Study materials for PCAT?

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bubblyh

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Hey guys, I'm planning to take my PCAT soon. (January 2013). I was wondering what study materials I should get to get a high score (obviously). I would like to get a head start on this studying!! Greatly appreciated if anyone can help me out. Thank you so much! 🙂
 
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Dr. Collins. It is $350 new, but a lot of people sell it used in the market place. Make sure you get the most updated version. I got a 79% taking it (88% in chem, 84% in bio, 83% in verbal, 78% quant, 25% in reading... I didn't study for reading because I was doing excellent on the practice tests) and I only have a 2.71 GPA.

Official PCAT practice tests on the Pearson website. It is $80 for all 3. It is very similar to Dr. Collins, but it is worth it to see where you will most likely score.

A lot of people recommend Kaplan PCAT for biology. I bought it, but only read through 3-4 biology chapters. It is only like $20-25 on Amazon, but I would skip over it if you already bought Dr. Collins and think that is enough.
 
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bubblyh said:
Hey guys, I'm planning to take my PCAT soon. (January 2013). I was wondering what study materials I should get to get a high score (obviously). I would like to get a head start on this studying!! Greatly appreciated if anyone can help me out. Thank you so much! 🙂
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i'd go with the 3 pearson practice test + kaplan, princeton review, or dr. collins. in my opinion, the study guides do not really matter but rather your study habits. if you want to get a head start, start now! it is must less stressful when you only need to study a couple hours a night opposed to cramming several hours a day a few weeks prior to the test. as for myself, i gave myself 2 months. 4 days a week, 2-4hrs a day, ending each night with a beer or two or three or four. stress free, ended up with a 92.
 
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tommyVoltage said:
Dr. Collins. It is $350 new, but a lot of people sell it used in the market place. Make sure you get the most updated version. I got a 79% taking it (88% in chem, 84% in bio, 83% in verbal, 78% quant, 25% in reading... I didn't study for reading because I was doing excellent on the practice tests) and I only have a 2.71 GPA.

Official PCAT practice tests on the Pearson website. It is $80 for all 3. It is very similar to Dr. Collins, but it is worth it to see where you will most likely score.

A lot of people recommend Kaplan PCAT for biology. I bought it, but only read through 3-4 biology chapters. It is only like $20-25 on Amazon, but I would skip over it if you already bought Dr. Collins and think that is enough.
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Are you selling your Dr. Collins?! It's the most updated one right? Therefore, I'm willing to buy it!
 
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jerbearox said:
i'd go with the 3 pearson practice test + kaplan, princeton review, or dr. collins. in my opinion, the study guides do not really matter but rather your study habits. if you want to get a head start, start now! it is must less stressful when you only need to study a couple hours a night opposed to cramming several hours a day a few weeks prior to the test. as for myself, i gave myself 2 months. 4 days a week, 2-4hrs a day, ending each night with a beer or two or three or four. stress free, ended up with a 92.
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Did you end up getting Dr. Collins? I heard it's a good study material. I already have kaplan but its 2008-2009 version. I don't know if that's good enough? I'm planning to purchase princeton review and the 3 pearson practice test.
 
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bubblyh said:
Did you end up getting Dr. Collins? I heard it's a good study material. I already have kaplan but its 2008-2009 version. I don't know if that's good enough? I'm planning to purchase princeton review and the 3 pearson practice test.
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The PCAT changed since then. I had the 2008-09 version also. There are no more plant questions. The only one I had on my test is humans can't digest... and the answer was cellulose.

EDIT: I bought the 2012-13 version when I found out about the test changing.
 
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tommyVoltage said:
The PCAT changed since then. I had the 2008-09 version also. There are no more plant questions. The only one I had on my test is humans can't digest... and the answer was cellulose.

EDIT: I bought the 2012-13 version when I found out about the test changing.
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Oh man, guess I gotta go buy the 2012-13 Kaplan version then! Thanks!
 
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bubblyh said:
Did you end up getting Dr. Collins? I heard it's a good study material. I already have kaplan but its 2008-2009 version. I don't know if that's good enough? I'm planning to purchase princeton review and the 3 pearson practice test.
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i used 2012-2013 kaplan, 2012-2013 princeton review, and the 3 pearson practice tests. however, after going through the princeton review book the kaplan book seemed like it was meant for kindergartners.
 
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bubblyh said:
Thanks. I'll order the 2012-13 princeton review. 🙂
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if you lived closer i would just give them to you 😛

also, the pcat prep books still have some plant stuff in it. make sure to ignore it! also, kaplan and princeton review do a horrible job on the nutrition portion of the bio section. most specifically, they don't incude it at all. for that I used good ol' wikipedia. all i did was look up all the vitamins/minerals and what conditions arise if there is a deficiency or excess. also, the microbio sections in both review books suck. for that i used wikipedia again, looked up common diseases and what they are caused by. don't go too deep in to it though. know things like hiv is virus, or kwashiokor develops from protein deficiency.
 
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jerbearox said:
if you lived closer i would just give them to you 😛

also, the pcat prep books still have some plant stuff in it. make sure to ignore it! also, kaplan and princeton review do a horrible job on the nutrition portion of the bio section. most specifically, they don't incude it at all. for that I used good ol' wikipedia. all i did was look up all the vitamins/minerals and what conditions arise if there is a deficiency or excess. also, the microbio sections in both review books suck. for that i used wikipedia again, looked up common diseases and what they are caused by. don't go too deep in to it though. know things like hiv is virus, or kwashiokor develops from protein deficiency.
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Just fedex it to me! =P just kidding. but aww thanks for the information! I really appreciated it! So, I just gotta make sure I ignore everything about plants?! HMM okay. >.< I'm SOOOO nervous for the test! I'm trying to get a high score.. sigh- and I see that you got accepted into MCPHS!? CONGRATS. I want to apply there but my GPA is just not good enough for it... )=
 
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Definitely recommend the Princeton Review; it goes into so much depth that by the time you are done studying, the math and science sections will seem like a breeze. You can't really study for the verbal, reading and writing parts though. I used the princeton review for 2 weeks, about 2 hours a day and scored a 90. If you need to know it, its in that book. Good luck. Oh and it only cost about 40 bucks at barnes n noble.
 
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jerbearox said:
i'd go with the 3 pearson practice test + kaplan, princeton review, or dr. collins. in my opinion, the study guides do not really matter but rather your study habits. if you want to get a head start, start now! it is must less stressful when you only need to study a couple hours a night opposed to cramming several hours a day a few weeks prior to the test. as for myself, i gave myself 2 months. 4 days a week, 2-4hrs a day, ending each night with a beer or two or three or four. stress free, ended up with a 92.
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hey, are you willing to sell your books?
 
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I bought Kaplan's 2012-2013 edition and compared it page-by-page with the 2004 edition I had. There was NO DIFFERENCE, even though the exam itself (PCAT) has changed significantly since 2004. Typos I noticed in the 2004 edition were repeated in the 2012-13 edition. There was no microbiology/immunology and no calculus, and the section on organic chemistry is very scanty. The only difference between the two editions was the cover. DO NOT USE KAPLAN. I've since bought the Princeton Review (for about half the price of the Kaplan book) and what a difference it makes! It covers the material throughly, with very helpful strategies for eliminating wrong answer choices and narrowing the options to get as close to the right answer as possible. Good luck!
 
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