GPA vs PCAT

[koolaide225]

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First and foremost, I would like to thank every single member on here. I never could have gotten my PCAT score without all the advice I have read about. Anyone who is planning on taking a future PCAT, please take the time and read through all the posts because even one little tip could end up helping you.

So I took the July 18, 2012 PCAT today and this is the breakdown of my scores:

Verbal: 52
Bio: 99
Chem: 99
RC: 41
Quant: 99

Composite: 96

I have completed my application and e-submitted a while ago, the problem I am facing is that my cum GPA is a 3.16 at the University of Michigan first two years were 2.6 and 2.7 while last two years were above 3.5 I have had to work to pay for my schooling because my dad is handicapped and my mom makes a small paycheck which was somehow too much to grant me financial aid. I have pharmacy experience but only about 5 months.

I applied to 8 schools and I would like to hear from anyone who has had a similar situation, and would greatly appreciate it if they shared their story whether it was a success or not. Any input would ease my stress throughout this application process.

For anyone who is wondering about how I studied for my PCAT, I simply read the Kaplan 2010-2011 book thoroughly twice which helped me plenty on the bio and chem and purchased the Dr. Collins packet which proved well worth it's cost. As for QA I did not study whatsoever because I have been working as a math teacher for a year and a half teaching from basic addition and subtraction to young kids all the way up to calculus.

I am sorry for this lengthy post, and I hope to hear some true success stories of people who share what I have been through. If there is any way that I can help someone on their PCAT with whatever advise, feel free to message me. Again I owe my PCAT success to all of you. Thank you guys, and thank you Student Doctor Forum for being around, you guys are truly heroes.

 

[Guitarmacy]

Is your degree in Biology? Just wondering.

I am by no means an expert, but I've read a lot of advice on these forums as well and could see you receiving multiple interview invites. It sounds like admission committees really take notice of an upward trend in GPA. Paired with your exceptional PCAT, you're in a great position for acceptance to at least one of those schools. Just rock your interview and you're set.

I'm in a similar position that you've already been in. My GPA was really low (2.0) before transferring schools. Two years later and I've had a few 4.0 semesters and 4.0 in math/science so far. My PharmCAS GPA should be about 3.1 when all is said and done.

Taking the PCAT is nerve-racking because getting into pharmacy school is pretty much riding on my performance. Any math websites that you recommend we study from to help rock the Quantitative section?

By the way, almost every PCAT score I've seen on here, good or bad, has been accompanied by low Verbal and RC sections. Most schools don't seem to weigh those sections into their decision.

 

[smercer]

This always blows my mind how people can do so well in the science and completely bomb the reading/verbal. IMO your ability analize a subject and take information from it is as important as your ability to do a calculation.

 

[koolaide225]

Is your degree in Biology? Just wondering.

I am by no means an expert, but I've read a lot of advice on these forums as well and could see you receiving multiple interview invites. It sounds like admission committees really take notice of an upward trend in GPA. Paired with your exceptional PCAT, you're in a great position for acceptance to at least one of those schools. Just rock your interview and you're set.

I'm in a similar position that you've already been in. My GPA was really low (2.0) before transferring schools. Two years later and I've had a few 4.0 semesters and 4.0 in math/science so far. My PharmCAS GPA should be about 3.1 when all is said and done.

Taking the PCAT is nerve-racking because getting into pharmacy school is pretty much riding on my performance. Any math websites that you recommend we study from to help rock the Quantitative section?

By the way, almost every PCAT score I've seen on here, good or bad, has been accompanied by low Verbal and RC sections. Most schools don't seem to weigh those sections into their decision.

Didn't really use any websites for math but here are a couple of tricks that may seem useless but do come in handy taking a 20 second calculation and turning it into a 5-6 second mental calculation

Ok, well the first one that saves me the most time would be rounding numbers up or down to make the calculations easier and more mental, example if I am given 86 x 73 sure I can sit there and multiply it out, or I can just turn that 86 into a 90 and that 73 into a 70 then it becomes a simple 9 x 7 calculation in your head then you add the two zeros and if you are wondering about being super off, you wont be 86x73 is 6287 while 90 x 70 is 6300. I mean you are only 13 numbers off, you arent going to be given answers that are this close together, rarely does that happen.

another trick I use for squaring large numbers between 30 and 70 would be this, say you are trying to square 43^2 again I can sit there and multiply it out but what if you do this. for any number between 30 and 50 take that number and subtract it from 50 so that 50-43 is equal to 7 now take that 7 and subtract it from half of 50 so 25-7= 18 there are your first two digits, for second two digits, take the 7 and square it, 7^2 = 49 so your answer is 1849, the explanation for this is longer than it takes you to mentally do it. lets do another example where the number is 38^2 so again 50-38 = 12 and 25-12 = 13 now we square twelve and get 144 so we have 5 digits, but thats no problem, we take the 13 and add the 1 from the 144 to the three so we get 14 then we write the last two digits 44 so answer would be 1444. for numbers above 50, you use the same rule but instead of subtracting the difference from 25 you add the difference to 25 so here is another quick example 53^2 so 53 is 3 above 50 now we take the 3 and add it to 25 so we get 28 then we take the 3 and square it, we get 9 again we need 4 digits, so first 2 are 28 and last two are 09 so answer is 2809. when you practice all these, youll realize that you are taking what could be a 20 second calculation for someone and turn it into an 8 second one.

