PCAT feedback from this morning

Started by postal09
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postal09

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Hi all

This morning was the first time I have taken the PCAT and I was just curious as to what those who took it, thought about it.

Writing - topics were perfect for me
Verbal - much easier than all the practice tests..almost simple
Biology - tougher than practice tests (kaplan, pearson, mcraw hill, even barrons) (which I thought were really easy)
Chemistry - not too bad
Reading - straightforward like the practice tests
Quantitative - wtf??!?!??!?!???!!!!!...I got my ass kicked.
 
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First time taking it also..overall pretty much exactly what i was expecting..

Writing..good
Verbal..seemed easy not my strong point though
Bio..educated guess on about 7
Chem..about same as bio
Reading..same as verbal
Quant..tore it up hopefully..had to guess on about 3 or 4

Now we wait lol i might have to take it agian i dunno we'll see
 
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Writing - annoying, but doable
Verbal - i actually thought the analogies were hard, not because the vocabulary but b/c they were poorly related; sentence completion wasnt bad
Biology - not bad
Chemistry - not enough timeeee
Reading - easy enough
Quantitative - much easier than the practice tests
 
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Biology - about the same as from January, had to guess on some 3 or 4 because not enough time.

Chemistry - Harder than last time (January). Ran out of time ! I got a 92 for chem in my last PCAT but im sure ill do worst this time, had to guess on like 6 !

Quantatative - I finished with the last 3 left blank. And I guessed on another 5. Last time I only managed to get half way through and had to guess the rest with 5 minutes to go. Hopefully I do better, I got a 25 or so in Quantatative last time !
 
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writing - good but one stronger than the other
verbal - good
bio - good, guessed on a few, due to not knowing
chem - ran out of time 🙁
reading - good
quantitative - easier than practice, guessed on a couple due to time
 
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Wish the proc called out time at 1 min left.

Writing - alright. I think I wrote my outline on the wrong page. I also erased a key word with intention to replace it with something better when time ran out.

Verbal - easier than the prac. tests. I finished the test 9 minutes early. I took the extra time to relieve my very filled bladder. Some Q's had different relationships that usual.

Bio - thought they were a bit harder than the practice exams. Some questions favors those who just took classes.

Chem - my mind took an autonomic rest in the middle. The proctor calling out 5 min snapped me out of that. The bio section must have taken a toll on me. A synthesis questions I deliberately skipped studying for yesterday appeared...poetic justice?

Reading - on par with the practice exams. I like reading the material =)

Quant - my body temperature was elevated. My brain was burning on overdrive. I had to guess on a couple Q's I would have normally gotten since my thoughts were skipping. I finished that portion though.

All in all, I'll probably have to retake the exam again to get into my school of choice. I'm definately hardened after taking the exam.
 
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Writing - easy topics
Verbal - pretty easy...some analogies werent really too clear
Biology - think I nailed it (even though it was tough)
Chemistry - completely ridiculous imo (literally guessed the whole way)
Reading - easiest on the test
Quantitative - impossible without a calculator for me
 
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so as stated above, i feel good about all of my sections except chemistry.

checked the dates and i'm basically screwed for the october pcat, right? i don't want to sign up if i don't need to retake:xf: but i really won't know by the deadline will i?
 
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ughh this morning left me with mixed emotions
writing: better than expected
verbal: ok i guess..
bio: started off good..then went downhill
chem: probably guessed the most questions on this section
reading: loved it
quant.: not as bad as i expected although i did have to guess on a couple due to time

overall: 😕
 
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Was it just me or did the chem section contain a lot of orgo 2 material? I have not taken orgo 2 yet and as I result, I guessed on a lot of the orgo questions. I feel as if the chem section murdered me! But other than that, the exam went pretty well. I ended up guessing quite a bit on the math section, but everyone does terrible on math so I am expecting at least a decent score in that area.

The wait begins...
 
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Biology was unbelievable. I found bio hard, some questions were straightforward others were just.....wth?! and i did fairly well on all the bio sections on the kaplan/pearson practice tests.

