Taking the PCAT for the 3rd time

[aspiringgator]

Hi everyone,
I am currently applying to pharmacy school and have already submitted my applications. Two of the schools that I applied to have already told me to retake the PCAT in January as I don't meet the minimum requirement for their program :/ The first time I took it in July I didn't study because I had a lot going on. I registered to retake it in September, but that did not give me enough time to study at all. I enrolled in a PCAT Prep course with my school and am I scheduled to retake it in January. I was wondering for those of you who did well what did you use to study? I know Dr. Collins is good, but what specifically in Dr. Collins? Did you guys just go over the practice sets and some questions were very similar to what's on the PCAT? Please let me know I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

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[Dre@mer]

Hi everyone,
I am currently applying to pharmacy school and have already submitted my applications. Two of the schools that I applied to have already told me to retake the PCAT in January as I don't meet the minimum requirement for their program :/ The first time I took it in July I didn't study because I had a lot going on. I registered to retake it in September, but that did not give me enough time to study at all. I enrolled in a PCAT Prep course with my school and am I scheduled to retake it in January. I was wondering for those of you who did well what did you use to study? I know Dr. Collins is good, but what specifically in Dr. Collins? Did you guys just go over the practice sets and some questions were very similar to what's on the PCAT? Please let me know I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

I did the kaplan program, but I would say do as many practice test with real time as possible. I found the timing to be more of a hurdle than the material. Also, make sure you spend as much time REVIEWING the problems your got wrong AND right, for about the same amount of time you took the exam. Pearson practice exams are good too if you can afford them, I think they are like 73$ and you get like 3? Since this is your third time taking it what sections were the hardest for you/lowest scores? focus on those about twice as much as the ones you do well in.
I took pcat the first time and got 49th, slacked hard in math and bio. so i studied math and bio more. MATH is WAY MORE word problems then the practice exams led on, so try and research some of those. Pay attention to the material and specific questions your getting wrong because it shows where your lacking in knowledge. The second time I took it i got 86th percentile.

Also, how are you timing yourself? are you getting stuck on one problem for to long? not flagging the problems your second guessing or dont know? Always pick an answer if you are not sure and flag it so you can come back if you have time.

 

[aspiringgator]

I did the kaplan program, but I would say do as many practice test with real time as possible. I found the timing to be more of a hurdle than the material. Also, make sure you spend as much time REVIEWING the problems your got wrong AND right, for about the same amount of time you took the exam. Pearson practice exams are good too if you can afford them, I think they are like 73$ and you get like 3? Since this is your third time taking it what sections were the hardest for you/lowest scores? focus on those about twice as much as the ones you do well in.
I took pcat the first time and got 49th, slacked hard in math and bio. so i studied math and bio more. MATH is WAY MORE word problems then the practice exams led on, so try and research some of those. Pay attention to the material and specific questions your getting wrong because it shows where your lacking in knowledge. The second time I took it i got 86th percentile.

Also, how are you timing yourself? are you getting stuck on one problem for to long? not flagging the problems your second guessing or dont know? Always pick an answer if you are not sure and flag it so you can come back if you have time.

For timing if I don't immediately know the answer I just flag it and come back to it later. My highest section was biology and my lowest my math. Surprisingly, I didn't do as good in the reading section even though it's always been my best subject. I have a hard time with timing for this section and math specifically. I bought all 3 practice tests with Pearson, but really only used them for the biology and chemistry section. The first time I scored in the 40th percentile ( I didn't study), second time I didn't give myself enough time and scored in the 50th percentile. I'm worried I don't do well again because I've had two pharmacy schools already email saying that I should retake the pcat in January in order to be considered for an interview. :\

 

[lalaland33]

Hi everyone,
I am currently applying to pharmacy school and have already submitted my applications. Two of the schools that I applied to have already told me to retake the PCAT in January as I don't meet the minimum requirement for their program :/ The first time I took it in July I didn't study because I had a lot going on. I registered to retake it in September, but that did not give me enough time to study at all. I enrolled in a PCAT Prep course with my school and am I scheduled to retake it in January. I was wondering for those of you who did well what did you use to study? I know Dr. Collins is good, but what specifically in Dr. Collins? Did you guys just go over the practice sets and some questions were very similar to what's on the PCAT? Please let me know I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

The thing about the PCAT is that you just have to do better than everyone else. You may have actually gotten a lot of questions right on your reading section but it just may be that 60% of other students just got MORE answers right than you did for that section. Like Dre@mer said, practice tests will be very helpful so you get used to timing and the sort of questions you need to expect. And remember, the schools asking you to retake the exam is only expecting you to get to 70% -study diligently until a couple days before your exam (while also making sure you spend time taking practice exams) and you'll definitely see improvement.