August PCAT - minus some important classes

[SexyPlexi]

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GAH...I am attempting the August PCAT but I don't take Biology II or Organic Chem I until fall. It's freaking me out and I just need to stop freaking out and study my @$$ off instead! That and there are a million things planned in August already...heh. Worst case - I do terrible and take it again in October...

that doesn't really settle my nerves though. Anyone have any advice for me? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bully Worm]

I am sort of in the same boat. Some one come in here and calm me down as well.

 

[SexyPlexi]

LOL you pet me and I'll pet you. 😉

We can do this...right?!

 

[inquirer89]

I'm also in the same situation, but I'm missing Calculus along with Organic I. I don't think you need Bio II to do well on the PCAT, the majority of biology is covered in Bio I (Kaplan does a good job of reviewing for biology).

I suggest looking at study aids for specific areas that you're not comfortable with yet. My plan is too look at Calculus and Organic study aids, along with studying the Kaplan.

Good luck to us all!

 

[Farcus]

I'm also in the same situation, but I'm missing Calculus along with Organic I. I don't think you need Bio II to do well on the PCAT, the majority of biology is covered in Bio I (Kaplan does a good job of reviewing for biology).

I suggest looking at study aids for specific areas that you're not comfortable with yet. My plan is too look at Calculus and Organic study aids, along with studying the Kaplan.

Good luck to us all!

You're so wrong on the bio part, yes it is covered in detail but this is seriously foreign stuff to anyone and considering majority of PCAT bio is from anatomy aka bio 2 its really critical to do bio 2. At least that is to me. That isn't to say you can't do ok on biology without taking Bio2. I got a 70 on january by just taking the first one(and studying with kaplan) but i'll tell you for a fact i would of gotten 80+ if i had Bio2 which i did the subsequent spring semester.

 

[jonnyboi303]

You're so wrong on the bio part, yes it is covered in detail but this is seriously foreign stuff to anyone and considering majority of PCAT bio is from anatomy aka bio 2 its really critical to do bio 2. At least that is to me. That isn't to say you can't do ok on biology without taking Bio2. I got a 70 on january by just taking the first one(and studying with kaplan) but i'll tell you for a fact i would of gotten 80+ if i had Bio2 which i did the subsequent spring semester.

I'd agree with that. Ochem wasn't that much of a factor when I took it last August, but I'd say you should study bio hardcore if you want to get a good score in bio. I think there was also some microbio questions where I was just like 😕+😡 but it was only a couple of questions or something. Not a big deal

 

[Kingstun]

GAH...I am attempting the August PCAT but I don't take Biology II or Organic Chem I until fall. It's freaking me out and I just need to stop freaking out and study my @$$ off instead! That and there are a million things planned in August already...heh. Worst case - I do terrible and take it again in October...

that doesn't really settle my nerves though. Anyone have any advice for me? Thanks in advance!

I took the pcat almost under the same conditions, I had taken general bio, organic 1 and calc. These classes didn't completely prepare me for the pcat but i studied the kaplan book that you can buy for like 4 months solid and i got a 67%...i am now 1 semester from graduating and i am taking the kaplan course....and i would recomend taking the course to everyone my scores are going up and i am missing signifcantly less questions in my practices section and my diagnostic exams.


If i were you i would make sure i knew the function of a cell very well, cell metabolism like glycolysis, and dna transcription translation. these would probably be best to make your strong point with the limited amount of classes you've taken as far as biology goes. and chem is mainly gen chem and stuff like that soo just drag yourself through all of you gas laws and junk like that (studying gen chem sucks)

 

[inquirer89]

I'd agree with that. Ochem wasn't that much of a factor when I took it last August, but I'd say you should study bio hardcore if you want to get a good score in bio. I think there was also some microbio questions where I was just like 😕+😡 but it was only a couple of questions or something. Not a big deal

Yeah, I've just heard from people on this board that Kaplan is good enough for bio, and it is not great for organic and calculus. I guess each test is truly different from each other (in terms of year or month taken.) So if your test was harder in bio, than other people's tests were more thorough in calc or organic or etc.

A general theme I've gathered though is that most people find that there are more organic and calc questions than what the Kaplan lets on. I guess I'll see for myself in August.