June 19th PCAT -- How'd You Do??

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
PharmaMaya

PharmaMaya

Pre-Pharmacy Student
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
75
Reaction score
0
Members do not see this ad.
Ok, just finished with the PCAT this morning and here's my review:

Verbal: solid, no problems, think I did pretty good on this section
Biology: pretty hard. I dont even remember it. I guessed on maybe 25% of it. Seemed like there was quite a bit of biology III based questions which I've never had.
Chemistry: killed me. I guessed on maybe 50% of the questions. Seemed like there was SOOO much that even if I knew how to do it I didn't have the time. And I consider myself pretty strong in chemistry.
Reading: easy breezy. 🙂
Quantitative: had to guess on a few questoins for time reasons, but overall very doable. I felt pretty strong when I finished this section.

Overall, I knew this PCAT would be more of a dry run because I'm taking Organic Chemistry right now and haven't really studied yet. But now I feel much more comfortable with it and will have 5-6 weeks free to study before the August PCAT. What about you guys?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Verbal was ok...
I felt good on bio and chem! I finished the chem section. I practiced my speed a lot so I attribute it to that.

Reading was fine. And quant sucked...as I expected.

So glad it's over!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Verbal: hate this sections, damn words.
Biology: Decent. Not easy or hard.
Chemistry: Some wired questions that I didn't think of studying but overall good, this is my strongest section.
Reading: Ok.
Quantitative: Pretty much guessed on like ten questions, it was pretty difficult.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Pretty much the same take as you guys...got my butt handed to me by the chemistry section. I had form 27C, and I swear it was 50% organic, and 40% of that was reactions. Not a good time.

Bio went better than expected, and verbal wasn't too bad. Got close to running out of time on the quant, and overall had to guess at 5 or so of the heavy calc probs. Essays were no big deal...got worked up over them for nothing.

Guess we'll see how it the score pans out in 4 or so weeks. My gut tells me I'll be doing it again in Oct.

Edit: does anybody know if the different test forms have the same questions, just in different order? Or are the questions completely different and just a supposed representative sample?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
This was my first test. Taking it again in August. Wish I would get my June score more than 2 weeks before the August test!
I felt like I did ok on the essays, for not practicing one, but ran out of time and truncated the conclusion for the 1st.
Verbal I feel generally solid on.
Biology, I need to bone up on my micro in terms of bacteria & fungi, and a little evolution (surprisingly) but I was a Bio major and did well on the rest, I think.
Chem I think I did ok, I thought there'd be more Orgo rxn's to slow me down. This and Quant were my worry sections, the 2 I studied for before my "dry run".
RC, I was surprised that I think I killed it.
Math, I finished on time like chem. But I need to get faster and chain ruling derivatives.

It's hard to know how I did because on chem & calc, if I didn't know a problem I skipped it immediately. But I had enough time for them outside what I ignored. So I didn't feel like I was stuck on a lot of problems, but it may just be because I ignored them. I just want my damn score. They should run the MC in 2 weeks and give you the writing later.

I'm so glad to have finally taken it though!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Verbal: Not that bad, some i shoulda known >< but i put wrong answer. Hope it doesn't drop my % too much

Biology: Guessed on like 3. Pretty sure other than that I got all of them right.

Chemistry: I haven't taken organic. After this 20/80 general/organic section I wanted to no score. Lots of ones i think i shoulda known but didn't. Flat out guessed on a couple

Reading: Ok. Not as easy as practice tests, but w/e I'll take it

Quantitative: flat out guessed on like 4 questions, did alright overall i think.

