's material.
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Format:
Section Name:
Practice Exam #:
Actual Score on PCAT from July '14:
Verbal Ability:
Exam I: 36/40, 80%-100% range.
Exam II: 28/40, 50%-70% range.
Exam III: 34/40 80-100% range.
My actual score: 74th percentile.
Reading Comprehension:
Exam II: 33/40, 80-100% range
Exam III: 33/40, 80-100% range
My actual score: 89th percentile.
Biology:
Exam I: 31/40, 70-90% range.
Exam II: 33/40, 78-98% range.
Exam III: 28/40, 55-75% range.
My actual score: 84th percentile.
Chemistry:
Exam I: 29/40, 70-90% range.
Exam II: 34/40, 80-100% range.
Exam III: 33/40, 80-100% range.
My actual score: 89th percentile.
Quantitative Ability:
Exam I: 31/40, 80-100% range.
Exam III: 32/40, 80-100% range.
My actual score: 93rd percentile.
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As you can see, any section where I was notching in the 80-100% range on the practice exams I essentially got in the 90th percentile for those sections (see: Quantitative Ability, Reading Comp., and Chemistry)
My bio scores were on the lower ends for both practice and actual exams.
I feel that my verbal score was lower than I expected based on my practice exams, but this is the only outlier.