PCAT this Saturday!!!

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fujitsux

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Okay PCAT is this saturday. I'm freaking out and i'm sure you guys are too! Tell me, which section you worry the most? Pick only one.

For me it's reading comprehension. I always tend to avoid this part because it's long, boring and incomprehensible. Tell me yours!!!! :scared:
 
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Quant. There's so many different questions they can ask. Every new review I look at I find something else I forgot how to do. I'm hoping all the ones I won't know how to do will be experimental. :laugh:
At least the reading has basically the same questions every passage. I'm not too worried overall. I'm just going to hate the 5 weeks of waiting for my score after I take it.
 
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I'm freaking out too....

I, too, have been holding out the the reading comp for the same reason. i've only done like 2 examples. But the one area i'm most worried about is chemistry. I'm really good with calculations, but all the conceptual stuff is kicking my butt. Its also sad to say that I've spent most of my time studying chem...
 
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I'm stressing over chem. I'm the opposite of you, Trunks. I'm really hoping it's mostly concepts and not calculations, or else I'm screwed.

You think trig is going to be on the exam? It isn't listed on the exam outline, but I see it on practice exams in some study books.
 
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Quant for me too. I wasn't worried because the reviews for it in Kaplan, McGraw Hill, and Barron's were all pretty easy...then I took the Pearson tests and realized there were a lot of calc concepts that I forgot about.
 
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jjfree said:
Quant for me too. I wasn't worried because the reviews for it in Kaplan, McGraw Hill, and Barron's were all pretty easy...then I took the Pearson tests and realized there were a lot of calc concepts that I forgot about.
Click to expand...

Hey..if you don't mind, what kind of calc questions are being asked?
 
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implicit differentiation, integration by parts, know all the differentiation rules (i.e. chain rule, quotient rule), limits.
Calc 1 stuff, I just haven't taken a calc class in 2 years.
 
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I am having a hard time with genetics questions in Biology. Is there a better approach to those Punnet Square questions?
 
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OroPharmD2b said:
I am having a hard time with genetics questions in Biology. Is there a better approach to those Punnet Square questions?
Click to expand...

Regarding to the punnet square I also have a question.

For example: If you have this and they ask "what is the probability of your son getting the disease. What is the answer?"

Y x
x| xY xx
X| XY Xx

Is it 25% because out of 4 kids, one son might get the disease?
 
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fujitsux said:
Regarding to the punnet square I also have a question.

For example: If you have this and they ask "what is the probability of your son getting the disease. What is the answer?"

Y x
x| xY xx
X| XY Xx

Is it 25% because out of 4 kids, one son might get the disease?
Click to expand...

The fact that the first child or children have the disease does not affect the probability subsquent children will get the disease. That means it is independent of and should be the same, 25%.
 
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OroPharmD2b said:
The fact that the first child or children have the disease does not affect the probability subsquent children will get the disease. That means it is independent of and should be the same, 25%.
Click to expand...

How would the answer be if they ask the probably of 2nd son getting this disease?
 
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fujitsux said:
How would the answer be if they ask the probably of 2nd son getting this disease?
Click to expand...

I think it depends on which parent has the disease X. If the father has it and the mother doesn't, then he will pass it on to all his daughters to carry the gene. If the father is normal and the mother is a carrier, then 50% of sons will have the disease and %50 of daughters will be carriers. X-linked traits are recessive and are masked by another X chromosome.

HTH
 
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math! I agree the pearson tests seem to have a lot of calculus..it seems as though some tests are easier some are harder depending on what you know well, hope we get lucky!
 
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ok, i think i have this straight but just want to make sure. If a question asks for the interval of concave up or concave down, don't we just take the second derivitive and set it eqaul to zero? if you get a negative number it's concave down, and if you get a positive number it's concave up?

is this correct? it's been 2 years since i finished calc 2, and i can't remember the basic calc 1 stuff! ahhh this saturday is going to suck
 
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yeah you set the 2nd derivative equal to 0 and find those critical numbers. Then you gotta make a number line to see which region is positive or negative.
So say you get x = 2 and 4,
1) from negative infinity to 2, is the region positive or negative
2) repeat from (2,4)
3) then (4 til positive infinity)

I hope that helps
 
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did any of you have a weird bio section? i have taken this test twice before today and it was very different than the previous times.
 
