For those who've taken the PCAT, is Barron's Study Guide accurate?

[PonderingChoice]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm just curious for those of you who have already taken the PCAT and used Barron's Study Guide (it is not my only study guide)... the questions seem really easy.

Is this an accurate reflection of the PCAT, or is Barron's Study Guide just way too easy? In particular, I'm looking at the Quantitative Section.

 

[tungsten87]

as far as i'm concerned the barron's book is way too easy/outdated. the dr. collins practice set is much closer to the real thing.

 

[willrocks]

The Barron's book is either way too easy or far too specific.

 

[SmKN808]

kaplan PCAT 2010-2011 edition 👍

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=PCAT&x=18&y=16

just thought i'd mention it 😀

 

[sunflower85]

IMHO, no one book is *accurate* as the one study aid. With the variety of questions that can be asked, a wise course of action is to find as many resources as possible and as many practice questions you can find looking for gaps in your knowledge. It is great when you do *well* on a practice test, but if you didn't get anything wrong, then you don't have the opportunity to learn something more. In particular, do the math and chemistry practice problems under timed conditions and without a calculator. You will be glad you did!

 

[phathead]

I found Barron's to be rather horrible and far too easy. The Kaplan book is the way to go.

 

[medicalCPA]

I've said it, and will continue to say it: the Barron's book is crap. Do not buy it, do not use it, and if you have it, throw it away.

 

[PharmOl]

IMHO, no one book is *accurate* as the one study aid. With the variety of questions that can be asked, a wise course of action is to find as many resources as possible and as many practice questions you can find looking for gaps in your knowledge. It is great when you do *well* on a practice test, but if you didn't get anything wrong, then you don't have the opportunity to learn something more. In particular, do the math and chemistry practice problems under timed conditions and without a calculator. You will be glad you did!

Very true. That's how I learned about 50% of everything I know for the PCAT. If I saw a concept I couldn't explain to myself, I went into other reference materials and looked it up. Thanks for your post!

 

[Monsterdaddy]

kaplan PCAT 2010-2011 edition 👍

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=PCAT&x=18&y=16

just thought i'd mention it 😀

Horrid practice exam full of errors. Useless org chem section, inadequate calculus overview, biology is fairly good but missing microbiology.

Chem section has serious errors, wrong value for Rydberg constant, they forget to superscript exponents so it looks like a coefficient instead.

Beware...

One other thing, when I took a free Kaplan PCAT exam, the Kaplan proctor told me the Kaplan book is actually created by Barron and Kaplan let them slap their name on it. WTF!

 

[PharmSic]

I would have to say that many prep books and guides are getting outdated because Pearson keeps changing their test formats and syllabus. Other than Kaplan and Dr Collin's materials, you guys should also seriously consider PCAT Achiever which I can honestly testify that the questions there are frequently updated to mimic the real things.

 

[bballa99]

Horrid practice exam full of errors. Useless org chem section, inadequate calculus overview, biology is fairly good but missing microbiology.

Chem section has serious errors, wrong value for Rydberg constant, they forget to superscript exponents so it looks like a coefficient instead.

Beware...

One other thing, when I took a free Kaplan PCAT exam, the Kaplan proctor told me the Kaplan book is actually created by Barron and Kaplan let them slap their name on it. WTF!

...are you being serious? Are we all being scammed? Is pearson seceretly running kaplan? Is kaplan actually created by barron? Does cream cheese on a bagel taste good?

 

[Pharmgrlnxdor]

I would not usually use a curse word to describe something but in this case I would most def say that it is absolute crap. Not even close to the real thing. After studying it you should be able to do really well on any intro course in bio, or chem, but not much use for anything else in my opinion.

 

[PharmOl]

NO. No study aid is accurate enough for PCAT. Even official practice tests don't come any close. Fall in love with your physiology book all over again- and never part. Read on some medical journals. Energy cycles of a human body control your mind and love from now until your next test. Don't forget thorough microbiology study, neurology. Oh yeah, knowledge of names and mechanisms of not- so common diseases is looked favorable upon, too.

 

[Monsterdaddy]

...are you being serious? Are we all being scammed? Is pearson seceretly running kaplan? Is kaplan actually created by barron? Does cream cheese on a bagel taste good?

The Kaplan proctor also claimed Kaplan contributes $4-5M a year to Pearson and they know the folks who make up the questions on the exam. All of which makes me very uncomfortable.

 

[desmoulins45179]

I used the Kaplan and Barrons review books. I think having both of them together is good. It's true that Barrons is a lot easier than the test, but it does help with getting the general mindset of the problems. Like if you did not take precalculuslcalc or chemistry for awhile, it can help with just having a lot of practice problems, even if they are easier than the pcat. I liekd Barrons becasue of the amount of questions. There's more than in the kaplan book. Also, it's fairly cheap (I think it was like 20 bucks)

Kaplan has review material and while it is not complete (or a lot more specific in some cases), it's a nice starting point. Also has slightly harder questions. I actually found that the physiology section was fine for me. (Of course I have already taken physiology and this was more of a review so maybe that's why I thought it was sufficent).

Pretty much, it depends on what works best for yu and how much you are willing to spend.