Math. omg, seriously its like they wanted to screw you over towards the end. A lot of them were not easy, simple math q's, you needed quite some time to do them, and that caused a lot of problems. obviously, didnt finish in time.

Everything else was doable. Bio and Math were the ones that just made you want to scream.
 
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We didnt have to outline our essays, right?..because I just went straight to the actual essay page without outlining anything on that scrap page.
 
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You dont have to do an outline. That first page is just scrap to do whatever you want with. Our proctor made it clear that whatever you do dont start your actual essay on the scrap page or else it wont count. I hope you didnt make that mistake.

Here it is 8 hours later, Im back from the Browns game and Im still stewing over the biology section.

Every practice test (all the ones I mentioned earlier and I forgot to mention the 5 from Cliffs), I only missed between 2-4 questions on each biology section. This actual test today, there must have been 5 questions completely unrelated to human bio, A&P or micro.

I know Im responsible for it but I dont see the relevance of being that familiar with the reptiles and the pine trees. Damn it!!!
 
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postal09 said:
You dont have to do an outline. That first page is just scrap to do whatever you want with. Our proctor made it clear that whatever you do dont start your actual essay on the scrap page or else it wont count. I hope you didnt make that mistake.

Here it is 8 hours later, Im back from the Browns game and Im still stewing over the biology section.

Every practice test (all the ones I mentioned earlier and I forgot to mention the 5 from Cliffs), I only missed between 2-4 questions on each biology section. This actual test today, there must have been 5 questions completely unrelated to human bio, A&P or micro.

I know Im responsible for it but I dont see the relevance of being that familiar with the reptiles and the pine trees. Damn it!!!
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure I started my essay on the correct page. You got me scared now LOL. O_O, lol they gave you 3 pages for the actual essay,excluding scrap paper, right ? (just checking now, as now that you mentioned ..im like wait a minute?) though Im pretty sure I did it correctly.

I agree with you totally, biology was way off at many places, didnt relate to anything that I have seen in many of the practice tests I took, and I did pretty well on the bio sections. Also, math was a killer. They should seriously give 50 minutes for that section. I wouldnt call it 'difficult" ..but there were some problems that required a lot of work and just messed up things in the end.
 
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snyc90 said:
Im pretty sure I started my essay on the correct page. You got me scared now LOL. O_O, lol they gave you 3 pages for the actual essay,excluding scrap paper, right ? (just checking now, as now that you mentioned ..im like wait a minute?) though Im pretty sure I did it correctly.

I agree with you totally, biology was way off at many places, didnt relate to anything that I have seen in many of the practice tests I took, and I did pretty well on the bio sections. Also, math was a killer. They should seriously give 50 minutes for that section. I wouldnt call it 'difficult" ..but there were some problems that required a lot of work and just messed up things in the end.
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As long as you wrote on the pages with the lines, then you're fine.

Writing - topics were not that difficult, was able to sufficiently answer the questions, I think
Verbal Analogies - easier than I expected
Biology - it seemed like it was super specific on many of the questions that didn't really test your knowledge of bio, but rather random trivia facts
Chem - I survived, that's all that matters!
Reading - it was decent, the reading material was interesting so it kept me awake
Math - started off strong, then I had to guess on like 5-6 questions =[
 
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I just realized that I have been stressing over nothing since most of the questions that I missed today were probably the "test" questions that comprise the eight per section that dont count anyways......now I can get to sleep.
 
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postal09 said:
I just realized that I have been stressing over nothing since most of the questions that I missed today were probably the "test" questions that comprise the eight per section that dont count anyways......now I can get to sleep.
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Isn't the eight question rule only implemented in the bio section? And what happens if you get one or more of those questions correct? Does that count towards your score or is it just not scored at all?
 
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PistonFan531 said:
Isn't the eight question rule only implemented in the bio section? And what happens if you get one or more of those questions correct? Does that count towards your score or is it just not scored at all?
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There are 8 experimental questions on each section that count towards nothing even if they are answered right. Your core score for each section is determined by a score out of 40.
 
