Calculus in your head?

[Zarathustra22]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I'm taking the PCAT this coming October and it seems I have the analogies, reading, chem, and bio down pretty well. I didn't realize until recently, though, that most of the quantitative part is calculus AND we can't use calculators? Is this some kind of cruel joke or am I just the only pharmacy student who can't do differential equations in his head? Seriously, I'm not even that good at math I just love science. I own a TI-83, I paid good money for it and I am pretty damn good at hitting the keys on it so what's the deal? Anyone bomb the quant part of the test yet? Post some scores for me.

 

[labrat024]

No differential equations, period. The calculus is all simple math. If you can perform a definite integral to find the area under a curve from x=1 to x=4, you'll be fine.

 

[OKgirl]

I wasn't allowed to use a calculator in my few days I spent in HS calc, so I'm sure that they would allow you to use a calculator if it was required for any calculations. They probably aren't THAT cruel.

 

[AngelaCL]

Learn how to estimate. And it's definitely not mostly calculus - I barely reviewed and did fine. Just take a practice exam and time yourself! Finishing in time is definitely the trick... it seems like most people have to blindly guess on at least a couple, because it's a lot for the allotted time. Remember, the harder it is for everyone else, the less you have to get right to get in the top quartile/percentile/etc.

 

[azPharmD2B]

Didnt your school teach you how to do anything Calculus related without a calculator? Almost every math class I have taken is either show all your work for credit, or broken into calculator allowed and disallowed portions. Did you do all your algebra and trig via a calc? They aren't going to expect you to know the cosine of 42.34 degrees, but you better know 30, 45, 60, and 90. Same thing for Calculus, there is tons of stuff you should be able to do by hand or just know.

 

[Zarathustra22]

I haven't taken Trig or Calculus yet and I hadn't really planned on taking Trig prior to the Calculus this upcoming semester. Like I said, though, I am not exactly a math scholar. Basically, I just don't like numbers and yes I did use my calculator for the majority of my Algebra classes because I didn't want to fail them miserably and at the time I had taken them I had no concept of what I wanted to do let alone the thought of taking a test that required any math above the Algebra level. I know I can score within the 80 percentile in comprehension, analogy, bio and chem portions but I'm really afraid that regardless of how many months I spend reading Trig or Calc books and regardless of the semester hours I take in the two I will not be able to do well on it. Can I still get a composite of above 70 with a well below average quant score?

 

[naseuy]

I haven't taken Trig or Calculus yet and I hadn't really planned on taking Trig prior to the Calculus this upcoming semester. Like I said, though, I am not exactly a math scholar. Basically, I just don't like numbers and yes I did use my calculator for the majority of my Algebra classes because I didn't want to fail them miserably and at the time I had taken them I had no concept of what I wanted to do let alone the thought of taking a test that required any math above the Algebra level. I know I can score within the 80 percentile in comprehension, analogy, bio and chem portions but I'm really afraid that regardless of how many months I spend reading Trig or Calc books and regardless of the semester hours I take in the two I will not be able to do well on it. Can I still get a composite of above 70 with a well below average quant score?

The problems that involves calculations basically involves principles from calc/pre-calc where you just need to know the concepts and how to set the problems up. The actual calculations are very doable without a calculator.

 

[hmmmmm]

asfdfdsadfasdf

 

[tharper14]

The problems that involves calculations basically involves principles from calc/pre-calc where you just need to know the concepts and how to set the problems up. The actual calculations are very doable without a calculator.

I totally agree... the actual math of the calc questions is NOT hard, it's just knowing how to do it. Make sure you know how to do differentials and integerals and how they are applied to graphs to find area, slope, etc and you will be fine. Same with trig... know how to use hypoteneus, definitely! There were a few questions where you had to use it. Knowing how to estimate the right answer is definitely the key in the math section... there's just not enough time to work out many of the problems properly. My advice... if you don't know how to answer a prob straight away, guess and move on, but mark that question as 'guessed' somehow (with an big *) so that you can go back and work on it if you have time and change it if need be.