Diseases...math and chem?

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manutdmax

manutdmax

Accepted PharmD Student
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okey it seems people did better this time than the june exam, i hear there were repeated questions from june this time which is helpful..how well did you do, which section you thought was the toughest and how did you cope in the exam,,,what diseases we -october and january takers must be familar with- was there many org chem..plz advise
 
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I did fine the first time i took it, im sure i did better this time though. It wasnt that bad. The math I definately think was the toughest. They added more calc and you definately need to know you stuff. Review all the calc one stuff. Yes, there was plenty of organic chem, more than I expected, but I was happy about that because I know Organic really well. You dont need to know like off that wall diseases. Just the general stuff you hear about in all the science courses, the flu, TB, you know...the headline makers. I didnt see anything that seemed too foreign to me.
 
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swift3260 said:
I did fine the first time i took it, im sure i did better this time though. It wasnt that bad. The math I definately think was the toughest. They added more calc and you definately need to know you stuff. Review all the calc one stuff. Yes, there was plenty of organic chem, more than I expected, but I was happy about that because I know Organic really well. You dont need to know like off that wall diseases. Just the general stuff you hear about in all the science courses, the flu, TB, you know...the headline makers. I didnt see anything that seemed too foreign to me.
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I HOPE YOU WILL GET GOOD SCORE,,,you mentioned TB and flu but what i need to know about them,,,how did you prepare for the exam..am using kaplan book which i think its great...how tough was the organic and was there too many calculations for chemistry ?
 
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I think I did one calculation for chemistry lol. That is the only bad thing about all those study guides out there. Every question is a damn calculation but the real PCAT barely has any. A lot of organic, which was perfect for me. Be sure to know alpha/beta/gamma decay.

Bio was a joke this time around, the only thing that pissed me off is when they asked for the genus and species of a particular disease. Not one like you would think, like influenza or something easy, it was some off the wall disease and I thought that was kind of unfair, but maybe its a research question and it didn't count.
 
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PharmLMD said:
I think I did one calculation for chemistry lol. That is the only bad thing about all those study guides out there. Every question is a damn calculation but the real PCAT barely has any. A lot of organic, which was perfect for me. Be sure to know alpha/beta/gamma decay.

Bio was a joke this time around, the only thing that pissed me off is when they asked for the genus and species of a particular disease. Not one like you would think, like influenza or something easy, it was some off the wall disease and I thought that was kind of unfair, but maybe its a research question and it didn't count.
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thanks dude,,,so there was not many calc for chemistry,,,how was biology,,what kind of diseases they ask...do i need to know the species for each disease..was there many plant related questions...evolution,.ATP or TCA, taxonomy...thanks
 
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I think i know which disease you are talking about... it was a head scratcher alright. The sad thing is i had a concentration in microbiology and had never heard of either of the 2 possible choices... i took pathogenic and have a catalogue of them in my head...
 
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Yeah i was suprised there werent many inorganic chem probs requiring much calculations. Same here in regards to organic chem....went through a text book i had from like 2 years ago about a week ago and re-learned almost everything & it worked out perfectly. I thought everything was really easy except for math, which I planned to just wing it on. It was suprising how easy the test seemed because I was so nervous that I only got 3 hours of sleep, had to drive a little over an hour, and didn't eat much. But once the adrenaline kicked in, my brain just turned on and I didnt really run into any roadblocks. Unless you October PCAT folks somehow finish a BS math degree in the next month, I dont see how anyone can finish that many problems in the allotted time.
 
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PharmLMD said:
I think I did one calculation for chemistry lol. That is the only bad thing about all those study guides out there. Every question is a damn calculation but the real PCAT barely has any. A lot of organic, which was perfect for me. Be sure to know alpha/beta/gamma decay.

Bio was a joke this time around, the only thing that pissed me off is when they asked for the genus and species of a particular disease. Not one like you would think, like influenza or something easy, it was some off the wall disease and I thought that was kind of unfair, but maybe its a research question and it didn't count.
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hehe, i know which question you are talking about on the bio. I was like wtf?:wow:. so i randomly guessed:laugh:
 
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Hey folks,
Yeah, that bio question was either a experimental question or it was a curve buster to find the smart ones, there is no way you can study for those kinds of questions. For sure they will not repeat that question ever, they would probably change the disease.

