Want a good score?

[diastole]

Scrape up the money and take a Pearson's practice exam. Take it under timed conditions. Go through the results and find your weak points. There is still time to improve those weak areas and/or study things that you didn't think would be on the exam. Time is getting short so you want to focus your studies on areas that will you give you the most improvement. After you study and try to shore up your weak areas, take the second exam and repeat. At the very least, the practice exams will help give you a feel for the pacing of the exam. If you are serious about your PCAT score, these practice exams are worth it.

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[delano2000]

Scrape up the money and take a Pearson's practice exam. Take it under timed conditions. Go through the results and find your weak points. There is still time to improve those weak areas and/or study things that you didn't think would be on the exam. Time is getting short so you want to focus your studies on areas that will you give you the most improvement. After you study and try to shore up your weak areas, take the second exam and repeat. At the very least, the practice exams will help give you a feel for the pacing of the exam. If you are serious about your PCAT score, these practice exams are worth it.

Thanks mate.

 

[DallasCowboys22]

haha diastole every post iv read you talk about taking the practice tests

 

[diastole]

haha diastole every post iv read you talk about taking the practice tests

I know. Pearson's should pay me.

But here's why. I was an SAT tutor for two different companies. For the first company, we taught the students the materials and then had them practice it on old SAT exams for a few more weeks. The real learning improvements came when they made the mistakes on the practice tests and practiced what they learned. Later, I ended up working for a second company that only taught the material and then left the students on their own. In my experience, the students who hired the first company did much better than the second. In fact, the first company guaranteed an improvement of 100 points and unless the student didn't put in any effort, people made that improvement easily. There is just no substitute for experience and the practice exams are the closest thing to taking the real PCAT.

 

[DallasCowboys22]

ya i agree that taking practice tests under timed conditions is the best thing you can do

 

[virtue1]

PM me if you need reliable Kaplan Course materials and helpful extras for much cheaper value. There's absolutely no reason to take the class but the materials are incredibly important to have.

 

[SYPHARMACY]

how about the test in the back of the KAPLAN book. is that even comparable to the practice test if i take it under the time constraints?

 

[diastole]

how about the test in the back of the KAPLAN book. is that even comparable to the practice test if i take it under the time constraints?

It is better than nothing but the test prep companies never get their tests quite right. They are either too hard or too easy and sometimes fail to include topics that will be on the real PCAT. The practice exam uses real questions that appeared on past PCATs so it will be the best approximation to the real thing.

 

[waterloggedfrog]

I just signed up for the 2 practice tests and took one of them but I was wondering about the "Get Answer/Explanation", are explanations they provide the only way to get the right answer? Two of the explanations so far have been to have memorized the atomic mass of a certain element and the other one was to just know the standard electrode potential of the 4 different reactions given. Do we really need to memorize electrode potentials of reactions and atomic mass numbers of all the elements?

 

[diastole]

I just signed up for the 2 practice tests and took one of them but I was wondering about the "Get Answer/Explanation", are explanations they provide the only way to get the right answer? Two of the explanations so far have been to have memorized the atomic mass of a certain element and the other one was to just know the standard electrode potential of the 4 different reactions given. Do we really need to memorize electrode potentials of reactions and atomic mass numbers of all the elements?

I wouldn't memorize the molecular weights (except for maybe nitrogen, oxygen and carbon to save time) but I would know the relative positions of certain groups on the periodic table. I would know F<Cl<Br<I. I would know that He<Ne<Ar<Kr. I'd learn the relative positions of the second row and questions having to do with ions of Cl, Ar, K, Ca and F, Ne, Na, and Mg come up from time to time. If you get one of those questions, being able to visualize where it is on the periodic table and what the trends are will help you answer it.

I don't think you have to memorize electrode potentials. I suspect those questions are meant to be reasoned out based on the electronegativities of the elements involved. That is why having a general idea where the more common elements are on the periodic table and knowing your trends will guide you to the answer.

That is a long answer for know your trends!!!

 

[mug3n]

If atomic masses are required for a calculation, they will be given in the question as rounded off whole numbers for the sake of simplicity. You won't have to memorize them. But it is helpful to know off the top of your head of the most common ones (H, C, N, etc)

 

[snyc90]

Scrape up the money and take a Pearson's practice exam. Take it under timed conditions. Go through the results and find your weak points. There is still time to improve those weak areas and/or study things that you didn't think would be on the exam. Time is getting short so you want to focus your studies on areas that will you give you the most improvement. After you study and try to shore up your weak areas, take the second exam and repeat. At the very least, the practice exams will help give you a feel for the pacing of the exam. If you are serious about your PCAT score, these practice exams are worth it.

Question..
After you take one of those pearson practice exams..they provide you with your score right after you've finished it? And how do they grade it, out of 600, just like the actual PCAT?

 

[snyc90]

Also, when you're paying for the pearson practice exams, they ask you for the schools you want your pcat scores sent to, likewise to when you're registering for the actual pcat. So, what does that mean? Do they send the practice scores to the schools as well? lol..or, is that just a formality?

 

[diastole]

Question..
After you take one of those pearson practice exams..they provide you with your score right after you've finished it? And how do they grade it, out of 600, just like the actual PCAT?

They score each section right after you submit it. It will show you which answers you got wrong and will give you a percentile range like 60 to 79.

I don't know why they are asking you what schools you want your scores sent to. Maybe it is for research purposes. I know they did say that people who took the practice exams have higher scores than those who don't so they are the tracking data.

 

[mccolgs]

Do you still have your Kaplan materials?