PCAT Study Advices

[Yordy]

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Hello Eveyone, how are you?
I have been using as study guide Dr.Collins 2018 version. I have my Pcat on September 6. There are people saying that Kaplan and Pearson practice tests are better than Dr. Collins. Also people told me that for Biology I should study by Kaplan. What do you guys think?. Please give me some advices or tell what was you study schedule that could help me. Righ now I have 1 month to study.
Thank you.

 

[pharm2023]

Hello Eveyone, how are you?
I have been using as study guide Dr.Collins 2018 version. I have my Pcat on September 6. There are people saying that Kaplan and Pearson practice tests are better than Dr. Collins. Also people told me that for Biology I should study by Kaplan. What do you guys think?. Please give me some advices or tell what was you study schedule that could help me. Righ now I have 1 month to study.
Thank you.

I highly recommend the Kaplan material. I was 91st percentile despite never having ochem, bio chem, or A&P (first year student). I used one of their practice tests to serve as a diagnostic on what I should focus on. Read all 900 something pages, taking notes and using sources such as Khan Academy in the areas I knew I needed to improve thanks to the diagnostic. Took the second practice test a few days before the real thing to know what I needed to brush up on last minute. I understand the short time frame struggle, as I had a full time internship the month of June and while I studied some, I only had about 3 weeks where I could dedicate adequate time. Look elsewhere for the math portion though, I did not feel as though Kaplan prepares you well for the time frame and I did lower than expected. And don’t get discouraged by low Kaplan scores, I barely made 50th percentile just days before I scored 91st on the actual.

 

[Yordy]

I highly recommend the Kaplan material. I was 91st percentile despite never having ochem, bio chem, or A&P (first year student). I used one of their practice tests to serve as a diagnostic on what I should focus on. Read all 900 something pages, taking notes and using sources such as Khan Academy in the areas I knew I needed to improve thanks to the diagnostic. Took the second practice test a few days before the real thing to know what I needed to brush up on last minute. I understand the short time frame struggle, as I had a full time internship the month of June and while I studied some, I only had about 3 weeks where I could dedicate adequate time. Look elsewhere for the math portion though, I did not feel as though Kaplan prepares you well for the time frame and I did lower than expected. And don’t get discouraged by low Kaplan scores, I barely made 50th percentile just days before I scored 91st on the actual.

Thank you very much for your advice. It really helps. Let me ask you something does it matter what version of Kaplan I use, since my friend gave me 2016.

 

[atross]

Hello Eveyone, how are you?
I have been using as study guide Dr.Collins 2018 version. I have my Pcat on September 6. There are people saying that Kaplan and Pearson practice tests are better than Dr. Collins. Also people told me that for Biology I should study by Kaplan. What do you guys think?. Please give me some advices or tell what was you study schedule that could help me. Righ now I have 1 month to study.
Thank you.

I recommend Collins. I have taken all the prereq classes though. I have the 2018 version of Collins and scored 98th percentile composite.

 

[Yordy]

I recommend Collins. I have taken all the prereq classes though. I have the 2018 version of Collins and scored 98th percentile composite.

Oh wow nice, congratulations!!!! how long did you study?

 

[atross]

Oh wow nice, congratulations!!!! how long did you study?

I studied for about eight weeks for about two to three hours a day. I studied in chunks. I had a schedule. I'd work on Bio for 2 days, then Chem for 2 days, and so on.

 

[Yordy]

I studied for about eight weeks for about two to three hours a day. I studied in chunks. I had a schedule. I'd work on Bio for 2 days, then Chem for 2 days, and so on.

Oh nice that’s the same time I have until my pcat. I hope I can get a score like yours. Let’s see. Thank you very much.

 

[LApgx]

Hello Eveyone, how are you?
I have been using as study guide Dr.Collins 2018 version. I have my Pcat on September 6. There are people saying that Kaplan and Pearson practice tests are better than Dr. Collins. Also people told me that for Biology I should study by Kaplan. What do you guys think?. Please give me some advices or tell what was you study schedule that could help me. Righ now I have 1 month to study.
Thank you.

I strongly agree with pharm2023–I also used Kaplan and Pearson practice exams, but I did not use Dr. Collins. I haven't taken A&P, Ochem, or biochem, but I feel that Kaplan prepared me well. For QR, I would suggest taking the Pearson practice exams and identifying your own weaknesses, then focusing on studying those concepts. For A&P, I also used a short anatomy textbook and read about one system per day about three weeks before my exam. For CR, I would recommend timing yourself when you read passages and trying to go as fast as you can while still reading carefully–I'm sorry I can't really give good advice for this section. I ended up scoring a 99 on all sections except critical reading, as I could not read the last passage very carefully.