How did the test go everybody?

[omnione]

Lovely, awful, neutral?

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[Toomeke]

Hello.

Glad I did not show up for the August 2007 PCAT today. Sounded like everyone bombed the test. I am preparing for the October 2007 one after I finish halfway through my Microbiology course and Organic Chemistry II course. I really dislike taking the PCAT for the third time. What is everyone's strategy for the reading comprehension?

Thanks.

Don't know about strategy, but if this was your second time then you should have recognized that 3-4 of the reading passages were repeated...and most likely they'll be on October's. Best strategy is to read pharmacy articles...easy enuff to find online...

 

[Twinsmom]

This is so funny to read the math responses in here because it seems like EVERYONE including myself had a hard time. The damn calc problems were pretty weird, a lot of them I felt like I was doing right but would come out to the wrong answer. I didn't pace myself very well and had to guess on 3 or so problems, which I wasn't happy with. I guess it's all relative though since everyone did bad haha.

Bio was cake this time around as was the chem.

I felt stressed during the whole test. But I really don't want to take it again. I can't take the Oct. one coz my babies will come around that time. Hopefully I got a not-too-bad score so I can apply for next year's pharmacy school.

 

[moolman]

Well, the reason I've been on here for the past couple of hours is that I'm going over all my notes and study guides in front of the computer so I can try to remember what was on the test while it's still fresh in my memory. That way I know what to concentrate more on, but apparantly as with the vector thing, we should expect an emphaisis on different material.

What words to study for really has me confused after the test too. For myself, I will study the GRE words because I think the hard words on the test is the last hurdle for a top score. I understand analogy relationships good enough, so it's those last couple of questions that use the BIG words is what stumps me. The verbal section is only 48 questions and there are about 300 main GRE words, so if I think about seeing about 10 of them on the test seems correct. But you have to study for those 10 words that they pick which you don't know, that's the problem. But on this PCAT I thought they picked most of the easy ones, like I said only 5-6 that I didn't know.

I should add that no amount of GRE word studying will let you know all the words. They had a word on the test that is not on any GRE list that I know of. It's a random hard word that they threw in.

 

[manutdmax]

Well, the reason I've been on here for the past couple of hours is that I'm going over all my notes and study guides in front of the computer so I can try to remember what was on the test while it's still fresh in my memory. That way I know what to concentrate more on, but apparantly as with the vector thing, we should expect an emphaisis on different material.

What words to study for really has me confused after the test too. For myself, I will study the GRE words because I think the hard words on the test is the last hurdle for a top score. I understand analogy relationships good enough, so it's those last couple of questions that use the BIG words is what stumps me. The verbal section is only 48 questions and there are about 300 main GRE words, so if I think about seeing about 10 of them on the test seems correct. But you have to study for those 10 words that they pick which you don't know, that's the problem. But on this PCAT I thought they picked most of the easy ones, like I said only 5-6 that I didn't know.

so you think the GRE words are helpful for the real exam?,,how did you study for biology and chem,,am using kaplan is it good enough?

 

[omnione]

Didn't some of you feel that there weren't enought hard words. I was expecting GRE words all over the place, so I studied the GRE words specifically. But the analogies seemed to be more about if you knew the relationship rather than trying to confuse you using the GRE words.

I felt the same way after the October 2006 exam; I recognized most of the words in the questions and answers. Kaplan's GRE words seem to be rarer words in real life whereas the PCAT words were ones a college student should have encountered by now.

 

[chocobiscotti]

I'm glad that many of us are in the same boat, for better or worse. The math section, as voiced already, was horrendous! As I was sitting there, that V-8 commercial with the "boink, could have had a V-8" slogan came to mind! I used both Barron's and Cliff's and found the prep for the Quantitative section to be lacking...and consequently had to guess on around 20 or so...but then again, it's been six years since I took a math class. It was my first time taking it, so I really underestimated the importance of reviewing ancillary math prep books (perhaps an SAT II or AP book for pre-calc and calc would have helped). There's always October...

Other than that, the rest went smoothly. I had enough time left over for Reading Comp that I double-checked my answers and re-read the passages (but then, I'm a fast reader). Chemistry and Biology were exactly as I expected from my prep books, and the Verbal section, well, I felt that a maybe two of the questions were really up to interpretation or had a cultural bias. But that's my opinion. The analogies and reading passages were easier than the SAT (and the LSAT, for what it's worth).