ESSAY: First one I sucked at cuz my brain wasn't warmed up and I was nervous. Second one I did alot better I think.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I agree with you guys...chem and quantitative were defintely the hardest...I definitely had to guess more than I wanted to on those parts. There other sections weren't too bad though
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
did you guys write in toronto?

essay- i did okay
verbal=mediocre
bio=mediocre
chem=was definietly my best section
math=i bombed this section. SOO HARD...kaplan Did not prepare me enough...i had to guess on like 20 question!!

can someone help me with HOW i can improve my math skills...i need more practice material...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kb1204 said:
i thought test was harder than pearson practice tests and Dr.collins study guides especially chemistry.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Bio, Quant, and Chem were as I expected.
Essays: easier than I thought they'd be. I wish they averaged the two. I was calm during the first w/neat handwriting, but by the 2nd my hands were shaking and my thoughts were not as organized.
Verbal: Analogies were as I expected, but I had a harder time on the fill-ins than I did on the practice tests.
RC: I thought this section was far more difficult than the practice tests. In the practice I always had about 10 minutes to spare. This am, I practically ran out of time.

8 wks till the next try...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Twiggy1 said:
Pretty much the same take as you guys...got my butt handed to me by the chemistry section. I had form 27C, and I swear it was 50% organic, and 40% of that was reactions. Not a good time.

Bio went better than expected, and verbal wasn't too bad. Got close to running out of time on the quant, and overall had to guess at 5 or so of the heavy calc probs. Essays were no big deal...got worked up over them for nothing.

Guess we'll see how it the score pans out in 4 or so weeks. My gut tells me I'll be doing it again in Oct.

Edit: does anybody know if the different test forms have the same questions, just in different order? Or are the questions completely different and just a supposed representative sample?
Click to expand...


I had 27C as well...chem was a pain in the butt...I was so lost during those 30 mins.:scared:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I... just don't know how I did on Chem and Quant. They were a blur, and were significantly harder than the Pearson practice tests, I thought. I will definitely be paying $20 to see my score report the second it comes out.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Chem and Math were ridiculous crazy. I didnt have enough time to finish.
Verbal is ok
Bio, guess a few
RC: just slightly ok.
overall, i didnt do very well on this one.
Definitely gonna take it again during august.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
gyad said:
Way too much Organic Chemistry. Every other section was standard stuff.
Click to expand...

I'd rather have organic chem questions over gen chem any day because I can actually see the answer for o-chem right away instead of spending 1-2 min working out the math.

The first half of biology was a "wtf?" moment.😱 Some of the questions in the first half were much more lengthy than my practice questions. I remember there were these two questions that filled up an entire page (even the choices were in sentences)! The second half of bio was pretty relaxing.

Math was ok. There was one statistics question that was exactly the same from a Pearson's practice test.

Reading was a little bit longer than expected. Maybe I was a little tired at the end or something and I ran out of time.

It was definitely a good first round of taste for me!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Have taken PCAT once before, last October. This time I think the Chem section was easier, although still terribly difficult. Ran out of time towards the end and guessed at about 5 questions. Also haven't taken Organic yet, so was kind of lost at some of them.
Reading and Verbal: Cake.
Quant: Pretty tough. Didn't pace myself well and was about 15 questions short at 5 mins. Guessed at about 10 of them I'd say.
Bio: Not that bad. Easier in comparison to the last test, although not my best subject.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The essays went better than I feared. I loved the first topic I got and I think I rocked that one and did fairly well on the second. If I get less than a 3 I will be POed b/c I think I did really well.

Verbal was easy - done in about 10 min and by then I had to pee, which made waiting out the 20 min plus the next two sections horrible! OMG LOL.

Bio - I expected more A&P and felt like it was a lot of General and I think I did ok but am feeling shaky. I bet I just felt like there was a lot of General b/c that is where I had to scratch my brain and dig deeper.

Chem - wish there were more Organic - I get that better than I do Gen Chem. Gen Chem has been a while for me so I took the tactic of doing all the ones I knew how to do and then went back and tried to pick my brain to finish up.

RC - Fine, except it put me to sleep almost. I put my head down to rest after that for the 15 min I had left before quant.

