Some advice on the writing section

[Opal1976]

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Hi there. I have been visiting this forum for quite some time, but I just recently joined. I plan to take the PCAT sometime next year. I was wondering about the essay part of the test.

Here's some background info about me. I graduated with bachelor's degree from the Philippines in 1998. When I came back here to the US after graduation, I decided to get another undergraduate degree. Of course, one of the requirements for me to obtain the undergraduate degree was that I needed to take some English classes. The English classes I took in the Philippines were not accepted at the university I was attending at the time. I understood this, of course, even though we read and wrote papers about books written by American and British authors when I was in the Philippines. To save some time and money, I decided to take the CLEP (English) and passed.

I grew up here in the US so I can speak English pretty well (Better than my native language, in fact. 😳 ). However, since I never took an English class in a US college, I was wondering if it would be beneficial for me to take some English courses or maybe a writing course? Or perhaps I should just read newspapers or magazines and just practice writing? Any suggestions or ideas would be helpful.

Thanks, and I apologize for quite a lengthy post.

 

[cdpiano27]

You do not have to do anything! Your English on this post is as good as mine and I am a native English speaker.

The writing section is kind of weird anyway.

I am a PhD student in North Carolina in a mathematics area but want to go to pharm industry or FDA after graduation.

I took the GRE and scored a perfect 6 on the analytic writing section back in 2003. However in 2001, my community college had an exit exam, and one of the sections was an essay. I like classical music and I wrote a very well-written, but pretty funny essay about romance related to classical music. I think the topic was: What was a great experience you had and why? I remember that while writing the essay, I had talked about a previous relationship that I had and how a certain piece of classical music by Johannes Brahms inspired it!

This was too esoteric for the committee to understand and out of twelve possible points, I only scored 9! (although 6 was passing!) And I had aced the reading, writing, and math sections (although quite easy since it was an exam to earn an associate of arts degree).

So I think you are good to go, but do not write something offbeat like I did even if it answers the question! You might get marks taken off!

I have many int'l students in my PhD program (about 50%), and you have very good English just from your posting!

Just take the test and do not write something too offbeat!

Write a well organized template. The first paragraph should be an introduction and the last sentence of this paragraph is your thesis, or main idea. This is then followed by 3 paragraphs of supporting statements with smooth transition words. Finally, your last paragraph should be a strong conclusion that gives a summary and sums up your thought.

Use the template approach and give a lot of relevant, supporting examples, and you will be fine!

Good luck in applying to pharmacy school! I guess your first choice is MUSC / USC, since I see that your location is in South Carolina!

 

[Opal1976]

Thank you for the kind words and great suggestions, cdpiano27. I will definitely take the template approach to heart. I'm just afraid that I would be given a topic that I know little or nothing about. 😳 I guess I'll just have to read more on current events.

Yes, I plan to go USC-Columbia or MUSC. Hopefully, I'll get accepted into USC since I live an hour away from Columbia, although getting into MUSC in Charleston wouldn't be so bad since they have a dual PharmD/MBA program.

Good luck in your studies! I wish you well in your future plans. 🙂