how much to study?

[jewel2]

how much did u guys study for pcat when you have like 5-6 months left?
and also how did u study?

im planning to take august 09 and i kinda feel overwhelmed to try to get a good score on it since it will probably be the last time i will take it before i apply this fall. although i took bio and chem and all that, i don't remember anything at all and i'm really not good at memorizing..

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[TMW]

I studied about 3 hours a day during the week in between classes for about 2 months and did pretty well. If you're not good at memorizing, the best way to study would be by exposing yourself to the material on a regular basis. Also, you may want to think hard about pharmacy if you're not good at memorizing.

 

[diastole]

how much did u guys study for pcat when you have like 5-6 months left?
and also how did u study?

im planning to take august 09 and i kinda feel overwhelmed to try to get a good score on it since it will probably be the last time i will take it before i apply this fall. although i took bio and chem and all that, i don't remember anything at all and i'm really not good at memorizing..

Looks like you are going to have to put in a lot of time. I'd start with the topics that you have absolutely no clue about so you will have the longest exposure time for those things. Keep reviewing things you have already learned so you don't learn and forget. Absolutely take the practice tests that Pearson offers. If you are only going to take this one time, you don't want to be surprised by the timing. Most people run out of time on math and chem.

How much to study is an individual thing. Some people do fine with no studying and others study for many hours a day and still don't get a high score. All I can say is you need to put in the time that is right for you. One piece of advice I can give you is that you should make a study schedule and stick with it. It is so easy to think you have all the time in the world when you have five or six month before your test. You can adjust the amount of time you devote for studying but what you don't want to do is let a few months go by with almost no studying until you find yourself running out of time.

The Kaplan book is pretty good for biology and inorganic chemistry. Try to find other materials for math and organic. I don't even know how people study for verbal and reading comp. Good luck.

 

[medicalCPA]

I didn't study much because I had taken the MCAT a month before I took the PCAT. My advice to people taking the PCAT is to study for it as if they were taking the MCAT. Use MCAT prep material. Kaplan's PCAT prep book is simply the MCAT prep book with PCAT substituted when the MCAT is mentioned. Of course you won't need the physics prep because the PCAT does not test physics. And you will need something else for the Quantitative section. But for every other section, MCAT prep books will adequately prepare you.

Some may say doing this is overkill, but my philosophy is that it's better to be overprepared than underprepared.

 

[confettiflyer]

$1200 on MCAT prep (Princeton Review) a few years prior to taking PCAT.

then when i switched over to pharm...figured i already knew stuff, so here's what i spent for that:

1) Kaplan book -- ~$30
2) Old ochem textbook (for basics) -- already had it
3) Princeton Review MCAT books (overkill) -- already had it
--> wasn't even necessary, just duplicated what the kaplan book had, and then some.

I basically spent $30. Kaplan book is great, just missing basic ochem, so I used my old textbook for that. That's all you really need IMO. If you want to boost verbal/writing scores....do lots of random reading (WSJ, The Economist, NYT, older books, etc...)

 

[luckyphooey]

I spend about an 1hr a day on my last month before the PCAT. I took it in January so I had the winter break to concentrate on the PCAT. Luckily then I just finished up my BioChemistry and Cell Biology so I didn't brush up much on biology. I wished I studied the math section more, I did horrible.

 

[Wow Strong Armz]

I took the Online PCAT Kaplan course, I thought it helped alot. I still have some exams saved.

 

[fhx06]

I had just taken Organic Chemistry 1 when I took my first PCAT, and was taking Organic Chemistry 2 during my second PCAT, so I focused on my knowledge of biology and some math.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Study like you want to get into pharmacy school.
Basically, study your ass off.

 

[azrk]

Since you have taken the basic sciences before you should be familiar with the concepts. I wouldnt study too much in advance because it is likely that you will forget small details before the exam. A month should be sufficient, set a schedule for yourself to follow and memorize every thing you can from your prep books even the things you dont think are important. I forced myself to learn things I didnt really "feel" like memorizing and I know it got me a few extra points on the exam.

 

[puregoldenboy]

I took a Kaplan course that was only helpful in that i would attend class and listen to a guy talk about stuff I probably already knew, but wouldnt have known that had i studied on my own because I am a lazy no good slacker. That said, the Kaplan course is very expensive and is probably only great at prepping you for the biology section and to some degree the chemistry section. I ended up taking the course while taking two prerequisite science courses and then maybe studied casually for 1-2 hours every day for a month. Get a head start on reviewing your quantitative skills, as i feel that is the hardest section to really prepare yourself in a short amount of time.

 

[inquirer89]

I took alot of practice exams. I don't really recommend in using Kaplan but check out the Dr. Collins study program. There is a thread already about it on this board.