Quant - ugh!! I have no idea how I did. I put the "go and do the easy ones first" method into full force. I could have done with retaking Calc since my calc is so old.

Six weeks is going to kill me. Someone tell me it sometimes happens faster.

BTW, I am curious...

My test room had 9 test-takers. Eight of them were women. One guy. Is this the future of Pharmacy? (j/k) I told my husband he might want to look into Pharmacy if he wants to be surrounded by pretty girls all day.

What was the gender breakdown in your test center?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Twiggy1 said:
Edit: does anybody know if the different test forms have the same questions, just in different order? Or are the questions completely different and just a supposed representative sample?
Click to expand...


I wonder the same thing. I had a different form letter than what has been mentioned so far.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How did you guys feel about your testing places? Mine was very nice and comfortable. We basically had alternating seats. And here I was worrying about desk space and elbow room haha.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
UFKOIVY said:
How did you guys feel about your testing places? Mine was very nice and comfortable. We basically had alternating seats. And here I was worrying about desk space and elbow room haha.
Click to expand...

My test room had a ton of space. It could have comfortably tested double the amount we had (9) and normally seats about 26.

It was a classroom in a recently renovated building and it was very nice.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
wow.... i got owned.. time was a HUGE issue for me.. I was in a time rush for pretty much every section except verbal...
I only studied literally a week beforehand .. i didnt know there were two essays ><
Also do we get penalized for wrong answers....?? I left like 5 quantitative blank.. i just had no time to bubble it in.. the proctor said time before i could bubble it in.. i didnt want to risk a no score. "_"

Essay.. first essay was alright.. and one i just realized i wrote totally off topic... @*#*
verbal- felt ok.. didnt know like 10 words.. so i guessed on those. this one was the only one i felt i wasn't in a time rush.. i finished like 2 mins before time..
Bio- was kinda difficult... guessed on quite a few.. and probably maybe 10ish.. or more
chemistry.. was a little challenging couldnt do a few problems and unsure on few more = =
reading comp.......... don't talk about it... there were like 6 or 7 passages i believe? 5 mins left... i was still on #**( passage 4... so i pretty much guessed on passage 5-6/7..... i guess i was reading way too slow.. and i didnt understand the passages either.. >< man... i didnt even have time to practice this before the test.. i didnt know it was such a huge time crunch = =
quantitative-... a lot more of a time crunch than i thought.. i couldn't get to like 5 problems.. and didnt have time to bubble it in.. ><

LASTly.. we weren't suppose to bubble in our test our test form right..?? i didnt write it down.. i only remember copying my test book copy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My testing center had about a 50/50 ratio of men to women. Bear in mind, though, each room had about 20 people, and there were ~5 rooms.

My thoughts:

First off, DRAMA! One guy hadn't tried to print his ticket until too late, and there was a problem with his password. At twenty minutes to test time, the proctor(who seemed to know him) told him to call Pearson and reset his password, then print his ticket. Somehow the guy was able to get through to Pearson and find a place to print the ticket. He came in while the instructions were being read, but they let him test because we hadn't broken the seal yet. Crazy.

Essay 1: Went well. The topic was one I knew enough about to have a lot to say.

Verbal: Done ten minutes early, went potty. This was important - my bladder has been squeezed to the size of a tablespoon after two pregnancies - I was worried about this affecting my test performance. There was one question involving flowers and weather that was practically verbatim from Dr. Collins... except for the correct answer. I had a little trouble understanding this one in the Dr. Collins packet, and the answer on the actual PCAT made more sense. Hope I made the right choice.

Bio: Went pretty well. There was one question about drugs and a well-known neurological condition that made me a bit perturbed - I'm trying to get into pharmacy school to learn these things! I didn't think that I needed to memorize drug classes before the PCAT.🙄

Chem: Went as well as could be expected. Had to move pretty fast, but wasn't horrific.

Break: They made it sound like you were not able to access your bag during the break at the beginning of the test, but come break time, I was able to get out my clif bar and gatorade.