I still don't quite understand how the composite is formed. Some of the June test-takers posted their scores and I am really baffled at the composites. Oh well, I guess we'll find out.

 

[manutdmax]

I'm glad that many of us are in the same boat, for better or worse. The math section, as voiced already, was horrendous! As I was sitting there, that V-8 commercial with the "boink, could have had a V-8" slogan came to mind! I used both Barron's and Cliff's and found the prep for the Quantitative section to be lacking...and consequently had to guess on around 20 or so...but then again, it's been six years since I took a math class. It was my first time taking it, so I really underestimated the importance of reviewing ancillary math prep books (perhaps an SAT II or AP book for pre-calc and calc would have helped). There's always October...

Other than that, the rest went smoothly. I had enough time left over for Reading Comp that I double-checked my answers and re-read the passages (but then, I'm a fast reader). Chemistry and Biology were exactly as I expected from my prep books, and the Verbal section, well, I felt that a maybe two of the questions were really up to interpretation or had a cultural bias. But that's my opinion. The analogies and reading passages were easier than the SAT (and the LSAT, for what it's worth).

I still don't quite understand how the composite is formed. Some of the June test-takers posted their scores and I am really baffled at the composites. Oh well, I guess we'll find out.

how did you prepare for the exam, am using kaplan book , what sources you used if you dont mind

 

[moolman]

I added a bit to my previous post. They had at least one word that I remember not found on any GRE list.

I'm saying that I would study the GRE list because I feel that those words are the difference for me between a 90+ or below. My strengths are finding the relationships between the words, so when the words are all easy, I don't have problems, so the ones I have a hard time with are the hard vocab analogies.

As for the Kaplan material, I took the classroom course and I would say some stuff on the PCAT was on the material but not really much. Seriously, I took the whole classroom course and read all the material and all the workshops etc. etc. Much of it was not on the PCAT and there were many things never mentioned in the Kaplan book that were on the test. If you are just using the $30 Kaplan book, I'd recommend you do it but for the $1300 I paid, no way. I think others are right, you either know the material from when you took the class or you have to go over every textbook and notes that you have, which is impossible to do well on every question. A good example on this test was the microbio question, it's never mentioned in any study book and you'll only know the answer if you remember from Microbio class and your professor went over.

 

[manutdmax]

I added a bit to my previous post. They had at least one word that I remember not found on any GRE list.

I'm saying that I would study the GRE list because I feel that those words are the difference for me between a 90+ or below. My strengths are finding the relationships between the words, so when the words are all easy, I don't have problems, so the ones I have a hard time with are the hard vocab analogies.

As for the Kaplan material, I took the classroom course and I would say some stuff on the PCAT was on the material but not really much. Seriously, I took the whole classroom course and read all the material and all the workshops etc. etc. Much of it was not on the PCAT and there were many things never mentioned in the Kaplan book that were on the test. If you are just using the $30 Kaplan book, I'd recommend you do it but for the $1300 I paid, no way. I think others are right, you either know the material from when you took the class or you have to go over every textbook and notes that you have, which is impossible to do well on every question. A good example on this test was the microbio question, it's never mentioned in any study book and you'll only know the answer if you remember from Microbio class and your professor went over.

what was the microbio question about?

 

[moolman]

what was the microbio question about?

We can't post questions, I already learned that lesson. In general, you get told a disease and asked what caused it. Now I remember in microbio having to memorize a hundered of those things, like the disease and cause but there's seriously over a hundred at least and not worth studying for. It's one question on the test and they probably will not use the same disease and cause because everybody knows it who took the test. So either you know it from before or you don't.

 

[chocobiscotti]

how did you prepare for the exam, am using kaplan book , what sources you used if you dont mind

I had recently taken organic chemistry, which also encompasses basic principles of inorganic chemistry, so I started prepping about three weeks ahead of time. I went through the entire Barron's book, which contains a list of topics to study (very helpful, even if it's not comprehensive due to test revisions). After that, I went through the Cliff's 5 Practice Tests book, and selectively practiced only my weakest areas of knowledge (bio and math). I didn't bother with the reading comp and verbal sections, since I tend to do well on them. I was a humanities major in college, after all! In the interest of studying efficiently, I just skipped those that I didn't need.

I did make sure to do one full-length, timed, just to make sure that I could keep up the pace for the duration of the 4-hour test.