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Essay: The essays wasn't too bad. One topic stumped me though, it took a while for me to get started on writing.
Bio: Some questions left me going, "HUH???" But overall it was do-able.
Verbal: Wasn't bad, but some were confusing. I would narrow it down to two options and both options would look very good.
Chem: A lot more organic than I anticipated. Not as much calculations as I thought. So it was a pretty good balance.
Quant: My weakest section. There were some very weird questions. I had to guess on a few questions but overall I'd say it was reasonable compared to the other PCATs.
 
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This was my first time taking the PCAT. Overall, it was a lot harder than I imagined.

writing-not bad. Funny, because this was the section I was most freaked out about beforehand.
english/reading- the reading was a lot easier than on practice tests. So was the fill in the blanks. Some of the analogies I wasn't sure of but overall it wasn't too bad.
biology- knew most of the stuff. All the biology 2/animals/plant stuff was my weak point.

now for the bad parts:
math- not enough time. Even simple questions were hard because of the calculations by hand that took forever. Than there was some stuff totally out there that I didn't know how to do. I always done so well in math so I thought this would be the section I would do best on :laugh:
chemistry-the one totally impossible section. I think I guessed on half of them. I took organic soo long ago and didn't have enough time left to really study for it (stupid me left the hardest part for last when studying). But I'm retaking organic 1 in the fall so I guess there is hope I do better next time.
 
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this was my first time taking the PCAT as well... and i'm in agreement with most of you.

i went into this knowing i was not going to get 99th percentile or anywhere near that because i have not taken precalculus/calculus in over 6 years, and i also haven't taken microbiology, physiology, or the second half of orgo.

i thought the test was reasonable and not terribly difficult outside of the math and biology sections, so it was pretty much what i expected. i definitely ran out of time on the math section and had to guess on a handful. chemistry had more orgo II than what i was expecting. i thought biology was much much harder than any of the practice tests i had taken.

does anyone know if the results come any earlier than 6 weeks (in other words when would it be wise to register for the oct PCAT)
 
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Essay 1: decent.
Verbal: good. THANK YOU DR. COLLINS!!!!!! 😀
Biology: i think i did okay...some questions were way too specific.
Chemistry: got my butt handed. timing got me once again.

Essay 2: decent, better than the first essay.
Reading: good. the topics were interesting and somewhat straightforward.
Math: sweet Jesus. i wanted to shoot my face off. it was THAT BAD.

overall, the test was okay (excluding chem and math).

tip to oct. test takers, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY DR. COLLINS. this saved my butt on the verbal. when i took the test in june, the verbal was what killed me. but with dr. collin's, most examples were verbatim to the real test.

now the wait begins.
 
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Essay 1: not bad, pretty good topic
Verbal: I thought this was tricky. Very odd weird bridges.
Biology: A lot more plant questions than I thought they would put on it. Other than that, not too bad.
Chemistry: I thought it was the most difficult section. Had more Ochem synthesis questions than I expected.

Essay 2: About the same as the 1st, not too bad
Reading: Really good. Had plenty of time and topics were somewhat interesting.
Math: I actually thought it wasn't too bad. Just seemed like a lot of busy work.

Overall, I thought I did great on math and reading, decent on bio and verbal and am a little worried about chem.

Kaplan didn't really prepare me very well for any sections other than bio and reading.
 
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kern07 said:
Essay 1: decent.
Verbal: good. THANK YOU DR. COLLINS!!!!!! 😀
Biology: i think i did okay...some questions were way too specific.
Chemistry: got my butt handed. timing got me once again.

Essay 2: decent, better than the first essay.
Reading: good. the topics were interesting and somewhat straightforward.
Math: sweet Jesus. i wanted to shoot my face off. it was THAT BAD.
.
Click to expand...


