PCAT is not that bad...AT ALL!

[PharmDtoB816]

just took it today and got 95th percentile (60 for reading brought it down) I was really freaking out about it and tried to do a bunch of practice test...honestly it was a waste of time...the only section that I'm happy I practiced with is math...bio and Chem is very very superficial (if you took those classes in college). I have a B.S in Biochemistry so maybe that's why I felt like the questions were really really basic...
Anyway, Kaplan was waaayyy harder then the test. Pearson was very close to the real thing...I'd say the level of difficulty was slightly higher then the easiest Collins exam...

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Natty103]

I got dr Collins from someone on this website. It looks like it's been photo copied or something. Anyways the person said it was 2017 and there's no indications what so ever. It the back it actually says passage based questions undated from January 2017 so iw nat to ask how much did Collins help? My bio section has 10 practice exams. And it seems easy. It's very general. Should I be worried? Also about chemistry... I'm freaking out on that use it's the most important one. How'd you prepare for chemistry? Should I study a Kaplan book or do the 17 practice exams in Collins over and over again?

 

[PharmDtoB816]

I got dr Collins from someone on this website. It looks like it's been photo copied or something. Anyways the person said it was 2017 and there's no indications what so ever. It the back it actually says passage based questions undated from January 2017 so iw nat to ask how much did Collins help? My bio section has 10 practice exams. And it seems easy. It's very general. Should I be worried? Also about chemistry... I'm freaking out on that use it's the most important one. How'd you prepare for chemistry? Should I study a Kaplan book or do the 17 practice exams in Collins over and over again?

Hi,
Bio section really was very general. I only did one Collins practice test and realized that I didn't need to spend time on that. Questions were similar though, so it may be a good idea to go through some of them, especially if you feel that you can not answear those questions easily. If you took bio, A&P, gen Chem, and ochem, the exam should be a breeze...Collins helped with some of the practice questions in Chem as well ... mostly stuff that I've forgotten over the years...I'd do like 5 exams maybe, I would not waste time for all 17 of them, BUT please do whatever you feel is right (I'm just saying how I felt about it).

 

[PharmDtoB816]

I got dr Collins from someone on this website. It looks like it's been photo copied or something. Anyways the person said it was 2017 and there's no indications what so ever. It the back it actually says passage based questions undated from January 2017 so iw nat to ask how much did Collins help? My bio section has 10 practice exams. And it seems easy. It's very general. Should I be worried? Also about chemistry... I'm freaking out on that use it's the most important one. How'd you prepare for chemistry? Should I study a Kaplan book or do the 17 practice exams in Collins over and over again?

...also, Kaplan is great to really learn the content...honestly, if you are taking practice tests and feel like you've never heard about the things in the question, take your time and study Kaplan. However, if you've studied these things before, Collins/Pearson is more then enough to refresh your knowledge

 

[Natty103]

...also, Kaplan is great to really learn the content...honestly, if you are taking practice tests and feel like you've never heard about the things in the question, take your time and study Kaplan. However, if you've studied these things before, Collins/Pearson is more then enough to refresh your knowledge

Thanks for the advice

 

[Ry930933]

I got dr Collins from someone on this website. It looks like it's been photo copied or something. Anyways the person said it was 2017 and there's no indications what so ever. It the back it actually says passage based questions undated from January 2017 so iw nat to ask how much did Collins help? My bio section has 10 practice exams. And it seems easy. It's very general. Should I be worried? Also about chemistry... I'm freaking out on that use it's the most important one. How'd you prepare for chemistry? Should I study a Kaplan book or do the 17 practice exams in Collins over and over again?

Hi!
I just took my PCAT on Friday as well and scored a 95 on Composite. I was totally freaking out when I was preparing for the exam too, but PCAT really wasn't as bad as I thought. I also got Dr. Collins and indeed everything looks photo copied. I took Chem 2 years ago, so I thought Dr. Collins was very helpful refreshing my memory on the major concepts. Especially the practice tests, make sure to do as many of them as you can and review the concepts you got wrong. For bio section, I definitely didn't think Dr. Collins was enough, everything just seemed too easy and general, so I purchased the Kaplan PCAT study guide just for the bio section (it does have redundant details, but it really helped me understand the concepts better). But also do the bio practice tests from Dr. Collins, I believe there were some similar questions I encountered on my PCAT. After you have become familiar with the concepts DEFINITELY do the Pearson practice tests. I am so glad I did because the Pearson practice tests are in the actual format of PCAT and it really helps you prepare for the time and the structure of the questions (especially the passage questions).

 

[scong]

I got a 95 composite as well (also have a BS in biochem lol)! It was surprisingly way easier than I expected?? I heard a lot of people did really well on this exam too, so I'm just concerned that the official scores might be lowered because of it..

 

[PharmDtoB816]

I got a 95 composite as well (also have a BS in biochem lol)! It was surprisingly way easier than I expected?? I heard a lot of people did really well on this exam too, so I'm just concerned that the official scores might be lowered because of it..

Maybe it's years of in depth exams like genetics, OChem, and biochem that made PCAT seem easy, lol
I wouldn't worry too much about changing the percentile because they compare our grades to a few years of old results, so I don't think it can change that easily...