PCAT study tips from "the 99%ile club"

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WOW is all that I can say after taking the PCAT today. Man I was nervous as sh*t before the test but starting out the writing section definitely helped calm my nerves. I know a lot of people come to these posts looking for advice. The best advice that can I give is to do the PEARSON’S PRACTICE TESTS! ALL OF THEM! It’s definitely worth the investment. A lot of people think that the PCAT is hard, the actual material on the PCAT is not hard, it’s the time constraints that make it hard. And what is the best way to get used to dealing with time constraints? Practice, practice, practice! As for the individual sections, nothing really out of the ordinary, the practice tests really help guide you as to where you need to focus your studying. In a lot of the previous posts I see just about every says the reading comp is hard. This is true to a degree but it’s only hard in the sense that you really have to focus on what the questions are asking. It’s not impossible to do well on the reading comp, I got a 91 on the reading section and I am far from an avid reader. Some of the questions might be tricky but remember the answers are right there for you in the passage, you just have to pay attention to detail. The key for me was the break after the Chemistry section. Really take this time to refresh and clear your mind. Leave the testing center and walk around a little bit, go to the bathroom and splash some water on your face. After all remember that you have been sitting down for over 2 hours at this point, this mini break it much needed. Any who, I hopes this helps you guys. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Originally Posted by owltrickery

How did the chem compare with the pearson practice tests?

it was easy. ochem reactions were super simple. know you gchem. for my chem studying all i did was retake gen chem 1 and 2 and ochem 1 this past year. barely even touched the material within the past 2 months while prepping for pcat. ended up with 98 in chem.

My daughter took PCAT first time a week ago. She ran out of time on math and had to guess half of the questions. Her scores are VA 99, RC 88, Bio 82, QA 55, Chem 99, Composite 97%. If she did not run out of time on math, I am pretty sure she will have 99%. Honestly, I don't know how she studied to prepare for the PCAT. However, I only bought a Kaplan's book for her 3 months before the test.

Unfortunately, not all of us have the advantage of being born asian like you daughter. jk!

I do not believe being an Asian is an advantage. I do know a friend's kid always get D or F in high school and the kid's parents are all engineers. Even in my family, I have two relatives are just normal kids. One of them had problem graduating from high school. Anyway, what I am trying to say is if you really study hard, you can get the good result you want. You don't really have to buy expensive material. I also have a friend's kid who went to Medical school just by studying herself. She never spent money for an expensive class. She just practiced online from a free source.

Originally Posted by chen1111

I do not believe being an Asian is an advantage. I do know a friend's kid always get D or F in high school and the kid's parents are all engineers. Even in my family, I have two relatives are just normal kids. One of them had problem graduating from high school. Anyway, what I am trying to say is if you really study hard, you can get the good result you want. You don't really have to buy expensive material. I also have a friend's kid who went to Medical school just by studying herself. She never spent money for an expensive class. She just practiced online from a free source.

i agree. i am asian and i was practically flunking out of college a few years ago. oh and im bad at math.

Originally Posted by chen1111

I do not believe being an Asian is an advantage. I do know a friend's kid always get D or F in high school and the kid's parents are all engineers. Even in my family, I have two relatives are just normal kids. One of them had problem graduating from high school. Anyway, what I am trying to say is if you really study hard, you can get the good result you want. You don't really have to buy expensive material. I also have a friend's kid who went to Medical school just by studying herself. She never spent money for an expensive class. She just practiced online from a free source.

As you can see, I put a "jk!" at the end of the statement I made. "jk!" means "just kidding". So I wasn't serious.

Originally Posted by chen1111

I do not believe being an Asian is an advantage. I do know a friend's kid always get D or F in high school and the kid's parents are all engineers. Even in my family, I have two relatives are just normal kids. One of them had problem graduating from high school. Anyway, what I am trying to say is if you really study hard, you can get the good result you want. You don't really have to buy expensive material. I also have a friend's kid who went to Medical school just by studying herself. She never spent money for an expensive class. She just practiced online from a free source.

By the way, how did I know you are asian. I must have magical assumption powers, I guess.

