are PCAT courses worth to take ?

[uvivi]

anyone who took any of PCAT courses such as the one that is offered at Kaplan,

was it worth to take??

this is my first time preparing for PCAT and I am not quite sure whether to take it or not since it is quite expensive .

Please give me any advices you have!

thankx

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[Farcus]

i'll get back to you on that after august lol.

 

[samfromVA]

Yeah it is, provided u are motivated enough to stick in a strict regiment.

Think about it...thousands of dollars and what u gonna get out of it..or can u make the most out of it...can u dedicate urself to the class and also there is this issue with the gas price...something to think about!!!

 

[mulsanne]

I took the course and found it very helpful, you take several practice tests as part of the course as well and it really helps make test day easier. I think it was well worth the money, may not have gotten in to pharmacy school this year w/o it.

This will certainly vary dependent on the person, instructors and background of course. One thing for sure it will not lower your scores, just your bank account. If you can afford it go for it

 

[PCPharm]

I'd say it's useful only if you haven't taken the pre-req's courses. I took the PCAT after finishing the Gen Bio, Gen Chem, and O Chem and scored a 92 composite. It certainly will be higher if I did better in the verbal and reading. But I guess if you have the money to spend, it helps you stick to a study plan if you have little self discipline.

 

[islandboy401]

I can't speak from experience since I haven't taken a course before....

but according to my experience with SAT Practice courses, I don't think you should take them. All of my friends took them (back when we were all in HIgh school), and I got a higher SAT score than all of them (they had taken most of the same courses that I had in High School).

I've heard on College Confidential forums that prep courses are a bad idea (when it comes to taking standardized tests).

 

[lev zev]

thats true, but if you're weak in some places for example chem or bio maybe it is a good idea to take one. SATs I think are different than PCATs in the way you study for them.

 

[superwoman1976]

I'm selling my course materials if you're interested, pm me. I wish I had just bought the materials off of someone instead of wasting over a grand on the class!

 

[BravoKilo]

Ultimately only you can be the judge of whether or not you need to take a course.

How confident are you in the various sections? How have you done on previous standardized tests (ACT/SAT/etc.) ??

My personal experience? Bought one of the $30 prep books at the bookstore and went through it once -- scored a 96 composite. Didn't necessarily have a great GPA (3.19 when I finished my BS), but have always been able to do well on standardized tests. Your results may vary.

 

[Kingstun]

I have taken the pcat before, my first time i made a 67 on the test. I am now in the kaplan course, and i love it i can tell i have made huge improvments just the method seems to take a lot of the guess work out of the questions for me.
I was also worried about the cost, but i think it was worth every penny

 

[prescribeWoW]

Signed up for it 6 weeks prior to the pcat (that's when classes got out) I work third shift so the in class schedule didn't work too well for me. I took the June pcat and when I left the room felt sick to my stomach omg that test is hard. Well I haven't received my results as of yet so I don't know how poorly everyone else in the reference group did compared to me so there is still hope but my guess is bad. As a side note the kaplan diagnostic said I should score 85% or better (That was before I took the course) and I feel like I did sub 50% composite. Then again I took an exit exam when I got my associates degree and went to complain about the test (I was in a trial group for a new company that they were looking at using for the exit exam) The TA said well in 6 weeks come to my office and we'll look at your scores and discuss it. Not only did I score the highest in my class but I made a perfect score. The point is yeah I felt bad about it but with me that doesnt mean much I'll update on the main score page when I get my results I'm them this week. As a side note when I took the online course it felt like it was helping a lot but on the test I felt like I was unsure about a lot and did a lot of guessing. Overall I'd say if your poor at maintaining structure when you study on your own defiantly take the prep course. My theory if you take it and get in does it matter if the course helped or not? Now if I don't have competitive scores I will be extremely irked.

Hope this helps I'll try to find this thread to post my scores so you have a better gauge of the performce it provides.

 

[jpquach87]

I just wanna say that I couldn't take the actual class in person but took the online class. The material is great review including the books they send you. I probably wouldn't have done as well without the material. I feel I did exceptionally well in all the sections except for reading comp, which was exceptionally poor. My composite score from June 08 is 95 percentile.

 

[Farcus]

thats what I am taking right now hopefully I can get a score around that ballpark.

 

[Dr.iz-n]

I'm selling my course materials if you're interested, pm me. I wish I had just bought the materials off of someone instead of wasting over a grand on the class!

How much are you selling your PCAT review mateirals? I already have the Kaplan, Barron, and Arco books, as well as Cliff's notes. I also got the PCAT Harcourt tests as well. I want all the practice I can get. Are the tests you have from the Kaplan COurse itself?

 

[FaBpHaRm2Be]

thats what I am taking right now hopefully I can get a score around that ballpark.

ditto!!

 

[prescribeWoW]

Ok as promised I came back to tell what my composite was

88% composite

writing section 3.0/3.5

kaplan's diagnostic put me at 85%

The diagnostic seemed easier than the pcat but was also taken before i used any of their study materials so maybe they so I would say the resources really helped.

 

[Farcus]

yeh my friend got his kaplan composite midterm 431 and final 427 and his real pcat score was 429 which was at 90% composite. I'm gonna just say the kaplan course is pretty good indicator, how good u do depends on you and the time you spent.