July PCAT study group

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Wallace12

Wallace12

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  1. Pre-Pharmacy
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Who all is taking the PCAT in July and would maybe want to join together in this thread and ask for help and keep each other motivated for the test??
I'll be studying starting ~may 13th it's the Monday after my spring finals. I'll be using Dr Collins and MAYBE cracking pcat by PR. But it doesn't matter what materials we use we can still help each other out. Lets kill this test and get accepted into pharmacy school!
LETS GOOOOO!!!
 
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TigersWings said:
I feel as though I am spamming the message board, but I am going to throw one more thing out there: anyone else kind of concerned with the microbiology questions they are asking? Like there have been a couple ones like: "what bacteria would be responsible for the disease_____", or "what antibiotic would be best suited to combat the bacteria ____?" I havent taken micro in two years, and there is no way I remember details like that
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haha i feel your pain.... i am jsut gonna memorize those that have appeared on the practice exam
 
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quick question. what's the difference between taking the PCAT on the 17 and the 18? are there two different version of the exam or what?
and the scores. are they comparing both day's score together or what?
 
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Binchen222 said:
quick question. what's the difference between taking the PCAT on the 17 and the 18? are there two different version of the exam or what?
and the scores. are they comparing both day's score together or what?
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I'm not sure about the version of the exam but if I remember correctly our test is being compared to the testing group of 2011.
 
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Binchen222 said:
quick question. what's the difference between taking the PCAT on the 17 and the 18? are there two different version of the exam or what?
and the scores. are they comparing both day's score together or what?
Click to expand...

The scores are compared to the scores of first time test takers between 2007 and 2011. So on test day, when we are done, the "unofficial" score report we get will have scaled scores and percentiles based on those statistics
 
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I just want to get it over with. Im going to need to meet up with ProfessorXanax if it was more than 2 days away.
 
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Last minute question lol
When balancing equations what is the fastest way?
__C5H12O2 + __O2 --> __CO2 + __H2O

A)8 B) 15 C) 5 D) 30

I know to try to balance everything except for O2 and H2O first, and I can quickly discard 8 and 5, but it takes me a while to choose 15 over 30. Was wondering if there is a quicker way to distinguish between 15 and 30? maybe something in the mathematical relationship between the coefficients?
 
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I don't have a quick way I just always think 30 is such a big number and I have never actually seen it used on an equation one I discard the smaller 2 I just select 15 bc it takes too long
 
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isanders said:
Last minute question lol
When balancing equations what is the fastest way?
__C5H12O2 + __O2 --> __CO2 + __H2O

A)8 B) 15 C) 5 D) 30

I know to try to balance everything except for O2 and H2O first, and I can quickly discard 8 and 5, but it takes me a while to choose 15 over 30. Was wondering if there is a quicker way to distinguish between 15 and 30? maybe something in the mathematical relationship between the coefficients?
Click to expand...

What is the question asking? Is it asking for the coefficient of oxygen?
 
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Wallace12 said:
I think today I'm going to go over gen chem and quant mostly and hope I can offset my bad RC and VA... but I'll probably study tomorrow with practice tests and just review on test day because I'm taking it at 5pm
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mine is also at 5pm. I figured I would just sleep in. I have no intention of studying on test day!
 
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niftydoc said:
mine is also at 5pm. I figured I would just sleep in. I have no intention of studying on test day!
Click to expand...

Yeah my summer job is cleaning a pool, so I have to do that before 930 everyday... I always study on test days and I don't think reading through bio and chem review won't be a negative thing really... I hope haha
 
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Doing the prac tests sure does help. Just finished test 2 and and according to the report Im in the 78%-98% range as opposed to by abysmal attempt at test 1s 58%-78% -___- Im thinking of buying test 4 to at least see the kind of questions there as opposed to 1-3 but with what everybody is saying, I want to keep my confidence up lol
 
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isanders said:
Last minute question lol
When balancing equations what is the fastest way?
__C5H12O2 + __O2 --> __CO2 + __H2O

A)8 B) 15 C) 5 D) 30

I know to try to balance everything except for O2 and H2O first, and I can quickly discard 8 and 5, but it takes me a while to choose 15 over 30. Was wondering if there is a quicker way to distinguish between 15 and 30? maybe something in the mathematical relationship between the coefficients?
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure the hydrocarbon should be C5H12O (an alcohol). That way when you balance it, you need to double it, so that you have an even amount of oxygens in that molecule. If this was the case, it would be:

2 C5H12O + 15 O2 ---> 10 CO2 + 12 H2O
 
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FelixRx said:
Doing the prac tests sure does help. Just finished test 2 and and according to the report Im in the 78%-98% range as opposed to by abysmal attempt at test 1s 58%-78% -___- Im thinking of buying test 4 to at least see the kind of questions there as opposed to 1-3 but with what everybody is saying, I want to keep my confidence up lol
Click to expand...

Fair warning, test 4 is quite difficult, and may do more harm to your confidence than good
 
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can someone explain the problem of "which of the following is the range of the function f(x)=8^x +9"

that was my first time seeing a problem like that with x as an exponent
that's problem number 7 on test 4 of QA
 
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Test 4 va 42/48 bio 38/48 chem 36/48 reading 36/48 qa 30/48 I suck at the quant I don't really study for it
 
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TigersWings said:
Im pretty sure the hydrocarbon should be C5H12O (an alcohol). That way when you balance it, you need to double it, so that you have an even amount of oxygens in that molecule. If this was the case, it would be:

2 C5H12O + 15 O2 ---> 10 CO2 + 12 H2O
Click to expand...

Wow I can't write today lol and thanks!
 