Sorry that I thought you were serious about being an Asian. I wasn't quite sure what jk means. When I was in college, I was very good in computer programming (although it is not my major). However, my test score was always lower than some people who were not good in programming. Finally, I realized my score was lower because I only studied two times while these people studied 5 times.

Got my Dr. Collins Packet today! Can't wait to start planning out my study schedule for Jan 2013 exam!

Originally Posted by JADpharm28

There is a new book out for 2012-2013 that I got from the library. It's The Princeton Review "Cracking the PCAT." I've read about 80 pages of the 700 (ish) and it explains ways to help you during your thought process on the different sections. Anyone used or read this book? For some reason, I am finding it more helpful than Kaplan. I need a good score this time around...first attempt was baaaad.

Even though posted a while back, I just wanted to +1 this post. I just recently purchased The Princeton Review's "Cracking the PCAT" and I find it to be much more helpful than Kaplan's study book because not only do they review the material but the offer test-taking strategies throughout the book as well. I'll be taking the PCAT for the 4th time in January.

I'm shocked to see i managed to become part of this club on my first time taking the test. I didn't have enough time to fully prepare for the math, but i did review biology and chemistry extensively because i took those classes 4 years ago. Being a biochem senior helped, with not having to study genetics, organic, or biochemistry. I had to spend extra time preparing for the english sections since it's not my first language.

the breakdown was:
409 63% verbal - i was expecting higher
484 99% bio -
405 60% reading - ran out of time
426 88% math - ran out of time again (probably got lucky guessing)
484 99% chem - was running out of time
442 99% composite

The test was challenging and I was constantly either barely finishing in time or running out of time. I don't understand how people can ever finish that quantitative section in time.

the key to getting such a high score on my first time has to be collins. its pretty clear they have been copying the questions on the practice exams you can purchase on the pearson site over the course of a few years and compiled them into this self study material they sell. Collins is great for bio, chem, verbal, and math.

I also purchased the 3 pearson tests and saw questions on there that were word for word on some of the collins material.

so theres a pretty simple formula to getting a 99 composite. Buy the most up to date collins, buy the 3 yearly tests, do them all and inflate your bio and chem score, to offset the rest. And work on your vocab and calc/precalc as you go. I also recommend the princeton review book for reviewing bio and chem. don't rely on their exams though because they are not up to date, the princeton math portion is more gre like than pcat like so it was a waste of time. kaplan also isnt very good and not up to date.

Im glad this is over, i was averaging about 5-8 hours a day preparing for this for 3 months and about 8-12 hours a day 3-4 weeks leading up to it. i sacrificed a lot to prepare for this crap, some of which i don't even need for pharmacy school. the verbal section is nothing but a silly IQ test.

Originally Posted by PeruvianLilies

Even though posted a while back, I just wanted to +1 this post. I just recently purchased The Princeton Review's "Cracking the PCAT" and I find it to be much more helpful than Kaplan's study book because not only do they review the material but the offer test-taking strategies throughout the book as well. I'll be taking the PCAT for the 4th time in January.

Although my PCAT score didn't turn out amazing, I improved my score a lot by using that book. I believe the strategies helped me immensely. I don't even know if it was in the book or not, but if I finished a section with 2-3 minutes remaining, I didn't immediately move on, I let the clock run down so I could give myself a small break. It helped me to let my brain relax

What did you use to study Quant? Thanks

What do guys think What is a best source to prepare for quantitative section.......

I think Dr. Collins does a pretty good job. Math is definitely not my strong point, but I still managed to do decent on the math portion of the PCAT. My advice: practice the seven exams provided (under timed conditions) over and over. Honestly the QA really isn't too bad, and like many have said, you'll be pretty surprised with the score you get (I sure was!)

