Taking PCAT without having taken A&P and Orgo II?

[PharmBoy90]

The school I want to apply to does not require A&P as part of their pre-reqs. I'd like to apply a year from now for 2014 admission. However, that would mean I would need to take my PCAT exam next summer.

I haven't taken Orgo yet, but I will be taking Orgo I this Spring. I could also take A&P I this coming Spring, but if the school I'm applying to doesn't require it, why bother? I should've been in Pharmacy school by now, but I changed my career path a few times and I don't want to put myself through anymore stress or delay my path into Pharmacy any longer than I have to.

Do you think it's necessary to take A&P or can I learn whatever is needed for the PCAT on my own? And will I be ok with only having taken Orgo I when I take the PCAT, or is Orgo II necessary as well?

Just so you know, by the time I take my PCAT (probably July 2013) these are the science/math-based classes I will have completed:

-Chem I
-Chem II
-Bio I
-Bio II
-Pre Calc
-Calculus
-Statistics
-Orgo I
-A&P I *if necessary*

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[owltrickery]

Honestly, I don't think it's necessary to have Orgo 2. Just be familiar with all the reactions they list on the blueprint. I don't recall any crazy reactions on my exam so I think you'll be fine with just orgo I. This goes for A&P too. I pretty much didn't learn anything in my A&P class cause I had a pretty crappy professor but I still ended up doing really well on the bio part of the PCAT. I would suggest purchasing the Kaplan book for bio and if you wanna go even more in depth get ExamKrackers' bio book.

 

[klaurent02]

I also took the pcat without taking a&p and did just fine.

I recommend Princeton review bio and ap sections over kaplans.
And of course Collins.

 

[jerbearox]

I also took the pcat without taking a&p and did just fine.

I recommend Princeton review bio and ap sections over kaplans.
And of course Collins.

i recommend princeton over kaplan for chemistry as well, especially ochem. the kaplan ochem section is like 3 pages long and only covers incredibly simple things such as naming alkanes.

 

[GGMay]

I actually took the PCAT exam without having taking A&P or Organic Chem at all. I only had 1 month of orgo when I took it and I scored decently. AND, on top of it, I used Kaplan. I agree that Kaplan lacks in the chemistry section, but I actually hired a tutoring package and the tutor worked with me one-on-one and it really helped a lot. Especially with the organic chem. Make sure you know naming very well and the major products/reactants for the important reactions.

An important tip that will help you, and which helped me out, is to learn how to look for wrong answers, particularly in the chemistry section. If you learn how to rule out wrong choices you can get to the right one from there. This is helpful is you come across a question that you are not sure about. The PCAT is designed in a way that the choices are not so similar that it is hard to pick the best; they give choices in which one is right and the others are absolutely wrong. So if you learn how to pick out the wrong ones you can work your way to the right answer. I learned this from Kaplan.

But anyways, good luck! And don't sweat it, A&P isn't required, just study the general bio material well (I scored 425 on bio scetion with no A&P and LOTS of studying) and I also scored around 409 on chem section with barely any OChem. If I could do it, you def can!!