Dr. Collin's Biology Review???

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Hi, I am new to the student-doctor community, but have already learned amazing tips to improve my PCAT score. Using the Dr. Collin's review material has been one of the biggest suggestions from members so I purchased it as soon as possible. After receiveing the package I began working on the biology section and noticed the practice test questions didn't seem to accurately reflect the actual PCAT questions. I took the exam in September 2011 which had relative broad, big picture concepts while the Dr. Collin's questions are extremely specific questions delving into topics such as what treatments are best to treat a certain disease or what is the most common sexual transmitted disease. To me these type of subjects are not relevant and do not pertain to my potential career in pharmacy. Taking this into consideration do you think Dr. Collin's is a reliable source for self-study or gauge for the PCAT when it comes to the biology section??


Thanks for all the help!! : )

Originally Posted by benkyojikan

Hi, I am new to the student-doctor community, but have already learned amazing tips to improve my PCAT score. Using the Dr. Collin's review material has been one of the biggest suggestions from members so I purchased it as soon as possible. After receiveing the package I began working on the biology section and noticed the practice test questions didn't seem to accurately reflect the actual PCAT questions. I took the exam in September 2011 which had relative broad, big picture concepts while the Dr. Collin's questions are extremely specific questions delving into topics such as what treatments are best to treat a certain disease or what is the most common sexual transmitted disease. To me these type of subjects are not relevant and do not pertain to my potential career in pharmacy. Taking this into consideration do you think Dr. Collin's is a reliable source for self-study or gauge for the PCAT when it comes to the biology section??


Thanks for all the help!! : )

It definitely helped me out. However, if you really want to fine-tune your knowledge of Biology, use Kaplan's PCAT study book to help you fill you in on your weak spots.

In a nutshell, my approach to Biology was studying Dr. Collins, going through the entire packet and thoroughly reviewing all the practice tests, then taking the Pearson PCAT Practice tests. If there were questions on the practice tests that I didn't know the answer to, I would then use Kaplan to help fill me in on the subjects that I didn't know. My particular weakness was Ecology, Evolution, and knowing the characteristics of organisms, so I used Kaplan to help fill me in on that stuff.

Using this approach, I scored 99 on the PCAT in the Biology section.

Originally Posted by benkyojikan

[...] while the Dr. Collin's questions are extremely specific questions delving into topics such as what treatments are best to treat a certain disease or what is the most common sexual transmitted disease. To me these type of subjects are not relevant and do not pertain to my potential career in pharmacy.

First, welcome to SDN!

I think the study advice DH1987 gave is sound. The Kaplan book is quite comprehensive, but I just used it to fill in any gaps.

There's another topic you mention unrelated to how to study for biology. I question two things in the statement I quoted:

1) Why would the PCAT have any relevancy to your eventual practice of pharmacy? The purpose is to gauge your knowledge of prereqs, which get you ready to learn the stuff you'll need to practice pharmacy. A lot of the information in those prereqs are tangentially built on, at best (Biology II comes to mind).

2) The subjects you chose - disease treatment & common STDs - are quite applicable to pharmacy, I believe. Why wouldn't you need to know about disease treatment to be a pharmacist? The entire career is based on treatment.

i agree with the above posts, kaplan biology is very comprehensive and does a good job of summing up a year's worth of biology into 100 pages or so. i used dr. collin's to supplement kaplan in terms of biology and found that it worked very well (i scored a respectable 88th percentile on the bio part).

best of luck to you

Originally Posted by usechopstix

i agree with the above posts, kaplan biology is very comprehensive and does a good job of summing up a year's worth of biology into 100 pages or so. i used dr. collin's to supplement kaplan in terms of biology and found that it worked very well (i scored a respectable 88th percentile on the bio part).

best of luck to you

Agree with others that Kaplan is very useful. In my situation, I was REALLY weak in bio. I am a non-traditional student and hadn't taken BIO 101 for 10+ years. (Yes, I am OLD!). And I had never taken microbiology, anatomy or physiology. So Collins wasn't enough for me. I used Collins but also studied Kaplan and read Cliff's Biology review notes. Have to thank Chemguy79 for the tip on Cliff's. For me, Cliff's really helped me prepare. Anyways, I scored a 98!

Hello there,
I am getting ready to prepare for the January 2012 PCAT. I used Dr Collins 2009 to prep for the Spetember 14th one I recently took, which I feel like it only helped for the verbal (analogy section). I didnt do well at all. My percentile was below 40. I felt maybe cause I used an old Dr. Collins.

I wanted to see if anyone that has taken the test and performed well wants to sell theirs. Let me know. Thanks

Originally Posted by CrazyChemist

Agree with others that Kaplan is very useful. In my situation, I was REALLY weak in bio. I am a non-traditional student and hadn't taken BIO 101 for 10+ years. (Yes, I am OLD!). And I had never taken microbiology, anatomy or physiology. So Collins wasn't enough for me. I used Collins but also studied Kaplan and read Cliff's Biology review notes. Have to thank Chemguy79 for the tip on Cliff's. For me, Cliff's really helped me prepare. Anyways, I scored a 98!

Hi, boss I was curious as to getting some pointers from you regarding the pcat. Was Dr.Collins material enough to get a high score? And is it true that Dr.Collins material really resembles the actual pcat?

See my gpa from back in the day was horrible and so far after returning back to college (community college), my gpa is 3.9. I believe the only obstacle between me and pharmacy school is my previous gpa and the pcat. Therefore, I must do well on the pcat.

What method did you use to prepare for reading and vc section. How about for math since no calculator are allowed?

Any input is great.

Congratulation on your acceptance.

Thank you
Ben