knowledge level on PCAT

[nehe87]

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I'm currently a freshman who will be applying to pharmacy school in the fall, and I was just wondering, is it still possible to do well on the PCAT (on the biology and chemistry parts) without having taken micriobiology, anatomy/physiology, and organic chemistry? I've already started studying/looking over PCAT books and stuff. What do you all think?

 

[omnione]

I'm currently a freshman who will be applying to pharmacy school in the fall, and I was just wondering, is it still possible to do well on the PCAT (on the biology and chemistry parts) without having taken micriobiology, anatomy/physiology, and organic chemistry? I've already started studying/looking over PCAT books and stuff. What do you all think?

You need to know some basic anatomy (like what a osteoblast is) and physiology. However, the PCAT won't ask any hardcore anatomy or physiology questions. Any microbiology that is on the PCAT will be the general stuff that you should have gotten in general biology. Microbiology, anatomy, and physiology are expendable courses, but organic is not. Organic chemistry is explicitly tested on the PCAT, so you need at least one semester of that.

 

[toyaboobear]

i think that in order to do well in the chemistry section you need to know some basic organic chemistry, things such as nomenclature and some common functional groups at the least. as far as the biology goes, i scored an 83% with just general biology I and II.

 

[TheHillCrew]

you will not do well if you have not taken organic chems, micro, and anatamy

 

[Julianne]

you will not do well if you have not taken organic chems, micro, and anatamy

Depends on what you mean by "doing well" - In my case, I took the October PCAT my second semester of school and scored a 75. I was taking Organic ChemI, PreCal, and Physics that semester but had not taken any Biology or A&P whatsoever. I did go through my Organic and Physics books and look at some of the 2nd semester material (and checked out Anatomy and Biology books from the library to look through) so maybe that helped. The 75 was enough for me because it got me accepted to my top choice(s), but again, the adcoms look at much more than just the PCAT score.

To the OP: Have you been out of high school for a long time? If not, did you take any AP science or chemistry classes while in HS? Do you like science and math or tend to make good grades in them while your classmates seem to be struggling? If you are "naturally inclined" toward these types of subjects, I'd say give the test a try... if nothing else, you'll get a feel for what it's like and be able to better prepare for the next one. Who knows, you might even surprise yourself ....