<p>I was hoping someone here could give me tips on the quantitative section of the PCAT. I’ve read through my prep book and taken the sample tests and had no problems with the verbal, bio and chem sections but then I reached the quantitative section. I was doing great until I read that I couldn’t bring a calculator and then I started wondering just how in the hell I was going to manage to finish up that section with even a 50 percent. I haven’t yet taken calculus, I saved the worst for last. Even after I finish up the calculus, though, I don’t see myself doing very well on the quantitative section without a calculator. Are there any tricks you have used or any special way of studying I could use to help get my brain ready for the task?</p>
<p>I don’t know what type of math is on the PCAT (does it actually have calculus problems on it?), but I did teach the Physics sections for Kaplan’s MCAT prep which did require mental math.</p>
<p>Doing math in your head takes practice. And a little pattern recognition.</p>
<p>1) round all numbers when possible to make calculations easier. For instance, when using gravity in an equation, always use 10 instead of 9.8. You do need to remember that rounding will make your final answers a little off - you have to be aware of this if two answer choices are close to each other. How will your rounding affect your final answer up or down?</p>
<p>2) Scientific notation is your biggest friend - I’d often times put even regular numbers (ie 4 digits) into scientific notation simply because it makes it much, much easier to multiply and divide (remember you add exponents when multiplying and subtract when you divide). Just do the required operations on the first half of the numbers and then add or subtract the exponents…</p>
<p>3) I imagine that the section is all calculations so my typical advice to MCAT students of skipping all problems with calculations doesn’t apply, but that said, make sure the answers make sense. Often times, just by looking at the answer choices you can get rid of two the possibilities simply because they’re nonsensical. </p>
<p>4) Make sure you look at units if they’re given. This can often times lead you to ignore answer choices if you know that units are incorrect. Likewise, if you’re unsure of how to set up your equation, if you know the units you need in your final answer, do a dimensional analysis of your equation to make sure that’s what you’d end up with as your final units. </p>
<p>5) Have a positive attitude. If you keep thinking you’ll only get 50% right, that’s what you’ll do.</p>
<p>6) Don’t worry about the time. If you consistently have issues with the timing and not being able to finish try this trick. Do a section of practice problems without any time limit, spending all the time you need to in order to feel like you got all the questions correct (obviously, no calculators). Follow that up by doing a set of practice questions with less time (5-10 minutes) than you’ll get on the actual exam, focusing on finishing all the questions before time is up, but still trying to be as accurate as possible. Right down how much difference you expect to see between the final scores, and then check your answers. If you’re like most people, the final scores won’t be as different as you expect. With this in mind, it should help you realize that the time limit isn’t that big of barrier to your success.</p>