Stressed out

[Amith]

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Hey every1, Im taking my Pcat in a couple of weeks, so Ive been doing the practice exams in the barron's / arco prep books. I keep getting about a fourth of the questions wrong on the bio / chem sections. Im getting frustrated and stressed cause Im only in orgo 1 and bio 1, and keep feeling that I'm ill prepared because I havent taken orgo 2 and bio 2 and AP. I really need to make atleast in the upper 80th percentiles. Do you guys have any ideas as to how I should intrepret my scores on the practice exams? Thanx in advance =)

 

[Roxicet]

Hi Amith.

I am also taking the Oct. 25th exam and stressed out. I took general chem 4 years ago, and orgo 3 years ago. I'm ok with all the other sections, but last month I couldn't even remember how to figure out how many neutrons an element had! I don't think it's possible to correlate how well you do on practice exams with what percentile you'll end up with on the real exam. It all depends on how well or poorly everyone else that takes the exam on that day performs. Even if you got 90% of the questions right, if a lot of other people get more questions right than that, your percentile will be much lower.

I don't think you'll need orgo2 or bio2, but A&P is very important. Maybe you could get your hands on an A&P textbook and quickly go through all the chapter summaries.

Good luck. I know how you feel. 🙂

 

[baggywrinkle]

Originally posted by karmapatroL

Good luck. I know how you feel. 🙂

A certain amount of stress and anxiety (read that FEAR) can be a good thing. I read somewhere that you are never more alive than you are in the instant you realize you are about to get squashed Wiley Coyote style by the big rock.

In a testing environment this can serve to make you sharper than you might normally be. I was not a good student, but I did eventually prevail and I can tell you when I walked into or out of an exam with kickass confidence I usually bombed severely. But when I crawled out of an exam feeling lower than a snakes belly button I usually did okay and sometimes even did very well.

Eugene Parrot, notorious pharmaceutics professor at the University of Iowa used to call it the gamesmenship. Half of success is showing up (Woody Allen) and the other half is learning to play the game. They are asking you how bad do you
want it and you answer by jumping though their hoops.

Some play the game with ease and others struggle and perhaps fail. But when you can successfully wear a tie (the yoke of servitude) and you have jumped through their hoops they will welcome you to the establishment with open arms.

Cynical, yes. dead on truth - bloody oath!

 

[chitowngyrl]

I am also taking the PCAT soon. It is so refreshing to hear that other people are feeling the same way as me! I was freakin out last week. I feel like i don't remember anything from Gen. Chem!😱

 

[chunkyb]

I think that all you pre-pharms shold relax a little. The PCAT isns't that bad. I myself made a big deal about it---taking it twice, after my first score of 93% didn't seem high enough. I don't even think that the schools take the PCAT as seriously, compared to your grades and stuff anyway.

You'll find that there are many people in the country who will write the PCAT totally unprepared and will do very very poorly compared to yourself. Your percentile score will reflect how you do compared to everyone else's. Trust me, if you're already doing a few tests now, you'll do quite well. Just focus on the stuff that you're not so good at and most importantly, manage your time wisely and don't make stupid mistakes ( the first time around, I skipped one question and then filled out all the wrong bubbles there on after in the math section; I didn't realize I did this until I had five minutes left. This didn't help me when I had the chemistry section next). Being little bit nervous is a good thing before a test.