Done withOctber 16th PCAT , VENT IT OUT!!!! How sis I do Yells ofFustration

[nditebeck]

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Now the October 16th PCAT is over, how did every one do?. I am not sure how i did, i only finished only biology and writing sections. The rest were terrible. I can wait for my scores Count down to November ending. My pharm school dream may be over for this year.
Math was hard but the first 20 or so questions were doable. That's where my hope is because after reflecting i think i did well on the questions i answered in the 20 or so questions. when the proctor said 5mins left, i was on question 32. I just went ahead an randomly bubbled the rest of the questions and then scanned through to see which one i could easily do. Unfortunately, i was so nervous any question i did during this time had little chance. What is the latest date to register for Jan PCAT?How did every do?

P.S. At my writing center which is located in the University campus, they had some school function outside and they were blasting music and it was so distracting and most of all annoying. At some point we could not stand it and had to change rooms; a 5-10 minutes walk from the previous room.Do you guys think, i should write pearson about this? The proctor said she will write it in the incident report and she adviced us to write pearson about but i am thinking would this even have any effect on the scoring.
How could a testing center runned by the university not care to know what events were on campus and to make testing room adjustments or re-assignments before the test date?

 

[velvet75]

I think the math did me in. 🙁

Now it's just time to play the waiting game for 6 agonizing weeks and I'll be praying everyday for decent scores.

 

[Saiyo]

All I have to say is..

Math was hard.

 

[seashoreharmony]

I wish I had more time for the math. I had like 15 questions left and the proctor said "5 minutes". My heart jumped a little.
I could have done better with Chem.

 

[LetMeIn9]

I took the computer version and wish I didn't.

I wasn't able to finish the math in time, and couldn't click through fast enough so I left 5 or so questions blank (I have no idea how many!)... So depressed about that.

Chemistry section was hard, bio was "meh," the rest wasn't bad. Now the wait begins...

 

[FuturePharmD81]

sighhhhh im sooooo sad!!! I think i might need to take it again in Jan. And i know everyone on this form is always complaining omg i got in the 85% i need to take it over, no its not like that for me i think i did really really horrible. I needed more time in all the sections except the writing. 🙁

 

[FuturePharmD81]

Really? i heard if you took the computer based you get an overview at the end of how many you got right or wrong is that true?

 

[ptsome110]

Writing:
Content was not even related to health care. Pretty random. I messed up on organization & time. I was on the 2nd paragraph & there were 5 mins left for the 1st essay. The 2nd went better (hope they chose to grade that one).

Verbal:
Dr. Collins & Kaplan helped out a lot. A couple of the analogies i didn't even bother fully reading because I already knew the answer.

Bio:
Medium. In hindsight, I don't even remember this section. It wasn't easy & I don't think it was that hard.

Chem:
Yikes! Stupid names. They gave a lot of names & asked questions about the molecules. All the prep stuff out there never do this (Collins, Argo, Kaplan) + you didn't have time so you really couldn't even take an educated guess. You just had to pick one & hoped it was right. Even with this I had 15Q's left at the 5min deadline.

Reading:
Super easy! Not only was the content relatable (so you really didn't have to take notes), but the questions were easy too. Nothing relating with trying to pick out data from the readings. The last reading was hard though as more than one MC seemed like the right answer.

Math:
I knew time was of the essence, but damn! I think I had about 15 questions which i picked a random answer to (no time to even make an educated guess).

* Its funny because math is usually my strongest subject. Got a 468 on the practice when all other categories were around 410-420.

 

[DocAnthem]

I'm going to retake it for sure.

Chem and Math were disgusting. I tend to skip over long, time-consuming questions; and it seemed I skipped 50% for both sections, lol.

Bio was okay, essays were okay -- wish I had more time to write though, verbal was meh, RC was a breeze.

 

[Neebs9]

Chem, Biology, Verbal and Reading weren't bad, but the Math was brutal.

 

[pharmED]

Math was harddddddddddddddd 🙁

 

[cjb56]

Took the computer version. First time taking the PCAT. Reading and writing were easy sections, so I'm not worried.

