I'm a first year pre-pharmacy student and was just wondering how I should start preparing for PCAT. I want to get started early so that I will feel much prepared for the test. What prep books should I use? What are some good strategies? I also heard that Dr. Collin's self-study guide is really helpful. Is it true? I would much appreciate it if you could, please, provide me with some feedbacks.
How to Prepare for PCAT as a First Year Pre-Pharmacy Student
- Thread starter jup09002
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I agree with that advice. If you don't have a strong vocabulary or reading comprehension skills, you have plenty of time to improve that now. Read science magazines or start working on vocabulary flash cards in your spare time. If you know that some math that you won't see again gives you trouble, start practicing now. Try borrowing a text book or buy one of those guidebooks like Schaums. But don't let any of that interfere with your classes. Don't study enough so you can pass the next exam but study so you can remember the material months or years from now. You are building the foundation for pharmacy school now so the better you do, the easier it will be down the road.
The most important thing to do right now is to focus on your pre-requisite classes and try to learn as much as you can. If your school has a pre-pharmacy club, try to attend the meetings and ask questions whenever you can.
Later on, when you're studying for the PCAT, it will be much easier to just review something rather than to learn it for the first time because of not studying it very well in some classes.
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You'll pick up what you need to know just by using it in your chem classes. When they talk about trends like electronegativity or radius of the atoms, pay special attention because they like those types of questions on the PCAT.
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You sure? I have all that memorized
, but what about the weights and atomic numbers of uncommon elements. I can only memorize up to the first like.. 22 elements or so. I remember doing a question in my kaplan book which required the weight of Fe, on the pcat do they give the weights or anything like that?Hey...bballa99, are you at UBC right now? If you are...pay attention at **** you learn in BIO 112, for the Bio part. um...read the kaplan stuff for the other bio stuff, and you can basically ignore most of bio 121 and 140 in terms of material, except what a species is...and that heirachy ****...um...physics you can ignore. pay attention to math 100/104/102, especially if you didn't do IB in high school... um... english you can totally ignore, cause nothing in those class with help you with PCAT. um.. chem, if you are taking 111/113, pay attention, Dr. Wassel's class will REALLY help with PCAT, especially if you read his second term notes earlier before you take the test. um...Ochem...second term won't help you that much, but don't worry...if you can get like...60% on the practice tests you usually can score in the 70 percentile. if you are taking chem 121/123, then i have no idea...didn't really take it, but the structure, like crystal and stuff i heard from my friends that they learned...doesn't really apply to pcat..pm if you have any more questions...if you aren't at UBC...just ignore everything i rambled on about.
well i just also started my pre requisites for PharmD program. and even i want to start preparing for PCAT as i have heard its very hard. so maybe we could help each other? what do you say? as need alot of advices and true direction in this long way ahead?what do you say?
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correction, the PCAT is not very hard. It really depends on the individual, how much effort they put in, and the time in life in which they take the exam.
Example.) My friend tried to get into Pharm School throughout college and ended up taking the PCAT 3 times. Once during their Sophemore, Junior, and Senior years to finally bring it up to a 83%. They were finally accepted their Senior year.
Second example.) I havn't had an intro-Chem, intro-Bio, Calculus, Statistics, or Organic chemistry course in over 5-6 years.... but studied using only the Kaplan PCAT 2010 book + Pearson's 2 online practice exams for 3 weeks and got a 95% on my first try. I'll attribute this to the fact that graduate school turns you into a professional at critical thinking, which vastly improves your reading comprehension and writing style. Trust me, I compared my Personal Statements for undergraduate college, my master's program, and my PhD program and they were all different in quality/style/language choice.
So in total it cost ~$95 total worth of material ($35 for the Kaplan book, $60 for the Pearson Exams) to study. Although the Kaplan book is severely deficient in Calculus and Organic Review, there are TONS of FREE websites that give excellent tutorials on Calculus (e.g. derivatives, chain-rule, etc.) and Orgo.
My advice to anyone studying is to utilize the free websites rather than dumping $300 bucks on a crash course. I understand everyone wants something quick and easy (hence there are those who dish out $1500 for a Kaplan course), but good study habits are developed over time. What might take someone 2-3 months to prepare for, could take another only a few weeks depending on the rigor and determination of the individual.
Example.) My friend tried to get into Pharm School throughout college and ended up taking the PCAT 3 times. Once during their Sophemore, Junior, and Senior years to finally bring it up to a 83%. They were finally accepted their Senior year.
Second example.) I havn't had an intro-Chem, intro-Bio, Calculus, Statistics, or Organic chemistry course in over 5-6 years.... but studied using only the Kaplan PCAT 2010 book + Pearson's 2 online practice exams for 3 weeks and got a 95% on my first try. I'll attribute this to the fact that graduate school turns you into a professional at critical thinking, which vastly improves your reading comprehension and writing style. Trust me, I compared my Personal Statements for undergraduate college, my master's program, and my PhD program and they were all different in quality/style/language choice.
So in total it cost ~$95 total worth of material ($35 for the Kaplan book, $60 for the Pearson Exams) to study. Although the Kaplan book is severely deficient in Calculus and Organic Review, there are TONS of FREE websites that give excellent tutorials on Calculus (e.g. derivatives, chain-rule, etc.) and Orgo.
My advice to anyone studying is to utilize the free websites rather than dumping $300 bucks on a crash course. I understand everyone wants something quick and easy (hence there are those who dish out $1500 for a Kaplan course), but good study habits are developed over time. What might take someone 2-3 months to prepare for, could take another only a few weeks depending on the rigor and determination of the individual.
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