Those using the Kaplan Book

[Brandie28]

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For those of you using the Kaplan book are you taking notes while reading through it or are you just reading it through thoroughly? I started to take notes as I was reading but it is taking so much time and time is not on my side right now so I was just wondering what everyones study strategy/method was and how its working out for you..

 

[illiniguy09]

I used to do that...but like you, I realized it took a very long time. Now, I just read thoroughly and highlight important things, and write small notes in the book next to the highlighted regions. This is what I'm doing this for the bio section. After I read thoroughly and highlight/notes, I'm going to devote a whole day going over everything again...and possibly again after that.

 

[alphaRx]

Yes i do that...i have been taking notes while reading...it helps me a lot while reviewing....higlighting is just not my thing...i do it passively without giving much thought into it, and most of them time i don't get to reread what i highlighted (its just me...i know it works great for a lot of my friends)

 

[pharm2006]

illiniguy09,

I might try your method: highlight and go over it again

I used to read the kaplan book from front to end. however when I get toward the end I forget lots of info from the beginning already...

if someone know a good stradegy to study please give us a suggestion... much appreciate

 

[Farcus]

illiniguy09,

I might try your method: highlight and go over it again

I used to read the kaplan book from front to end. however when I get toward the end I forget lots of info from the beginning already...

if someone know a good stradegy to study please give us a suggestion... much appreciate

You shouldn't be learning anything new here its suppose to be a review... Kaplan is not sufficient to LEARN anything, merely a decent review. With that said there are stuff I just can't get after "learning it".

 

[Garfield3d]

By the way, there were some typos in their 2008-2009 edition. For example, on their practice test and review sections, I saw obvious typos where instead of typing f'(x) they put fΩ(x9. Others were more subtle like having the wrong answer in an open-ended question.

For the most part, the book is correct, and I think the information review chapters are correct. But for the practice portions, just so you know...

--Garfield3d

 

[homeslice]

For the bio section I would suggest skipping all the stuff on annelids, arthropods, etc. to save time...there was almost none of it on the PCAT. Most of the math section can be skipped too as it is ridiculously basic. I also agree with other posters that the Kaplan book should only be used as a review, not to actually learn the material.

 

[Markovnikov]

I started off by taking copious amounts of notes but then I started to just highlight and jot notes on the margins.

I think the highlighting and note margins work better than writing everything out. The written notes become too overwhelming and not very time efficient.

most important though, is taking the actual practice exams and watching the time.

 

[TTUMike]

I read the book front and back a couple of times and now all I do are practice problems. I have gone through Barrons, Cliffs, and now am on Examkrackers.

 

[alfheimr]

It seems like the review of orgo and math in the Kaplan book is super-basic and nowhere near as advanced as it will be on the real PCAT. I should definitely be using another source to review those two subjects, right? Or is the PCAT material really that basic?

 

[mug3n]

Don't expect what you see in Kaplan for orgo and quantitative to be like that on the PCAT. Extremely misleading.

If you have your Orgo I material still with you, use that to study. Orgo on the PCAT will include a lot more than what Kaplan suggested, so you'd need to learn some of the basic organic reactions, stereochemistry, etc.

Math, again, you'll need some other source to study from.