 

[koolaide225]

This always blows my mind how people can do so well in the science and completely bomb the reading/verbal. IMO your ability analize a subject and take information from it is as important as your ability to do a calculation.

That is true, but english is my second language, french is my first. When I moved to the United States, I knew no english and was put in remedial english classes. That being said, chemistry and QA are topics where you don't need to memorize things, you need to be able to work them out just like the way you would tackle a "What is the Author's opinion of ____" I know where you are coming from, some people will have amazing math, bio, chem and average reading and verbal while others have the opposite. It is not that I am unmotivated, it is just the way my brain functions.

 

[AKitty]

I'm interested to see what people say, because I'm expecting about a 3.1 GPA, my PCAT scores are about comparable to yours, except my lower sections were Bio and QA. I'm not sure if I should retake to improve my Bio/QA subscores with a 98% composite, or if it wouldn't matter.

 

[Jocelie]

Hey koolaide225, we have almost the same situation. I just graduated from the University of Michigan. My first two years GPA were similar to yours since I had to work to support myself too. My last year's GPA was slightly better but not good enough to pull my cum GPA to a decent one (I finished undergrad in three years, again, financial issues). I applied to U of M only last year. I had 82 PCAT, 10 months pharmacy experience (but it was before college), about a year and half research experience. It was a last minute decision so I submitted the day before the deadline. I was invited for an interview in late Jan, deferred, then denied. I guessed the major problem was that somehow I gave the interviewer the impression that I had doubts about choosing pharmacy 🙁 (based on my lack of pharmacy-related experience during college), and it gets more competitive in the second half of interviews.

I think your stats would at least land you an interview at U of M. The interview was focused on your past experience rather than exam scores, at least for my case. I am going to reapply U of M and to apply more other schools for this cycle ( I am actually going to the the PCAT again in an hour lol). Gook luck for both of us 🙂

 

[koolaide225]

Hey koolaide225, we have almost the same situation. I just graduated from the University of Michigan. My first two years GPA were similar to yours since I had to work to support myself too. My last year's GPA was slightly better but not good enough to pull my cum GPA to a decent one (I finished undergrad in three years, again, financial issues). I applied to U of M only last year. I had 82 PCAT, 10 months pharmacy experience (but it was before college), about a year and half research experience. It was a last minute decision so I submitted the day before the deadline. I was invited for an interview in late Jan, deferred, then denied. I guessed the major problem was that somehow I gave the interviewer the impression that I had doubts about choosing pharmacy 🙁 (based on my lack of pharmacy-related experience during college), and it gets more competitive in the second half of interviews.

I think your stats would at least land you an interview at U of M. The interview was focused on your past experience rather than exam scores, at least for my case. I am going to reapply U of M and to apply more other schools for this cycle ( I am actually going to the the PCAT again in an hour lol). Gook luck for both of us 🙂

Wow, I loved reading your story. I hope you can get around applying earlier this cycle and I am sure you will be fine. Hey, you never know, we could be rooming together for U of M pharmacy school (I applied there as well this cycle) 🙂

 

[Bigj5768]

Yeah you're fine. I'm a U of M student too. Though I didn't go through the same situation as you. I had a decent GPA and I did bad in one subsection of the PCAT, but it didn't hinder my ability to get interviews. In fact I got an interview at every school I applied to. So just keep doing what you're doing.

 

[Elnaz]

First and foremost, I would like to thank every single member on here. I never could have gotten my PCAT score without all the advice I have read about. Anyone who is planning on taking a future PCAT, please take the time and read through all the posts because even one little tip could end up helping you.

So I took the July 18, 2012 PCAT today and this is the breakdown of my scores:

Verbal: 52
Bio: 99
Chem: 99
RC: 41
Quant: 99

Composite: 96

I have completed my application and e-submitted a while ago, the problem I am facing is that my cum GPA is a 3.16 at the University of Michigan first two years were 2.6 and 2.7 while last two years were above 3.5 I have had to work to pay for my schooling because my dad is handicapped and my mom makes a small paycheck which was somehow too much to grant me financial aid. I have pharmacy experience but only about 5 months.

I applied to 8 schools and I would like to hear from anyone who has had a similar situation, and would greatly appreciate it if they shared their story whether it was a success or not. Any input would ease my stress throughout this application process.

For anyone who is wondering about how I studied for my PCAT, I simply read the Kaplan 2010-2011 book thoroughly twice which helped me plenty on the bio and chem and purchased the Dr. Collins packet which proved well worth it's cost. As for QA I did not study whatsoever because I have been working as a math teacher for a year and a half teaching from basic addition and subtraction to young kids all the way up to calculus.

I am sorry for this lengthy post, and I hope to hear some true success stories of people who share what I have been through. If there is any way that I can help someone on their PCAT with whatever advise, feel free to message me. Again I owe my PCAT success to all of you. Thank you guys, and thank you Student Doctor Forum for being around, you guys are truly heroes.

I want to take PCAT in Sep 2012, and I also spend my time on Kaplan 2012-2013 and Cliff 5 test practice, and also english is not my first language, could you brifly tell me how you evaluate this year Pcat, how was vocabulary, was it too hard , should I memorize loys of hard vocabulary or just focus on Bio and Chem?

sorry lots of questions, thanks ahead