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Just took the PCAT. Here are my preliminary scores:
Biological Processes 81
Chemical Processes 99
Critical Reading 98
Quantitative Reasoning 92
Composite 97
I got my B.S. in chem. engineering in 2012 but hadn't taken any chem or bio since around 2007-8. I didn't really have much time to actually study for the PCAT specifically because I'm currently taking 4 summer school classes and working part time as a pharmacy tech. If I could go back in time, I would have started studying for bio a lot earlier and did a little at a time, especially since bio is my weakest subject and I never took anatomy or physiology.
What I did to study: I borrowed some books from the library to help me study, but the only book I really ended up using was Kaplan PCAT 2016-17. I tried to read through as much bio as I could but there's just so much info I didn't finish. I skimmed through the other sections though, but didn't spend a lot of time on them. I also watched some videos on Khan Academy to help me study for bio as well.
My thoughts on each individual section:
Writing
Obviously I can't talk about the topic or anything, but what I can say is that listening to pharmacy podcasts really helped me with ideas and things to talk about.
Bio
This was my hardest section because I was the least prepared for it, and has generally been my weakest subject. One of the keys things is that there are a lot of reading passages but some of the questions you can answer without reading the passage. This was also the only section where I had a lot of extra time at the end (I think like 7-8 min). Maybe it's because I didn't know a lot of the answers, lol.
Chem
There was a LOT more biochem and ochem than I was expecting. Fortunately, two of the summer classes I am taking are ochem 1&2 (ochem 1 finished already, 1st session). There was a reaction on the PCAT that we literally just talked about in class two days ago. Also there were a lot passage sections, just like in the bio. For those of you studying, I recommend studying ochem for sure and at least some biochem too. I finished this section almost exactly on time.
Reading
I honestly felt that this section wasn't that hard. I keep seeing a lot of other people that didn't do well on this section, so I don't know. I didn't do any studying for this section but one thing that DID help me is one of my summer classes right now is debate and we have been doing a lot of analysis of arguments. Being able to know the difference between fact and opinion was helpful, as well as knowing how to recognize a claim and finding the evidence the writer uses to back that claim. I ended up with about 2 minutes to spare.
Math
Well people weren't kidding when you have no time for this section. The math itself wasn't that hard, finishing it all quickly was the hard part. Learning the strategy of looking at the answers first or plugging in the answer helped me on a few questions. Once I realized early on I was gonna run out of time, I decided just to start skipping the time consuming ones and come back later to guess. I left myself 1 min at the end to go back and put guesses on the blank ones... I should've left 2 min because I ran out of time and ended up leaving a few blank! So my advice for this section is of course study the concepts but more importantly study the strategies to move quickly through this section.
Hopefully this helps anyone that's preparing for the PCAT in Sep and beyond. I'll be happy to answer any other questions. Good luck!
Biological Processes 81
Chemical Processes 99
Critical Reading 98
Quantitative Reasoning 92
Composite 97
I got my B.S. in chem. engineering in 2012 but hadn't taken any chem or bio since around 2007-8. I didn't really have much time to actually study for the PCAT specifically because I'm currently taking 4 summer school classes and working part time as a pharmacy tech. If I could go back in time, I would have started studying for bio a lot earlier and did a little at a time, especially since bio is my weakest subject and I never took anatomy or physiology.
What I did to study: I borrowed some books from the library to help me study, but the only book I really ended up using was Kaplan PCAT 2016-17. I tried to read through as much bio as I could but there's just so much info I didn't finish. I skimmed through the other sections though, but didn't spend a lot of time on them. I also watched some videos on Khan Academy to help me study for bio as well.
My thoughts on each individual section:
Writing
Obviously I can't talk about the topic or anything, but what I can say is that listening to pharmacy podcasts really helped me with ideas and things to talk about.
Bio
This was my hardest section because I was the least prepared for it, and has generally been my weakest subject. One of the keys things is that there are a lot of reading passages but some of the questions you can answer without reading the passage. This was also the only section where I had a lot of extra time at the end (I think like 7-8 min). Maybe it's because I didn't know a lot of the answers, lol.
Chem
There was a LOT more biochem and ochem than I was expecting. Fortunately, two of the summer classes I am taking are ochem 1&2 (ochem 1 finished already, 1st session). There was a reaction on the PCAT that we literally just talked about in class two days ago. Also there were a lot passage sections, just like in the bio. For those of you studying, I recommend studying ochem for sure and at least some biochem too. I finished this section almost exactly on time.
Reading
I honestly felt that this section wasn't that hard. I keep seeing a lot of other people that didn't do well on this section, so I don't know. I didn't do any studying for this section but one thing that DID help me is one of my summer classes right now is debate and we have been doing a lot of analysis of arguments. Being able to know the difference between fact and opinion was helpful, as well as knowing how to recognize a claim and finding the evidence the writer uses to back that claim. I ended up with about 2 minutes to spare.
Math
Well people weren't kidding when you have no time for this section. The math itself wasn't that hard, finishing it all quickly was the hard part. Learning the strategy of looking at the answers first or plugging in the answer helped me on a few questions. Once I realized early on I was gonna run out of time, I decided just to start skipping the time consuming ones and come back later to guess. I left myself 1 min at the end to go back and put guesses on the blank ones... I should've left 2 min because I ran out of time and ended up leaving a few blank! So my advice for this section is of course study the concepts but more importantly study the strategies to move quickly through this section.
Hopefully this helps anyone that's preparing for the PCAT in Sep and beyond. I'll be happy to answer any other questions. Good luck!
