Tips from the best [Request]

[EnvyV07]

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Hey guys,

I've been reading these forums for a while so I'm not new. Don't judge me by my post count.

However, most of us just took the PCAT today and are most likely exhausted and just want to not think about it. Well, I must admit, I tried but I can't help it. The 4 weeks need to fly by already.

Anyways, the main reason for this thread is for the best PCAT rapist to help us (those in need of advice) in advice for TIME MANAGEMENT and tips and tricks of that nature. What you do, and what you suggest we do.

I believe it would help many others here. If not, at least I appreciate your advice.

Cheers and Oct. PCAT here I come... (I really don't want to keep saying "PCAT here I come" over and over) This was my second time. First time PCAT is an embarrassment and won't release anything about it. It's was a night mare.

 

[helloeveryone]

Hey guys,

I've been reading these forums for a while so I'm not new. Don't judge me by my post count.

However, most of us just took the PCAT today and are most likely exhausted and just want to not think about it. Well, I must admit, I tried but I can't help it. The 4 weeks need to fly by already.

Anyways, the main reason for this thread is for the best PCAT rapist to help us (those in need of advice) in advice for TIME MANAGEMENT and tips and tricks of that nature. What you do, and what you suggest we do.

I believe it would help many others here. If not, at least I appreciate your advice.

Cheers and Oct. PCAT here I come... (I really don't want to keep saying "PCAT here I come" over and over) This was my second time. First time PCAT is an embarrassment and won't release anything about it. It's was a night mare.

I'm not the "best" by any measure... but what I've learned is that you have to do as MANY practice questions that you can get your hands on, under VERY strict timing. And keep doing the practice test over and over again until you can easily finish them in less than "allowed" time.

 

[wmw]

with a long test like the PCAT, and specifically talking about calculation based problems in the chem and quant sections, the ones that seem to give people the most trouble time wise, you're predominantly dealing with raw brain processivity, and really its something thats not so modifiable.. you can practice concepts, problem styles, and improve the time it takes you to recognize a problem type, and get going, but how fast your brain calculates/works is something that I think is genetic. i.e. its hard to 'get smarter' in general, you can learn alot about each individual concept, which you should, but your focus shouldn't be on improving your brain speed, the improvement there really only comes indirectly from working ALOT of problems, and being comfortable come test day. Alot of people feel real good sitting in their study chair taking practice tests etc.. but lose that comfortablilty (and speed) come test day when they are nervous in a room full of other nervous people and strict rules/procedural guidelines. An interesting thing about these big standardized tests is that two people, both of same science 'intelligence' level, can score very differently because one is more comfortable with standardized testing... My advice for improvement with time management is to be hard on yourself while you take practice exams, so time yourself and work really hard to finish in time, this will at least help you get more comfortable with being timed. That is really all you can do improve in this area.

PCAT : 99% composite

 

[StanDizle4Shizl]

My method for finishing the math section on time was to skip around and do the easy ones first, so that you can go back and work on those that take more time. This is a tip but Im not the best.

 

[wmw]

My method for finishing the math section on time was to skip around and do the easy ones first, so that you can go back and work on those that take more time. This is a tip but Im not the best.

thats what I did for most sections, just went through fast then back to whatever was going to take more time

 

[StanDizle4Shizl]

well that's good because you got a 99%, hopefully mine's comparable!!! ha

 

[EnvyV07]

Thanks guys... really appreciate it.

 

[diastole]

On most standardized tests, I try to not miss questions. I just chug away answering the questions until I finish, trying not to get anything wrong. I don't think that is the right mindset for math. On that section you shouldn't worry about missing questions and concentrate on getting as many right as possible. If you see a problem that you know how to do but looks like it is going to take a bit of time, skip it. You can always come back to it later after you have already answered the easy ones you can do quickly. Most people run out of time in this section. You should never have that happen to you without at least looking at all the problems in that section first.

