What college courses are helpful for the PCAT?

[INeedInfo]

Hi all,

I am a newly registered member to this site, although I first found this awesome website a year ago. This is my first post, and an important one, seeing that this question has not been posed before. This question is for people quite familiar with the PCAT, ones that have a good idea of the structure and composition of a PCAT (ie, which subject areas are tested on) that has been offered recently.

So I know that General Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry (quarters 1 and 2), Algebra/Geometry/Trigonometry/Calculus(level 1 I assume), Anatomy and Physiology are an absolute must for the PCAT, however, I am wondering if any other areas are significantly tested on the PCAT (ie. more than about 5 percent...if only 3 questions are asked from a subject in the test it is probably not worth doing a detailed and focused study on that subject) and taking college courses in that subject would better ones scores on the test...

Courses I am wondering about are: statistics? Calculus 2, 3, and 4 (multivariable and differential equations)? cell biology? Molecular biology? Microbiology? Genetics? Biochemistry? (all of these are upper division except maybe stat)

Please let me know if any of these courses I have listed are significant for preparation and/or whether I missed any courses. I am wondering how advanced one should be in calculus in particularly, and also in biology (as I want to know whether to take cell bio, molecular bio, microbio, or genetics in fall or spring).

BTW I am a 5th yr in college and after aCing (emphasis on the C) through my pharmacy school requirements I got serious the 4th yr and have been studying hard since then and wish to ace this test to make up for the bad grades...

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[aboveliquidice]

Having just took the PCAT in June - the only class listed that might help you is stats. There were simple probability questions that took common sense and basic understanding of statisitcs. I honestly cant remember what math class I encountered them in - probably algebra. Beyond that - the core classes are the best to know. I would recommend against microbio - or any other course requiring a whole lot of memorization. Know Chem (Gen 1, 2 org 1, 2), Bio (Gen 1, 2 A&P 1, 2), Math thru calc 1. Oh, and the English... thats about it...

~above~

 

[ADN1226]

A lot of microbio and biochem overlap... i'm a molecular bio & biochem major so I took all of these advanced biochem classes... and seriously, i've never really understood the body until i took biochem and we learned every pathway... blah blah blah, my friends said its really helpful for mcats, and i'm sure its helpful for pcats too. to further embed info into ur head. But take biochem, don't take micro, i think biochem is a lot of helpful.

 

[kvl1027]

I took it in OCT. of last year, it had a lot of Organic Chemistry and Calc..lots of basic log and a few simple limit problems, some minor stats stuff. Verbal was pretty tuff, get good at analogies.

 

[jessicaholland1]

i would say the biggest topics to look over (aside from the obvious gen chem/bio/organic) are: calc, trig, and micro. I wouldnt even consider anatomy/phys a MUST b/c most of the bio stuff was from gen bio in my opinion.

 

[robo2003]

I think the courses that are most relevant for the pcat are
Science: Anatomy 1, 2, Bio I, II, chem I, II, Org chem 1 mostly, some of II(study the kaplan study guide for pcat), Microbiology. I have to say though most science subjects you'll see that are linked to Biology there is alot of overlapping, and that helps you get it ingrained in your brain better.
Math: Algebra, Probability (some statistics), Geometry, and they just added Calculus.

 

[janeno]

From the ones that you listed I would pick microbiology and calculus 2.

 

[ttran01]

what is bio 2? im guessing bio 1 is principles of biology(what they call it at my school) and bio 2 is botany or zoology?

 

[aboveliquidice]

Bio 2 is the origins of life, origins of species. Then it takes you through most of the phyla - starting w/ archea and Bacteria, and ending with the Chordates (that would be us). We learned a bit about everything along the way, but mostly just useless memorization. Hard A - but a necessary one.

And to whoever said they didn't see a lot of A&P was smoking crack (J/K)... Seriously though, If you dont have A&P under your belt - or at least hit KAPLAN or some other resource hard - you will not do well on the bio section.

~above~

sorry - Archea and Bacteria are Domains... thats where we started. We finished in Domain Eukaryara (cant spell) phyla chordata