PCAT, Admissions and More Fun!

[Amalgamation]

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I just had a few questions to ask, but before I do, allow me to briefly introduce myself:

I'm entering my second year of undergrad at the University of Waterloo (in Ontario, Canada, for those that might not be familiar of where it is situated), and I'm very enthusiastic about pharmacy school. I plan on applying this year, with priority given, but not limited to the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo. I only have 6 more prerequisite courses to complete for the pharmacy program at Waterloo, and have already completed the prerequisite courses for the University of Toronto program. I'm still a little bit worried about admissions and my qualifications, so I've been working on a few things and grinding my brain to resist its lethargic tendency.

On this upcoming Saturday, I'm going to give the PCAT a shot before I start preparing the paperwork for the admissions process (PharmCAS. Good grief!) The PCAT is a new component of the admissions process for UofT (I still regret a little for not applying during my first year, and waiting for my second), and, for the most part, that's the only big obstacle between me being able to actually apply.

Now, here's when I become anxious (gogo gadget calamity!). My main concern at this point is the PCAT. I've been studying since my last exam in April (24th. The week of my birthday. 'twas a great present, surely), and, since the beginning of this week, I've been testing my mettle and going at practice tests, one after another. The results? Ah... not quite what I was expecting. For every test I've completed, I haven't been getting a score I was aiming for, regardless of repolishing what I might have needed to dust off. This whole week, I've been shrouded in a little self-caustic anxiety. Let me just list things that turned out very... ugly:

• A 48% on the Chemistry portion, only because I didn't even complete it.

• Constant 60% on Reading Comprehension.

• Verbal Ability? Don't get me started.

• Terribly written essays.

• The fact that I can't seem to grasp the concept of finding the probability of at least two dogs being chosen from a pet shop with 5/7 animals in 10 cubicles, where 2/7 of the animals are dogs, but not really, since there are also half-robot dogs from some crazy sci-fi scenario that occupy 10/23 of the 2/7 dogs (I'm just ranting, don't mind this one too much).

• I could go on, but I'm probably not going to stop.

Any advice for the PCAT? An exercise that you thought worked, perhaps? A method to solve stoichiometric and ideal gas calculations quicker than 3 minutes of ripping my hair out (please, this is the biggest problem I have that bugs me the most)? Any piece of advice or words of comfort (or, well, anything else in between) would be greatly appreciated.

Wait, hold on. I'm not quite done yet. There's more to this endless ranting.

As a part of the admissions process for the UofWaterloo program, they require a professional reference and medical experience. Easier said than done, apparently.

I've tried taking the advice of a career counsellor that said to simply walk into a pharmacy, explain my situation and ask if volunteering was possible, and the closest I got was, "well, no, but you're welcome to job shadow." Out of the few pharmacies I've asked, I've only been able to job shadow one for about seven hours (The experience was still valuable, since I do keep in touch with the pharmacist every once in a while).

I thought it would have worked just as well if I volunteered at a hospital, and so I have been. I've been working at the local (but still central!) hospital, trying to gain as much experience as possible. I've gained a lot of interpersonal skills since working there, and grown a little bit stoic since working in emergency (well, now you know why). Unfortunately, I never really associate with the same people at one time, and really I haven't been able to do much except, well, stay in one spot and just talk to people for the most part. I've been stuck out in triage (that was where I was placed) and haven't been able to interact with nurses and doctors. Best of all, I don't know if asking for a reference from anyone from the hospital will work very well at all.

So really my question is, what is the best way to gain experience in a pharmacy? For the short period of time behind a pharmacy counter, I actually had a lot of fun being able to do simple things like count pills, grab something off the shelf for the pharmacist, and (attempt) to make liquid solutions. Any help here would be absolutely invaluable.

I apologise for such a long post, and I thank you in advance for taking the time to read this beast. Input would be ohsohelpful.

 

[bullsfan1986]

hey,

I really don't know too much about canadian pharmacy schools, but good god, you need to relax. I think your over anxiety may be hampering your efforts to do well on standardized tests. As for the ideal gas law type problems asked on the PCAT, you only need the formula pv=nrt. Trust me, this formula will allow you to solve any gas problem you will ever encounter on the PCAT. Good Luck.

 

[Farcus]

there isn't any advanced stetomchemical calcuations just know PV=NRT, P1V1=P2V2, V/T=V/T and 22.4L=1mole gas at 273K and PV/T=PV/T and it shouldn't be too bad. Most problem is just plugging in numbers IF YOU KNOW the equations.

 

[sashagrl259]

have you tired getting a volunteer position in the hospital pharmacy?

 

[Amalgamation]

22.4L=1mole gas at 273K

Hmm. I never really took a moment to notice that, even though that comes up very often. Thanks!

I really don't know too much about canadian pharmacy schools, but good god, you need to relax. I think your over anxiety may be hampering your efforts to do well on standardized tests.

Eh. I guess that's one of my weak points. I do tend to freak out a lot when I'm preparing for a test. Guess I ought calm myself down at least before the test day. 😛

have you tired getting a volunteer position in the hospital pharmacy?

I have, actually. I sent an email to two local hospitals, but I never actually got any replies from them (I did recieve an email reciept without a reply, though). Actually, one of them had no contact information, and the hospital pharmacy isn't even on the floor plan of the hospital for whatever reason, so I tried asking people in the hospital, but for some reason no one seems to know where the pharmacy actually is, although everyone seems to know there is one (I wonder what needs to be kept so clandestine...)

I've also talked with a few of the institutional pharmacists at some of the locations within the GTA, but a lot of them just told me that they're only allowing students that have already been admitted to pharmacy school and basically have no desire to hire someone not actively studying in the field. They basically just told me to try and apply again when I actually get into pharmacy school (which isn't really that helpful for this situation).