I feel the same way about the test as you.... it was a very sad day for me
 
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Essay 1: relatively hard topic, but wrote a pretty good essay
Verbal Ability: some of the analogies were a little difficult but overall did pretty well
Biology: I did ok, the bio was too specific though that's my only complaint
Chemistry: I did pretty good. The only questions I didn't know were organic rxns
Essay 2: easy topic, but unfortunately I didn't know much about it. I wrote an OK paper
Reading: this is my weakest section but the passages were all very easy and interesting
Quantitative Ability: Questions were pretty straightforward, not alot of stats! There really is a problem about how much time they give you though in my opinion
 
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I'm a graduate student in epidemiology and I haven't taken the core courses since 2003 and 2004. I started studying late july in hopes of having enough review time. Well....these are my thoughts from Saturday's test:

Verbal - Fairly straightforward...3-4 were a lil tricky and I guess. Hopefully they were in the 8 experimental questions. lol. This was probably my second strongest section. Finished with a minute or two to spare.

Biology - Since I was a Bio major in college this section wasn't too bad. There were a few questions in left field but hope they were experimental too. lol. This was my 3rd strongest topic. Finished with no time to spare.

Essays...I write a great deal too so this was fairly simple for me. I finished both essay with a few minutes to spare. Absolutely a strong POINT!

Chemistry - I seemed to second guess myself on some of the theoretical problems. I only had about five calculation problems and I stumbled over a couple of those due to time. 5 minute warning was called around question 38. So I guessed on 4-5 Qs. 2nd worst section!

Reading - MY PRIZE!! I read soooo much in grad school to the point this section seemed remedial. I had a good 5-7 minutes to spare after I finished and reviewed questions.

Quanatative - KICK MY BUTT! 5 minute warning was called on question 34. I was like oh NOOOO! On the next 14, I actually did about 8 or 9 (hope I got some correct) and guessed on the remaining ones. WORST section!!!

I'm shooting for a composite in the upper 60s-lower 70s (averages for schools I'm applying to) and I think I may have it. I have pharmacy experience, finishing up a master's degree and a 3.5 overall undergraduate GPA.
 
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roziak said:
Essay 1: relatively hard topic, but wrote a pretty good essay
Verbal Ability: some of the analogies were a little difficult but overall did pretty well
Biology: I did ok, the bio was too specific though that's my only complaint
Chemistry: I did pretty good. The only questions I didn't know were organic rxns
Essay 2: easy topic, but unfortunately I didn't know much about it. I wrote an OK paper
Reading: this is my weakest section but the passages were all very easy and interesting
Quantitative Ability: Questions were pretty straightforward, not alot of stats! There really is a problem about how much time they give you though in my opinion
Click to expand...


I felt rushed during the math section too! I was only on number 34 with 5 minutes remaining. I wished there were more stat questions!
 
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kern07 said:
Essay 1: decent.
Verbal: good. THANK YOU DR. COLLINS!!!!!! 😀
Biology: i think i did okay...some questions were way too specific.
Chemistry: got my butt handed. timing got me once again.

Essay 2: decent, better than the first essay.
Reading: good. the topics were interesting and somewhat straightforward.
Math: sweet Jesus. i wanted to shoot my face off. it was THAT BAD.

overall, the test was okay (excluding chem and math).

tip to oct. test takers, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY DR. COLLINS. this saved my butt on the verbal. when i took the test in june, the verbal was what killed me. but with dr. collin's, most examples were verbatim to the real test.

now the wait begins.
Click to expand...

I felt numb after Math and Chem as well. Chem was slightly better though. However, they were definitely my two worst sections! I didn't leave anything blank like some folks and I was able to read ALL the questions and made some educated guess. I'm hoping for the best for the BOTH of us.
 
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postal09 said:
I just realized that I have been stressing over nothing since most of the questions that I missed today were probably the "test" questions that comprise the eight per section that dont count anyways......now I can get to sleep.
Click to expand...
.

Lol. I keep waking up the night after looking up answers. I couldn't rest to save my life. I'm hoping for the best too!
 
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writing: ok for both
verbal: kinda challenging i found for the sentence completions
bio: easy
chem: easy
reading: not my best area >.<
quant: a bit longer than i thought id take to finish them
 
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SCalumfan said:
.

Lol. I keep waking up the night after looking up answers. I couldn't rest to save my life. I'm hoping for the best too!
Click to expand...

Is it possible that some of the PCAT questions that have appeared on multiple PCAT exams were experimental? Or do the experimental questions only compose of entirely new questions that have not been seen before?
 
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