PCAT experience
The test environment was not how I imagined it. It was well spaced out, and extremely comfortable. There were padded swivel chairs that kinda reclined so if I needed a moment to sit back, I got it.
As far as the test went, one essay was first, and my thing was something to the effect of "Propose a solution to the problem of stopping infectious diseases." That was really grammatically inaccurate, but whatev. My actual solution was weak, but I know how to write very well. I defined the problem very specifically so they could see where I was coming from, I gave 2 parts of my solution one backed up with personal experience and the other with something gained in academia. I threw in a counterexample, and then concluded succinctly. It went very well; I expect a grade of 4 on that (5 is "superb" writing).
Verbal ability came right after that. 48 Q's, 30 min. It started with analogies to the effect of
IDEALISM:MELIORISM :: PHILOSOPHY:
then there were 4 words listed. In this problem, I answered Metaphysics. Then there were double fill in the blanks, which wasn't too bad. Overall on the verbal section I think I did extremely well.
Biology was next. Again 48 Q for 30 min. That was a bit rough. There wasn't so much on humans as there were on things like autotrophic nutrition and ecological biomes. Still, there was plenty of genetics stuff and classification stuff that I was just fine. I think I did better than average, but not great.
Chemistry was my first hiccup. Again 48Q's for 30 min. These tests are not testing so much knowledge as it is testing grace under pressure. Shit like radioactive decay and energy states were fine, but there was a ton of organic chem on that shit. I was surprised. In all of my practice tests there were like 2 or 3 problems. I've forgotten a lot of the harder stuff, plus you have like 40 seconds per problem, and that is really hard when you're trying to do an organic synthesis of an amide. I had like 2 questions left with one minute, so I just threw a couple of B's down.
We had a 15 minute break where we could go use the bathroom or get something from vending machines. I went into the bathroom, and the guys that were coing in were like "What the fuck was that?!! That was ridiculously hard. I should just give up." Hmmm, seems some people are not diligent academics. When i went back into the room, we had our same spots, so I started chatting with some of the people on either side of me. Apparently my entire row was like U of M people. It was amusing.
Went right into another 30 minute essay. This time mine was on a solution to a problem that arises between environmentalists and developers. No prob. Another weak solution, but very strong writing. I'm guessing it was 4ish.
next up was reading. I destroyed that section. I'm pretty sure I got right around 100% on there. No problems. I can read very very fast and I know how to dissect academic writing.
Finally there was the quantitative ability section. 40 minutes for 48 problems. A little more leeway than the chem and bio stuff, but still very VERY hard to figure out integrations and stats questions in under that minute. I managed to get through though.
Overall, I'm very happy about my test compared to what I heard from other people after their test. I think I did very well. However, if I got less than an 80th percentile, I want to take it over. I'm aiming for greatness not being just average.
My brain after that test shut down too. Nothing really made sense and I had no appetite. Wows.
As far as the test went, one essay was first, and my thing was something to the effect of "Propose a solution to the problem of stopping infectious diseases." That was really grammatically inaccurate, but whatev. My actual solution was weak, but I know how to write very well. I defined the problem very specifically so they could see where I was coming from, I gave 2 parts of my solution one backed up with personal experience and the other with something gained in academia. I threw in a counterexample, and then concluded succinctly. It went very well; I expect a grade of 4 on that (5 is "superb" writing).
Verbal ability came right after that. 48 Q's, 30 min. It started with analogies to the effect of
IDEALISM:MELIORISM :: PHILOSOPHY:
then there were 4 words listed. In this problem, I answered Metaphysics. Then there were double fill in the blanks, which wasn't too bad. Overall on the verbal section I think I did extremely well.
Biology was next. Again 48 Q for 30 min. That was a bit rough. There wasn't so much on humans as there were on things like autotrophic nutrition and ecological biomes. Still, there was plenty of genetics stuff and classification stuff that I was just fine. I think I did better than average, but not great.
Chemistry was my first hiccup. Again 48Q's for 30 min. These tests are not testing so much knowledge as it is testing grace under pressure. Shit like radioactive decay and energy states were fine, but there was a ton of organic chem on that shit. I was surprised. In all of my practice tests there were like 2 or 3 problems. I've forgotten a lot of the harder stuff, plus you have like 40 seconds per problem, and that is really hard when you're trying to do an organic synthesis of an amide. I had like 2 questions left with one minute, so I just threw a couple of B's down.
We had a 15 minute break where we could go use the bathroom or get something from vending machines. I went into the bathroom, and the guys that were coing in were like "What the fuck was that?!! That was ridiculously hard. I should just give up." Hmmm, seems some people are not diligent academics. When i went back into the room, we had our same spots, so I started chatting with some of the people on either side of me. Apparently my entire row was like U of M people. It was amusing.
Went right into another 30 minute essay. This time mine was on a solution to a problem that arises between environmentalists and developers. No prob. Another weak solution, but very strong writing. I'm guessing it was 4ish.
next up was reading. I destroyed that section. I'm pretty sure I got right around 100% on there. No problems. I can read very very fast and I know how to dissect academic writing.
Finally there was the quantitative ability section. 40 minutes for 48 problems. A little more leeway than the chem and bio stuff, but still very VERY hard to figure out integrations and stats questions in under that minute. I managed to get through though.
Overall, I'm very happy about my test compared to what I heard from other people after their test. I think I did very well. However, if I got less than an 80th percentile, I want to take it over. I'm aiming for greatness not being just average.
My brain after that test shut down too. Nothing really made sense and I had no appetite. Wows.