My PCAT advice

Started by moolman
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moolman

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Hi everyone,

I thought I would post some tips on how to do well on the PCAT for those beginning to study. I just got my scores so I feel confident in my advice. Also, I feel I can give a more honest advice because I got accepted into my first choice school and I'm not in competition anymore to get in to a school, no need to hold back. I got into a school that doesn't look at PCAT so I did spend a lot of time studying for nothing. 😉😀


Composite 449-99

Of course the commonsense advice is to learn everything while you take the class, which helped me the most

For the verbal section, don't waste anytime on GRE words, there are no GRE words on there. I read here on SDN to study the GRE words and it did not help at all. Maybe there was one or two GRE words if that on the test. If you do need to study vocab, I thought the Barron's Wordfest book was good. These are college level words and the format of the book made it easy to study. I hated the Kaplan course and thought it was a big waste of money but they had some good advice. Their analogy solving tips are pretty good, I used those for the analogies. There was at most 2 words I didn't know on my test and those words were weird words that you wouldn't have studied for anyway.

For Biology, read the Kaplan bio section, not a month before the test but many months before the test. Here's the bad part. The Kaplan bio section is really long and boring and on the test you'll only get tested on 10% of the material. But you don't know what material you need to know so you must study the other 90% which will waste a lot of time, but that's how it goes.

For reading comp, I took the advice on SDN and bought the Examcrackers 101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning. When I got the book from Amazon, I got really lazy and didn't even do one passage. The book looked very difficult and it didn't really get the essence of how they test you on the PCAT. There is no test prep book that gets the Reading Comp section correct. The PCAT has those questions like, what is the tone of the author, etc. and nobody really does it well. The Kaplan reading comp material was okay but way too easy compared to the real PCAT. If you need to do something, I guess the Kaplan reading comp material from the class is minimally acceptable, but not good. My advice would be to read the newspaper everyday, I read the Wall Street Journal and my local newspaper.

For Math, Kaplan is way too hard, Barrons was too easy. Cliffs might be the best out of the three. Again, there is no prep book that gets the math section correct. You have to be quick on this section. This is the only section I didn't get a 90 or above because I ran out of time. The last 5 questions were quick guesses. I would say though that if it comes down to it. Do the Cliffs and then try the Kaplan classroom math tests but don't worry if you bomb the Kaplan, it's too hard.

For Chemistry, the Cliff's was the best book. If you have time read the Kaplan book for the Chem sections but like bio, it is long and boring. I studied the Ochem stuff from Kaplan classroom material but I felt that my test did not have much Ochem in it and that I wasted a lot of time. Just do Cliff's and take the Kaplan tests.

For writing, I got a 3 and 3 because I was lazy. The kaplan advice is very good on this section. This is the only part that I thought Kaplan did a good job. If you follow their strategy, it should be good but it takes practice and I didn't practice at all, hence the 3's.

Oh yeah, take a no score of the PCAT to get a feel for it. I took the August test and freaked out when I saw it and did a no score, I did a no score because I freaked on the essay and didn't get close to finishing the math.


Good luck
 
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Thanks for all the helpful info..............

I just had one question:

The reading comp section: You said that there is no book that will actually help do good on it...........but I was wondering.........from what you mentioned, it seems that the questions are a bit similar to SAT reading comp..................

Is it similar in any way to SAT reading comp???? Would studying from an SAT book actually help???
 
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I don't think SAT reading comp is comparable. There really isn't anything comparable to the PCAT reading comp. All the books don't get it right. But if you wanted to study something because even though it's not the same style, doing reading comp questions will still help. I would pick the Kaplan reading comp material and tests that they give in the classroom course and then also do the Examcrackers 101 Verbal reasoning that I mentioned before. The Examcrackers is harder than the PCAT, so maybe PCAT will be a breeze for you then. There's no substitution for reading the newspaper or whatever everyday. I got my 95 with no studying for the reading comp because I got lazy and didn't do the examcrackers and after I saw the August PCAT I thought it was a waste of time trying to figure out the tone of the author as happy, happier, or happiest. You just can't study for those questions.
 
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I already got accepted to the University of the Pacific in California. It was my first choice school. They don't even take the PCAT and they offered me admissions without knowing my score. So a lot of time spent for nothing but it had to be done to make sure I get into school somewhere. 😀 I took the PCAT as a backup because I don't have a stellar GPA like some do here.
 
