Questions about the PCAT

[ansh2014]

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Hi..I am currently in my second year for pre-pharmacy and i have many questions. I have not taken pre-cal,cal or organic chemistry yet and I signed up to take the pcat this july. I would also like to know for all of you who have taken the pcat. Do they provide you a periodic table or do you have to memorize it?......And I really have not studied "hard" for the Pcat....so im really nervous about how the pcat is going to go.

 

[NaOH]

Hi..I am currently in my second year for pre-pharmacy and i have many questions. I have not taken pre-cal,cal or organic chemistry yet and I signed up to take the pcat this july. I would also like to know for all of you who have taken the pcat. Do they provide you a periodic table or do you have to memorize it?......And I really have not studied "hard" for the Pcat....so im really nervous about how the pcat is going to go.

They don't provide you with a periodic table; but, if memory serves, in any instance where you need the molar mass or anything, it should be provided.

Not having had organic I will definitely not help; there's a fair bit on there. But if you're secure in your gen chem knowledge, you shouldn't fare too badly. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to look over the basic organic functional groups and know a little bit about their properties.

Can't really comment on how much calc will affect you; it affected me plenty.

What do you feel are your strongest subjects?

 

[ansh2014]

prob. english and reading, general chem, and the writing sections..i feel like i can do well one....what would be an easy way to memorize the periodic table. Im just really worried about getting into pharm school. What do pharm schools really look at?

 

[NaOH]

As far as the periodic table, if you were going to memorize anything, I would suggest focusing on the most common elements (hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, etc.) and don't stress too much on their EXACT weights - it's much easier to just round oxygen up to 16, for example. Even with being inexact, you'll still get an answer close enough to the correct choice to pick it out.

If you think you can do well on the reading and vocab sections, focus on those. For myself, those are what got me in, really. If you're the kind of person who reads a lot and has a good vocabulary, you can clean up on the vocab section. (Example: I never did better than a 34 in quant, but never less than a 99 in vocab - it balanced out, I think)

 

[harmonidrum]

You need to know basic trends in the periodic table. Also you should be familiar with the major groups and the trends and constituents of each. Do not memorize atomic masses, they will be given to you if needed. What you should memorize is the names and charges of the most common ions.