Thoughts and advice on July 2018 PCAT...

[nj106]

I did the pcat for the first time today and did horrible. I have one more semester till I graduate and have a cumulative average of 72% (~2.7 gpa) so I really had to do well on this.

Heres my composite:

Bio: 41
Chem: 76
CR: 21
QR: 67
Composite: 49

I feel incredibly stupid and hopeless. Does anyone have any tips to improve? I studied for almost 2 months and used Dr. Collins front and back, Pearson tests from 2015, as well as Kaplan for biology (although I more so skimmed it because it was so information dense). I was surprised to see that over half the biology section was passages and I found I did not have time to read each passage. Critical Reading was also much more difficult from what I practiced and was harder to understand so I found I was guessing by the end of that section. I know I have to retake the pcat but I hope I can get some insight. Thank you

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[T Love]

I did the pcat for the first time today and did horrible. I have one more semester till I graduate and have a cumulative average of 72% (~2.7 gpa) so I really had to do well on this.

Heres my composite:

Bio: 41
Chem: 76
CR: 21
QR: 67
Composite: 49

I feel incredibly stupid and hopeless. Does anyone have any tips to improve? I studied for almost 2 months and used Dr. Collins front and back, Pearson tests from 2015, as well as Kaplan for biology (although I more so skimmed it because it was so information dense). I was surprised to see that over half the biology section was passages and I found I did not have time to read each passage. Critical Reading was also much more difficult from what I practiced and was harder to understand so I found I was guessing by the end of that section. I know I have to retake the pcat but I hope I can get some insight. Thank you

Hey I took mine today as well.
Forgot the sub scores but my composite was a 390 I’m not sure what percentile that is. I’m contemplating taking it over in Sept. however, the schools I’m applying to do not require a PCAT. i just want a to remain competitive as possible.

 

[DagS132]

I did the pcat for the first time today and did horrible. I have one more semester till I graduate and have a cumulative average of 72% (~2.7 gpa) so I really had to do well on this.

Heres my composite:

Bio: 41
Chem: 76
CR: 21
QR: 67
Composite: 49

I feel incredibly stupid and hopeless. Does anyone have any tips to improve? I studied for almost 2 months and used Dr. Collins front and back, Pearson tests from 2015, as well as Kaplan for biology (although I more so skimmed it because it was so information dense). I was surprised to see that over half the biology section was passages and I found I did not have time to read each passage. Critical Reading was also much more difficult from what I practiced and was harder to understand so I found I was guessing by the end of that section. I know I have to retake the pcat but I hope I can get some insight. Thank you

How did you study? Hopefully I'm not being offensive with my questions here. Were you memorizing the answers to specific problems or did you study everything in gen chem, gen bio, and math? For me, just having general knowledge allowed me to not perfectly understand what the passages were about and answer the questions based on what I knew about the basics. For example if the question was about some protein and involved a passage, I would automatically know what it can do and how it interacts with other organelles, atoms/molecules, etc. I would just skim through the passage and refer back to it if the question was asking for a specific answer from that passage.

CR got me pretty bad too. I had about 3 minutes left when I got to the last article so I literally just had to read the first 2 sentences of each paragraph and try to answer the questions. Also, I guess if the article is boring I lost a lot of focus and would not know what I read after reading it(if that makes any sense).

No need worry though. This is actually not that bad of a situation for you. Still apply for the 2019 cycle and see if you get an interview. I have known a couple of people who got a similar score and got 1 or 2 interviews with acceptance. So there is still hope for you as long as you have pharmacy experience and volunteering hours or leadership roles in clubs. Even if you don't get in this coming cycle, you can take extra classes and raise that gpa to become more competitive and study again during the summer for the pcat. Schools will see your upward trend as a plus and make you stick out more.

 

[nj106]

Hey I took mine today as well.
Forgot the sub scores but my composite was a 390 I’m not sure what percentile that is. I’m contemplating taking it over in Sept. however, the schools I’m applying to do not require a PCAT. i just want a to remain competitive as possible.

So we did around the same. At least your schools don't require the PCAT. I live in Canada so my options are more limited best of luck!

 

[nj106]

How did you study? Hopefully I'm not being offensive with my questions here. Were you memorizing the answers to specific problems or did you study everything in gen chem, gen bio, and math? For me, just having general knowledge allowed me to not perfectly understand what the passages were about and answer the questions based on what I knew about the basics. For example if the question was about some protein and involved a passage, I would automatically know what it can do and how it interacts with other organelles, atoms/molecules, etc. I would just skim through the passage and refer back to it if the question was asking for a specific answer from that passage.

