Best PCAT study course/program

[Superman22]

For someone who has used the following review programs can you give an opinion or comment on their effectiveness
Audiolearn
Kaplan Review Course
PCAT Professor (have seen many positive comments for this product on the
forum)
PCAT Secrets
Thanks for your input

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Glycerin]

For someone who has used the following review programs can you give an opinion or comment on their effectiveness
Audiolearn
Kaplan Review Course
PCAT Professor (have seen many positive comments for this product on the
forum)
PCAT Secrets
Thanks for your input

Audiolearn is great for the biology portion. PCAT Professor is really helpful, too. I'd do a search and peruse the multiple threads on this topic.

 

[Superman22]

Someone mentioned to me today of a site that has PCAT problems posted for free. It is
http://www.testprepreview.com/pcat_practice.htm Hope this could help someone.

 

[jamboo54]

I posted my experience from the PCAT on

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=166950&page=2&pp=20

It has my opinions on how to study and some reviews...

Testprepreview.com - I was just looking through the questions they have on there. I think the questions are slightly more difficult than the questions on the PCAT were. However, some of those questions were pretty good I thought. The physiology questions on their I thought were too difficult. The math stuff seemed really good. I wish I knew about this before I took the PCAT.

 

[flyer]

jamboo54 wrote:

Chemistry: I took this test before I had finished the first semester of ochem. It had a few questions on some nomenclature and some basic E1 E2 SN1 SN2 reactions. Some hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. In my ochem textbook, everything on the PCAT was covered within the first 7 chapters. Most textbooks go in a similar order. For the genchem i reread about 10 chapters from my genchem textbook. I didn't really do any of the problems or anything - just read it to refresh some knowledge. I can honestly say that I was not the best at genchem. I got an A in the class but whenever I try to answer people's questions about their homework or anything now in genchem I don't know how to do it. Most of the questions on the PCAT were conceptual. I don't think there were any calculations. There were a few gas law questions. Maybe a couple stoichiometry questions. I think they will always ask whether a reaction is endo or exothermic. A few standard definitions that one should know after going through genchem.


jamboo54 mentioned that the chem. section was mainly conceptual rather than having calculations. For the people that took the test last October, did it seem that way as well?

I'm trying to compare any differences between the October test and the November test. We all know how Harcourt has been messing with the PCAT lately!

 

[Superman22]

I posted my experience from the PCAT on

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=166950&page=2&pp=20

It has my opinions on how to study and some reviews...

Testprepreview.com - I was just looking through the questions they have on there. I think the questions are slightly more difficult than the questions on the PCAT were. However, some of those questions were pretty good I thought. The physiology questions on there I thought were too difficult. The math stuff seemed really good. I wish I knew about this before I took the PCAT.

Would you suggest which books you think I would need to do a thorough job at reviewing Biology? If possible Chem? Thanks

 

[jemc2000]

I'm trying to compare any differences between the October test and the November test. We all know how Harcourt has been messing with the PCAT lately!

I took October and November. In my opinion they were very similiar, other than quantitative was more time consuming in November. To the point that many of the same questions were asked. Just my two cents.

 

[jamboo54]

jamboo54 wrote:

Chemistry: I took this test before I had finished the first semester of ochem. It had a few questions on some nomenclature and some basic E1 E2 SN1 SN2 reactions. Some hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. In my ochem textbook, everything on the PCAT was covered within the first 7 chapters. Most textbooks go in a similar order. For the genchem i reread about 10 chapters from my genchem textbook. I didn't really do any of the problems or anything - just read it to refresh some knowledge. I can honestly say that I was not the best at genchem. I got an A in the class but whenever I try to answer people's questions about their homework or anything now in genchem I don't know how to do it. Most of the questions on the PCAT were conceptual. I don't think there were any calculations. There were a few gas law questions. Maybe a couple stoichiometry questions. I think they will always ask whether a reaction is endo or exothermic. A few standard definitions that one should know after going through genchem.


jamboo54 mentioned that the chem. section was mainly conceptual rather than having calculations. For the people that took the test last October, did it seem that way as well?

I'm trying to compare any differences between the October test and the November test. We all know how Harcourt has been messing with the PCAT lately!

I think I might have used conceptual incorrectly. I just meant that there were not many problems that required the use of random equations and calculations. The only one I can remember that were used were like pv=nrt and some pressure/volume/temperature relationships. In other words there were very few questions that had numbers for answers. I hope that cleared things up.

 

[jamboo54]

Would you suggest which books you think I would need to do a thorough job at reviewing Biology? If possible Chem? Thanks

The bio book I used was:
Life : The Science of Biology
by Craig Heller, David Sadava, Gordon H. Orians, William K. Purves

You can get an older version from amazon.com or any book website for like 10 bucks. Just use the kaplan book to figure out what chapters you need to read from this book. Also, when you are reading the book most of the chapters start off with insects or other animals. You pretty much only need to learn about the human body. For example, the first half of the circulatory system chapter is about insects, reptiles, and birds. The second half is about the circulatory system in the human body. I recommend just reading the first half just once just so you can get a general idea just in case it is asked on the test. But mainly focus on the human aspect. This applies to pretty much all the physiology chapters (reproduction, respiratory, etc.). I learned all my bio for the PCAT from this book. I didn't know any bio before hand. Well I took general bio last year but I didn't retain much knowledge from that.

For chemistry I read Chemistry: The Central Science. I just quickly read all the chapters just to refresh some knowledge from genchem. I wouldn't say this book is better than others or anything. My Kaplan course had some pretty good Practice Tests for chemistry and thats where I did most of my chemistry learning from.