PCAT Essay Section

[jongwong]

Hi! I'm planning to write the PCAT in January 2006, and i've just bought the Kaplan PCAT book to study. From what it says in there, I only see that the PCAT tests you on Biology, Chemistry, Quantitative Ability, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Ability, and an "unscored experimental section". I don't really understand what that means. From what i've been seeing in this forum, is there an essay section to write? (The Kaplan book provided me no clue about this whatsoever...)

If there really is an essay section, can anyone please tell me any details about it? Thanks for your help!

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[KarmRx]

Yeah, Kaplan just needs to update their info. Go to the PCAT website if you have questions about content. There is an essay and it is scored (1-5 I think). This started in June. Good luck

 

[crossjb]

There is now a 30 minute essay session where you're given a thesis problem that you have to write a solution on. You are graded on a subjective scale of 1-5. My essay was on how to solve voter apathy in America. It is not worth worrying about. Just make sure you eat well during your ten minute break beforehand. The essay portion is at the end of the exam when you generally are most tired.

 

[AmericanDesi]

I would recommend reading some crap about American politics to fill you in on the essay..

 

[KUMoose]

Yes there is an essay on the PCAT. If you look at Kaplan's '05 book and the PCAT website, you'll find that they are shifting away from scoring strict book knowlege to being able to score reasoning ability.

The ability to write an essay is one method for being able to ascertain a persons reasoning skills to be sure. I would assume that future tests will include more, combined reasoning questions or questions that pull from several disciplines to provide the answer. As I prefer these tests, I'm happy over that prospect.

I believe the topic picked was particularly poor; as foreign students on visas and the younger people in the testing crowd were at a disadvantage. If they are going to insist on only one question, have them pick a more universal question. As not everyone is assured of having voted or heck even know how/when and why to vote (both foreign and domestic).

In short, I wouldn't really worry too much about the essay, except that there is an essay, it is graded but it's doesn't count against you at this time.

 

[jongwong]

Thanks to all your help!

I agree that the choice of topic for the essay section is not that good. Personally, I didn't even know what "apathy" meant until i looked it up in the dictionary. If I were to have written the exam with this topic, I might have handed in an off-topic essay

 

[jin]

Sorry to bring up an old topic.
I'm reviewing for my first trial this Oct. I'm really nervous about the essay part because I have no clue how to prepare for it. English is my 2nd language, and all I've known about politics is from the government courses
Same goes to my verbal session. The only material I've studied is the review in Kaplan's and GRE word list.

Could anyone please give me a few tips such as topic sources, essay samples, verbal lists, etc. Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot. I'm so desperate

 

[DownonthePharm]

Im not sure what you write is as important as how you write it. As long as you stick to the topic you should be fine. I think they chose an opinion type question because its generally easier to write about. Im sure October's topic will not be the same and most likely not about politics.

Just remember intro - support - conclusion paragraph type stuff, try to spell correctly, use good grammar and punctuation and leave yourself enough time to wrap it up at the end. I used the generic 5 paragraph essay format (intro, three support,conclusion) that I learned in high school, prattled on for three pages and did fine.