Am I wasting my time?

[flyer]

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I plan on taking the January PCAT and I just finished studying the reading comprehension and biology sections in the Kaplan's guide. Now I'm stuck in a rut because I don't know if its worth my time to study the other sections with all of the changes on the PCAT.

I have about six weeks and I need to use my time very efficiently. Kaplan does a nice review on the math and chem sections, but would I be wasting my time since much of the material has been replaced with calculus and o-chem? Or should I just study the rest of the book and then look elsewhere for calculus and o-chem reviews? (My only dilemma with that is it will require more time)

Also, how useful is Kaplan's for the verbal section?

Please help me get out of this rut!

 

[jboogie]

I plan on taking the January PCAT and I just finished studying the reading comprehension and biology sections in the Kaplan's guide. Now I'm stuck in a rut because I don't know if its worth my time to study the other sections with all of the changes on the PCAT.

I have about six weeks and I need to use my time very efficiently. Kaplan does a nice review on the math and chem sections, but would I be wasting my time since much of the material has been replaced with calculus and o-chem? Or should I just study the rest of the book and then look elsewhere for calculus and o-chem reviews? (My only dilemma with that is it will require more time)

Also, how useful is Kaplan's for the verbal section?

Please help me get out of this rut!

I do not think you are wasting your time. If you have ahd any calculus, you shoudl do fine. I was halfway through brief calc when I took it in October and got a 94% on quantitative.

It would be a good idea to try some additional review for O-chem. I was amazed at how many questions there were, but the Kaplan book does cover much of it.

 

[skp]

no probably not a waste of time
just burn through the quant and chem sections and find some supplementary material on organic and calc.
i used the book and did good but if i had found some organic and calc supp. material i would have done even better

everything in the kaplan is fair game on the test anyway so i can't call it a waste

good luck,
skp

 

[flyer]

Thanks jboogie and skp for your replies.

I have been reading other posts and I have my last questions for anyone. You have mentioned that i should get supplements. Would it be better to finish the Kaplan and then use Pcat Professor as a supplement? Or should I just switch to Pcat Professor and not worry anymore about Kaplan's?

I also read banananose's sticky that said memorizing GRE's top 200 words is a good way to review for the verbal section. How does their list compare to Kaplan's 250 root words?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Glycerin]

I also read banananose's sticky

 

[flyer]

Exuse my sloppy post.......I mean bananaface.

 

[CMeaker]

I actually found GREs top 200 words to be better help than the word roots. But they were both useful.

 

[vafcarrot]

When I was studying the vocab words in Kaplan, I had Webster's nearby to reference. I found that alot of their "root" words were completely wrong.

 

[bananaface]

Exuse my sloppy post.......I mean bananaface.

No problem 😀

 

[Crazy_Norwegian]

I plan on taking the January PCAT and I just finished studying the reading comprehension and biology sections in the Kaplan's guide. Now I'm stuck in a rut because I don't know if its worth my time to study the other sections with all of the changes on the PCAT.

I have about six weeks and I need to use my time very efficiently. Kaplan does a nice review on the math and chem sections, but would I be wasting my time since much of the material has been replaced with calculus and o-chem? Or should I just study the rest of the book and then look elsewhere for calculus and o-chem reviews? (My only dilemma with that is it will require more time)

Also, how useful is Kaplan's for the verbal section?

Please help me get out of this rut!

I found that about half the quantitative section seemed to be either calc or pre-calc (and I hadn't studied or reviewed either in years!). They (Harcourt) claimed that they were going to put stats on the test, but I only found one elementary probability problem and no stats. I would definitely review your calculus (especially the physics-type word problems) and I would also review all of the equation-of-a-line type problems (y=mx + b) for pre-calc. These two types of questions made up a large portion of the quantitative section.

As far as the o-chem goes, I had only been in o-chem for two months of my first semester when I took the PCAT in October and I didn't find any organic questions I couldn't answer. If you can recognize Lewis-type structures ( C-C-OH) and abbreviated structures -COOH = carboxylic acid, you can answer all of the o-chem questions. At least what was on my test!

Good luck with the test. 👍

 

[skp]

and I would also review all of the equation-of-a-line type problems (y=mx + b) for pre-calc

si, norwego loco!!! estudias these muy grande mucho

buenas dias,
skp

in other words *your math needs to be better than my espanol*

 

[OSURxgirl]

Six weeks is more than enough. I prepared for the PCAT in two weeks, studying about 4 hours a day, and it had been 6 years since I'd taken gen chem, and 5 since ochem. I was able to score well just following and reviewing the topics in the outlines in the review books.

 

[unctarheel]

I plan on taking the January PCAT and I just finished studying the reading comprehension and biology sections in the Kaplan's guide. Now I'm stuck in a rut because I don't know if its worth my time to study the other sections with all of the changes on the PCAT.

I have about six weeks and I need to use my time very efficiently. Kaplan does a nice review on the math and chem sections, but would I be wasting my time since much of the material has been replaced with calculus and o-chem? Or should I just study the rest of the book and then look elsewhere for calculus and o-chem reviews? (My only dilemma with that is it will require more time)

Also, how useful is Kaplan's for the verbal section?

Please help me get out of this rut!

Hi flyer,

I took the PCAT this past October, and I studied by the Kaplan book for everything except for the verbal section and got other books to supplement the organic part of the chemistry and calculus for the math (since I have had neither in 3 years). For the verbal, I used this little red book called "GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards: Flip o matic." If you study some a little each day on them, you'll get the hard ones down. To my surprise, I found about 8 of the words from this book on the PCAT. I believe I got the book at Borders. I used Bob Miller's Calculus I book for calculus. I think it was like $10 or something, and it turns out several of the calculus questions on the PCAT were almost identical to examples out of this book. It's a great quick refresher. Hope this helps. Good luck on the PCAT. 🙂

 

[ButlerPharm.D.]

I can't believe people study for the PCAT...you either know it or you don't. I think the Kaplan courses feed off of people's insecurity. Here's a little secret...the essay portion of the "new" PCAT is the part of the exam that they are currently testing...it's not graded. It's amazing to see people with their little Kaplan books out right before the PCAT studying up to the last minute....

Hi flyer,

I took the PCAT this past October, and I studied by the Kaplan book for everything except for the verbal section and got other books to supplement the organic part of the chemistry and calculus for the math (since I have had neither in 3 years). For the verbal, I used this little red book called "GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards: Flip o matic." If you study some a little each day on them, you'll get the hard ones down. To my surprise, I found about 8 of the words from this book on the PCAT. I believe I got the book at Borders. I used Bob Miller's Calculus I book for calculus. I think it was like $10 or something, and it turns out several of the calculus questions on the PCAT were almost identical to examples out of this book. It's a great quick refresher. Hope this helps. Good luck on the PCAT. 🙂