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TigersWings said:
Fair warning, test 4 is quite difficult, and may do more harm to your confidence than good
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Seeing that its the newest one, what if the real PCAT is like test 4?😱 At least those who took test 4 will be familiar with the content and will be less likely to miss it on the real thing. I would buy it for that alone, no?
 
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What is this test 4 everyone is talking about?

I purchased the 3 tests for 85$ and saw no option for a test 4.
 
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I took 2012 Jan pcat and bio section was more like test 4 with so many random micro questions 🙁
 
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dalegk said:
I took 2012 Jan pcat and bio section was more like test 4 with so many random micro questions 🙁
Click to expand...

What kind on questions mainly? Infectious diseases? Organisms causing disease? Immunology? Bacteria structure? Viruses?
 
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Disease question was the most difficult part for me. And make sure to memorize the name of vitamin
 
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Wallace12 said:
How'd you do compared to your other ones? My RC and VA crashed ha
Click to expand...

Best scores - Test 4
~75% - ~60% VA
~80% - ~70 Bio
~85% - ~60% RC
~65% - ~25%% QA
~65% - ~ 30%Chem

idk i think im all "practiced" out, but i can't stop practicing! And it doesn't help that the percentages are vague. I pray i do good becuase i have been seeing an upward trend in scores until today taking test 4.
 
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dalegk said:
Disease question was the most difficult part for me. And make sure to memorize the name of vitamin
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Oh I see. The only Vitamin name I was told appeared on the test was Vitamin C(Ascorbic Acid). Aside from that, only other vitamin question is what are the water-soluble and fat soluble and what are the names of Vitamin C and D deficiency? Those that cover most of it or should I do more reading?
 
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Wallace12 said:
Yeah my summer job is cleaning a pool, so I have to do that before 930 everyday... I always study on test days and I don't think reading through bio and chem review won't be a negative thing really... I hope haha
Click to expand...

true! anything helps! 🙂
 
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Is anyone else having trouble finishing the QA section on time? I have taken 2 practice tests and I always find myself at question 40ish when the timers runs out. Any tips on how to get through this faster? besides swapping my brain for that of a genius. Cause I already considered that! lol
 
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niftydoc said:
Is anyone else having trouble finishing the QA section on time? I have taken 2 practice tests and I always find myself at question 40ish when the timers runs out. Any tips on how to get through this faster? besides swapping my brain for that of a genius. Cause I already considered that! lol
Click to expand...

Oops, I thought you meant RC lol
 
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niftydoc said:
Is anyone else having trouble finishing the QA section on time? I have taken 2 practice tests and I always find myself at question 40ish when the timers runs out. Any tips on how to get through this faster? besides swapping my brain for that of a genius. Cause I already considered that! lol
Click to expand...
What I have been doing it just doing the ones that come easy to you first. Finish those first and leave the word problems for last. Almost every time I end up guessing on the last ones because there is just not enough time to complete all 48. I feel your pain.

Edit: Whoops thought you meant quantitative lol
 
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Binchen222 said:
can someone explain the problem of "which of the following is the range of the function f(x)=8^x +9"

that was my first time seeing a problem like that with x as an exponent
that's problem number 7 on test 4 of QA
Click to expand...

well, range represents the numbers which y could be. You know that an exponential value like 8^x, when there is not a negative value in front of the 8 will always yield a number greater than 0. Even if it is 8^-999999999 it will just approach ZERO. That being said, 8^-999999 would basically equal 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001, which essentially is ZERO. So, once you add the 9, the range would be (9, infinity), because it cant be 9, only approaching 9, like in 9.000000000000000000000000001.Hope this helps
 
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here are my composite scores
test 2: 70-90
test 3: 80-99
I am contemplating buying test 4 due to the reviews on it. I will let u know how I do on it,if I end up talking myself into buying it.lol
 
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It's so silly they have those vitamin questions and such in the PCAT. I don't know about other people, but I'm going to a be a senior in biology and have finished all of my pharmacy school prereqs, and I never once learned anything about that. We aren't pharmacy students yet! 😛

I have been debating for days to buy test 4...but I'm not going to because of self confidence as people have said, and nothing more is going to stick in my head if it's something brand new. At this point in the game, we all know what we know and should just review things that are our weakness like if you're not good at trig functions for QA or the cell phases for biology, etc.

I'm just trying to pretend like I'm not freaking out on the inside. 😛
 
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I just took test 4 and I got 40-60%.. It ruined my confidence..🙁🙁🙁
My avarage composite was 60-80 for the first two test but it went down dramatically.

Hope the real pcat tomorrow is not like test 4.

Finger clossed for all test taker tomorrow!
 
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Ericjsyi said:
I just took test 4 and I got 40-60%.. It ruined my confidence..🙁🙁🙁
My avarage composite was 60-80 for the first two test but it went down dramatically.

Hope the real pcat tomorrow is not like test 4.

Finger clossed for all test taker tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Don't let it get to you, just focus on the topics and concepts you know you don't know very well, and if you have Collins study packet go over the concepts that have repeated a lot. You're going to do fine, stay positive! 🙂 👍
 
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Yeah.. I'm trying to stay positive... lol The fact that I can get 100% correct on all the collins practice problems as I went over all sections 4 times.. lol But there are some different types of questions on the pearson practice test that I just want to make sure I know how to do before the real thing. And some questions on collins exactly repeated on the pearson test but their answer are different than collins. I don't which one I should follow.

ex) colilins - Dictionary : Thesaurus :: Hammer: Tool
Practice - Dictionary : Thesaurus :: Hammer : Saw

lol
 
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