 

[Eviscerate]

I've never taken Microbiology or Organic Chemistry before, so after I finished the Biology and Chemistry sections I just felt like O____O. Luckily I studied some organic in the Kaplan MCAT and looked at some stuff online, which helped me answer some of the questions, but obviously it's not as effective or comprehensive as taking the course in a classroom environment.

There were not many hard words in the Verbal section; it was mostly just whether you could identify the relationships correctly. Reading through the Reading Comprehension passages was pretty fluid, although some of the questions were iffy.

I spent like 2 or 3 days going through my old Calculus for Dummies book, which ended up paying off, since there were quite a few Calculus questions on the test. I'd probably guess around 25-35%. I use to be pretty good at math, so i didn't feel the section was terribly difficult; the Biology and Chemistry sections probably screwed me more.

 

[Knickerbocker]

Hello.

Glad I did not show up for the August 2007 PCAT today. Sounded like everyone bombed the test.
Thanks.

Well, considering that it is scaled, only a certain percentage will ever "bomb it."

 

[zn1988]

Eahem, It seems like a lot of people did good at bio. However, that is the part I feel most desperately. I have finished Bio I, II anatomy I at school, but there are just a few questions on general bio and anatomy. For micro bio, I crammed bacteria's names and grain stam and shape as I expected, and none of them are on the test. I can just remember there were questions about bacterias's desease, plants, soils ???
Thechamistry part is way easy, organic is mainly nomenclature.
Math is ok
Verbal and reading seem to be easier. Its means that my percentile has to be much lower the my previous percentile.
My previous composition prcentile is 40's; and I hadn't felt that bad when I finished my previous one.
Any good idea to for the bio part. Thanks/

 

[swift3260]

manutdmax, you need to calm yourself. You are going to give yourself a heart attack before the October exam even gets here. I have read 30 different posts where you have asked if kaplan is good enough and what the microbio/disease questions were about, but we cant talk about specific questions. Dont stress yourself out so much. Be calm, review your organic, calc,etc. If you keep worrying so much you are going to psych yourself out. Not to mention reading the same posts over and over again gets old You will be fine. Just breath

 

[WhiteSnows]

Great for you. But what does that have to do with him being mentioned in here? There's no 'conflict of interest' or anything of that nature. Nada. If he is, let me know where I can go to get access to his information as I am very interested.

I'm assuming you must have done extremely well then...?

.............
Go to google: Put on his name , Pcat , and florida . He has a website. His materials is a much better than kaplan, or any other books because U will find it the ....sme. It costs 300$ for that.

 

[magenta1]

i thought it had much more orgo than june.

math was redic.

couldnt believe how many of the SAME questions i saw from june (or maybe from kaplan? im not sure, i assume from june test) there were exact passages and questions...

bio was SO HARD. i didnt not go into so much detail while studying (i bought a cliffs biology book..i only got about halfway through tho) i think its redic that they go into so much obsure detail about the most random organism and plants etc ive only taken 1 bio class, never anatomy or micro

chem was okay, just kinda forgot to pace myself and didnt really have enough time. questions werent too bad though.

so i was under the impression that they only compared you to the "standard group" from 1998-2003 or whatever. so they DO compare you to people that took the same test?? if thats true then it makes me feel A LOT better...does anyone know???


ps im just SO GLAD ITS OVER

 

[Toomeke]

I felt the same way after the October 2006 exam; I recognized most of the words in the questions and answers. Kaplan's GRE words seem to be rarer words in real life whereas the PCAT words were ones a college student should have encountered by now.

I agree...I've never really studied any word lists for the verbal section. Kaplan helped me with a FEW words that popped up in June and August 07, but most were words I've learned throughout my college experience. Of course, having degrees in English and Business doesn't hurt. But seriously, if you've had 2+ years of college and taken 2-3 english classes then there's no reason not to do well (70+) in the Verbal section.

 

[firstgeneration]

I already registered for the next one..cause I didn't think I did to well..i thought i was prepared but not...damn

 

[Wan2BPharmD]

I just had a dream that bombed the bio section w/a 53, but got a 95 overall...

And for raw scores, there was some added section called strategy where I got an 890, a world record (that's when I knew it was a dream...in my dream, I actually tried to write down the scores on a sheet of paper cuz I knew I'd be waking up soon lol). Haha, not even 24 hours and I'm havin weird dreams about the PCAT lol.......

 

[Omegadramon]

Hmm....seems like everyone is complaining about the math section.

I took it back in June and got a 65% of the Math section. However, I did great on everything else and got a 93% overall. So don't let one section get you down!

