taking PCAT for practice sake

[snvplayer]

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I have briefly reviewed kaplan PCAT material.
I haven't taken any college level bio class, but I have taken chem classes two yrs ago(so I don't remember much)

I am beginning my pre-pharm in this fall, and was thinking about taking PCAT to get an idea of what they put emphasis on each subject.

Would it be a good idea?

 

[omnione]

The idea that has been discussed recently is to take a no score on your exam after you take it. That is, you essentially void the results after the administration is done. Though you won't know how you scored, you can get an idea for the exam without having the schools know.

If you want the cheaper route, then you could take both official practice exams online. Those exams are an accurate reflection on the PCAT's difficulty level.

 

[binghamkid]

I have briefly reviewed kaplan PCAT material.
I haven't taken any college level bio class, but I have taken chem classes two yrs ago(so I don't remember much)

I am beginning my pre-pharm in this fall, and was thinking about taking PCAT to get an idea of what they put emphasis on each subject.

Would it be a good idea?

You generally don't have to take a full-length exam to get a feel for the topics they are testing on. The test prep books by Kaplan, Barron's and a few others do a pretty thorough job of identifying the topics for testing. The only benefit of the exam would be to get a feel for the timing of the exam (it's very fast-paced and you need to practice enough to get comfortable with it). The questions themselves aren't all that challenging once you've taken your pre-pharm courses. While you're taking your classes, take them with the intent of retaining the knowledge; you'll do much better on the exam prep in the long run. If you want to practice the timing, the best way is just to take the test's requirements (# of questions / time) and practice under more stringent conditions. If you can do well in a more pressured/difficult setting, you can handle the PCAT difficulty.