Originally Posted by LevisAreBack

WOW is all that I can say after taking the PCAT today. Man I was nervous as sh*t before the test but starting out the writing section definitely helped calm my nerves. I know a lot of people come to these posts looking for advice. The best advice that can I give is to do the PEARSON’S PRACTICE TESTS! ALL OF THEM! It’s definitely worth the investment. A lot of people think that the PCAT is hard, the actual material on the PCAT is not hard, it’s the time constraints that make it hard. And what is the best way to get used to dealing with time constraints? Practice, practice, practice! As for the individual sections, nothing really out of the ordinary, the practice tests really help guide you as to where you need to focus your studying. In a lot of the previous posts I see just about every says the reading comp is hard. This is true to a degree but it’s only hard in the sense that you really have to focus on what the questions are asking. It’s not impossible to do well on the reading comp, I got a 91 on the reading section and I am far from an avid reader. Some of the questions might be tricky but remember the answers are right there for you in the passage, you just have to pay attention to detail. The key for me was the break after the Chemistry section. Really take this time to refresh and clear your mind. Leave the testing center and walk around a little bit, go to the bathroom and splash some water on your face. After all remember that you have been sitting down for over 2 hours at this point, this mini break it much needed. Any who, I hopes this helps you guys. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Thank you for the insight of the test. I am taking one of the Pearson practice test now just to see where I need to study. How did you use the practice tests for studying? What else did you use to prepare for the PCAT that you did we'll on the test?

99% in Biology
90% Composite =)

I just studied the Dr. Collins packet for a week and a looked over a few Kaplan books. Simple enough.

What are the various courses available for PCAT?
I see there is Dr. Collins, Kaplan and of course Pearson. Anything else or are these my only options

I just wrote my test two days ago. My scores were

VA - 478/99%
Bio - 440/95%
RC - 426/91%
QA - 447/97%
Chem - 449/97%
Composite - 99%

How I studied
I got the collins pcat on new years eve. For the next two days, I worked on and finished the inorganic chem section. I got bored of studying so I took a two week break. For the two weeks after that, I read and made notes on collins quant, verbal, and chem sections. I did the practice tests for verbal, chem, bio, and quant each twice, so that by the second time around I was getting at least 95% raw score on each one. I made notes on every question I got wrong, which was the most helpful part I think. I did one practice test for RC and was like haha this is easy I'm not doing anymore. Did not even look at the essay prompts provided. Jan 28th comes around, and I pick up Kaplan and start reading the bio section. Got through 3/4 of it until I had to get out of the car and into the exam room. When exam time came, reading comprehension caught me completely off guard, didn't even get to finish the last test. Dr collins is absolutely not sufficient practice for RC. And I was somehow not aware there were two essays until I came back from my break and there the second one was waiting for me.

Overall, I feel like some people are over-studying. Unless you haven't taken the prereq courses, there's is absolutely no need to spend obscene amounts of time and money on this thing. To future writers, keep calm and science on!

I have been searching this site for an hour and cannot figure out where I can buy a more recent/new Dr Collins study guide. I would like a 2012 or even possibly a new one but I have no idea where to look online. Amazon has a 2011 and it is just a packet of loose leaf paper. Is that what it really is? Please help!

Originally Posted by cuddlefish78

I have been searching this site for an hour and cannot figure out where I can buy a more recent/new Dr Collins study guide. I would like a 2012 or even possibly a new one but I have no idea where to look online. Amazon has a 2011 and it is just a packet of loose leaf paper. Is that what it really is? Please help!

you may want to try your local craigslist

I also cannot find the Dr Collins study pack anywhere online. Not even my local Craigslist has them. Ive been searching for days and found nothing. I know people sell it here but I dont want to fork out $150+ to a random stranger and have them not send me anything.

Can anyone who has them tell me how they purchased the study guide?

Hello, finished studying for PCAT, if any of you are interested in purchasing study material I have Kaplan's, Dr. Collin's, and the Barrons's. Here is my link on craigslist. Feel free to message me!

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bks/3619670053.html

We can do the transaction via PayPal for security purposes.

PM me if you need help finding Dr. Collins for a good price.

Originally Posted by wmw

exactly. collins is even less of a 'teaching' supplement than the kaplan book, I think this is why some ppl dont take to it well, bc they expect the material to be taught to them, similar to how it was in classes.. this is not the case, scoring well on the PCAT is hard and takes intense prep, to really maximize the collins materials you must have an understanding going into it. collins mainly helped me 'feel out' the exam and know what to expect

Hi can you or anyone else tell me where I can buy Dr Collins pcat review?? Thanks for all the information everyone.

