Dr. Collins vs. PCAT

[rkschun]

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So I've been studying with the Dr. Collins study guide for the past month getting ready to take the PCAT on Sept. 17. I've done alot of searching for this and found only 1-2 concrete examples.

Anyway, my question is...I've been scoring around 40 to 45 out of the usually 50 questions in each of the Dr. Collins practice tests in about every section give or take. What kind of percentage composite score can I expect? I was thinking around 80+....what do you guys think?

It would be helpful if you guys could post what your avg raw scores were on the Dr. Collins practice tests and then your respective PCAT scores. Thanks for the help!

 

[chemguy79]

So I've been studying with the Dr. Collins study guide for the past month getting ready to take the PCAT on Sept. 17. I've done alot of searching for this and found only 1-2 concrete examples.

Anyway, my question is...I've been scoring around 40 to 45 out of the usually 50 questions in each of the Dr. Collins practice tests in about every section give or take. What kind of percentage composite score can I expect? I was thinking around 80+....what do you guys think?

It would be helpful if you guys could post what your avg raw scores were on the Dr. Collins practice tests and then your respective PCAT scores. Thanks for the help!

There was a thread on this topic approximately 2-3 years ago that was very helpful. Unfortunately, it may have been purged when the forums were updated, but I believe that it is still there.

From what I remember ... If you're scoring 40-45/50 questions, you're solidly in the 80s and 90s on the exam.

 

[rkschun]

Thank you chemguy...yeah I've been searching and reading the collins posts, I might have read that one, I just wanted to get some more examples.

 

[doctortp]

Well I'm going to be completely honest with you, there are some people who have studied the dr.collins and found a nice correlation where there were similar questions so they scored very well. BUT I've had numerous (meaning like 20-30) friends just this year who took the PCAT using Dr.Collins, who were scoring literally 47/48 or even perfect on his exams, but received 20s. The problem is the PCAT forms are all different, and many people have been lucky enough to have found similarities, but there are quite a few who also don't. I would recommend not only memorizing the answers, but understanding the concepts. Because the questions can be basic and similar, but can also be very different. Nonetheless, good luck on your Sept exam!!!

 

[chemguy79]

Well I'm going to be completely honest with you, there are some people who have studied the dr.collins and found a nice correlation where there were similar questions so they scored very well. BUT I've had numerous (meaning like 20-30) friends just this year who took the PCAT using Dr.Collins, who were scoring literally 47/48 or even perfect on his exams, but received 20s. The problem is the PCAT forms are all different, and many people have been lucky enough to have found similarities, but there are quite a few who also don't. I would recommend not only memorizing the answers, but understanding the concepts. Because the questions can be basic and similar, but can also be very different. Nonetheless, good luck on your Sept exam!!!

If someone was actually scoring perfectly on the practice exams yet scored in the 20s on the actual exam, I would be very shocked by that.

I would believe that they didn't use the material properly because I fail to see how that study guide would not prepare you for the exam. Content and formatting are similar and the fact that, regardless of the form of the exam, numerous people have said that they have seen repeated questions. I have to completely disagree with your post.

 

[doctortp]

A lot of people, because of reading the forums and everyone saying the questions are verbatim, have started to just try to memorize the questions and answers disregarding actually knowing and understanding the material. And yes like I said a lot of people HAVE actually seen repeated questions, but there are different forms where you can get 20 exact questions or only get 2. Simply stating the person is going to receive a score in te 80s or 90s on the PCAT just because they are scoring perfectly on the dr.collins exams is a false statement and giving them false hope. Plus you have no idea how the op actually used the study guide. Just saying. Not trying to be a buzz kill, but being realistic.

 

[chemguy79]

lot of people, because of reading the forums and everyone saying the questions are verbatim, have started to just try to memorize the questions and answers disregarding actually knowing and understanding the material.

I didn't realize that you polled members of SDN to come up with such a hypothesis. If you are SOLELY memorizing questions from his study guide and expecting to do well, that is an exercise in failure for a standardized exam. Could you show me where anyone on the board has stated that they attempted this as their studying method for the PCAT? I haven't seen ANYONE on SDN state that ever.

Furthermore, if you are scoring near perfect scores on your first attempt through the material or after an initial review, I doubt that it is due to their stellar memorization skills. It is likely due to the fact that they understood the material previously and they are using the study guide to finalize their exam preparation.

While there have been students who haven't used the study guide effectively, I recently posted my efforts using Dr. Collins and how I managed to score a 99 using the material. Therefore, it's far from giving someone false hope if they are scoring very well with the study guide with respect to their PCAT performance. Your points are moot and not indicative of the majority of the people who have used the study guide successfully, as has been clearly shown in the September 2013 PCAT thread.

 

[doctortp]

You are getting way too technical about this chemguy79. And yes I've followed your post about your amazing scores, in which I've also recognized. But you too have no idea how the op has studied for it. If he has retaken it a few times than scoring that well or scoring that well the first time. That was also not mentioned. I am just making sure he understands the whole point.

And there have been a few people on the forums who have said the study guide hasn't worked for them, and it's most likely due to the fact that they did not use the study guide correctly. But I'm simply saying that you cannot just blatantly tell the person if they do this this result will happen. I didn't vaguely disagree with you, I just said they need to understand the concepts, and if he is doing that than I would hope he gets a great score on the PCAT.

So please don't take it as a personal attack, I just don't want anyone going into a exam like this unprepared. The forums is to yes encourage people, but also give them a idea of how it is under test conditions, how the format of the exam is and to help them correctly evaluate their own studying with personal experiences.

 

[n611415]

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[68quebec]

Dr Collins are like your 'another official practice PCAT'.
The only difference from pearson official practice PCAT is that Dr Collins contains little older materials

Believe or not, I still remember some questions from my PCAT that was exactly same as my Dr Collins (2010).

 

[rkschun]

Lol, Gotta agree with chemguy on your guys debate. It's hard to get 40+/50 if you don't really understand the material. And I'm not one to just memorize and hope to see the questions on the PCAT. I've gone through the packets a few times over and have consistently gotten those type of scores. Each test for each section seems to have more of one topic than another so CONSISTENT 47/48 on the sections getting 20% seems unlikely.

Yeah, so I just took one pearson practice test and got the 80-100 range of everything. Got two more to go. Feeling good about it and your guys posts. Thanks for the help, but I still gotta finish the other two practice tests.

 

[arri]

I think everyone should just calm down LOL we're all friends here, trying to help each other in becoming successful in the pharmacy field 🙂 I think both points are valid.