Biology was of medium difficulty.

Chemistry was much harder than any of the practice versions, but it was of medium difficulty.

Math was loaded with Calc, and was extremely time consuming. Like many previous posts, I also had to guess at the last ten questions. I simply ran out of time.

I have no idea what to expect, score-wise. I'm hoping for the best, but I'm prepared to re-take in January if needed.

I'm in the Cleveland, OH area. Just curious...about how many were at Cleveland State for the paper/pencil version? I took the computer version and was the only PCAT at the test center.

 

[DocAnthem]

I'll probably register for the computer-based PCAT in Jan so I don't get writer's cramp during the essays. 😉

 

[RxSpartan]

Math: Random guess on 15 questions.
Chemistry: Random guess on 2 questions.

The rest I finished with some time left over, of course making educated guesses when needed.

 

[cjb56]

I'll probably register for the computer-based PCAT in Jan so I don't get writer's cramp during the essays. 😉

The ability to make easy adjustments to the essay was a highlight of the computer-based test. No erasing or re-writes.

It also made it easier to finish with time to spare on all but Math, due to the ease of a simple click versus having to fill in a bubble with pencil.

 

[ewKinematics]

I think I did really well on the first writing topic and pretty awful on the second haha.

Bio: easy. I think I guessed on 2 or 3.
Chem: ridiculous. I had to guess on a bunch, mainly because I was running out of time.
Math: 😱
Verbal: not bad at all, but verbal has always been one of my strengths.
RC: average. Some easy passages and some were not so easy, but alright.

This was my first time taking it. It's going to be a loooooooong 6 weeks.

 

[FarmDeeHI]

Math was indeed the hardest part of the exam. That section took forever because of computation and I ended up semi-guessing the last 10 or so. The chemistry was actually a lot easier then I thought it was gonna be so that was nice. The biology was a bit difficult though! And I'm good at biology! I kept getting questions about birds. Birds?! Really?!


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[coolbna]

😕I don't think even the math majors could finish the math section in the limited time given...it was very stressfull. I was just cursing the whole time and my back was hurting like hell. Essay was great as well as bio and chem. I totally didn't get the verbal stuff. oh well

 

[FarmDeeHI]

I have to agree.. There was no way to finish that section without guessing in time. Of course, if somehow my entire math portion was algebra... Well I can only keep dreaming lol

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[JDubya88]

This was my first time taking it and all I have to say is, wow. That was the hardest test I have ever taken. The Chemistry and Math sections were ridiculous. I had to C my way out of the last 10 or so on the Chem and the last 15 or so on the math. I don't even think my math teachers could have finished that section in the time given. I know I did terrible and I am going to have to take it again in January. Oh well, it's all a learning experience. Good luck everyone!

 

[daisy2]

Math and Chem were killers. I think I guessed the last 10-15 questions on each section and I had just about enough time for the Bio.

 

[FuturePharmD2]

I think i did over all ok but the chemistry was kind of hard, I didn't have time to finish and had to guess my way through the last 8. The math was horrible I felt like an idiot with half the questions done and the 5 minute warning came up. I thought the bio was a breeze along with the essays and verbal

 

[NervousForSure]

I really thought the reading was hard just because I suck at it so bad!!! Math was also killer. Bio and Chem were easy for me and verbal was "okay."

 

[LetMeIn9]

Whoever asked if the computer based versions gave you immediate feedback--NO. There are no summaries at the end telling you that you got xxx right and xxx wrong. Same as the paper-and-pencil test.

I didn't like taking it that way, because although I was able to easily "flag" and skip over questions I didn't know, I had no idea how many I skipped until I got to the summary page that listed all the questions I skipped and OH MY GOD there were a lot. That's why I ran out of time on the math section and couldn't even "C" my way out of the last few. No time to click the bubbles then the "next" button. 😡

 

[paki]

verbal= okay
chem= okay
bio= kinda easy
math🙁= it spoke to me. It said pull your pants down and turn around

 

[fullmetalphrm]

All I have to say is..

Math was hard.

