Overwhelemed! Study sources? Time left? Beginner!

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Futbol99

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Hello Pharm family,

I am a Canadian, and planning to only apply in Canada, and one school requires PCAT, but it only needs us to meet the minimum cutoffs only which is 80% composite! I do not know what that means, or how hard it is to achieve that. I am hoping I can cram 1 month in for September or carry it to January (Still able to apply in 2015 cycle with that)

I am coming off MCAT knoweldge and studying so I feel comfortable with Bio and chem, need some brushing up to remember details, and have practice with RC portion. I havent done math and stats in a year so that will be the main focus of my studying along with the writing section which give me worries!

I have done 2 full days of research on what sources to get on this forum and online, and it seems there are so much out there that I dont know which are the best to invest my time in. I already have the 2013-14 Kaplan PCAT book, and I must purchase the Pearson practice exams. I do not want to purchase Dr. Collins as I live out in Canada and I don't have much time. I want to do as many practice problems as possible but in the proper PCAT context. Which sources allow me to do that? I read Kaplan is not perfect for some topics. What do you recommend for EACH study section? I read some online sources. Is there a Syllabus for the Pcat topics? I read some people use MCAT Exam krackers for practice. Is that good representation?

I have such little time, and lack major knowledge! I want to invest the right time in my studying with the right sources from the start!
Please help me. Are there any websites I should know? There are millions out there!

Thank you
 
Did you do well/decent on the MCAT? If so, read below.

If you're coming off MCAT prep, you should do well in the PCAT reading, chem, bio and verbal. I studied for the MCAT and did next to zero PCAT prep and got a 96% comp. For the MCAT, I used Princeton Review books, but Examkrackers should be just as good. For PCAT, I only had Kaplan's and no other resources (I did not have Dr. Collins or Pearson's Practice Tests)

Reading- If you can do MCAT reading passages, PCAT should be a breeze. Similar to how the MCAT has easy, medium and hard passages, PCAT does as well. But MCAT has more hard passages than PCAT (my test had 1 that I would classify as a hard passage). This was by far my best section. 97%

Chemistry - the chemistry on PCAT is pretty basic. If you know your MCAT chemistry, you should be more than well prepared. It is mostly basic gen chem problems and some orgo. When reviewing your Kaplan book, if everything in the chem section seems familiar, then you are set. The orgo section, however, has too much information that does not appear on the test.

Biol - Probably only part of PCAT that goes beyond MCAT (in some sense). I did the worst on this section because I did not have A&P or microbio at the time I took the test. Can't really help you there.

Quantitative - All about speed. If you take a long time to do easy math problems, then you need to just do a whole lot of them as practice. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way around that.

Verbal - Either you know the words or don't. I wouldn't worry too much about this section if you're vocab is slightly above average. I know for a fact that I am terrible at analogies and my score for this section was so-so (82%). If you have the time, study this section. If not, just let it be.

Writing - Similar to Quant, you are either able or unable to write quickly and succinctly. The Kaplan guidelines did a decent job explaining how to write essays for the PCAT and the sample essays they had definitely gave me a structure to mimic. However, I took the PCAT in July so idk if I did well on the writing or not. But the writings not a terribly important part of the PCAT so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Based on the structure and organization of your post, I think you should be fine (unless you have problems with timed writing).

TL;DR Conclusion: Study MCAT Reading, Kaplan Gen chem and Kaplan biol based on your weakness. Do math problems if you are slow at math. Only focus on studying vocab if you have time. Don't worry about writing too much.
 
Did you do well/decent on the MCAT? If so, read below.

If you're coming off MCAT prep, you should do well in the PCAT reading, chem, bio and verbal. I studied for the MCAT and did next to zero PCAT prep and got a 96% comp. For the MCAT, I used Princeton Review books, but Examkrackers should be just as good. For PCAT, I only had Kaplan's and no other resources (I did not have Dr. Collins or Pearson's Practice Tests)

Reading- If you can do MCAT reading passages, PCAT should be a breeze. Similar to how the MCAT has easy, medium and hard passages, PCAT does as well. But MCAT has more hard passages than PCAT (my test had 1 that I would classify as a hard passage). This was by far my best section. 97%

Chemistry - the chemistry on PCAT is pretty basic. If you know your MCAT chemistry, you should be more than well prepared. It is mostly basic gen chem problems and some orgo. When reviewing your Kaplan book, if everything in the chem section seems familiar, then you are set. The orgo section, however, has too much information that does not appear on the test.

Biol - Probably only part of PCAT that goes beyond MCAT (in some sense). I did the worst on this section because I did not have A&P or microbio at the time I took the test. Can't really help you there.

Quantitative - All about speed. If you take a long time to do easy math problems, then you need to just do a whole lot of them as practice. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way around that.

Verbal - Either you know the words or don't. I wouldn't worry too much about this section if you're vocab is slightly above average. I know for a fact that I am terrible at analogies and my score for this section was so-so (82%). If you have the time, study this section. If not, just let it be.

Writing - Similar to Quant, you are either able or unable to write quickly and succinctly. The Kaplan guidelines did a decent job explaining how to write essays for the PCAT and the sample essays they had definitely gave me a structure to mimic. However, I took the PCAT in July so idk if I did well on the writing or not. But the writings not a terribly important part of the PCAT so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Based on the structure and organization of your post, I think you should be fine (unless you have problems with timed writing).

TL;DR Conclusion: Study MCAT Reading, Kaplan Gen chem and Kaplan biol based on your weakness. Do math problems if you are slow at math. Only focus on studying vocab if you have time. Don't worry about writing too much.
Excellent answer
Thank you!
 
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