PCAT getting tougher

[nextgenpharmer]

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So I was casually browsing the pre-med forums and someone posted about how medical school admissions and post grad is becoming more competitive due to the MCAT and USMLE becoming more difficult so I am wondering isn't that pharmacy is gearing towards as well? The PCAT will be incorporating passage based questions so it'll become harder to get a high score and that should sort out the applicant field!

 

[rederza]

I took the MCAT and the PCAT and I already thought the mcat wasn't that hard. I knew I made a mistake with pharmacy the moment I walked out of the test room and realized that this joke of a test was what set the bar for a "professional" school.

With that said I know PCAT doesn't determine exactly how good of a pharmacist you eventually will be, but holy cow that exam was like one big joke. I remember being pissed too..i think the real test was to see who would pay over $100 to pass something anyone who took chemistry 101 couldve gotten.

 

[oldstock]

The PCAT will be incorporating passage based questions so it'll become harder to get a high score and that should sort out the applicant field!

It does not matter how hard the PCAT will become if new pharm schools keep popping up like crazy. They all need to fill their seats and people with 2.0s gpa and 10-20s pcat (or even less in the future) will still get in. Look at law schools: is the LSAT easy ?? Google for their recent stats for admitted students and you will see 😉

 

[68quebec]

I took the MCAT and the PCAT and I already thought the mcat wasn't that hard. I knew I made a mistake with pharmacy the moment I walked out of the test room and realized that this joke of a test was what set the bar for a "professional" school.

With that said I know PCAT doesn't determine exactly how good of a pharmacist you eventually will be, but holy cow that exam was like one big joke. I remember being pissed too..i think the real test was to see who would pay over $100 to pass something anyone who took chemistry 101 couldve gotten.

because I was extremely bad at physics and verbal, MCAT was a lot harder than PCAT (of course GRE was a lot easier).

 

[rederza]

because I was extremely bad at physics and verbal, MCAT was a lot harder than PCAT (of course GRE was a lot easier).

I've yet to take the GRE but i would think its like the SAT. I really felt the SAT was harder than PCAT, mainly because of the way it was scored. Also, Getting a 99% on the PCAT doesn't weigh (and is much more possible) as much as a perfect score on the MCAT. I didn't have time to study the physics portion, but if I remember it wasn't so much of remembering formulas as how to use it. I think some could be solved with algebra, but some you actually had to know the equation and it' been almost 4 years since I last took physics.

 

[PharmDCandidate2014]

It's just a marketing ploy.

The same 2.5 GPA buffoons will be taking the exam, which is graded on a curve, not on an absolute scale.

Nothing to worry about if you are a good student.

 

[nextgenpharmer]

I didn't mean it as worrisome for good students but I was thinking maybe it'll help with improving the candidate pool. I think the MD's went through the same problem of relaxed admissions standards a really long time ago and adjusting the MCAT was the 1st step for them as well.

 

[oldstock]

I didn't mean it as worrisome for good students but I was thinking maybe it'll help with improving the candidate pool. I think the MD's went through the same problem of relaxed admissions standards a really long time ago and adjusting the MCAT was the 1st step for them as well.

This won't change anything as school counts are creeping toward 200 - 300...

 

[nextgenpharmer]

are there any new schools projected to open?

 

[oldstock]

are there any new schools projected to open?

Google and search on here SDN my friend... too many that I do not try to keep up any more ...

 

[DrJay408]

Not sure if I quoted you properly, but I think PharmDcandidate hit the nail on the head. Good students that put in the work should be fine.

It's just a marketing ploy.

The same 2.5 GPA buffoons will be taking the exam, which is graded on a curve, not on an absolute scale.

Nothing to worry about if you are a good student.

 

[littlejung]

The PCAT introduced passage based questions this year. All of the passage related questions this year were/are experimental. 😉 When I skimmed them during the actual PCAT, the questions were fairly simple and mirrored the ones on the practice test.

 

[PharmNerdMatt]

Because the PCAT reports percentiles (not percent correct) compared to a historical reference group, a harder test should not make it "harder" to get a high score. Maybe it will differentiate the top candidates better.