Essay 2: Weird topic, but went OK given that I just wrote a paper on an agricultural subject.

RC: Easy. Would have peed again if the damn proctor would have looked up.

Quant: Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Horrific. I felt like I was answering randomly, bubbling whatever first came to mind. If all of the questions I missed were experimental, I may have gotten a 50. I think I got the log-related questions.:laugh:

All in all, things felt similar to the practice tests, the QA being a little more difficult. If my scores reflect the feeling, I am ok. If not, I'm sunk.

The next 5-6 weeks will be agony.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Um, pretty sure I experienced a nice anal pounding this morning from this test. I scored a 77 composite the first time I took it, and after taking this test I'm looking somewhere in the 60's. The Chemistry and Quantative sections were NOTICABLY more difficult. It's definately not what I wanted because I scored an 87 on the Chemistry section my first go around and a 70 on the quantatative. This time...eh...👎
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
pinksparkly said:
Bio: Went pretty well. There was one question...
Click to expand...


LOL I know...I was like, wha...let me think. And that is what I think the kaplan book was saying about testing how you think and not what you know. But most of the time it just felt like they were testing what I knew. Or....how well I could guess lol.

Oh and I had a clif bar on my break too!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i took it at usc.. only like 30 people were there lol. i guess its cause it was in california..

also.. can someone answer my question?

do we get penalized for wrong answers..?
and were we suppose to bubble in the test form #? ie.. 27b.. or something
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
As for my distribution, it was 80% female 20% male...which is NICE! Maybe that's why I did so bad. I couldn't concentrate. 😎
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
88888888 said:
i took it at usc.. only like 30 people were there lol. i guess its cause it was in california..

also.. can someone answer my question?

do we get penalized for wrong answers..?
and were we suppose to bubble in the test form #? ie.. 27b.. or something
Click to expand...

no you do not so it was best to fill everything in if you had time.

There was the bubble box for the test form number at the bottom right of the front of the answer scantron booklet.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
88888888 said:
i took it at usc.. only like 30 people were there lol. i guess its cause it was in california..

also.. can someone answer my question?

do we get penalized for wrong answers..?
and were we suppose to bubble in the test form #? ie.. 27b.. or something
Click to expand...

You don't get points deducted for wrong answers. But you do have a chance of getting it right if you guess. I think you are supposed to bubble the form number. Did you at least write it on there?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
88888888 said:
also.. can someone answer my question?

do we get penalized for wrong answers..?
and were we suppose to bubble in the test form #? ie.. 27b.. or something
Click to expand...

Not penalized in the traditional way (i.e. AP tests count wrong answers as -1.25), but if you bubble in the wrong answer/fail to answer, you lose the point.

You were supposed to bubble in your test form on the same page you bubbled your name. It was the last thing to bubble on the bottom right. It looked like there were a lot of possible forms - 1-3, A-T or something like that. I am curious to know if the questions are different or just scrambled.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
adma826 said:
no you do not so it was best to fill everything in if you had time.

There was the bubble box for the test form number at the bottom right of the front of the answer scantron booklet.
Click to expand...

#$*(*# i forgot to fill it out... fudgee.. what do i do.. = = the proctor never told us to.. at least i didnt hear..
do i call pearson..?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
88888888 said:
#$*(*# i forgot to fill it out... fudgee.. what do i do.. = = the proctor never told us to.. at least i didnt hear..
do i call pearson..?
Click to expand...

Yeah - I would call. On the plus side, the proctors bundle your test booklet, answer booklet, and admission ticket together (my proctor told us this), so in theory, Pearson should be able to bubble it in for you if your other identifying info was bubbled. You bubbled and signed the back, right? I think that was the important part.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
88888888 said:
#$*(*# i forgot to fill it out... fudgee.. what do i do.. = = the proctor never told us to.. at least i didnt hear..
do i call pearson..?
Click to expand...


