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PCAT(when to begin)
Started by platinumdl
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if u got the money sign up for june, walk in take the exam and do the no score then study and take in august. Oct is too long if u took all the pre reqs. I prepared for it 3 weeks tops, and got a 70. Only reason i bombed it is i got like a 20 in verbal and a 30 in reading
Thanks, what did you use to prepare yourself.
am taking the exam in october too...am studying from now ..still in biology section though...and i about taking the exam in june and choose no score will that benefit me i dont realy know if others can advise us..thanks..yeah am using kaplan book and i guess its good so far...
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Im taking it in August. Plan a realistic schedule for yourself with deadlines. Put the subjects that are harder for you to remember further up in your schedule.
June: Writing and Reading, Bio
July: Biology and Chemistry
August: Org Chem and review
I mean, really. If this doesnt get me a decent score Im not sure what will.
June: Writing and Reading, Bio
July: Biology and Chemistry
August: Org Chem and review
I mean, really. If this doesnt get me a decent score Im not sure what will.
what did you get for bio, chem, and math?
i think i'll get same as you on reading and verbal but i wanna get over 90 for the chem bio and math to get a good composite.
Math 87 studied it the night before
Bio 80- Didnt have micro/physio but this second time i should score better
Chem-70 i didnt even do any orgo or look at it cause i was just tired from studyng
Verb-20(hopfully that will go up as i have been studying from jan to now and improving my vocab)
Read- I am u sing the Kaplan Stradgey and so far it brought it up on practice from 50 to high 80s
I took the exam in October and got an 86. I started studying maybe 3 weeks before the exam (any earlier and I would have forgotten it all). But that's just my personal studying style. If you need more time, allow yourself as much time as you may need. No harm in starting early.
what book u used to study...and how did u come over the time problem during the exam ?
i would def use the Cliff Practice 5 exams as these exam are very close to the Pcat except for the reading. I would also Use Kaplan. See if u can get the course material from somwhere
what course u talk about..did u hear about dr. collins course?
I only used the Kaplan study guide. The practice sections worked great, gave me an idea of what to look for on the test, what I had forgotten since taking the class (things from Bio 1 and Chem 1).
The time problem isnt so much of a problem as long as you pace yourself. Don't rush through the exam, but if you don't know the answer to a problem, either make your best guess (my personal suggestion), or skip it and come back to it. You're best off making a guess, because there is no penalty for wrong answers. Chances are, you may get it right.
The writing section is something that may kill you on time. Just don't spend too much time creating an outline, and focus your time on writing the actual essay. Don't completely neglect your outline, but don't spend all your time figuring out how you're going to write your essay and end up running out of time to actually write it.
thanks dude..am studying from kaplan book..am still in biology section...what about DR.collins notes..is it true what everyone is talking about?
Your welcome, good luck when you take it! I don't know about Dr. Collins notes, like I said, I only used Kaplan. But if everyone says good things about it, no harm in checking it out.
thanks guys, good luck to everyone
Im taking it in August. Plan a realistic schedule for yourself with deadlines. Put the subjects that are harder for you to remember further up in your schedule.
June: Writing and Reading, Bio
July: Biology and Chemistry
August: Org Chem and review
I mean, really. If this doesnt get me a decent score Im not sure what will.
I am thinking of taking it in August as well, how long have you been studying so far.
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That is the best advice that anyone can give. The PCAT is going to test you over a wide range of material, so it's a very difficult test to "study" for. It's the acquired knowledge in these subjects over the years that is the most useful for the PCAT. If I were all of you, do not stress too much over studying for the PCAT. Most of the stuff on there is going to be things you've already learned, or at least seen at some point in your life. I think you can study too much and get so stressed over it that you will actually do worse on the test (exactly what happened to me). I did not study at all for the first test I took. Made a 63. I took it two more times, studied a BUNCH (months) for both of them, and made a 48 and 55, respectively. Unfortunately, this is not a test that can really be studied for, which I have learned. I used a variety of books- Barron's, PCAT flash cards, Kaplan, and three other's that I can't think of the name right now. None of them were very representative of what is on the PCAT. And as far as choosing the "no-score" option- don't do that! That's a total waste of money for no reason. Almost all pharmacy schools only look at your best PCAT score, and you might as well go ahead and see where you stand and get scored. And who knows, the first time you take it could be your best! And by the way, my 63 PCAT and 3.2 GPA landed me into Pharmacy school, so do not get discouraged. You do not have to make extremely high on the PCAT to get in to Pharmacy school. Good Luck.
which school did u get into?
I posted a thread yesterday about this and sorry to get off topic but what is the benefit of a no score. I am taking in on the 23rd mostly to get the feel for it and then again in August. They will see both scores any way right?
If you tell your proctor to not score the exam after you are done, then your score sheet is never scored. So, you can take the test as a trial run without it being considered by adcoms. Of course, you won't know how you scored but that's the nature of taking the no score option.
It's a good option if you want to avoid having a low score subconciously affecting adcoms' mindset of you, but you do have to remember that many schools only consider your highest score in the first place. Also, you have to be sure to do better on the August exam of course.