Where the hell were the vectors that everybody was talking about. I guess they do switch the topics around because vectors were not there on my test.
 
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moolman said:
Hey folks,
Yeah, that bio question was either a experimental question or it was a curve buster to find the smart ones, there is no way you can study for those kinds of questions. For sure they will not repeat that question ever, they would probably change the disease.

Where the hell were the vectors that everybody was talking about. I guess they do switch the topics around because vectors were not there on my test.
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lolls😀!!! A week ago I posted on the vector thread that I doubt they'll repeat vector problems. I said, they would suprise us with something new because Harcourt knows people tell other people what is on the test as far as subject matter goes. I know exactly what they suprised me with! My entire math section was filled with one aspect of math that I didn't review.😱
 
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moolman said:
Hey folks,
Yeah, that bio question was either a experimental question or it was a curve buster to find the smart ones, there is no way you can study for those kinds of questions. For sure they will not repeat that question ever, they would probably change the disease.

Where the hell were the vectors that everybody was talking about. I guess they do switch the topics around because vectors were not there on my test.
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I got 2 vector problems this time, about 2-3 less than last time. I got some crazy calc problems though. I know calc pretty well but a couple of them I felt like was A LOT of calculating for such a short time frame. Specially that problem with the circle and the triangle inside of it. They say there isn't geometry but their might as well be!
 
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Alright, I guess the one where they ask you to multiple the vector by a number (scaler) counts as a vector problem. But the way people were going on about it, it seemed like you had to be a vector expert.

And yes that circle with the triangle inside was just crazy. It was so complicated that I can't even remember what the question was asking...😛
 
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roanoke said:
PharmLMD.... seems like we had the same test today... i remember that math prob quite well...
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I think I had test 16A, but yes it seems like we did since we are saying the exact same stuff about everything lol. I am so disappointed in my math skills today GRRRRRR! But yeah what was up with that circle problem, that was one of the ones I had NO idea where to even start. I felt flustered and rushed and didn't have time to really break down the geometry.

moolman: In June I had two crazy vector problems, which is why I studied it so hard, but this time it was a stupid scalar problem and something else.
 
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PharmLMD said:
I think I had test 16A, but yes it seems like we did since we are saying the exact same stuff about everything lol. I am so disappointed in my math skills today GRRRRRR! But yeah what was up with that circle problem, that was one of the ones I had NO idea where to even start. I felt flustered and rushed and didn't have time to really break down the geometry.

moolman: In June I had two crazy vector problems, which is why I studied it so hard, but this time it was a stupid scalar problem and something else.
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I had 16A and I remember the circle problem too! I had just one vector problem which I didn't know how to do.
 
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The whole math was a blur for me. I got caught up early on, last track of time, and paid dearly for it. Math isn't my strength but i'm not that bad at it either. I just started jumping to find the easy ones and scrambling from there. The circle one i just guessed on went onto the next guess. The math section is the reason i registered for the Oct exam when i got home.
 
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PharmLMD said:
I think I had test 16A, but yes it seems like we did since we are saying the exact same stuff about everything lol. I am so disappointed in my math skills today GRRRRRR! But yeah what was up with that circle problem, that was one of the ones I had NO idea where to even start. I felt flustered and rushed and didn't have time to really break down the geometry.

moolman: In June I had two crazy vector problems, which is why I studied it so hard, but this time it was a stupid scalar problem and something else.
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I think my teacher has taught me about the circle stuffs in Cal I, but i do not remember how to do it. Moreover, it will be a lot harder to think about the solution and do calculation in 1 minute for that question, so I just skip and move on. I believe that it is one of the experimental questions. Do not worry if you did not do well on a few hard questions. I think more than one question like that will be experimental.
 
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i had 16A too!! im in maryland...anyone take it at umbc?

what was with the circle problem.. i had noooo idea! maybe if we had time to actually think about it, we prob could have gotten it. there were a few in the math section i was like that with...
 
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im not sure, but i thought that in my june test, every other row had a different version...like 15A and 15B. now i cant remember though
 
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