Step 1
Practice doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division quickly in your head. About 1/3 of the math questions on the PCAT require you to simplify numerical expressions or solve simple word problems involving proportions. You won't have time to work out all of these problems slowly on paper. The more you can do in your head, the better you quantitative subscore will be.
Review basic concepts of pre-calculus, focusing on functions. What is the limit behavior of a polynomial, exponential, or rational function? What do graphs of these functions look like? Review polynomial factoring as well.
Step 3
Review basic single variable calculus, focusing on derivatives and integrals. Polynomials, exponential functions, and rational functions will be tested on PCAT calculus.
Step 4
Don't worry about geometry, as this will not be tested. You may see a few questions that test your knowledge of sine, cosine, and tangent as functions.
Step 5
Learn to spot wrong answers at a glance. Each PCAT math question only has 4 choices, so if two (or three!) look wrong to you automatically, you'll be in good shape.
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First tell me the expression, then I'll tell you what the first step is in simplifying it.
A variable expression includes variables.
When you replace the variable with a number and perform the operations, you evaluate an expression. This process involves substituting the numerical value for the variable and simplifying the expression according to the given operations. Evaluation is a fundamental concept in mathematics and is used to determine the value of the expression under specific conditions.
algebric uses variables and numerical uses numbers
Numerical expressions solely include numbers, while algebraic expressions may contain a variable like x. An example of a numerical expression is 1+2 and an example of an algebraic expression is 2x+3y=0.