 

[sASU]

I already registered for the next one..cause I didn't think I did to well..i thought i was prepared but not...damn

I feel exactly like you. I spent my entire summer studying. I have no taken microbio or ecology (am taking those now) and since Im also taking Ochem1 this semester, I only knew very basic naming and very, very simple reactions. So the bio and chem sections overwhelmed me . Verbal and reading comp. seemed fair and math, well I always suck at math, but wow this calc stuff was hard (especially when I took calc 4 years ago as a senior in high school). To the people who feel they did well on the bio and chem, have you alread taken bio and ecology? Also, I assume you all have finished at least Ochem1 and probably Ochem2 correct? Thanks in advance and good luck to everyone!

 

[shecanfly]

To the people who feel they did well on the bio and chem, have you alread taken bio and ecology?

I've taken:
Bio 100 & 200
Ecology
Vert Bio
Human Physiology
Cell Bio
Evolution (genetics)
Neuro
a plant class
and a couple others that really wouldn't apply to the pcat. tbh, I don't recall anything from the exam that pertained to ecology. eta: now I remember!!!

imo, Ochem I is more than sufficient for the exam and I would recommend brushing up on gen chem rather than focusing on Ochem II rxns.

 

[shecanfly]

What is everyone's strategy for the reading comprehension?

my strategy was to skim the passage (I read veryquickly) and then answer the questions. I typically had to go back to the passage to choose my final answer but it was easy to find.

 

[OkiePharmD]

I had 5 study books! 5!
It did not prepare me at all for the chem or the math. I would have to say study O chem 1 and know your calculus and trig.
I walked away feeling weird. The verbal was easy and so was the reading comp but the questions they asked about the passages where nothing like the study guides. Its like they where testing to see if I saw the big picture and could understand realtionships (ya know make mental connections) If you get the big picture then youll know how to answer the QA and Chem. I dont however understand the big picture of math or trig. Bio wasnt bad at all. If youve had alot of bio classes youll be fine. I thought some of the questions where odd there too.
So, now just wait and see.

 

[PArTyKikI]

The PCAT went really well for me, thanks to Dr. Collins material. Almost 85% of each session excl. the reading comprehension was found in this material. Unfortunately, i had to guess on 5 ques from the math because i run out of time although i knew how to solve those problems. Mad at that!!!

Hey, are your materials for sale? I dun want to pay $300 for the whole thing. I just want the verb lists if you have. Thx.

 

[PharmLMD]

The best way to study for the Ochem is buy the mini cliffs notes book. You don't even really need the ochem 2 book, the only thing you might need to know in there is electrophilic aromatic substitution and the definition of a Huckel Number in case they ask you for aromaticity.

The cliffs ochem 1 book is really cheap though and if you go to the back of the book it has the alkene/alkane reactions you need to know. Basically if you read over E2/E1 and SN2/SN1 you are fine, they are very basic reactions.

 

[eric4321]

Thanks for the post, Omegadramon.

I think i did about the same thing. 1st time taking the real test & i probably missed 2-3 verbal, 2-3 reading, 4-5 chem, and 4-5 bio questions total. Since some of them might've been "experimental" my total wrong answers for score is probably very low. My writing grades are usually A's for 1st drafts; not sure how Harcourt scores it but i was surrounded by ESL students.

Then there was the Math. Holy C#*@ - hope that 20+ wrong answers still makes for a 60% or higher on that section.

Signing up for the October test but if my August composite comes back as 90 or higher i will stay at home.

 

[Toomeke]

Thanks for the post, Omegadramon.

I think i did about the same thing. 1st time taking the real test & i probably missed 2-3 verbal, 2-3 reading, 4-5 chem, and 4-5 bio questions total. Since some of them might've been "experimental" my total wrong answers for score is probably very low. My writing grades are usually A's for 1st drafts; not sure how Harcourt scores it but i was surrounded by ESL students.

Then there was the Math. Holy C#*@ - hope that 20+ wrong answers still makes for a 60% or higher on that section.

Signing up for the October test but if my August composite comes back as 90 or higher i will stay at home.

writing scores are definitely graded much harder now than before new format. plus, you don't know which essay they're grading. I have an english degree (and I was an A student in english) and took pcat in jan for practice (before finding out new format in June) - got a 5 in january. retook in june for practice again to check out new format...wrote what i thought were much better essays than in january - got two 3's. so go figure. they have more readers grading your writing sections now. and you have to give equal effort on both essays. all adds up to lower scores (at least for me in june). but who knows? i think my august writing essays were also better than my june essays, so maybe i didn't care as much in june as i did last saturday.

good luck.