You should also know in advance unless you are a math quiz or kind of delusional, you are going to feel terrible after that section. I wanted to put my head in an oven after I took it. I literally bubbled "B" on somewhere between five and ten questions. That doesn't include the educated guesses I took where I didn't bubble B. I was shocked when I ended up with a 92 for that part. I was hoping I got at least a 50. I'm guessing that either I was extraordinarily lucky or you don't have to get that many questions correct to do well.

 

[SparkLy09]

On most standardized tests, I try to not miss questions. I just chug away answering the questions until I finish, trying not to get anything wrong. I don't think that is the right mindset for math. On that section you shouldn't worry about missing questions and concentrate on getting as many right as possible. If you see a problem that you know how to do but looks like it is going to take a bit of time, skip it. You can always come back to it later after you have already answered the easy ones you can do quickly. Most people run out of time in this section. You should never have that happen to you without at least looking at all the problems in that section first.

You should also know in advance unless you are a math quiz or kind of delusional, you are going to feel terrible after that section. I wanted to put my head in an oven after I took it. I literally bubbled "B" on somewhere between five and ten questions. That doesn't include the educated guesses I took where I didn't bubble B. I was shocked when I ended up with a 92 for that part. I was hoping I got at least a 50. I'm guessing that either I was extraordinarily lucky or you don't have to get that many questions correct to do well.

I just wanted to second everything in that post I knew I would be short on time for Quant even before it started so I literally flipped through marking everything I could answer quickly down first. Seriously, KNOW YOUR LOGS! Simple questions like that should be quick gimmes. I remember frantically trying to solve long word problems and feeling like scum after the exam. I was literally thinking I 100% bombed it and ended up with a 90. Key is, skip around! Answer easy ones first and then come back for the others.

 

[Rubisco]

I took the June PCAT (90% composite)

Ill offer advice for two sections:

Chem (99%) - I just used Collins. I felt comfortable with the chem on the real day cause most of it was comparable to the practice material. I anticipated a little more orgo (from the SDN posts I've read) so i did a few more extra reviews of some orgo areas the days before. I always finished with 10-15 minutes to spare on the collins and it turned out to be the same for June 19th. Just re-do problems you have even the slightest doubt about not knowing if you can solve it quickly until they become second nature. On the actual day, a few questions had the typical set-up (find this quantity given this quantity using this equation) that i saw on collins. Those questions took under a minute or less because of my continued exposure to practice problems. Its always going to be the same set-up or some similar variation of it. Doing those quickly can give you extra time to adjust to some of the other curveball/long/unusual questions they throw at you. Always do your practice tests under timed conditions and dont settle for finishing at the 30 minute mark. Make yourself very familiar with the questions so each time you do a practice test you are getting faster and faster and finishing with more time. So again, time management, speed, continuously doing/re-doing problems.


Quantitative (90%) - I actually had a lower score on my pearson practice tests. Test 1, i was estimated at a 60% and pearson 2 was around 70%. So i decided to skip around and my 3rd practice test % range dramatically increased. Basically, i started out average. Working through the problems one by one is not recommended unless you're in the top few percents of this section. I just realize that there are just questions in the middle (or even beginning) of the section just to waste your time. You can obviously do it, but is the time used worth sacrificing 2-3 questions near the end of the section? When i first ran through my actual test, i skipped any question that i thought i would need more than 2 minutes to solve. So when i reached the end of the section, i literally skipped 14-15 questions. But thats ok, at least i racked up all the points I can easily manage. Now, go through it a second time and try to finish the long ones. Either way, theres always going to be a few questions you have to guess on. When 5 minutes was called, i started narrowing it down to 2-3 answers and made educated guesses for the remaining few questions. Dr collins was very similar to this section. Nothing out of the ordinary from his practice sets. Remember to do the quant. sections under timed conditions also.

Hope this helps.

 

[Rubisco]

Yeah, the quant. always makes u feel like crap no matter what.

 

[mhpharm]

thanks for the tips- makes a lot of sense. will definitely apply it on the next pcat🙂