Envy (your avatar)... all he wanted was friends... 🙁

Yeah math was hard. But I felt awful about it last time and it ended up being my best section. You never know, so don't get down.

 

[Pharmassist]

HI guys, I am new here, although I have been lurking for months now.
This is my second PCAT, I took the August one as well.
I had to retake because although my composite was respectable my Chem and Math sucked.
Anyway, most of my test was OK, but I the QA was my downfall again. Chemistry for me seemed harder the first time.
And now, we wait...
😱

 

[Philosopher]

Wowwwww. This test destroyed me. Well, not really the whole test, just the chem and math parts....but those were enough to kill my self-confidence on this test. I remember hearing "5 minutes left" on the math portion, and I was only on 29 of 48....

 

[WaffleMovement]

Agreed, the chem and especially math sections were tough. I finished chem with time remaining but that was not the case with math.

 

[delano2000]

verbal= okay
chem= okay
bio= kinda easy
math🙁= it spoke to me. It said pull your pants down and turn around

Too funny.

 

[FluffyDreams]

Writing:
Content was not even related to health care. Pretty random. I messed up on organization & time. I was on the 2nd paragraph & there were 5 mins left for the 1st essay. The 2nd went better (hope they chose to grade that one).

Verbal:
Dr. Collins & Kaplan helped out a lot. A couple of the analogies i didn't even bother fully reading because I already knew the answer.

Bio:
Medium. In hindsight, I don't even remember this section. It wasn't easy & I don't think it was that hard.

Chem:
Yikes! Stupid names. They gave a lot of names & asked questions about the molecules. All the prep stuff out there never do this (Collins, Argo, Kaplan) + you didn't have time so you really couldn't even take an educated guess. You just had to pick one & hoped it was right. Even with this I had 15Q's left at the 5min deadline.

Reading:
Super easy! Not only was the content relatable (so you really didn't have to take notes), but the questions were easy too. Nothing relating with trying to pick out data from the readings. The last reading was hard though as more than one MC seemed like the right answer.

Math:
I knew time was of the essence, but damn! I think I had about 15 questions which i picked a random answer to (no time to even make an educated guess).

* Its funny because math is usually my strongest subject. Got a 468 on the practice when all other categories were around 410-420.

I agree with everything you said. I really had no time for math and chem though math was my strongest subject, and I regret that I should have at least randomly picked answers for the remainders of the question at the last couple of minutes. Other than those two sections, it was eh all right. I only studied with Kaplan book.

 

[pharmrt]

Now I am worried. QA has been by far my worst section on all of the practice tests. Chem has been a breeze for me and bio is hit and miss. Today bio was very difficult, Chem seemed impossible, and math was... easy? I'm guessing that I thought I knew what I was doing and didn't. I took it for the first time today and I did the computer version. I'm glad I didn't do the traditional paper version because the writing was easy to finish with extra time. I was also glad to not have to fill in all of the bubbles. I finished all sections with time to spare, but felt the chem was much harder than the practice tests.

 

[Pharmassist]

Now I am worried. QA has been by far my worst section on all of the practice tests. Chem has been a breeze for me and bio is hit and miss. Today bio was very difficult, Chem seemed impossible, and math was... easy? I'm guessing that I thought I knew what I was doing and didn't. I took it for the first time today and I did the computer version. I'm glad I didn't do the traditional paper version because the writing was easy to finish with extra time. I was also glad to not have to fill in all of the bubbles. I finished all sections with time to spare, but felt the chem was much harder than the practice tests.

DON'T SECOND GUESS YOURSELF !
You can't change your answers now. If you felt good taking it, you were probably fine.
🙂

 

[stillamistry]

Did anyone else notice in the RC, they used the same exact reading from the August 2010 exam? I thought it was kind of odd, because you'd think they'd recycle them every few years.

I do have to say that I was relieved to see that everyone had the SAME exact feelings as I do.

I don't get why you would put questions about stat. that are impossible to calculate within 30 min time period with 47 other questions to go? What a waste of time and paper and ink, in my opinion.