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Kaplan did have good test taking strategies for the PCAT. They say that the test makers like to hide some easy questions at the end to reward you for making it to the end. So don't waste any time on any one question, put your pride behind you and move on from a potentially lengthy math problem. Skip hard questions and go back to them when you get to the end. If you run out of time fill in all of the skipped questions with say all B's (supposedly the most common answer). You might then have a 1/4 chance of getting those correct. DON'T leave any bubbles empty! I ran out of time on the math section and guessed on about 5-8 questions and still got an 89. Reading sucked for me (65) because I did it too quickly thinking I was going to be out of time. I actually finished early...should have slowed it down. I recommend their fly by technique where you briefly read the passage or first few sentences of each paragraph, then read the question and go back to the passage to find the answers. This worked well on the practice test online, just not on the actual test because I went to quickly. Hope this helps.
 
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I hated the Kaplan course, I thought all their material doesn't really get the essence of the test. The course is only good if you can't keep yourself motivated and need some pushing to study. Their vocab word are a joke, their analogy strategy is good. Their bio is okay but long but the practice tests they give are worthless. etc. etc.
 
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yeah I didn't bother with vocab either. Would be kind of a shot in the dark to study the correct words for the test. Just wing it on that section. Studying root words would be a waste of time too.
 
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how do you study for stats for the PCAT, the kaplan book seems to cover really easy statistics and I heard the PCAT has focused a lot more on stats and genetics over recent years. also besides knowing how to calculate basic definite integrals and indefinite integrals, derivatives, second derivatives, local maximums/minimums, concavity, what else should i know for calculus? Did you say the Kaplan questions where too hard? Cause I just scanned through it and it seems like the stuff we learned in junior year of high school. so if I can do all the kaplan questions, is that adaquate?
 
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labrat024 said:
Kaplan did have good test taking strategies for the PCAT. They say that the test makers like to hide some easy questions at the end to reward you for making it to the end. So don't waste any time on any one question, put your pride behind you and move on from a potentially lengthy math problem. Skip hard questions and go back to them when you get to the end. If you run out of time fill in all of the skipped questions with say all B's (supposedly the most common answer). You might then have a 1/4 chance of getting those correct. DON'T leave any bubbles empty! I ran out of time on the math section and guessed on about 5-8 questions and still got an 89. Reading sucked for me (65) because I did it too quickly thinking I was going to be out of time. I actually finished early...should have slowed it down. I recommend their fly by technique where you briefly read the passage or first few sentences of each paragraph, then read the question and go back to the passage to find the answers. This worked well on the practice test online, just not on the actual test because I went to quickly. Hope this helps.
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Is there a penalty for guessing???
 
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hello,

I am just wondering if anybody has taken any prep class, ex.kaplan,...? do you have the tests that they give in class to prepare for the test? if anybody has those tests, are you willing to sell them to me? you can email me at: [email protected]

thanks

marla
 
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I agree with OP's advice. Kaplan does Bio and Chem really well.

I just have something else to add. If you got a section or 2 that you just plain suck at (for me it was verbal/bio), don't freak out too much about it. Make sure you can get absolutely stellar on your good subjects. The composite percentile is heavily skewed towards the higher grades and a 95+ in a subject can bring the overall up much higher than you think. comp percentile isn't calculate by all the averages of the sections.
 
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applejuju said:
I agree with OP's advice. Kaplan does Bio and Chem really well.

I just have something else to add. If you got a section or 2 that you just plain suck at (for me it was verbal/bio), don't freak out too much about it. Make sure you can get absolutely stellar on your good subjects. The composite percentile is heavily skewed towards the higher grades and a 95+ in a subject can bring the overall up much higher than you think. comp percentile isn't calculate by all the averages of the sections.
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I agree with you, BUT Are you sure it isn't calculated from the averages of all the score???????

look at these scores I pulled from other people, and the comp is the average of all the sections......


.verbal: 428......86
biology: 484.....99
RC: 419...........75
QA: 412...........62
Chemistry: 426..81
Composite: 434..94

428+484+419+412+426= 2169 / 5= 434 (comp)

. .verbal 398/45
biology 425/84
reading comp 404/52
quant 426/81
chem 433/87
. comp 417/76


398+425+404+426+433= 2086/ 5 = 417 (comp)



.Verbal Ability - 410 - 65
Biology - 440 - 94
Reading Comprehension - 423 - 80
Quantitative Ability - 454 - 97
Chemistry - 456 - 97
Composite - 437 -95 .

410+440+423+454+456= 2183 / 5= 437 (comp)


It looks like comp is the average of all the sections to me.