 

[AdamSanders]

Since you are not familiar with the material you should begin studying now (especially since you are not good at memorizing). Taking practice tests should also be a priority since the timing of the exams is so fast-paced. If you are not a fast test-taker you will not finish the exams without lots of practice (focus on math and chemistry). Other than that I do not know what to tell you, except maybe take one of the Kaplan courses for the review.

 

[Hendlefe]

Buy the Kaplan PCAT book and take the practice test. That's the best way to gauge your understanding of the subject. When I took the introductory practice test, I did pretty poorly. I already graduated so I took a bunch of classes that pretty much prepared me for the PCATs.
The only thing I studied was most of biology and some chemistry in the Kaplan book. Then I took the final practice test at the back of the book and I scored a little better (maybe missing 9 questions out of 50)

 

[JTran10]

Well first you have to decide what your strong point is and to make sure you know that part very well which shouldnt take you that long. Then i worked on the topics i had more trouble on for a longer period of time. I made the mistake on the 1st PCAT i studied only for 11 days before the PCAT and ended up with a 58 composite. Then i got lazy again and only studied 9 days before the PCAT and lucky enough i got a 79 composite, but what i did differently was i made sure i did well on the sections i was strong in which was bio, math, and chem. I recommend asking some one to borrow the books from the kaplan course they give you or just buy off someone

 

[hokierx]

i logged in 8 hours a day from may-august preparing for the august 08 test. i read, re-read every section in kaplan. alternated 3 bio/2 chem every day. did all the review questions for each section. went over each section that i had gotten wrong. after i went through the whole book, i took a practice every saturday morning at 8am to get used to it. this helps with timing and pacing yourself too. i had cliffs 5 practice tests, used the kaplan diagonistic test, used the kaplan final review test, bought some old books off half.com and amazon and use those books (came out to about $4 a book including shipping since they were old editions). during the week following every practice test, i corrected each one. and redid and worked out the questions, which worked well for chemistry and quant. after that, just read the sections in which i did poorly...chemistry for me.

of course that was just for the first test. i got an 83 composite, but my chem and RC scores were on the lower side, so i retook it in october. for that, i realized i had it coming up 3 weeks prior, so i just went over chem and RC. chem shot up 20 points, RC stayed the same...composite went up to 89. shenandoah called me and told me RC was too low, so i took it in january. i really didnt bother studying anything besides rc...surpassed shenandoah's minimum, and got 92 composite. i actually stopped caring about the test about halfway through verbal.

so really...just relax, but make an honest attempt to know your stuff

 

[gtfu]

So it sounds like the time people spend studying for their PCAT's varies widely depending on how fresh the material is in their mind. On average, is it fair to say that people study 3-4 months ahead of the test?

 

[diastole]

In my case, doing well in my classes helped me more than anything. I had just taken general chem and anatomy and physiology during the spring and summer semesters. I took Bio 1, calculus and organic 1 in the fall. Then I took the PCAT in January. I didn't really study much until my winter break and then I ended up studying less than I thought I would. It all worked out in the end though I wish I didn't have to guess on so many math questions.

 

[PistonFan531]

i logged in 8 hours a day from may-august preparing for the august 08 test. i read, re-read every section in kaplan. alternated 3 bio/2 chem every day. did all the review questions for each section. went over each section that i had gotten wrong. after i went through the whole book, i took a practice every saturday morning at 8am to get used to it. this helps with timing and pacing yourself too. i had cliffs 5 practice tests, used the kaplan diagonistic test, used the kaplan final review test, bought some old books off half.com and amazon and use those books (came out to about $4 a book including shipping since they were old editions). during the week following every practice test, i corrected each one. and redid and worked out the questions, which worked well for chemistry and quant. after that, just read the sections in which i did poorly...chemistry for me.

of course that was just for the first test. i got an 83 composite, but my chem and RC scores were on the lower side, so i retook it in october. for that, i realized i had it coming up 3 weeks prior, so i just went over chem and RC. chem shot up 20 points, RC stayed the same...composite went up to 89. shenandoah called me and told me RC was too low, so i took it in january. i really didnt bother studying anything besides rc...surpassed shenandoah's minimum, and got 92 composite. i actually stopped caring about the test about halfway through verbal.

so really...just relax, but make an honest attempt to know your stuff

How did you motivate yourself to study that much? I would love to do that but I would get burnt out and the stress would overwhelm me.

 

[rjk]

I used the kaplan book, and probably spent <20 hours studying directly for the test.

I was taking organic 2 at the time, which really helped, but I was coming back from 2.5years away from school.

If you're good at theory (and have solid fundamentals in math and sciences), the test isn't overwhelming...if you're a memorizer, then you'll probably have to put in more time than I did.

 

[applejuju]

I had 1.5 week to study for the PCAT after my finals and before the next quarter starts. I slacked half the time and ended up doing typical vacation activities lol.
It wasn't too bad, I just went to the kaplan book and read every single line. If I had more time, i would've studied more bio because it was my rusty part.