I don't remember bubbling in my test form #, but most of yesterday morning is a fog to me right now. I remember writing it though. I know that if the test form boxes had the bubbles beneath them I would have filled them in. I'm sure you would have too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How was everyone's testing center? Mine was awful...after everything I've read on here about having a snack on the break and what you are not allowed to bring into the test room....we had to leave everything in our cars! They wouldnt even let me bring a snack into the building. I had to borrow a dollar to get a snickers bar from a vending machine on the break. A friend of mine got dropped off and had to put her purse in my car. I had to leave my jacket in the car because it had a hood...I wasn't going to use the hood, but most of my jackets have hoods. People with pullovers were allowed in but told they couldn't remove the hoodie while testing. It just seemed to add a lot of unnecessary stress to an already stressful day, but I am glad I know how to prepare for the August test.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wouldn't worry about it...as soon as Pearson feeds your sheet in, I'm sure the computer will query them for the test number since it won't have anything to read. Pearson will just key it in or something. Although, I guess if it comes back with a ZERO percentile across the board with a 3/3 for the essays, you may want to have it hand scored 😀
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I thought that the test overall, was on par with the Pearson tests...with the exception of Chem. There was a LOT more organic chemistry on my exam. Some I knew, some I didn't (haven't taken O-chem yet). I didn't finish the O-Chem 🙁

Everything else, I honestly feel like I did really well. But if Chem weighs me down, I'm screwed.

Quant was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Verbal/RC/Essays were good.

I had form 27G.

I would say there were close to 100 people in my setting. Huge lecture room at LIU. About 50/50 male to female.

August, here I come!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
PharmaMaya said:
How was everyone's testing center? Mine was awful...after everything I've read on here about having a snack on the break and what you are not allowed to bring into the test room....we had to leave everything in our cars! They wouldnt even let me bring a snack into the building.
Click to expand...

Lol, they didn't even tell us where to put our bags, so we just placed them by our feet. And for the thing about mechanical pencils, I asked them in the beginning if I could use mine and they didn't seem to care. They said that as long as it's HB, it's fine.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
PharmaMaya said:
I had to leave my jacket in the car because it had a hood...I wasn't going to use the hood, but most of my jackets have hoods. People with pullovers were allowed in but told they couldn't remove the hoodie while testing.
Click to expand...

There were neon yellow signs at the entrance to our building that said things like, "NO hoodies, PDAs, cell phones, etc." I had on a hoodie (the fitted type that girls wear) and thought about running back to my car and changing, but since a full 50% of the females present had them on, I decided not to. The proctors were very adamant about leaving phones in your car (one of them said that if for no other reason, dismissing someone for a phone is a lot of paperwork for the proctor), but said nothing about the hoodies. They also made an announcement about no mechanical pencils and had a bag full of extras, but didn't do anything about the guy sitting in the front row with them.

I got the feeling that the proctors wanted everyone to have as smooth of a testing experience as possible. If someone went to the bathroom at the end of a test and wasn't back before the next, they stalled for a minute to allow the person to come back. They also let a guy move over a seat because he was at the end of the row and didn't have very much room.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This was my first time taking the PCAT test. I thought it was dreadfully long. Thankfully, my breakfast bagel kept me full until 2.

I feel good about Bio, Chem, and Quant. I had to make an educated guess on about 5 questions for each section, but feel confident in the other questions. I have no clue about how I did on Verbal. Some words I just plain out didn't know and had to narrow it down for a 50:50 guess. I feel like I did this on several questions in that section. But, I also did this in Pearson practice tests and pulled off a decent score. RC was probably my worst section. I finished all of the sections though and I'm hoping to make above 70% for each of the subtests and >80% for composite. If not, I will take it again in October. (That dreadful test!)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had form 27 G. I thought that it was all pretty easy except the quant. i guessed on about 5-10 and when i say guessed i mean i looked at the problem and just bubbled in B lol.

