Memorize periodic table for PCAT?

[starsweet]

This might be a dumb question, but for all you who have taken the PCAT:

I just started studying the Chemistry section and was wondering if we are expected to know the formula, say for a quantum of energy and also the atomic numbers of common elements; Mg, for example. My Kaplan book was asking these sorts of questions but are we really supposed to have formulas like the above memorized and know the atomic numbers of elements as well?

I may be freaking out a tad bit since it's been a while since I've had Chem and I don't know what we should have memorized and what will be provided in question.

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[Caverject]

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt anything, but no you do not need to memorize the periodic table and I would encourage you not to do that. You can spend your time & resources on more useful things like chemical reactions, bonding, orbitals, and the like.

 

[fairyofsong]

RATHER than memorizing the periodic table; rather know and understand the trends in the table. This will help you more than anything. Just get a feel for where each element is and if you know the trends, you can derive answers. Just remember, there are only so many questions and you should divide your time on the entire subject rather than one major part of it that may only have several questions. Best of luck!

 

[OSURxgirl]

You will NOT need to memorize the periodic table for the PCAT...speaking of which...shouldn't you have posted this in the PCAT forum?

 

[RLK]

Go ahead and memorize it. Memorize the chart of the nuclides too.

 

[RascalCA4Life]

I took PCAT on June, i didnt see any Periodic Table =)....all the questions are basically definition, Ex) what is Isoptope, Homogenous...etc those stuffs

 

[Glycerin]

Since this is a PCAT question, I'm moving to the appropriate forum.

 

[starsweet]

You're kidding... it's that simple? Then why does the Kaplan book ask all sorts of ridiculous questions that are based on knowing most of the periodic table??

 

[DownonthePharm]

Because the Kaplan book IS a little rediculous. When I studied from it I felt like the biggest idiot all the way through, but ended up doing great on the actual PCAT.

But its always best to be a little overprepared then underprepared.

 

[starsweet]

THANKS... I guess I'll stick with it and hopefully the end result will be the same!

Also, is each review (bio, chem, o-chem) in the Kaplan book sufficient for the test, as in do I need to study any other book to get more background, like Cliff's Quick Review books?

Basically I want to use just this book and maybe Barron's for practice questions.

And, how bad is the o-chem?

 

[All4MyDaughter]

I think Kaplan's is fine for anyone who did well in their pre-reqs and took them fairly recently. I used a supplemental biology book because it had been 10+ years since I had GenBio. It was Kaplan's GRE Biology Review.

DO NOT MEMORIZE the periodic table. That would be a huge waste of your time. I know that Kaplan has questions that require you to know random things like the atomic number of curium, but there were NO questions like that on the June PCAT.

As far as O-Chem, I didn't think it was that bad. I had only had 2 weeks of Orgo I, and did not get to the O-Chem section in Kaplan. Just know your functional groups, understand areas of reactivity in molecules (double bond, carbonyl, etc).

It helps if you understand stuff like a carbon with four atoms bonded to it is sp3 hybridized, has tetrahedral geometry, etc.

That's all I can think of right now! Good luck!