very low RC score :O

[pharmRxn]

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my composite is in the 70s but only 1 section below 69 and it is RC.
i got a 5 in RC!!!!!!

which schools will accept students with this low RC score assuming a 3.5+ gpa? 😡😕🙁😱👎

 

[ElenaV]

Well, obviously your scientific RC is great, lol!!! I have a similar problem...I can ace Chem, Bio, Math, Physics, but reading and writing are my weaknesses, unless it has to do with technical writing or science type material reading. Sorry, didn't answer your question. But I would think that pharm schools are looking for someone strong in sciences with some reading/writing abilities, they don't want novelists, they want scientists.

 

[adam022]

my composite is in the 70s but only 1 section below 69 and it is RC.
i got a 5 in RC!!!!!!

which schools will accept students with this low RC score assuming a 3.5+ gpa? 😡😕🙁😱👎

Same problem with me. I got in the high 80s on everything except writing and RC. I got a 63 in verbal and a 18 in RC. From my experience, your resume will overshadow those scores. Have no fear in applying to pharmacy schools but be ready to compose a detailed explanation as to why those scores are so low.

 

[PharmD2014]

my composite is in the 70s but only 1 section below 69 and it is RC.
i got a 5 in RC!!!!!!

which schools will accept students with this low RC score assuming a 3.5+ gpa? 😡😕🙁😱👎

Only problem that I see is that some schools requires a minimum score for each section. I believe UGA requires that you have to score above a 30 for each section. Then again some school don't 😛

 

[PharmacyNut]

A 5 on RC? Seriously? 😕

What were you making in practice?

 

[luxubu]

A 5 on RC? Seriously? 😕

What were you making in practice?

I got supper low score in RC, too. didnt remember what I have done during the RC part of the test lol
Do you guys have any "tips" or method to improve RC?

 

[luxubu]

Same problem with me. I got in the high 80s on everything except writing and RC. I got a 63 in verbal and a 18 in RC. From my experience, your resume will overshadow those scores. Have no fear in applying to pharmacy schools but be ready to compose a detailed explanation as to why those scores are so low.

For a score such as 5 in RC, I cant think of any reason in the world to explain for that, may be "because of the curve, in pcat 2004, people were good at reading"? lol i kid
seriously, if I happen to have an interview? does anybody know a "valid" explanation for a 5 in RC?

 

[TXPharmDStudent]

my composite is in the 70s but only 1 section below 69 and it is RC.
i got a 5 in RC!!!!!!

which schools will accept students with this low RC score assuming a 3.5+ gpa? 😡😕🙁😱👎

Maybe you should start reading what you're supposed to be reading, are you just reading the directions the whole 35 minutes?

Your score means you don't understand what you're reading.

 

[phathead]

does anybody know a "valid" explanation for a 5 in RC?

I'm blind

 

[desklamp]

can someone help me understand how people do poorly in verbal and reading comprehension compared to the science sections? like...they are both seriously easier than the SAT :/. the analogies were along the lines of "cat is to mammal, as carrot is to ...a) orange b) vegetable c) cow udder d) desk"

 

[Passion4Sci]

DESK is the correct answer, right!?

@OP - a 5??? Maybe they scored the damn thing wrong...

 

[PharmacyNut]

I got supper low score in RC, too. didnt remember what I have done during the RC part of the test lol
Do you guys have any "tips" or method to improve RC?

I'm not the person to go to for RC or Verbal, but a tip I've gotten is to read for the main idea and answer questions based on that. EK MCAT Verbal is a great book for that. Do 1-2 passages per day for the next few months and you should be able to place in a higher percentile group. Good luck!

By the way, I vote C for Cow Udder

I've always thought that mammals = mammary...cats suck on mammary

carrots suck on cow udder?

 

[pharmRxn]

i used the EK verbal book and i got 50% and higher in every test. i used the kaplan MCAT verbal tests and i did much better (from 60% to 100%) in each passage. during the pcat i freaked out due to the time limit and i didn't read the whole passages. i read the question and searched for the answers. i thought i did much better than a 5. i was expecting at least a 30. i bet these questions were tricky because every time a test maker tries to trick us i fall for it.

 

[MrMeowphers]

i used the EK verbal book and i got 50% and higher in every test. i used the kaplan MCAT verbal tests and i did much better (from 60% to 100%) in each passage. during the pcat i freaked out due to the time limit and i didn't read the whole passages. i read the question and searched for the answers. i thought i did much better than a 5. i was expecting at least a 30. i bet these questions were tricky because every time a test maker tries to trick us i fall for it.

first, you have to read the prompts. this allows you to pick up the authors feelings/thoughts/opinions and most importantly figure out the STYLE of writing.

