when to take the pcat?

[kellbell09]

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hey everyone, i'm just looking for some advice from those of you who have already taken the PCAT. I'm already registered for the October testing date, but i've recently been thinking about signing up for the August session as well. I'm planning on applying to pharmacy schools this fall for the 2011 school year, and origionally only planned on taking the Oct test and Jan if needed. But I want to try and speed up the application process if possible and get my apps out by Nov at the latest. the reason I'm worried about taking the August PCAT is because I'm still working on my prereqs (taking gchem I&II during summer session and will be done before august pcat but i also still need gbio I&II, ochem I&II, calc, micro, and physics...i've already taken a&p I&II, alg/trig, public speaking, and econ) do you think i'd be wasting my money trying in august since I still have so many sciences left to take?? and would i even be able to increase my score that much between aug-oct??

also, if i do wait until october...do you think it will hurt my chances getting in by putting my applications out so late by waiting for my scores to come out??

 

[b1234]

hey everyone, i'm just looking for some advice from those of you who have already taken the PCAT. I'm already registered for the October testing date, but i've recently been thinking about signing up for the August session as well. I'm planning on applying to pharmacy schools this fall for the 2011 school year, and origionally only planned on taking the Oct test and Jan if needed. But I want to try and speed up the application process if possible and get my apps out by Nov at the latest. the reason I'm worried about taking the August PCAT is because I'm still working on my prereqs (taking gchem I&II during summer session and will be done before august pcat but i also still need gbio I&II, ochem I&II, calc, micro, and physics...i've already taken a&p I&II, alg/trig, public speaking, and econ) do you think i'd be wasting my money trying in august since I still have so many sciences left to take?? and would i even be able to increase my score that much between aug-oct??

also, if i do wait until october...do you think it will hurt my chances getting in by putting my applications out so late by waiting for my scores to come out??

Taking the PCAT without having finished at least a semester of Ochem and with as little biology as you have had will be tough. Without knowing more, I would suggest at least considering waiting until January to take it. Some schools do not accept January PCAT's though. For most schools with traditional apps, it won't matter when you take it - for those with rolling apps it could.

 

[delano2000]

Taking the PCAT without having finished at least a semester of Ochem and with as little biology as you have had will be tough. Without knowing more, I would suggest at least considering waiting until January to take it. Some schools do not accept January PCAT's though. For most schools with traditional apps, it won't matter when you take it - for those with rolling apps it could.

I would agree unless you don't mind spending that much money. I would even apply for Fall 2012. I just can't see how you would fit all those classes in by next Spring or early Summer. In my opinion, you still have a lot of pre-reqs left so I would use this year to focus on those classes. Take the PCAT in October and do your best, if anything you would at least have an idea what the test is like. Then I would retake next Summer once you have the majority of the pre-reqs done. Just my $0.02.

PS. Isn't Gen. Bio a prerequisite for A&P and Microbio?

 

[BelleMD2B]

Wow.

I think that would be a little aggressive. I'm taking it on the 19th without finishing my prereqs, but I'm only missing OChem. I've taught myself enough to be scoring consistently in the 80s on the chem section. I have two more weeks to top off my OChem knowledge.

I would say it depends on how motivated you are as a student, but quite frankly, I don't think you have enough of a base. You have NO gen bio, micro, advanced Math.

I'd hold off a little.

 

[kellbell09]

thanks for the advice...but i think i'm still gonna go ahead and take it in october and see how things go. i'm a pretty good student and really motivated to do well and i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i can do okay on it. i've already bought the kaplan and barron's study books and have started looking through them a little in my free time...and if i don't do so hot in october, i'm going to retake it in january and only apply to schools that consider that score as well. thanks again! 🙂

 

[Maximum404]

I would go ahead and take it. I am in much the same situation and will have A&P II and OChem II, but will also be doing Pharmocology, Immunology, and Cell Bio before enrollment, left when I take the PCAT in October. I highly recommend using OChem as a Second Language I and II in getting the major concepts down to prepare for the PCAT. Best of luck to you!