Taking Pcat in 2 weeks. Need some advice.

[deleted259194]

Hello Everyone,

First off, I just want to thank you in advance for anyone taking the time out of their day to respond to my post. I'm taking my PCAT in 2 weeks and I'm quite worried about how I will do. I'm not doubting if I know my stuff or not just how the test is set up. This will be my first time taking it and so far I've been doing non stop practice problems for a good 3 months. I'm very visual and need to write everything out, however, I know I will not have the opportunity to do so during test time. For those who've taken the pcat, can you give me any advice? Will they have very tedious calculation that requires you to set up and cal step by step to get the right answer or can you approxmiate base on the answer choice ( referring to both the chemistry and math section)?

Again, Thank you for your help and have a wonderful holiday.

-Andy

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[JPD36]

Ill start off by saying im terrible with standardized tests and I by no means did amazing. On the contrary, I improved my score by 18 percentile within a month.

For me, the most difficult thing was time management. I received a 43 composite the first time I took the pcat. I was so caught up with the questions I didn't know and spent way too much time trying to solve them.

I took the November pcat a month later with virtually no extra studying and got a 61 composite. The only thing I changed was I completed the questions I knew first and left the hardest ones for the end.

 

[JPD36]

Also, if youre really good at one section, make sure you take full advantage of that. Math is my strong point so I made sure I scored well on that section to balance out my reading scor, which is my weakness.

 

[jerbearox]

Hello Everyone,

First off, I just want to thank you in advance for anyone taking the time out of their day to respond to my post. I'm taking my PCAT in 2 weeks and I'm quite worried about how I will do. I'm not doubting if I know my stuff or not just how the test is set up. This will be my first time taking it and so far I've been doing non stop practice problems for a good 3 months. I'm very visual and need to write everything out, however, I know I will not have the opportunity to do so during test time. For those who've taken the pcat, can you give me any advice? Will they have very tedious calculation that requires you to set up and cal step by step to get the right answer or can you approxmiate base on the answer choice ( referring to both the chemistry and math section)?

Again, Thank you for your help and have a wonderful holiday.

-Andy

verbal is straight forward. learning how to use "roadsigns."
biology is easy. random anatomy questions caught me off guard (like histology slides! wtf right?)
chemistry is easy as well. there were only about... 5-6 calculations and only 1 or 2 of which were pv=nrt type questions.
reading was the hardest in my opinion so good luck with that.
math you say is your strong point, just learn as many short cuts as possible.

estimating is your best friend, it will save you plenty of time!
another tip, if you finish your section early and feel confident with your answers, take the extra time to write notes on your scratch paper for the next sections. after my essays i wrote out as many common integrals as possible.

 

[frabu04]

Only for math did I not have enough time. Make sure you can do calculations quickly and estimating helps out a lot.

 

[Iconoclastic]

On math and chem, estimate and don't be afraid to skip problems/guess at the end. Round things off to do easier/faster calculations, 90% of the time this will be good enough to know the answer. When a question is too long or you stumble on something, skip it and move on, then come back and do it or guess depending on how much time you have at the end. If you find yourself wondering at all how to do a problem or how to set something up, just skip it.. there are plenty of easy questions you could spend that time getting right instead.

My first time, I scored a 79. My bio/reading/verbal scores were all great but on math I tanked because I ran out of time like halfway through. Took it again without studying anything, just knowing that I needed to go through the math/chem sections faster... did like I said above, and got a 91.

 

[jerbearox]

Only for math did I not have enough time. Make sure you can do calculations quickly and estimating helps out a lot.

wow frabu you have alot of money for airfare

 

[Sugoi Travis]

Hey Andy,

The biggest thing you wanna do is to not buckle from the anxiety and stress before the test. You know your stuff and you know it well; it's time to show that you're confident in what you know and show it on the test.

For the chemistry section, there really weren't very many problems that required you to write out equations and such. Most of the questions can either be done in your head or are concept-derived. You really shouldn't expect curveballs to be thrown at you here.

For math, I highly suggest that you be prepared to make lightning-quick decisions on skipping vs. taking the time to do the problem. 48 problems in 40 minutes is basically less than a minute per problem; add in the facts that a few require you to write something out and there's a handful of calculus problems, your 40 minutes will feel like 20 instead. The math section, in my opinion, tests your standardized test-taking skills as much as your math skills.

For me, I reached problem 48 in around 20 minutes, but I only had answered around 25 problems. Unless if you're a math god and can conjure answers through your fingertips, you probably will be in a similar situation I was.

Hope this helps you mentally prepare for the PCAT. You'll do fine!

 

[deleted259194]

Thank you all for the helpful tips. I feel much better and more confidence now thanks to you guys. Will repost once I've taken it