PCAT prediction for MCAT

[rleung3]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi,

I am a pre-pharmacy student who recently took his PCATs. I have also been thinking about a career in medicine because I volunteered in a hospital pharmacy and loved working with doctors and nurses, but I didn't want to "officially" committ myself to medicine just yet without a PCAT score to show me how I fare on an admission test for professional school.

I was in the 99th percentile overall for my PCAT, but I was more concerned with analyzing my individual subtest scores. Specifically, the sections I looked at were Chemistry, Biology, and Reading. I was in the 99th percentile for both Biology and Chemistry (General and Organic), but I was only in the 77th percentile for reading comprehension.

Reading on standardized tests has traditionally been my weak spot my whole life, and I am very scared I might not fare very well on the MCAT since it is almost entirely reading-based.

I walked out thinking the reading passages were easy, so it is scary since my original feeling about the reading section only produced a lower-than-expected 77th percentile score.

Has anyone else here taken both the PCAT and MCAT? Do you think my chances of doing well on the MCAT (30+) are low because of my low reading score on the PCAT?

Thanks so much for reading this. I appreciate it

PS: The passages in the PCAT for almost all science-based, but they are not as technical. It is more of presenting findings in areas of healthcare research than about all the technical details.

 

[acetyl]

Take some practice tests and find out for yourself, that is probably the best advice anyone can give you. I think aamcas offers practice tests, so try those and see how you do. I'm sure you'll do fine. I know a lot of people who got accepted to MD programs with MCAT scores in the upper 20's, so keep in mind that that test is only part of the picture.

 

[SobeGekko]

I took both the PCAT and MCAT, albeit years apart. The MCAT in about 1999 and the PCAT in 2006 and to be truthful the science sections of the MCAT are a fair bit more involved. Specifically, you need to have a much deeper understanding of the subject matter for the MCAT. Your PCAT 99s on science sections bode well as you certainly sound like you have the aptitude for a high MCAT score. I wouldn't worry too much about the reading. Just take practice tests for the MCAT and do your best. The MCAT is certainly challenging but if you're prepared for it, nothing to be scared of. When I was applying to Med schools, many upper 20s at least received consideration for med school slots. Frankly, the key to admission is reasonable stats and meaningful reasons for pursuing that profession. FYI, my MCAT score was low 30s and my PCAT score was 99.

 

[DrSal]

I've taken the MCAT before...and i must say that the difference between the tests is like night and day..

i believe i did better on mcat verbal than i did on PCAT verbal... but honestly the preparation required for the mcat, the stamina, the amount of knowledge and skill is much much much higher than for the pcat.

So while a 99th percentile on pcat is AWESOME...i don't think it can say anything about future mcat performance... but like the above poster said, study and take a practice test, then you can find out for yourself.

 

[rleung3]

Thank you all for your responses. SobeGekko, those are awesome scores! If you didn't mind me asking, what were your verbal reasoning and reading comprehension scores for the MCAT and PCAT (if you remember)?

Thanks so much

 

[moi]

I took both the PCAT and MCAT, albeit years apart. The MCAT in about 1999 and the PCAT in 2006 and to be truthful the science sections of the MCAT are a fair bit more involved. Specifically, you need to have a much deeper understanding of the subject matter for the MCAT. Your PCAT 99s on science sections bode well as you certainly sound like you have the aptitude for a high MCAT score. I wouldn't worry too much about the reading. Just take practice tests for the MCAT and do your best. The MCAT is certainly challenging but if you're prepared for it, nothing to be scared of. When I was applying to Med schools, many upper 20s at least received consideration for med school slots. Frankly, the key to admission is reasonable stats and meaningful reasons for pursuing that profession. FYI, my MCAT score was low 30s and my PCAT score was 99.

If you don't mind me asking (if you mind, just tell me to bugger off 😛 ), I'm just curious, why did you go to Pharm school instead of med school? Sounds like you should have gotten into a medical program if you scored in the 30s.

 

[medder]

here's a comparison between the two.. i took both within the last year:


MCAT: 32
bio - 10
physical sciences- 11
verbal - 11


PCAT: composite 472, 99 percentile
verbal: 460, 98
bio: 480, 99
reading: 481, 99
quant: 499, 99
chem: 440, 93

assuming i performed up to my full potential on both tests, it seems that the PCAT is more manageable than the MCAT

 

[medder]

adressing your concerns about the intensive reading on the MCAT -

yes, it is more involved than the PCAT. It takes stamina and focus. The PCAT had difficult questions, but they were relatively straight forward and mostly independent of each other. The MCAT has sets of questions that are based on in-depth passages.. you might want to practice reading scientific papers to prepare for it. having said that, being in the 99th percentile for PCAT means you have what it takes to get in the 30's for the MCAT.

 

[rleung3]

Wow, awesome scores! So it must be med school for you, huh? Thanks for the input. So am I correct in assuming you have been good at the reading sections of standardized tests your whole life?

Basically, I have sucked at reading comprehension my whole life. I was always in the upper 60-lower 70th percentiles on high school standardized tests (for the reading sections), so a 77 on the PCATs for reading is a significant improvement for me. I just don't know how realistic it is for me to improve even more up to the rigorous level of the MCAT.

My stats for the PCAT are..

composite 455, 99
verbal ability 442, 95
biology 480, 99
Reading comprehension 418, 77
quantitative ability 434, 91
Chemistry 502, 99

Not quite as high as yours, with reading as my black sheep score 🙁

Again, thanks for your input 🙂

 

[SobeGekko]

If you don't mind me asking (if you mind, just tell me to bugger off 😛 ), I'm just curious, why did you go to Pharm school instead of med school? Sounds like you should have gotten into a medical program if you scored in the 30s.

I did go to med school, graduated in 2004. Realized later on I'd prefer pharmacy, thus the two scores that are years apart.

 

[SobeGekko]

If you don't mind me asking (if you mind, just tell me to bugger off 😛 ), I'm just curious, why did you go to Pharm school instead of med school? Sounds like you should have gotten into a medical program if you scored in the 30s.

I did go to med school, graduated in 2004. Realized later on I'd prefer pharmacy, thus the two scores that are years apart.

 

[domonas]

I took the MCAT's in 2001 and took the PCAT's this past October. Pretty different tests, but if you know one well, you'll know the other one as well. Just the way the questions are asked are pretty different.

If you wanted to know

Bio - 13
Verbal - 11
Gchem - 10

PCAT

Composite - 93%