Last time I took the PCAT in august, I bombed with a 26% comp. but my Bio, VA, and RC were decent. Math and chem were killer AND without fail Pearson decides to do it again.

By the 5 min. call I just started bubbling. I barely made it through chem and math....Plus I couldn't even finish my first essay and that was the easiest. This blows. 🙁

 

[cloudlessblu110]

That was terrible. I probably had like 15 questions unanswered in chem and 10 in math, and I only finished bio because I guessed on over half of them.

 

[stillamistry]

That was terrible. I probably had like 15 questions unanswered in chem and 10 in math, and I only finished bio because I guessed on over half of them.

We're all with you on the chem and math. Bio was kinda easy though..

 

[met17]

Did anyone else notice in the RC, they used the same exact reading from the August 2010 exam? I thought it was kind of odd, because you'd think they'd recycle them every few years.

I recognized one of the passages from the June exam. I wonder if it was the same one you recognized from August? I also saw a vocab question that I remembered from June. weird.

I thought RC and biology were so much easier than the June PCAT, but chemistry and math were harder. Especially math!! I had no trouble finishing the first time, but yesterday I guessed on about 15--some of which I knew how to reach the answer, but knew it would waste too much time.

 

[metallideth]

math: was hard. i had to guess on about 10 questions cause i ran out of time
bio: was easy
chem: wasn't that bad. i barely finished.
writing: ok
reading: ok
verbal: ok

 

[ceasar4]

.

 

[stillamistry]

That was absolutely outrageous. It was extremely irresponsible and unprofessional of Pearson and College Park for not realizing that a test was organized to be right next to a concert. I was so distracted throughout my test. Other people in my testing room were saying things like 'this is crazy' in the middle of testing sections. This was my last chance to take the test since the schools I'm applying to don't take the January scores. I spent months studying, and that was all wasted because of oversight that could have easily been prevented if the test organizers had done some research into the testing locations.

My friend took it at CP, I had the option to take it there or JHU. I really wish I had taken the CBT PCAT...Honestly it's College Park when isn't something going on there that's making loud noises? I remember one time someone screaming at 2-3 am coming back from the bars...

 

[jmur001]

I felt this test was much easier than the one I took in August. Finished each section with plenty of time to spare except for math--I still had 12 left with 5 minutes to go.

I also had a repeat verbal question and an entire repeated reading comprehension passage from the August test.

1st essay: good
2nd essay: crap
bio: good
chem: pretty good. About 5 orgo questions I couldn't do.
verbal ability: excellent
reading comprehension: pretty good
math: left me pretty sore

Now to finish that PHARMCAS app.

 

[HilaryG]

I feel like I did better this time around. Six more weeks and I'll let ya know for sure.

 

[Lubeckd]

I was there too. They were blasting country music during our test.

You should definitely contact person. If anything, it may prevent this from happening again. I wrote this on the other pcat blog:

That was absolutely outrageous. It was extremely irresponsible and unprofessional of Pearson and College Park for not realizing that a test was organized to be right next to a concert. I was so distracted throughout my test. Other people in my testing room were saying things like 'this is crazy' in the middle of testing sections. This was my last chance to take the test since the schools I'm applying to don't take the January scores. I spent months studying, and that was all wasted because of oversight that could have easily been prevented if the test organizers had done some research into the testing locations.

wow, campus activies on a Saturday?

Why does everyone has calculus? I must have a different test. I love calculus problems, diffusional and intergals, I did quite decently on my calc 2. I probably only had 2 calculus problems... and one of them were from physics. The jan pcat had more calculus for me...

 

[novastudent]

writing sections were pretty easy

Bio was easy - A few questions were on Dr. Collins and Kaplan

Chem was mostly organic.

Reading Comprehension was easy, just boring. Especially that ONE particular passage. I kept thinking "wow, I really don't care."

Verbal was definately doable.

It's gonna be a long six weeks 😕

 

[longhornatheart]

Writing - The prompts were fine. I used the 5 paragraph format.

Verbal - Not bad. Did not see any from the Dr. Collins list.

Biology - Decent. I haven't taken micro so a few of the questions threw me off.

