Did anyone do better on PCAT than expected?

[TennisBoy78]

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In anticipation of the PCAT scores that will be arriving in a couple of weeks, I would like to know if anyone in the past had faired BETTER than they originally anticipated.

Coming from a native English speaker and after having taken the GRE and GMAT in the past, I can tell you that the two English vocabulary/reading comprehension sections were a walk in the park. It's not like I think I got every problem in those sections right, but I can count on one hand (per section) the number of questions I was not completely sure about.

Out of the other three sections, I feel that Biology was the easiest. I felt that the biology concepts were very basic, and although I didn't take A&P, there were not enough questions pertaining to A&P that would warrant me studying it like crazy. Furthermore, I didn't even have biology for such a long time (reviewed general terms and concepts on my own)

Chemistry was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I had completed Gen Chem I/II and the first Organic, so I thought that it would familiar. But there were some questions I had no idea how to solve, although Organic thankfully tended to focus on nomenclature.

The Quantitative Section was a big blur. Everyone says it is all Calculus, but is it pre-calculus or major calculus? I want to study the part that is asked more. Undoubtedly this will be my lowest score, but by knowing what kind of subject comprises the MAJORITY of this section, I can plan next time accordingly.

Lastly, will doing poorly (not like 10 percentile, but lets say 50 percentile) in one subject significantly bring your score down? For the most part I see that it doesn't. If I secure a good composite score, I dont know if I should retake the test.

Your thoughts.

 

[pharmeronadell]

I agree. The reading/verbal sections were real easy for me too. The bio was next easiest. Chem and quant were troublesome for me. Its funny how you remember the questions you had the most trouble with. I think that is why people say there was "a lot of organic" in the chem section. There seemed like a lot of geometry in the quant section to me.

 

[TennisBoy78]

I tend to remember questions that are toss-ups (either this answer or that one). On the Quantitative, I felt like for the last 15-20 questions, I was filling out my Powerball ticket.

One other thing, the verbal was real easy, I felt like I had the appropriate time. So to with Biology, although 5 more minutes would have been nice. For Chem and Quantitative, the PCAT people need to make fewer questions for these sections or give you like 15 more minutes for each of these two sections.

Organic was relatively easy. Focus on nomenclature, which is the simplest thing in organic. It was Chem II stuff that threw me.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

The PCAT overall was better than I had expected, except for the reading comprehension section.

I felt that there were too many subjective questions.

(I removed the example here because, truncated or not, we've been warned by Harcourt not to discuss specific questions in any format!)

I didn't know what answer they were looking for on this type of question. I got my 2nd lowest score in RC, but still did OK. I'm not really complaining, but this section did annoy me a little.

 

[starsweet]

I agree, they do NOT give you enough clues at all in the passages to figure out those Reading questions. It's not like the SAT/GRE at all, where they do!

To answer your question, yes, on the October test I screwed up the Chem section but my Composite was still 90+.

 

[DHG]

Don't worry TennisBoy

I got a 55 in Quant section (zoned out and didn't finish the last 20 questions or so) but I got 90's and 80's in everything else. Composite was still a 98. I think as long as you have above a 50 in your lowest section, one lowball section is not going to kill your chances.

 

[TennisBoy78]

The PCAT overall was better than I had expected, except for the reading comprehension section.

I felt that there were too many subjective questions.
I didn't know what answer they were looking for on this type of question. I got my 2nd lowest score in RC, but still did OK. I'm not really complaining, but this section did annoy me a little.

I know what you are saying, but the way I answer those is to take into account what was stated in the passage. Let's say there is a lot of expert opinion, why would you need more?

Also, this may not be a way to categorize this type of question, but you can usually include personal testimony with emotional appeal. Since they are very similar, they are probably both wrong.

I think they derive questions like this just to make people get some of them wrong. Not trying to say that it is foolproof, but for these I take the context of what they are asking rather than magnifying the question too much.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I know what you are saying, but the way I answer those is to take into account what was stated in the passage. Let's say there is a lot of expert opinion, why would you need more?

Also, this may not be a way to categorize this type of question, but you can usually include personal testimony with emotional appeal. Since they are very similar, they are probably both wrong.

I think they derive questions like this just to make people get some of them wrong. Not trying to say that it is foolproof, but for these I take the context of what they are asking rather than magnifying the question too much.

I don't remember enough about the specific questions to know if you are right or wrong.

I still don't think the reading section was very well designed.

I did think the verbal section was easier than the GRE verbal.

The math and the chemistry were hard, but after taking the Kaplan pre-tests, I will say that those sections on the actual test are easier than Kaplan, in my opinion.

It is not an easy test, but it isn't a monster either.
I was happy with my scores.