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joetrisman said:
Just took it as well. The second essay made me want to gouge my eyes out. The waiting begins...
Click to expand...

I loved one of them and wrote a great essay, but the other one was just terrible. The question was stupid and my essay was a bit unfocused.

Tatodotcom said:
did any of you have a weird bio section? i have taken this test twice before today and it was very different than the previous times.
Click to expand...

I've never taken it before, but I thought I had a pretty good idea what I was up against after doing the official practice test, doing tons of kaplan crap tests and other tests...
But damn, that was weird. Bio was asking stuff that I had absolutely no idea on.

In fact, I thought every section was significantly harder than the official practice tests...
Everything I thought would be on the test wasn't, and all this other random stuff was there.

Though I still think I'll get a decent score, might need to take it again, maybe not we'll see.
 
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I just took it today. That quantitative section just killed me. Everything else was pretty easy. Darn it. I hope that one section didn't screw me up! 🙁

Good luck to all of you.. 😉
 
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I just got home from the exam. I was so brain dead that it took a while for me to notice that I was driving really slowly on the freeway.

I lucked out and got easier essay topics compared to what other people got. I did as expected in all the sections except for math. Quant was totally not about doing the math. It felt like it tested more on test-taking skills, like eliminating totally off answers, making a best guess, and skipping all hard ones to do all easy ones first. There was no way to solve the problems in the time alotted. I had to guess at a lot of them.

There was a bio question that I just happened to learn in a graduate level class. That had to be an experimental one.

Now comes the waiting...
 
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the bio had some weird questions. The chem was pretty standard, though, and the quant was pretty bad.
If we are being compared to previous test-takers that had easier tests, how is it standardized?
 
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fenderbiz said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the bio had some weird questions. The chem was pretty standard, though, and the quant was pretty bad.
If we are being compared to previous test-takers that had easier tests, how is it standardized?
Click to expand...

Glad to see I am not the only one who thought this. I thought the biology was an odd way to test the material, chemistry was fine but quant I left scractching my head.

My essay questions one was straightforward and the other asked what I thought was a really confusing question.
 
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For whoever took the PCAT today, and also studied using the Kaplan Study guide...Was their list of verbal words any good? Also, how comparable was their quantitative section to today's (as in, easier or harder?).
 
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I studied Kaplan.

I used another flash card set for verbal, but verbal is the beast for me.

Chemistry was fine with Kaplan, biology was fine (but I thought it was a wierd way how they asked the material) quant really sucked. I did not find Kaplan useful for quant, but that is just me. For example, calculus in Kaplan just touches on what a derrivitive and integral is with very basic functions. Needless to say, the quant section hurt today. The other stuff I am sure was fine.
 
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Chemistry was exactley like the Kaplan PCAT review book. Biology was mostly microbiology for me and only like 2-3 questions about plants. Analogies were a joke. I thought the vocabulary was going to be a lot harder. Kaplan needs a different math review. I strongly stress making sure you can finsih 48 problems in 40 minutes because time flew by.
 
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hey guys, I have a quick question for those who took the test today. We can't use a calculator right? So are the calculations more basic when doing the chem section. Thanks
 
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fenderbiz said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the bio had some weird questions. The chem was pretty standard, though, and the quant was pretty bad.
If we are being compared to previous test-takers that had easier tests, how is it standardized?
Click to expand...

It is based on a norm group back in 2001-2004. It has nothing to do with who you take the test with or first time test takers or anything.
 
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tomatomann said:
hey guys, I have a quick question for those who took the test today. We can't use a calculator right? So are the calculations more basic when doing the chem section. Thanks
Click to expand...

Values in chem were simple numbers that made the calculations easy to do. I didn't have much calculation questions in chem. They were mostly on theory.
 
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Determined27 said:
It is based on a norm group back in 2001-2004. It has nothing to do with who you take the test with or first time test takers or anything.
Click to expand...

They rehauled the PCAT in 2004, so they had to change the norm group.

"Your percentile rank scores are based on the current norm group each time you take the PCAT. The current norm group is defined as all first-time examines who took the test between October 2004 and May 2007. Your scaled scores are based on the number of core (live) items that you answered correctly for each subtest."

So if a more recent test is considered "harder" than any of the previous tests, then that works against us. Though I imagine it's difficult for test-makers to make multiple test forms and try to make the questions equal difficulty.
 