RC - I read a lot and English was one of my first languages so I didn't find this section difficult.

Chemistry - I did the orgo questions first then went back to the gen chem calculations. However I ran out of time to actually calculate anything so had to do some wild guesses. One question I recall from the Dr. Collins exams.

Quantitative - Once again time management strikes again. I'm a terrible at doing math without a calculator in regards to speed. This will be my worst section. I saw one question from the Pearson practice PCAT exam.

I spent the most time studying for chemistry but unfortunately don't feel like my score will reflect the effort.

 

[dz1953]

Verbal ability-okay
Chem- ran out of time, and missed a few questions!
Bio-not too bad
QA- ridiculous! ended up guessing on most of it.
RC-not too bad. There were two passages from august pcat.

man..i cant afford to take it again...i hope i wont have to 🙁

 

[mitchlucker]

What do you guys consider easy or hard?

I thought the entire test was harder than the practice sections I took (in the 3 days I studied for the PCAT), but still bearable.

The Verbal had way too much from Dr. Collins, almost an unfair advantage IMO and challenges the integrity of the test. Didn't think it was too difficult. Right about where my practice scores were (~7 wrong)

The Bio was a little harder than the practices, but just because there was some stuff I haven't seen in years and don't think is relevant at all. I was averaging ~2 wrong on each of the practices I took but probably got ~5 wrong on the real thing due to guessing on 3 problems that I just didn't know. Still finished with time to spare.

The Chem was right around the practices, finished every question with an educated guess. I think I just got one or two wrong but could have gotten more wrong. They were 2 I want to discuss but won't cuz of the policies. Had them both down to 50/50 but w/e.

Reading was a little tougher, just because I hate these sections. Averaged ~3 wrong on my practices but on the real thing I had a way harder time focusing and barely finished, so I probably got quite a bit more wrong.

Math was what I expected, got ~5 wrong on every practice and same thing happened on the real thing. Lots of rules I didn't remember because it's been a while and only studied for 3 days. Finished with time to spare though. Guessed on 4 (that I didn't know how to solve at all).

Finished every section on time, but am really looking forward to what I got. I think I did pretty well but having never taken a diagnostic idk how the scoring works so I might have done a lot worse than I think.

Also, what's a "good" score on this to get you into schools? 60th and above? A couple of my friends have gotten into places with a 73 and 52 retake 65. I know it's the whole application but realistically what scores should you have?

 

[jack rabbit]

There were more yells of frustration for the Aug 21 exam, I think.

 

[Pharmassist]

What do you guys consider easy or hard?

I thought the entire test was harder than the practice sections I took (in the 3 days I studied for the PCAT), but still bearable....

Finished every section on time, but am really looking forward to what I got. I think I did pretty well but having never taken a diagnostic idk how the scoring works so I might have done a lot worse than I think.

Also, what's a "good" score on this to get you into schools? 60th and above? A couple of my friends have gotten into places with a 73 and 52 retake 65. I know it's the whole application but realistically what scores should you have?

Hey mitchlucker, you raise an interesting question. For myself, they areas I normally excel at are the areas I found "easy" and the stuff I don't do so well with I found "hard". In my case, the QA and Chem stuff is my bete noir. I just really suck without a calculator and I have a lot of trouble in these areas. They are the only reason I even retook. I had an 84 composite, but those two areas were not up to par. If the schools merely relied on composites I would have chanced it, but in my case, my #1 school told me they wouldb be concerned with my scores in those two areas (no, i am not sharing, I am ashamed of myself 🙁)
In the "What are my chances" thread stickied to the top, there is a link to a spreadsheet one of the moderators put together with the PCAT scores various schools consider acceptable. Check it out. But remember, the scores are just a piece of your total package, you will need a decent GPA, a good science GPA and experience in the area is important.
Good luck.

 

[Neebs9]

Anyone still bothered by the test? Its been two days and I can't get over it. I've been thinking about all the questions that I bubbled in right but changed it because of second guessing myself (like usual). I've been tallying all the ones I got wrong on paper. Blah!