CR got me pretty bad too. I had about 3 minutes left when I got to the last article so I literally just had to read the first 2 sentences of each paragraph and try to answer the questions. Also, I guess if the article is boring I lost a lot of focus and would not know what I read after reading it(if that makes any sense).

No need worry though. This is actually not that bad of a situation for you. Still apply for the 2019 cycle and see if you get an interview. I have known a couple of people who got a similar score and got 1 or 2 interviews with acceptance. So there is still hope for you as long as you have pharmacy experience and volunteering hours or leadership roles in clubs. Even if you don't get in this coming cycle, you can take extra classes and raise that gpa to become more competitive and study again during the summer for the pcat. Schools will see your upward trend as a plus and make you stick out more.

No not at all. For bio I tried memorizing the summary sheets in Dr. Collins but I feel like they were not enough for the PCAT, so I also ended up memorizing the answers without understanding too much I suppose you can say. For math I knew how to answer the problems but I didn't have a chance to answer ~10 questions on the PCAT so timing was the issue lol. Thanks for the advice. I guess I have to keep trying

 

[nicolechristi]

hi I just joined this forum and this thread because im taking my first pcat next week, july 18.
I did Kaplan live online review, and also self studied. my Kaplan package came with 5 full length tests, but I am worried because Kaplan recommends a 415 and until now only 6 days away, I am still just below 400. My scores are stagnant, 397-399. I know people say Kaplan is harder than the actual test but how true is this?
and how was the exam, was Kaplan sufficient? what portion was the hardest? and if its alright, can I ask what your score was?
I plan on applying for the 2019 school year as well, and I have a 3.7 gpa with volunteer hours and hospital service. I am a ball of nerves however, any advice?

 

[ForeverB]

hi I just joined this forum and this thread because im taking my first pcat next week, july 18.
I did Kaplan live online review, and also self studied. my Kaplan package came with 5 full length tests, but I am worried because Kaplan recommends a 415 and until now only 6 days away, I am still just below 400. My scores are stagnant, 397-399. I know people say Kaplan is harder than the actual test but how true is this?
and how was the exam, was Kaplan sufficient? what portion was the hardest? and if its alright, can I ask what your score was?
I plan on applying for the 2019 school year as well, and I have a 3.7 gpa with volunteer hours and hospital service. I am a ball of nerves however, any advice?

I have the same experience with Kaplan right now. same score range as you. It is freaking me out and i am about to pull my hair off.
Did you try using the Free practice bundle for the Nextstep test prep online?

 

[nicolechristi]

I have the same experience with Kaplan right now. same score range as you. It is freaking me out and i am about to pull my hair off.
Did you try using the Free practice bundle for the Nextstep test prep online?

hi! no I did not, my package came with live online classes and 5 full lengths. I also took one full length online bc Kaplan was offering it free (they do that to get new students and let them try it out)
im just afraid and want to know what to do with my last few days. my lowest score is chem. and then next lowest is bio, I get so many of the passage questions wrong. but the straight multiple choice questions (no passage just a question) I get all correct. critical reading my score is 412 which im satisfied with and quant is 400.

 

[nicolechristi]

very random, and I am not sure who on here is familiar with kaplans practice tests. I am assuming they are similar to pearsons, etc. If for example one of my scores was 387, Kaplan told me it was an 8th percentile. When theyre saying this, are they saying a score of 387 is typically an 8th percentile, or that on that specific day I took that practice test, out of everyone else, I did better than 8% of the test takers? I am assuming its the latter, since that's how a percentile works. An 8th percentile seems very low for a score of 387, given a 400 is typically a 50th percentile.
I could be wrong however.
Does my question make sense? im not sure I phrased it too well but I hope someone can answer my question.

 

[nj106]

very random, and I am not sure who on here is familiar with kaplans practice tests. I am assuming they are similar to pearsons, etc. If for example one of my scores was 387, Kaplan told me it was an 8th percentile. When theyre saying this, are they saying a score of 387 is typically an 8th percentile, or that on that specific day I took that practice test, out of everyone else, I did better than 8% of the test takers? I am assuming its the latter, since that's how a percentile works. An 8th percentile seems very low for a score of 387, given a 400 is typically a 50th percentile.
I could be wrong however.
Does my question make sense? im not sure I phrased it too well but I hope someone can answer my question.

I'm yet to do a Kaplan practice test but im also assuming its the latter since percentile means you did 8% better than test takers over a certain period of time. I've also heard that the Kaplan tests are typically harder so don't be too discouraged just keep trying and improve on what u got wrong

 

[T Love]

So we did around the same. At least your schools don't require the PCAT. I live in Canada so my options are more limited best of luck!

Just study some more and take it again. All we can do! Best of luck.