July PCAT - Biology and Chemistry Section

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bee2bee

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In the Pearson PCATinfo website, they stated that they may change some topics in biology and chemistry sections. For the people who took the July PCAT, did you notice any differences in the subjects or weight of topics? I am studying from Kaplan and 2011 Dr. Collins and will be taking the Sept. PCAT.

Thanks,
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P.S. If anyone is selling their new Dr. Collins, I would be interested.

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Dr. Collins have a GOOD REVIEW OF BOTH SUBJECTS. HOWEVER, YOU ALSO WANNA STUDY SOME BIOCHEMISTRY. iN THE TEST THERE WERE AROUND 8 QUESTION JUST ON AMINO ACIDS AND THE PROTEIN BASES. ALSO, DNT FORGET TO STUDY THEIR STRUCTURE.
 
Biology was more microbiology than I anticipated but didn't have many plant questions. I did see one or two plant questions but they were very basic. The big thing for biology is knowing diseases so you should know how basic medicines work in general. A question might ask about antibiotics and list multiple organisms and ask which are or aren't affected.

Chemistry was actually pretty different than I anticipated. I used Kaplan and expected mostly math but to my surprise there was a ton of conceptual questions, in addition to organic chemistry and biochemistry. The biochemistry seemed to be basic, basically what you would see out of the first couple chapters of a biochemistry book.

I used Kaplan PCAT 2012-13 for biology and general chemistry. Since I have never taken organic chemistry or biochemistry, I used organic chemistry as a second language I, up to SN1/SN2 reactions, and read the first couple chapters of Lehinger Principles of Biochemistry.

My biology score was 97th percentile and chemistry was 93rd percentile; keep in mind, I just finished my first year of pre-pharmacy, so if I can do it, you can too.

You certainly don't need to go out and buy $300+ worth of Dr. Collins supplies to finish strong. You would do fine with free online ebooks and the $50 Kaplan book. The Pearson practice exams did have the new material labeled but what it lists as biochemistry is not what's on the actual exam. Expect reactions and amino acid structures. Check your general chemistry book for amino acid structures, I know mine has them.

As for the other sections, most of them are what would be expected. The quantitative has quite a bit of trigonometric identities embedded in most problems and the reading comprehension readings all seem to be about 6/7 paragraphs.

Good luck!
 
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As Jahodac said, the biology portion was a lot more microbiology than I expected. Additionally, it had more anatomy/physiology questions than my review book/tests.

I agree about the Biochemistry - I've taken two classes and a lab in biochemistry, and all the questions were covered in a Cell Biology course I had taken...so very basic. Study your macromolecules and that should cover most of it.

As a chemistry major, I found the chemistry section not bad at all. Any question I was unsure of I could typically do a process of elimination and figure it out.
 
You certainly don't need to go out and buy $300+ worth of Dr. Collins supplies to finish strong. You would do fine with free online ebooks and the $50 Kaplan book. The Pearson practice exams did have the new material labeled but what it lists as biochemistry is not what's on the actual exam. Expect reactions and amino acid structures. Check your general chemistry book for amino acid structures, I know mine has them.

Good luck!

Can you provide a few examples of the free online ebooks you're referring to and where to get them? :)

I'm also aiming to take the PCAT without OChem and Biochemistry (as well as no Microbiology). Glad to see someone in my situation can pull it off. Nice work.
 
OP fyi I had no amino acid structures questions and ONE nucleotide structure question that was it.

It's different for everyone, but you might get ZERO.
 
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