But other than that i thought i did great chem was almost all orgo which was good for me because that's what im best at.

Biology had some weird questions that the only reason i knew the answers is because of taking the PCTB certification exam a few weeks earlier.

Reading was just like expected and verbal was easier than i expected.

overall i hope i did as good as i did on the practice tests with my composite range from 80% to 99%. Any thing better than the 64% i got the first time is fine by me
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
dominicl said:
I had form 27 G. I thought that it was all pretty easy except the quant. i guessed on about 5-10 and when i say guessed i mean i looked at the problem and just bubbled in B lol.

But other than that i thought i did great chem was almost all orgo which was good for me because that's what im best at.

Biology had some weird questions that the only reason i knew the answers is because of taking the PCTB certification exam a few weeks earlier.

Reading was just like expected and verbal was easier than i expected.

overall i hope i did as good as i did on the practice tests with my composite range from 80% to 99%. Any thing better than the 64% i got the first time is fine by me
Click to expand...

Dude soo true the PCTB exam helped with those drug questions. Although I could only make educated guesses on it, but it still helped.


Anyways, did anyone feel like bubbling the answer toke away too much time??
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
orgo had 80% of the chem questions? i'm taking pcat in august does that mean i should study the whole orgo textbook? i'm scared now. also were there different versions of the exam? what does it mean when people indicated they had specific forms of the exam

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=739426


Saiyo said:
Verbal: Not that bad, some i shoulda known >< but i put wrong answer. Hope it doesn't drop my % too much

Biology: Guessed on like 3. Pretty sure other than that I got all of them right.

Chemistry: I haven't taken organic. After this 20/80 general/organic section I wanted to no score. Lots of ones i think i shoulda known but didn't. Flat out guessed on a couple

Reading: Ok. Not as easy as practice tests, but w/e I'll take it

Quantitative: flat out guessed on like 4 questions, did alright overall i think.

ESSAY: First one I sucked at cuz my brain wasn't warmed up and I was nervous. Second one I did alot better I think.
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Verbal: had some analogies that threw me off. Sentence completions are always easy
Bio: Easy. Couple questions were really obscure but for the most part a great section
Chem: Same as bio - probably a little better
Reading: My weakest section. There was one really difficult passage but I felt like I was on top of my game. Still it was probably my worst section
Math: I actually didn't run out of time. I didn't have any left over though lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
pinksparkly said:
There were neon yellow signs at the entrance to our building that said things like, "NO hoodies, PDAs, cell phones, etc." I had on a hoodie (the fitted type that girls wear) and thought about running back to my car and changing, but since a full 50% of the females present had them on, I decided not to. The proctors were very adamant about leaving phones in your car (one of them said that if for no other reason, dismissing someone for a phone is a lot of paperwork for the proctor), but said nothing about the hoodies. They also made an announcement about no mechanical pencils and had a bag full of extras, but didn't do anything about the guy sitting in the front row with them.

I got the feeling that the proctors wanted everyone to have as smooth of a testing experience as possible. If someone went to the bathroom at the end of a test and wasn't back before the next, they stalled for a minute to allow the person to come back. They also let a guy move over a seat because he was at the end of the row and didn't have very much room.
Click to expand...

Yeah what is with that no mechanical pencils thing? I brought nothing but mechanical lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Hello! 2024 PCAT and applicant here
Replies
17
Views
4K
PharmtoCS
P
BC_89
  • Sticky
Retirement of the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) and PCAT forum
Replies
4
Views
5K
WildWing
WildWing
S
PCAT to PharmCAS
Replies
2
Views
2K
BC_89
BC_89
P
  • Question Question
Low PCAT score in math?
Replies
7
Views
2K
Xenophylia
Xenophylia
P
  • Question Question
How to be a competitive applicant and how to prepare for chemistry PCAT?
Replies
2
Views
3K
BC_89
BC_89
Top