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I guess I agree with most of folks here who took PCAT today. Biology questions were kinds of wordy until you see the answers, lots of them had long question stem but you can't figure out what they ask until you see the answers, most of these questions boil down to very simple concepts. I don't know if other people feel the same way about bio. Math feels like weight out of line... lots of stats and cals.

Good luck to all of PCAT takers, god bless good composite score...
 
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Today PCAT is way more difficult than the practice exam. I found Reading Comprehension bettet than i feared. Chemistry was good. I think Bio was heavy on Micro and Genetics. I geussed so many questions on Quanititative and bubbled in about so 6 or 7 at the two minute announcement. Verbal? Much harder than i thought. Is it the immigrant thing or was it hard for every one else?
 
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Quant - forget it! NO matter how much I study, i still can't do it. The calculation seems tedious and I just don't have the time to go all the way. I have to say it's an experience. You wont' know until you see it yourself. I saw it today. Now i will gouge my eyes.

Verbal - it's easy but some of the relationship I can't seem to connect. The words are not hard but tricky.

Chem - i think I rather take this a thousand times than math.

Biol- some of them are weird; few genetic questions that I don't expect to see. Not bad...just that I don't have time to go back to revise any changes.

Reading - i suck at this thing. Seriously I need to read more.

Essay - I hate seeing people next to me keep on reading while I'm stuck at the first paragraph.

The time goes by too fast. I couldn't believe how stressful and nervous I am taking the test. I wish i can keep my composure. I didn't choose the "no score" b/c i want to see how bad i messed up.

I feel stupid and depressed.

Overall - if i had a chance, I would redo this again T_T
 
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Yeah, I had a feeling we would run out of time on the math section. I ran out of time for the chemistry section as well (guessed on a couple in the end), although it wasn't too bad.

By any chance, do any of you guys have an idea on approx how many questions you can miss on the math, bio, chem sections in order to obtain a 90 (for each section)? (i am using 90 as an example)

a long 6 weeks to go...
 
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miko said:
I just got home from the exam. I was so brain dead that it took a while for me to notice that I was driving really slowly on the freeway.

I lucked out and got easier essay topics compared to what other people got. I did as expected in all the sections except for math. Quant was totally not about doing the math. It felt like it tested more on test-taking skills, like eliminating totally off answers, making a best guess, and skipping all hard ones to do all easy ones first. There was no way to solve the problems in the time alotted. I had to guess at a lot of them.

There was a bio question that I just happened to learn in a graduate level class. That had to be an experimental one.

Now comes the waiting...
Click to expand...

Your thoughts on quant pretty much sum up mine. If you didn't prioritize by skipping the hard/impossible/tedious problems and using good guessing skills you would have been on like #25 and time would have been called lol.

Hah I hope to god some of crazy bio questions were experimental...

fenderbiz said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the bio had some weird questions. The chem was pretty standard, though, and the quant was pretty bad.
If we are being compared to previous test-takers that had easier tests, how is it standardized?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they adjust somehow for difficulty changes between tests.
 
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I don't know why, but i completely botched the chemistry. On the kaplan midterm and final i scored 450 and 460, so i layed off it. At the five minute announcement, i had about 15 q's left, and had to guess. It totally screwed me. Anyone have a similar experience?
 
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For those of you who had the Dr. Collins study guide, did you find it helpful for this exam? And was math hard because it had a lot of calc?
 
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Dr.Collins' verbal, biol, chemistry is pretty similar to the test. I say focus on his package, but for math (eek!--no suggestion, just study).
 
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milwrift said:
I don't know why, but i completely botched the chemistry. On the kaplan midterm and final i scored 450 and 460, so i layed off it. At the five minute announcement, i had about 15 q's left, and had to guess. It totally screwed me. Anyone have a similar experience?
Click to expand...


I had this same problem with the quantitative section. I was completely fine with the other sections.
 
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milwrift said:
I don't know why, but i completely botched the chemistry. On the kaplan midterm and final i scored 450 and 460, so i layed off it. At the five minute announcement, i had about 15 q's left, and had to guess. It totally screwed me. Anyone have a similar experience?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure for the kaplan tests you are only ranked against who is taking said test with you. So I don't think the composites or percentiles accurately reflect real test scores... At least that's what my kaplan lady said.
 