DREEZY10
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TRANSAMINATION said:
Thank you moolman for posting this and for all your help. You're great🙂. If I take my first PCAT and plan to retake it, how long do I have to wait to take it again?
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Until the next test date. If you scored under a 50 on the first one, you need to be aware that a 50-point increase will cause your scores to be canceled. But otherwise, you can go in June, or in August, whatever you want.
 
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charfdorn said:
Until the next test date. If you scored under a 50 on the first one, you need to be aware that a 50-point increase will cause your scores to be canceled. But otherwise, you can go in June, or in August, whatever you want.
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this is interesting.. I have never heard that. How come?
 
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justimmy said:
this is interesting.. I have never heard that. How come?
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They think you cheated. I have seen people complaining about this rule but I have never seen anyone complaining that they actually improved 50 points and had their scores cancelled. I figure that the situation is so rare that they can make the rule without it affecting too many people.
 
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From the PCAT candidate booklet:

If the results of a test show unusual similarities in test item responses by examinees who took the PCAT at the same Test Center, or if an examinee’s responses to test items show that an unusually large proportion of responses are all the same answer option (for example, an unreasonable preponderance of “A” choices), the examinee’s scores may be cancelled.
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I find the second part of this rule to be unusual. Why do they care if you guess all As? I did that and picked B but I guess I didn't do it enough to get my score canceled. I would think that guessing a lot would be reflected in the scores. Your odds of getting the question right is only 25%. Why do they care if you pick one letter over others?
 
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diastole said:
From the PCAT candidate booklet:

I find the second part of this rule to be unusual. Why do they care if you guess all As? I did that and picked B but I guess I didn't do it enough to get my score canceled. I would think that guessing a lot would be reflected in the scores. Your odds of getting the question right is only 25%. Why do they care if you pick one letter over others?
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I think this screws up the metrics for grading the next year's exams. If you're guessing, your score will bring down the average score which will make a 90 a much worse score than it was the prior year. I guess.
 
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charfdorn said:
Until the next test date. If you scored under a 50 on the first one, you need to be aware that a 50-point increase will cause your scores to be canceled. But otherwise, you can go in June, or in August, whatever you want.
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:laugh:Thank you so much. I was planning on having a no score on my first one in August and then take the next in October. My friend said that I should not take any tests past August since school pick students right away before October and it will be too late for me to do anything.
 
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so is it a good idea to take it in June with no score and take it again in August? i may do it in October too since the school i planning on starts interviewing in March .. guys I am so scared 🙁 .. i have high GPA and I am not sure if i'll do well in the verbal ability section and reading section 🙁
what can i do ?
 
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bugg said:
I honestly would never take a $150 test and choose the no score option unless something bad happened during the test (got sick/left 1/2 the questions blank). Pick a date for the PCAT that leaves you enough time to study for it. I only suggested taking it in June instead of August with a no score option, b/c the poster I was responding to was set on doing a trial run.

If you want to get a feel for the test, you should buy the Pearson practice tests and take them under timed conditions. It's $40 for one or $60 for two. I took my first practice test this weekend and the score report told me a range of what my composite score would be as well as my scores in the subtests. These tests are written by the people that write the PCAT and most of the questions have appeared on actual tests.

There are lots of other practice tests out there (Pearson's are the best, though!). Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, Barrons, and Cliffs all have practice tests.

Good luck!
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thanks bugg
Yea ... I think I should try different practice tests and I am planning to take it in June just to see myself in the verbal ability section and reading .. I can't wait for the day when I don't to worry about being accepted or not ..
 
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bugg said:
I know what you mean. I'm so worried about the PCAT and the whole admissions process. If you're other subtest scores are really good, hopefully admissions committees will look at the whole package and not just the verbal and reading, especially since you have a good GPA. The verbal and reading are my best sections, but I've got a lot of work to do to increase my chem and math scores.

It's really helped me on the analogies section to learn what types of word relationships will be tested. For example, synonyms, antonyms, degree, category, part/whole, characteristic, and object/action. When I come to an analogy where I don't know one of the words, I try to fit the possible answers into each type to make a better guess, and it usually works for me.
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I registered to take the PCAT in june but they charged me $199 b/c of the late registration and in my application I didn't selest any pharmacy school, I think it is good that I registered for the summer although I didn't have all my biol courses and organic chem I finished yet. you can work on that (chem and math) you have plenty of time . once you get it ( the chem and math stuff ) then that's it , it will stick in your mind and I believe that PCAT doesn't have those complicated questions that we usually do in real chem lecture or calculus . "I hope what I believe in is righ, we obviously don't know what the PCAT's next tricks are"
 
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