PCAT vs Dr. Collins HELP

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tommyVoltage

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I am preparing for the PCAT on November 9, so I don't really have that much time left. I have 20 days, including today, but 3 of those days are going to be spent on the official PCAT practice tests and the day before is going to be spent on subjects I write down that always slips my mind.

I have read over all the material once and I am just taking the practice tests now. I usually start off getting 70%-80 on test, review what I got wrong, let a few days pass, and take it over again. I am bumping my scores up to 90%-95. I will probably wind up taking each practice test 3-5 times.

For those who studied with Dr. Collins and took the PCAT, is this the right way to study or should I concentrate on reading over all the material packets again?

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I am preparing for the PCAT on November 9, so I don't really have that much time left. I have 20 days, including today, but 3 of those days are going to be spent on the official PCAT practice tests and the day before is going to be spent on subjects I write down that always slips my mind.

I have read over all the material once and I am just taking the practice tests now. I usually start off getting 70%-80 on test, review what I got wrong, let a few days pass, and take it over again. I am bumping my scores up to 90%-95. I will probably wind up taking each practice test 3-5 times.

For those who studied with Dr. Collins and took the PCAT, is this the right way to study or should I concentrate on reading over all the material packets again?

I kept going over the collins packets and making sure I took them timed. The five days leading up to the PCAT i did the three pearson practice tests and found they were most like the real exam. Sounds like you are doing good on the collins practice tests. just make sure you have the timing down. On the real exam I found timing for the math portion to be the most difficult.
 
I am preparing for the PCAT on November 9, so I don't really have that much time left. I have 20 days, including today, but 3 of those days are going to be spent on the official PCAT practice tests and the day before is going to be spent on subjects I write down that always slips my mind.

I have read over all the material once and I am just taking the practice tests now. I usually start off getting 70%-80 on test, review what I got wrong, let a few days pass, and take it over again. I am bumping my scores up to 90%-95. I will probably wind up taking each practice test 3-5 times.

For those who studied with Dr. Collins and took the PCAT, is this the right way to study or should I concentrate on reading over all the material packets again?

We can't say if it's the right way to study because we're not you. But I'll give you my side of the story.

I extensively used Collins chemistry and used the bio section (minus the supposedly awesome bio update) as a skeleton for what to study. I didn't touch VA at all because it doesn't seem worth it for me to memorize a bunch of words and find out that only a handful or none of the words show up on test day. Collins RC is atrocious; I was disgusted when I found out that some of the passages were ripped directly off of the official practice PCAT tests. With QA, I just brushed up on common derivatives and integrals on a math website.

Whenever I took a Collins practice test, I tried to finish it in around 15-20 minutes, usually getting around 5-8 questions wrong based on stupid mistakes. Upon taking the official practice tests, I finished each section (not including QA) with 10 minutes left on the clock. It's absolutely necessary to think this fast because once I took the test, I literally scrambled to finish each section on time. My scores are below.

VA 409/64
Bio 421/91
Chem 455/98
RC 402/52
QA (forgot SS)/85

Composite 421/91

I'm pretty happy with my score, considering that I only studied extensively for 5 days.
 
Thank you to both of you. I don't know why he calls it a self study course because in no one does he give you strategies to use all the material. It really is just packets of information. I have been timing myself. Chemistry I am finishing the questions in about half the time. Biology I am starting today. Quantitative usually leaves me with 5-10 minutes leftover, but I skip maybe 5 questions that I'm not really sure of, so I'll (hopefully) improve.
 
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