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I took it yesterday morning.

Me:
I'm a chem major in my last semester. I have a knack for verbal, reading comp, and, of course, chem. I'm decent in certain aspects of quant; mainly calc II stuff, algebra and some stats. I suck at pre-calc, calc I stuff and probability. I kind of suck at Bio, too, but tend to get in the high 70s and low 80s on practice tests.

How I studied:
*Kaplan Online course material, which included workshops, a ton of practice questions and 3 full length practice exams. I studied this material for a little over 1 month.
*Both Pearson practice exams. I took them a week before the exam and then studied the solutions through test day.

That being said, here's what I think of yesterday's exam:


  • Verbal: Easier than I expected, but that might just be me.
  • Bio: 😕 I thought this section was quite bizarre. I felt like most of the material I studied did not even come close to preparing me for what was on this section.
  • Chem: Mostly as expected, with a few minor "uhh... I have no idea" moments. Again, I'm a chem major. That being said, I felt prepared for at least 75-80% of the material. There were a handful of problem types that I knew how to do, but had not specifically prepared for, so they ended up taking more time for me to do. It cost me in the end and I had 7-10 problems left that I had to guess on. I say 7-10 because I don't remember... it was a total blur after they called 5 minutes!
  • Reading Comp: As expected and very doable, but like the verbal, that might just be me. I'm just glad I was able to finish all of the passages and had time to answer all the questions.
  • Quant: 😱 This section kicked my butt and then bent me over with no lube! I found myself guessing on a ton of problems... and random guessing, too... not educated guessing. For me, it felt like I'd get to a problem that I knew how to do right away about every 5-6 questions or so. There were a few toughies that I knew I could do, but not in the time allotted... no f-ing way! :scared: I couldn't even come up with a good guess on some of those... I just knew that I had no time to figure them out.
  • Writing: One topic was okay and I was able to throw something decent together. Other topic was YUCKY! 👎thumbdown👎thumbdown I totally B.S.ed my way through that one. Let's hope that 2nd one was experimental. :xf:
Overall... Bio and Quant are the two things that will likely kill my score. Now.... we wait.
 
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milwrift said:
I don't know why, but i completely botched the chemistry. On the kaplan midterm and final i scored 450 and 460, so i layed off it. At the five minute announcement, i had about 15 q's left, and had to guess. It totally screwed me. Anyone have a similar experience?
Click to expand...

I scored 456 on Kaplan's final and thought I was good at chem. I was hoping that even if I did bad in Quant, the rest of the section will get me a good score. Yesterdays PCAT made me cry. I was on question 30 for both the Chem and Quant when the 5 min warning was called. It made me panic like I only had 5 mins to live. I ended up guessing on all the rest of them. I was only able to finish Verbal, Bio and Reading on time. I couldn't sleep all last night. What sucks the most is that I am good with chem and I was getting all the answers but I never realized the time I was spending on each question. The thing was that the Math and the Chem sections weren't that bad, they were just tedious and it took forever to get to the answers. I believe my mistake was that I never learned to manage the time well and now I know what to do for the Aug PCAT. Also I should have taken my watch with me. The only clock at out test site was the size of an apple and was like a freaking mile away!

Its gonna be long 6 weeks...gluck to everyone
 
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I am coming out of lurking to re-iterate what everyone else has said - verbal and reading were manageable, chem was fine, bio was completely random (I repeatedly asked myself how certain topics were relevant to pharmacy school), math was atrocious. I subjected myself to very intense studying with kaplan from march until the test date. I got a 443 on the kaplan final with a 468 in math, and I still struggled on the actual exam. Math had a lot of stats, bizarre graphs, logs with obscene numbers, and obscene numbers in general. Bio had very little in common with any pcat practice exam that I've ever taken. I, like many others, wanted to cry at the end of the exam. I am encouraged by the fact that others struggled in the same areas I did. Good luck to you all
 
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please tell us how to study for august's pcat?
so, if you had to retake yesterday's test, how would you study different? and which materials will help you the most to improve?


good luck to you all.
 
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I used Cliffs notes and the Cliffs PCAT study exams and the Chem was way off.

I did real crappy on the CHEM and QUANT.. A wholeeee lot of guessing on those two sections..
 
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So how likely is it that this exam will be pretty similar to the August exam? Do the exams remain similar throughout the year?
 
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