Selecting Content of PCAT Tests

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sooverthepcat

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Does anyone know how the questions for a specific PCAT is selected? Is there a bank of potential questions from which a computer randomly selects so many questions from each subsection within each subject? Is there a committee who actually review, debate and select each questions specifically? Are all the tests given in the same cycle or on the same day the same or are there different versions of the test offered on different days within the cycle or even to different students on the same day? I have read every post from the July test dates and I am convinced that the people who took the PCAT on Tuesday did not take the same test I took. And, I am thinking that of those of us who took it on Wednesday, we didn't even have the same test. I am retaking the PCAT in September. I know it will not be the same test I took this time, but how different will it be?

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That's a good question. It seems plausible to make everyone's test different but then that doesn't make sense on a percentile based scoring system. I would expect the questions to be completely different on biology since there is just way too much. Reading you just have get lucky with the passages and hopefully they make sense. The questions themselves are basically following the same pattern. Math and Chemistry there should be similarities though not a whole lot. I always expect there to be % yield questions for example and also some conversions on the math portion.
 
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