Understanding and interpreting pharmacy college admission test scores

Abstract

To fairly and accurately interpret candidates’ Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) scores as listed on their official transcripts, it is important to understand how these scores reflect candidates’ performances on cognitive tasks involving the identification, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of information assumed to have been covered in pre-pharmacy science, math, and general education coursework. This paper attempts to facilitate this understanding by explaining how candidates’ responses to PCAT test items relate to their scaled scores and percentile ranks and how their writing scores reflect their performance. This paper also suggests how differences between candidates’ PCAT subtest scores may reflect different personal experiences, educational backgrounds, and cognitive abilities.