Verbal on PCAT?

[meddy15]

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Hey I just started studying for the Oct PCAT and verbal is probably my weakest section. What do I do to help with analogies and sentence completions. I was looking through some practice tests and some of the words really left me clueless. Should I just study like thousands of words to get my vocab better. Do you guys use any websites that have good vocab lists, how else can I improve on analogies. I am okay with sentence completions but I just sometimes don't know what words mean and how do i practice that??

 

[Kingstun]

well picking up some books and reading will always help, but if i were you i would get online and look up a list of words that are commonly found on verbal sections of standardized test....or you could always take the kaplan course and they do all that stuff for you

 

[omnione]

For sentence completions, the answers run in two main categories with two subtypes each:

1. Words that don't fit in: One or both of the words doesn't fit in with the message of the paragraph because the meaning(s) are off.

2. Contradictory words: Both words fit in their respective parts/sentences correctly, but the two contradict each other once you read the message.

A key thing to do after every sentence completion is to reread the completed paragraph and ask yourself if the message makes sense. You chose the wrong answer if it doesn't.

For analogies, the idea is to find the correct relationship. However, it's a delicate art. Choosing too broad of a relationship will result in choosing a set of words with the same weak comparison. Choosing too specific of a relationship will leave you with no answers at all. An idea you can use is to put the prompt in a nice sentence and story that describes the relationship and apply that to the answer choices. Saying, "a blacksmith is to metal like a carpenter is to wood" works for easy prompts but not for more difficult words and relationships.