 

[RyanMaverick]

I was actually extremely worried about this exam. I'm currently in my 2nd year of university however I've already taken almost every pre-req, and Pharm course you can take while in a general sci program (aka Micro, Anat, Imin, etc) however its been awhile since I've seen the old gen.chem formulas and math formulas. Luckily for me I have an extremely analytical mind and can do math quickly in my head so I wasn't too worried about time.

For the Jan 06 PCAT I found these to be the main themes:

-Questions are not as hard as I figured.
-Bio section was rediculously easy, I was finished within 15mins and I dont think there was more then 3 questions I wasn't positive about. Did anybody else find this section easy?
-You'll have lots of time: I had more then 5-8mins after finishing a section AND reviewing it twice to sit and rest. Even Quant I had a few mins rest.
-The essay sucks, however thats my own personal bias.
-The chem had a lot of organic and even a nasty Sn1/Sn2 rxn thrown in there. The math had a good chunk of calculus, and the RC had some questions regarding "authors tone" and "ways to improve points" that I wasn't found of.

 

[rxlynn]

In anticipation of the PCAT scores that will be arriving in a couple of weeks, I would like to know if anyone in the past had faired BETTER than they originally anticipated.

Coming from a native English speaker and after having taken the GRE and GMAT in the past, I can tell you that the two English vocabulary/reading comprehension sections were a walk in the park. It's not like I think I got every problem in those sections right, but I can count on one hand (per section) the number of questions I was not completely sure about.

Out of the other three sections, I feel that Biology was the easiest. I felt that the biology concepts were very basic, and although I didn't take A&P, there were not enough questions pertaining to A&P that would warrant me studying it like crazy. Furthermore, I didn't even have biology for such a long time (reviewed general terms and concepts on my own)

Chemistry was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I had completed Gen Chem I/II and the first Organic, so I thought that it would familiar. But there were some questions I had no idea how to solve, although Organic thankfully tended to focus on nomenclature.

The Quantitative Section was a big blur. Everyone says it is all Calculus, but is it pre-calculus or major calculus? I want to study the part that is asked more. Undoubtedly this will be my lowest score, but by knowing what kind of subject comprises the MAJORITY of this section, I can plan next time accordingly.

Lastly, will doing poorly (not like 10 percentile, but lets say 50 percentile) in one subject significantly bring your score down? For the most part I see that it doesn't. If I secure a good composite score, I dont know if I should retake the test.

Your thoughts.

Yes, I really thought that the quant had killed my chances for pharmacy school period. I am an older student coming to pharmacy for a second (third? - depends how you count it) career, so it had been a LONG time since my prereqs. Truly I am with the earlier poster - with 5 minutes to go it was like filling out a lottery ticket. I ended up with a 72 on the section, so needless to say that was much better than I anticipated.

I also agree with your observation on A&P - I overstudied that by a wide margin. Oh, well - maybe that will help me in the fall!

 

[eddavatar]

In anticipation of the PCAT scores that will be arriving in a couple of weeks, I would like to know if anyone in the past had faired BETTER than they originally anticipated.

Coming from a native English speaker and after having taken the GRE and GMAT in the past, I can tell you that the two English vocabulary/reading comprehension sections were a walk in the park. It's not like I think I got every problem in those sections right, but I can count on one hand (per section) the number of questions I was not completely sure about.

Out of the other three sections, I feel that Biology was the easiest. I felt that the biology concepts were very basic, and although I didn't take A&P, there were not enough questions pertaining to A&P that would warrant me studying it like crazy. Furthermore, I didn't even have biology for such a long time (reviewed general terms and concepts on my own)

Chemistry was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I had completed Gen Chem I/II and the first Organic, so I thought that it would familiar. But there were some questions I had no idea how to solve, although Organic thankfully tended to focus on nomenclature.

The Quantitative Section was a big blur. Everyone says it is all Calculus, but is it pre-calculus or major calculus? I want to study the part that is asked more. Undoubtedly this will be my lowest score, but by knowing what kind of subject comprises the MAJORITY of this section, I can plan next time accordingly.

Lastly, will doing poorly (not like 10 percentile, but lets say 50 percentile) in one subject significantly bring your score down? For the most part I see that it doesn't. If I secure a good composite score, I dont know if I should retake the test.

Your thoughts.

I crashed my car the day before I took the PCAT. And I ended up with a 99%tile. So that was definitely surprising

I knew I was gonna blaze past bio and get 95+. I got a 99

Chem I was a lil worried and I spent most of my study time on it and I ended up having a more ridiculous 99% than my bio.

Reading comprehension and math I just went meh and ended up w/ 95/99

I think so as long as your other parts are top notch, your composite would not suffer too much if you have a relatively sub-par portion. My verbal was a 75%tile.

 

[Aires3k]

hey I read ur post and the same thing happened to me. I did great on everything and terrible on the reading comp. I got an 88. Does this score by itself matter or do you think that the one score could matter that much. I mean surely if a guy can figure out all of those silly chem n bio questions, he could read. this sucks ass.