Originally Posted by susanaj

Hi can you or anyone else tell me where I can buy Dr Collins pcat review?? Thanks for all the information everyone.

http://pcatprepclass.com/register.html#self_study This is where you can get it new. If you email Dr. Collins and say when you will be taking the test you will get updates set to you after each test date before yours. Say you plan on taking it in Septemer (this is what I plan on doing) and you buy Dr. Collins now, you will get an update after the July test dates for free. It is kind of expensive new, $360 but I feel like it is worth it. So many people on here say it is the way to go to get a really nice score. Good luck!

You guys need to get over yourselves... 99th percentile club? Gimme a break! My scores beat every single one of yours and trust me, you're in for a reality check when once you set foot in the classroom on your first day, no one there is going to give a **** about what you got on your PCAT. Actually hasn't come up in the past 3 years of pharmacy school or during residency interviews.

Congrats on a good test score, I was excited too, but just thought I'd put it in perspective for you...

Originally Posted by Blackboxrx

You guys need to get over yourselves... 99th percentile club? Gimme a break! My scores beat every single one of yours and trust me, you're in for a reality check when once you set foot in the classroom on your first day, no one there is going to give a **** about what you got on your PCAT. Actually hasn't come up in the past 3 years of pharmacy school or during residency interviews.

Congrats on a good test score, I was excited too, but just thought I'd put it in perspective for you...

Cool story bro. Except this thread wasn't meant for people to come brag about test scores. Perhaps if you had gotten past the 1st sentence of the OP (or read the title of the thread) you would have seen that. But then again as you said you are terrible at reading comprehension.

Originally Posted by Blackboxrx

You guys need to get over yourselves... 99th percentile club? Gimme a break! My scores beat every single one of yours and trust me, you're in for a reality check when once you set foot in the classroom on your first day, no one there is going to give a **** about what you got on your PCAT. Actually hasn't come up in the past 3 years of pharmacy school or during residency interviews.

Congrats on a good test score, I was excited too, but just thought I'd put it in perspective for you...

It seems to be somewhat common to overvalue the PCAT. Let them have their fun.

Originally Posted by owlegrad

It seems to be somewhat common to overvalue the PCAT. Let them have their fun.

this is true.

are there any benefits to purchasing crack the pcat or pcat destroyer over other study materials?

Originally Posted by Zeus17

are there any benefits to purchasing crack the pcat or pcat destroyer over other study materials?

The best thing to do is to identify where your weaknesses are before you buy anything. You can take a practice exam on the Pearson website and there are a few other shorter versions which would still give you a good indicator of what you need to study. Once you've determined where you need to put in the most time THEN I would suggest determining which study material would best suit you. Some are better than others in certain areas. It is a better use of your time to focus the majority of your energy where you need the most work.

this dude's advice is very good I followed it and scored a 92 %ile ...and don't believe anyone who tells you that a score like that is not automatic entrance that's bullcrap....IT IS!!

Originally Posted by streez03

this dude's advice is very good I followed it and scored a 92 %ile ...and don't believe anyone who tells you that a score like that is not automatic entrance that's bullcrap....IT IS!!

Congrats on your awesome score! Just wondering where did you get in and what was your gpa like? I'm applying next cycle, pcat this summer...

Originally Posted by streez03

this dude's advice is very good I followed it and scored a 92 %ile ...and don't believe anyone who tells you that a score like that is not automatic entrance that's bullcrap....IT IS!!

It's true.. I scored a 99% and I didn't even have to apply to schools, they started calling me!

Originally Posted by Skrumpy

It's true.. I scored a 99% and I didn't even have to apply to schools, they started calling me!

The dean of my state pharmacy school actually showed up at my door on his knees in an Armani suit because of how high I scored. I told him that I cannot accept unless they agree to pay me to go to school. He obviously couldn't refuse so I start this fall. My student salary will actually be higher than if I were an actual pharmacist right now so I'll probably intentionally get held back until pharmacist salaries are where they are supposed to be; at least $250k a year.