 

[sUrface]

I got a 87 on the verbal but a 46 on RC... 😕

 

[pwnttothemax]

rc was my lowest as well, but still was 75. one tip is to learn how to "speed read." just skim over the words like you would normally read, but don't sound them all out in your head as you would reading aloud. practice this for a while. hopefully that could help you at least finish the section in its entirety before time is called.

you might want to read the questions before reading the section associated with it too, that way you can get an idea as to what's important in the reading.

this is all assuming of course that you have time to take the PCAT again...

 

[prepharmstu]

Some people recommend reading medical journals or anything similar to boost up their RC scores. What about the verbal part? Should I memorize everything in the Kaplan book? On the internet, I found "top 300 GRE words," and when I tried to look for some of the words from Kaplan there, they weren't there 🙁

Any suggestions about studying verbal??

 

[rxlea]

GRE book...or just read more; science magazines, the newspaper, articles. Listen to NPR. 🙂

 

[helloeveryone]

I can't get this whole deal about RC being the lowest for most people. Me too, I did well on all parts EXCEPT RC which was my lowest! Also, rarely have I seen someone on these forums with RC's greater than 95... but I have seen RC's in teen's quit often! I don't get this kind of distribution, if it's percentile ranking, then there should be proportional amount of people scoring high 90's and the same amount getting low teen's!

 

[Thumper17]

RC was my best score.....to improve it I would say just get a subscription to science/nature/popular mechanics and try to read and retain articles as quickly as possible. After reading each article the answers should be pretty apparent.

You have been reading scientific textbooks and lab procedures your whole academic career so comprehension should not be a problem, it would seem that speed is more the problem for those taking the PCAT.

 

[fighton09]

Also to get more practice, maybe you should consider taking the actual practice tests from pearson. I think they release 2 each year. When I used the kaplan book and even took a kaplan practice test i was doing well. But when I did the "real" tests it wasn't quite the same and my score dropped, and lo and behold when I took the real test it dropped too.

 

[helloeveryone]

Also to get more practice, maybe you should consider taking the actual practice tests from pearson. I think they release 2 each year. When I used the kaplan book and even took a kaplan practice test i was doing well. But when I did the "real" tests it wasn't quite the same and my score dropped, and lo and behold when I took the real test it dropped too.

That's the weird part for me! I did both of the pearson tests... got around 50 ish for both... but on both of my attempts of writing the real pcat I got MUCH lower scores! The actual PCAT was MUCH MUCH more difficult than the preason practice tests !

 

[fighton09]

That's the weird part for me! I did both of the pearson tests... got around 50 ish for both... but on both of my attempts of writing the real pcat I got MUCH lower scores! The actual PCAT was MUCH MUCH more difficult than the preason practice tests !

I think the reality is that the actual tests are more difficult than what we may see through the practice books or practice tests. 😕

 

[nonzerosum]

now when you say 5 do u mean 5%? or 50%?

RC is often very difficult and 50% may just be bad luck but with 5% you might want to consider taking some english courses

 

[phathead]

Think about the classes we focus in though. We're all, for the most part, science majors. As such, when we read things we often don't go as indepth as we should. We train our brains to pick out various parts of it so we can regurgitate it on a test.

Now an English major or such would be able to fully analyze an article as they read it because that's what they do. We're more concerned, at least on the first pass (which is all you really get on the PCAT) of getting the main idea.

This means while we'll make a lot of errors simply because of our reading habits.

That and I know a lot of people who think that RC and Verbal are a 'waste' to test on and they don't spend as much time preparing for it as they should.

At least that's my thoughts on why so many struggle on it.

 

[Sparda29]

RC is absolutely useless, should not be on the PCAT. I got a 37 on it, I got into pharmacy school.

 

[PharmEXP]

24 on RC, and got into UF COP! Don't stress

 

[fighton09]

I got a 37 too. I was able to get into programs/ get interviews. It was the only section that had that ugly of a score, now if you go low on multiple sections, I think that is grounds to worry.

At the same time think of where the RC section is put, by then most of us are exhausted and just want to get out of the test alive.

 

[Tinkerbell22]

I can't get this whole deal about RC being the lowest for most people. Me too, I did well on all parts EXCEPT RC which was my lowest! Also, rarely have I seen someone on these forums with RC's greater than 95... but I have seen RC's in teen's quit often! I don't get this kind of distribution, if it's percentile ranking, then there should be proportional amount of people scoring high 90's and the same amount getting low teen's!

I scored a 92 for RC. I think it's just more common for pre-pharm to be great at science and not do as well in reading/writing, and if someone happened to do okay in RC they don't have a reason for posting their scores. There are also a lot of students who don't speak English as a their first language but all other stats are good for pharmacy admissions.