those who have taken a pcat!!- writing part...

[lalagirl]

I'm taking it in two weeks...
now I am getting nervous about the writing section...
I am a horrible writer and it takes VERY LONG for me to finish one essay,,
I have a very high possibility of not being able to complete it in time on the actual exam..
If I don't complete the essay, does that mean that I am automatically getting 0 or 1 point out of 5?
Give me some advice!!

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[jmkraus]

I wrote about half of an essay and got a 3. the essay is the last section you should be worrying about. good luck.

 

[PharmD2012]

Don't worry about the essay part, focus on the other parts! Trust me!!! The essay part is simple, and you will have plenty of time to finish it. I hate writing and I've scored a 4 all three times I took it. The key for me was keeping it simple. Just do the traditional introduction, 3 paragraphs for the body, and a conclusion. In the introduction I described 3 points about the topic. In each of the three body paragraphs I focused on one topic. Then I summed up pretty much what I said in the introduction by rewording it. That's it. scored a 4 out of 5 all three times with this method. Just STAY ON TOPIC! Now go worry about the other sections!

 

[yawj797]

i hate to be the bearer of bad news but i heard that this june's pcat has 2 essays. does anyone know if there's any validity to that?

 

[omnione]

i hate to be the bearer of bad news but i heard that this june's pcat has 2 essays. does anyone know if there's any validity to that?

This is true; the rest of the test will be shortened slightly in order to accommodate for this change.

 

[Farmercyst]

Moved to PCAT discussion a/o PCAT question

 

[Bonbon2007]

Don't be nervous. People are right that this is an insignificant part of the exam. No matter what the PCAT people say like "we're using trained readers and graders." Don't let that scare you. If i'm not mistaken, we are getting two 15 minute essays so say something smart, and proofread as if you're on the other side of that exam.

 

[suppaman808]

This is true; the rest of the test will be shortened slightly in order to accommodate for this change.

Wow, that sucks real bad...at least the writing portion is relatively new so it isn't too important...yet. I detest everything about the liberal arts and doubt there are very many people worse than me at writing. I wonder how long it'll take for that score to be given a percentile and factored into the composite score.

 

[Vr6]

i am a slow writer, it took me 10min to write my first sentence, but i had more then enought time to finish. i would agree with the others, the essay part isn't too much to worry about

 

[binghamkid]

Wow, that sucks real bad...at least the writing portion is relatively new so it isn't too important...yet. I detest everything about the liberal arts and doubt there are very many people worse than me at writing. I wonder how long it'll take for that score to be given a percentile and factored into the composite score.

It can't be. The essay part is too subjective for anyone to say that your writing style is better than x% of the population.

 

[StringTheorist]

i wrote an essay too fast and overexposed my political standpoint... if you have a reader from the other side, it might not have been the best thing to do, in retrospect... but you will have plenty of time. just remember all the old english classes from high school with 40 min time limits and such. its the same thing. its the least important part of the test, so no worries. no one i know has been rejected because of a low essay score.
(i ended up getting a 4)

 

[suppaman808]

It can't be. The essay part is too subjective for anyone to say that your writing style is better than x% of the population.

Well, once upon a time, I took the GRE's. They do give percentiles and lemmie tell you, it was HARSH. I've never received a score that low before. This is a little off topic but just thinking about it makes me want to rant. The GRE general test is crap because the good folks at the ETS make 2 assumptions. 1) Because we are in college, our verbal skills are supposed to shoot up exponentially since the days when we took our SATs. 2)Math is so incredibly difficult that our math abilities shouldn't be any better than when we took the SATs.

Then they throw in that crap writing section. It's so obvious that the GREs are geared in favor of liberal arts majors. I'm just glad that we take a FAIR test like the PCAT for pharm schools. I really feel bad for those vet school applicants who take the GREs instead.