 

[karkouti]

I took the August test as my first practice test for the exam I intend to take in October. FYI, I am a PhD student in Microbiology. My impressions were as follows:

Essay questions: Unused to writing out essays in pencil, I wrote too slowly. I didn't expect topics, and spent too much time thinking of an answer. I need to come up with a better approach.
Verbal: I found this section to be fair. Any words I did not recognize were present on the list of 1000 top SAT words linked elsewhere on this site.
Chem: I better relearn my Ochem before October. My timing was all wrong and I was unable to finish ~1/2 - 1/3 of this section.
Biology: I was on pace with this section. In hindsight, I probably went for a couple of the trick answers in physiology because I was trying to stay on pace. Also the ecology questions, though few, were probably the only couple of questions I couldn't make any educated guesses on.
Reading: Easy passages. I think I need to spend more time on reading and less time looking up the answers afterwards. Either way, I was twiddling my thumbs for the last 10-15 minutes.
Math: Holy cow! I better relearn some basic calculus! Not enough time to finish.

Sidenote: don't feel bad that you guys didn't get the specific micro 'disease' question - as a microbiologist, I got duped on that one too (very tricky!)

 

[sunwarrior86]

Im with everyone else here. The math was horrendous! Not what I was expecting. karkouti, I am with you. Better relearn my basic calc! Definitley glad that I am taking it again in Oct. Also, without having Ochem yet, I felt some serious doubts about that chem section, especially since the PCAT manual advertised 40% organic- more like 50-60%. Oh well! Hope everyone does well that took it, and good luck to those in Oct.

 

[PowerBar]

So um, how will they give us our results? E-mail or mail?

Anyhow...it was the verbal and reading that threw me off because those sections i normally feel the most comfortable with. This exam however had some more difficult analogies and I felt alot of the reading questions were more subjective than usual.

Some of the bio/chem/math questions were so straightforward I was beginning to feel paranoid. I still felt underprepared for the exam though.

Hopefully I and everyone else hear does well enough to get into whatever school they want to get into.

 

[Knickerbocker]

Was the "disease question" you guys keep mentioning also on the June Exam?

 

[^=^]

Hey everyone, Glad to hear that you all did well. I was just wondering, is the verbal section (analogies in particular) really confusing ones like in the books or are they actually easier?

 

[eric4321]

I knew most of the words in the August analogy section but the relationships of the words was the tough part. A lot of the practice tests have analogies laid out with a clear relationship going left-to-right, and just seeing if you know what the words mean. Like this:

LEFT:RIGHT [related as Subset:Set or Tool:Tool-user etc]

On the August pcat i had to look right-to-left sometimes, also wished I had read all the "relationship" prep in the Kaplan book. This pdf is pretty good for analogies, reading comprehension, & essays [ok bio section too]:
http://www.studyguidezone.com/pdfs/pcatteststudyguide.pdf

 

[Nellynel1]

The math section was my biggest problem as well! I was so slow I didn't get to bubble in like 10 questions. I will definitely be taking it again in October.

 

[PArTyKikI]

I knew most of the words in the August analogy section but the relationships of the words was the tough part. A lot of the practice tests have analogies laid out with a clear relationship going left-to-right, and just seeing if you know what the words mean. Like this:

LEFT:RIGHT [related as Subset:Set or Tool:Tool-user etc]

On the August pcat i had to look right-to-left sometimes, also wished I had read all the "relationship" prep in the Kaplan book. This pdf is pretty good for analogies, reading comprehension, & essays [ok bio section too]:
http://www.studyguidezone.com/pdfs/pcatteststudyguide.pdf

Thx. It's very helpful.

 

[omnione]

So um, how will they give us our results? E-mail or mail?

Mail. Your score report will show up 5-7 weeks after the exam.

 

[faulkner41]

i felt bad about the math section especially... i spent a lot of time studying but felt like my writing sections were lacking and i thought i did just ok on reading, verbal, bio, and chem... however... math was a definite struggle... i hope that i am not alone on this... i saw many math problems that were not in any of the review books that i studied... it was kind of disappointing since that was the last section that i took!!! oh well... i guess i can go to pharmacy school in guam if nothing else...